Black Mountain is one of the highest peaks in the northern Absarokas at 10,941 feet. Black Mountain Stands above the beautiful Pine Creek Lake and is home to the famous Y-Couloir, a popular backcountry skiing objective. Reaching the summit of Black Mountain is an excellent adventure and provides steep trail running with alpine scrambling.
From the Pine Creek trailhead follow the extremely rocky but well defined trail past Pine Creek falls and up towards the lake. Once you reach Jewel lake, the smaller lake just below Pine Creek Lake, break off from the trail and head south towards the small basin. Gain the ridge near the end of this basin and follow it to the summit. Don’t be fooled by the smaller false summit, the real summit is a broad peak with a well established rock pile. Reverse the route back to the parking lot.
The trail disappears after Jewel lake and some boulder hopping and scrambling is required to reach the summit. There are some short class 2 sections and nothing with any real exposure.
