Trip Report: Climbing Quicksilver Tower, Sundance Warriors
- Anju
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Beartooth Mountains, Montana Alpine Climbing
Looking for big wall climbing in Montana? Quicksilver Tower on Silver Run Peak offers one of the most adventurous alpine routes in the Beartooth Mountains. In August 2025, we climbed the Sundance Warriors (with a variation), a 2,600-foot route of granite crack systems, exposed aretes, and wild Montana wilderness.
This route had been on my radar for a while, I'm always looking for the next best climb in the Beartooths. The Northwest towers of Silver Run Peak provide striking scenery for everyone hiking in the West Fork valley. Since moving to Red Lodge in 2022 we have been intrigued by many big walls, towering in the backcountry with very little information about their climbs. Climbing in the Beartooth mountains such as the Silver Pillar (North side of Silver Run Peak), the Doublets in East Rosebud and exploring alpine climbs in the Moon Lake area have given us some insight on these amazing routes in the range.
It is needless to say that the quietness of alpine climbing in Montana's Beartooth mountains is a standalone experience. If this route had been in the European Alps, we would have raced to start as the earliest and shared many belays with other parties. But in Montana, we are generally more worried about how quickly a rescue team could mobilize and be even able to find us.
We believe in not only sharing our experiences but also the information about climbing routes to make the Beartooth mountains more accessible. By sharing this information we hope to motivate more climbers to explore the range, clean up routes and develop new ones.
Sundance Warriors Route Report
Approach & Basecamp
We did this climb in 8 hrs and spent 2 nights at our basecamp, giving ourselves plenty of time to recover from the big climbing day.
The hike in is rather short for Beartooth standards, 6.5 miles with 1300 ft of elevation gain on an excellent trail takes you for about 2-3 hours to the base of the route. We camped in a beautiful alpine meadow, snugged in between the west fork river and the slopes of the north towers. At 5:30 am we started hiking up the slopes to the Quicksilver Tower and climbed/ scrambled by 6:30 am.
The Route
The first 120m are 4th class on grassy ledges, the first rock pitch starts at a slab with many cracks and goes at perhaps 5.2. The first 4 pitches take you through grassy, slabby and sometime loose terrain to the top of the lefthand tower of the lower buttress.
From here there is one short and very loose pitch while ascending darker rock onto the main tower feature. Another 5 pitches lead through fun low 5th class and occasional 5.7 terrain as you gain the main arete feature. Here we believe several options exist but we decided to follow closely the arete on unprotected corners, flakes and slabs. The meat of the 5.10 R/X climbing begins and the key is basically to find solid anchors between sections. The climbing itself is really fun on grey smooth granite, but the little or no protection is unnerving.
It is advised to bring some knife blades and pitons to make this section safer.
We also believe that many of this unprotected climbing can be circumvented by traversing more to the right of the arete than we did. Ron Brunckhorst talks in his book "Select Alpine Climbs of Montana" about their line to the left of the arete and obvious rock scar, that we did not explore, but is apparently more loose. Our line stayed on the arete just to the right of the rock scar, eventually stepping right at an overhanging wall near the top of the scar feature.
After 3 pitches of runout climbing, the rock becomes more featured again for one pitch. At this point we encountered the crux of the route, a runout 5.10 pitch on black rock in slabby corners with small cams micro nuts as protection.
The next pitch was the most spectacular pitch, with a striking overhanging hand to fist crack leaving massive flakes the belay.
The last 3 pitches go through huge 3D flake and boulder features, we took a line to the right of an off-width feature but would recommend to climb toward the pink OW on the arete.
From the last pitch it is an exposed 60m scramble (4th class) to the summit plateau!
Descent
At 2 pm we topped out and enjoyed the views and started hiking towards the trail on Sundance pass. It took about 3 miles and 3000 ft of elevation loss to get back to camp.
We spent another night in our tent and woke up next to a Moose grazing in the alpine meadows…
We included a written topo from our memory in case anyone else wants adventure up the striking wall! On P2 of the topo Akio and I were at dissent and you may or may not encounter another 60 m scramble.
Have you climbed this route or a variation? Leave us a comment about your experience or our beta!
For those interested in exploring beyond Quicksilver Tower, check out our guided climbs on Spirit Mountain or learn more about guided climbing in Montana.
Climbing Beta
Pitch by pitch description
P1-4 start on grass, left side walk/climb up grassy ramp thru 4th class terrain for 400’. Climb gully feature leading left towards left point of lower buttress. Wrap around L side to 3rd class ridge. 8-900’ total? 5.6 ~1 hr at fast pace.
P5 bump up ridge to chossy black/grey band. 30’ 5.7 to 4th cruise. 35m
P6 45m 5.7 face and cracks near arete trending left under orange overhang to alcove belay under arete (cairn here). Cleanest pitch yet.
P7 15m 5.5 step around corner and climb a short step to a good grassy ledge. Belay here. can link with last pitch but rope draggy.
P8 55m 5.7 step behind flake on right to short corner. Continue up arete past short nice splitter to block belay near end of rope.
P9 35m 5.5 step right around arete for large black band and then climb arete to big ledge.
P10 40m 5.7 climb chimney on right side of arete behind giant block. Continue up arete to impasse. Step around left (can see rock scar) and climb up low angle cracks to gain arete again. Belay at next ledge.
P11 50m 5.8R climb ramp up and right (5.6) to ledge then past steep crack (5.8) to ledge. Climb 5.8R flakes above to thin belay (wires, 0.1, & 0.4-0.5)
P12 5.9R/X 35m climb above belay on thin flake to arete (7m). Continue up and right to climb very runout 5.9 face to flake with diorite knobs everywhere. An obvious crack at the top of this runout presents some gear (not as great as it looks) before the next horn belay on arete. Stepping down and right to vertical cracks may be better earlier in this pitch… you are now at the upper overhanging part of the rock scar.
P13 5.9R 45m Step up and right to arete and traverse a roof undercling feature (bad #2 placement here 5.9R). After traverse, continue up cracks passing a loose block section then a finger crack on left wall of a corner (5.9) before stepping back up to arete and taking short 5.6 OW to belay ledge. Excellent pitch.
P14 45m 5.7 up arete eventually trending right and belaying beneath black rock
P15 45m 5.10-R Cruise up black rock switching crack systems, eventually placing some small gear in a left arcing corner. Exit the left arcing corner (by your gear) to the right on jugs. Climb 5.10-R dihedral to ledge. Belay above ramp directly under vertical hand/fist crack. An easier/safer variation may exist much further right.
P16 40m 5.10 Climb the short but wild hand crack above the giant potato chip (5.10), then make a short finger traverse right after the easy fist traverse. This gets you into a continuous crack system (5.10-) eventually climbing an absolutely wild flake/tower thing (careful!). Bust some 5.9 off the tower to a ledge belay. Another excellent pitch.
P17 40m 5.7 step off right side of ledge traversing large blocky terrain on SW aspect. Aiming for pink OW may be better. Either way, gain the low angle arete and cruise up to short black band, belaying along the way.
P18 35m 5.9 aim for black band, 0.5 crack with “surf board” (sketchy) surmount this short crux and belay in talus above.
P19 50m 5.0 scramble up and right to plateau.
Comments