Cleveland winter climbers weren't even close to being the first
Hungry Horse News
They made the front page of the Great Falls Tribune.
They went on a great winter adventure that a lot of people thought was a Glacier first.
When Isaac and Josh Mohler climbed Glacier National Park's Mount Cleveland in March they thought they may have been the first to summit park's highest peak in winter.
Park officials agreed.
Everyone, was apparently wrong.
The Mohlers, of Bigfork, were beaten to the summit's crest by nearly 30 years.
Glen H. Milner, Robert L. Talbot and Richard Olmstead summited the 10,466-foot Cleveland from Waterton in February 1977, according to a front page story in the Feb. 10 edition of the Hungry Horse News. Hudson Bay District Ranger Bob Frauson detailed the trio's climb at the time.
The three men from Jackson Hole, Wyo. had winter conditions similar to what the Mohler's encountered, but they approached the mountain from the Waterton side. Mohler's approach came from the Belly River.
Frauson said they left their skis on the trail and bushwhacked up to the high camp through rotten snow to the high ridge between Cleveland and Stoney Indian Peaks. They summited the mountain in clear weather.
They embarked on their journey on a Saturday and summited the mountain on a Sunday or Monday, Frauson reported.
Contacted Monday, Frauson said he vaguely remembered the men climbing the peak.
The Mohler's adventure was somewhat similar in that the weather was fairly cooperative. Wilderness Ranger Kyle Johnson said they walked to at least Cosley Lake.
On the way up, however, the two reported snow and high winds that may have reached 100 mph.
A modern-day winter ascent of Cleveland was first tried the late 1960s.
On Dec. 27, 1969, young mountaineers Jerry Kanzler, Clare Pogreba, Ray Martin, Mark Levitan and James Anderson tried to climb the mountain's north face.
Kanzler, 18, originally from Columbia Falls, Anderson, 18, of Bigfork, Levitan, 20, of Helena, and Pogreba and Martin, students at Montana Tech in Butte, all died in an avalanche on the mountain's west face.
Based on the evidence, park official believe the five men changed their route and were likely killed by the avalanche on the way up, not down. Cameras recovered from the debris in June did not show photos of the men on the summit.