Nipple Knob Area Climbs (Bitterroots)- July 7-12, 2026

I've long wanted to explore this incredibly remote part of the Bitterroots. I had never been further west than Watchtower Creek up the Nez Perce Fork, so just getting to Paradise was a fun adventure. I thought it might be a crazy drive, but other than a couple of narrow spots in the roads, its really easy.

I had posted this trip looking for partners, but nobody replied so I just headed out solo. Departed Missoula Tuesday morning. 130 miles and 4 hours to Paradise Campground. Got things ready and hit the White Cap Creek trail at 1:00pm. The trail is used by a hunting outfitter (about 11 miles in) and thus was in good shape. Not a single tree over the trail for that distance. After that however...bad news. The next 7.5 miles required climbing over 257 trees (I counted on the way out). At 8:30pm, 18 miles up the trail, I called it quits and set up camp, had dinner, went to bed.

Day 2 greeted me with perfect sunny skies. Got up, breakfast, hiked another half mile, then began the slog up an unnamed drainage to the north. Pretty easy on the bushwacking scale but still a grind. About 2000' above the trail I cached my gear next to an enormous boulder then began the 2000' scramble up to the first of my peak objectives- Peak 8523- which sits on the state line. Relatively easy (class 2+) scramble to the summit- took about 1.5 hours from the boulder. Lacking a name that I am aware of, I decided to call it "Kona Peak" in honor of my recently deceased furry best friend. (There were a couple of very old rock cairns up here- likely due to the fact its on the state line). Views were outstanding, expecially looking east at the west side of El Capitan. Took a break with the usual bunch of Bitterroot summit ladybugs and flying ants, then back down to my cache. Repacked, headed up to a beautiful tarn on the northwest side of Peak 8552 (a peak which I climbed last year and dubbed "Castilleja Peak"). Tarn still 80% frozen over and plenty of snow up there still. Set up camp, dinner, etc. Beautiful evening.

Woke the next morning feeling good and ready for my planned 3 peak traverse of Nipple Knob, Peak 8524 and Peak 8624. Another perfect day. Hiked west over a small col then began descent to Stingray Lake. Relatively easy travel. About 30 minutes in, however, something began to feel not right. I was going downhill but struggling for breath. Felt lightheaded. Began to develop nausea. All the classic altitude sickness symptoms- minus the (high) altitude. Got to the bottom of descent (the lake) thinking it would pass but only kept getting worse. Rapid heartbeat as well. Began communicating on Inreach with Elizabeth. I made a difficult but only practical decision to turn around and try to get back to camp. It was a struggle, but I did it. I laid in my tent for the next several hours listening to my heart beat way too fast. Eventually it slowed down and I began to feel normal again around 6:00pm. Honestly have no idea what afflicted me as it hadn't happened to me before.

On day 4 I awoke not knowing what to expect from my body. I was a little 'gun shy' to try anything but I was also SO far back in here (22 miles from trailhead) and didn't really want to have to come back (there are so many other places to explore, after all). So I decided to try my 3 peak loop in reverse and take it one step at a time. If I felt any twinge of what I felt yesterday, I would turn around immediately. Evidently had nothing to fear though, as from the very get-go, my body felt great. I went up and over a small saddle to the immediate west of Castilleja Peak and down past one of the most beautiful little tarns in the Bitterroots. Made my way up again (on snow mostly) to what appeared the only weakness on the west side of Peak 8624- a partially snow filled gully. To my delight, it worked! Steep climbing got me up to a SE Ridge and a simple scramble to the summit. Feeling good I decided to take the further plunge and head west along a ridge to Peak 8524. Millions (billions?) of boulder-hops later, I was at the west side base of this cool looking peak. Again, had no real idea if I could keep it at class 3-4 as it looked fairly questionable- one possible route looked doable from the base but I wasn't sure it would go. It was some fun route finding and a couple of dead ends at low 5th class moves (which I didn't care to make) but then, like so many Bitterroot peaks, a single route just presented itself and I was up. Definitely the most enjoyable climbing of these peaks (actually, Castilleja is equally gratifying). Still feeling solid, I descended my route, then began the traverse north to Nipple Knob. Another million/billion (trillion?) boulder hops later (no, I don't care to do any boulder hopping again for awhile) and I made my way up this easy class 2 peak (8505'). Nipple Knob has a striking dead-vertical north face- makes for an interesting profile from points to the east. Time was about 2:15pm. It was hot, and I still had about 3.5 miles and descent to Stingray Lake and climb back up to my camp. It all went fine though- arrived about 5:30, tired, content. Having climbed extensively in the Bitterroots for the last 25 years, it was really cool to be able to still find a traverse like this with three new-to-me summits!

Woke on day 5 to more sunshine and the desire to hike out. I knew it would be long and greuling, and it was. 22 miles, those same 257 trees, very warm temps, blisters on my feet. All the fun stuff in other words! Took 10 hours. I believe Paradise is a very appropriate name for the trailhead area. All trails radiating out from that area are long and remote. Once you see your vehicle, it definitely feels like Paradise! I cooled then enjoyed a couple of Shake-a-Days, ate a can of Spam (the whole thing!), gnocchi, green beans, then passed out exhausted about 9:00pm in my van. The next morning I got up and drove the four hours home.

I used the names South Nipple and East Nipple for Peaks 8524 and 8624 respectively. It would be interesting to know if there are any prior ascents on any of these peaks. I would assume Nipple Knob has seen a few folks since its named. 'Kona Peak' had the old cairns up there. Please let me know if you have any history on these!

In case you are interested, here is the link to my Google photo album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PpBzb8YkeMhZ4YBg7

Forest Dean (Trip Leader, and seemingly, the only participant :)