Report 10260: Four climbers report repeated vocalizations

Four friends and I were climbing in the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness of N.W. Montana on 4th of July weekend of 1978.  After making basecamp at 6500 ft. on Mt. Snowy, we built a fire and proceded to watch the fireworks 10 miles away in Libby. A call(scream) began and rose and fell over the length of about 10 seconds that silenced all 5 of us and everything in that forest.  The hair on my neck stood up.  Then it repeated. A few minutes later, we heard it again. It sounded like it was coming from the ridge above us. Starting like the growl of a bear, it rose slowly in pitch and strength over the 10 seconds until it peaked in a howling high-pitched scream. A survey was taken and no answers were to be found as to its origin. The next day, we summited and on the descent we discovered a cave only about 15 feet deep and lined with dead pine needles. No discussion was ever made by any of our party until a few years ago. Last summer while car camping with my son not far from the first incident, we heard rocks being pounded together just after dusk. It went on all night and even the next morning before we could get out of bed. I looked around and couldn't even find the rocks they had been using. The dog barked when the rocks were being used, but wouldn't go to investigate.