Such Great Heights

Ludwig taking on Homestake Pass from the East, August 2012

A comment on facebook, a couple posts by The Air-Cooled Pig's driver, and Ludwig's recent return to a running condition have reinvigorated a back-burnered dream of mine, which is to take Ludwig over every Great Divide pass in Montana. I think there are not many more than a couple dozen [edit: wrong! it's at least 37 and as many as 44, depending on how one defines "pass"], of which maybe eight or ten are on the Montana/Idaho border. Ludwig's been over ten already.

Alpowa Summit (2785 ft; Eastern Washington), July 2009

Roadside trivia just West of Rogers Pass (5610 ft), October 2006

Georgetown/Flint Creek Pass, ca. 6400 ft, July 2011

Plummeting down Towne's Pass (4956 ft) into the Panamint Valley, April 2006

My desire to do so isn't rooted in anything like a Jeep commercial-esque drive to impose my manliness on nature, believe me. Each time we chug one of our cars, with their glorified lawnmower engines, over a semi-respectable patch of topography it's a more or less humbling experience. The map of passes I keep is a record of thanks, not of conquest.

Southward over Deer Lodge Pass in Ludwig, March 2010

Hudson Bay Divide, 6015 ft, September 2007

August 2008, heading back to the Pacific Watershed over Champion Pass

Into the Great Divide Basin at 7000 ft, Central Wyoming, July or August 2004

Pushing Gertrude over Mill Creek Pass from the South, October 2010

Montana is certainly no slouch terrain-wise: of the several states, it has the 11th greatest span in elevation and the 8th highest mean elevation. (Off-topic, but this chart also shows an interesting--interesting to me, anyway--fact, of which I was previously unaware: Nebraska has the highest mean elevation of any non-mountainous state.) There's plenty of up and down and variety to keep this personal challenge interesting. 

The most Northerly motorable Great Divide crossing in Montana, Logan Pass (6646 ft), Sept 2007

Gertie at the top of Skalkaho Pass (one of Montana's highest), August 2010

Elk Park Pass from the South, August 2008

A spot of OJ along the Southern boundary of Glacier National Park at Marias Pass (5216 ft), September 2007 (photo credit to EAA)

Mill Creek Pass in Ludwig, 6760 ft, late March 2010

Atop Pipestone Pass (6453 ft), August 2012

When it comes to high passes waiting to be traversed, Montana isn't Colorado, so it's not likely Ludwig'll ever be the mountain goat that the Air-Cooled Pig already is (not to mention Red Beard--16,076 feet!?--gimme a break), but it should be fun trying anyway. Let the climbing resume.