Troublesome Mountain sits across from Toil Peak and Double Toil near Blanca Lake. Meanwhile, it straddles two wilderness above its namesake creek. South route via Index-Galena Road is one of the ways to this obscure high point.
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Troublesome Mountain at a Glance
Access: Index-Galena Road
Round Trip: TBD
Elevation Range: 1560′-5433′
Gear: helmet
GPS Track: available
Dog-Friendly: no
The Preface
We climbed Troublesome Mountain after visiting Mount Price in Alpine Lakes Wilderness. I had planned to go in from Blanca Lake Trailhead. Then we would go down the ridge through Toil Peak and Double Toil to the peak.
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Index-Galena Road
We didn’t start the trip until noon because of the last-minute idea. On top of that, Road 63 was inaccessible, with a gate placed next to the stop sign. But of course, I only found out about the road closure then.
But I was happy to settle for just one peak. So I drove west on Index-Galena Road for a mile and parked. Then we proceeded to go up the northeast-trending gully. It had a dry stream bed.
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Taking the Gully Route
We needed to bypass slide alder at 3400′. But I made the mistake of veering too far right of the gully. Then we ended up going into a different swatch of a messy situation.
Once we made it out of the alder, we continued up through to the tree line. Then we followed the talus slopes and went onto the ridge at 5000′. From there, the rest of the route was visible.
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Ridge Traverse
While moving west on the ridge, I noticed a faint path. So we followed it to the notch west of Point 4800. Then we drop down to the north of the ridgeline. Low enough to bypass the buttresses that came off the southeast ridge.
Later, we moved northwest and aimed at the summit. For the final stretch, we went directly up to the top through the east face. But we took the south ridge on the way back. So going up through there would have been a better choice.
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Troublesome Mountain Summit Plus Outro
Views were great up here. I even saw a sliver of Blanca Lake. Other notable high points included Kyes Peak, Silvertip Peak, Spire Mountain, and Glacier Peak.
We left the summit an hour later. Then we made it back to the 2400′ talus field right after dark. From there, we continued down the sandy slopes and then back to the car.
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