Kintla Peak, Mountain summit in Glacier National Park, Montana, US.
Kintla Peak is a mountain summit in the Livingston Range with a pyramidal shape and steep rocky slopes leading to a pointed peak. This formation features the characteristic geology and rock structures typical of the northern Glacier National Park landscape.
Kintla Peak is built from Precambrian Mesoproterozoic strata of the Belt Supergroup, the same ancient rock sequence found across Glacier National Park. The peak's pyramidal form results from later uplift and erosion of these layers. It rises to 10,106 feet, making it the highest point in the Livingston Range and the third-highest in the park.
The name Kintla derives from a Kootenai word for "sack". Kootenai legend tells of a man who apparently drowned in one of the Kintla Lakes and likened the lake to a sack: once you got in, you couldn't get out.
The base of the peak lies almost 15 miles (24 km) from the nearest road, so the approach alone takes a long day or an overnight. The standard Southeast Ridge Route starts from the Agassiz Glacier basin and involves rock scrambling up to Class 4 plus snow climbing depending on the season. Other options are the East Ridge, West Face and Upper North Face routes.
Kintla Peak is the most northerly peak and land area in the contiguous United States above 10,000 ft (3,000 m). The Agassiz Glacier lies below it to the southeast, and nearby Upper Kintla Lake sits at only 4,370 ft (1,330 m), giving the summit a rise of more than 5,700 ft over the valley floor.
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