August 31, 2019
A quick climb in Wildhorse.
Nicole and I left Logan around 5PM, and after a rather large Wendy's order we were headed north to the Pioneer Mountains in Central Idaho. We were hoping to score a spot in Wildhorse Campground, and either drive or pedal up to the Wildhorse TH in the morning. It was Labor Day weekend, and as we neared the campground it became apparent finding a site would be iffy at best. However, we got lucky and pulled right into a nice site, and turned off the lights around 1am.
Around 8 the next morning we rolled out of camp to the notoriously rough road to the TH, and decided to go for it in the car. After about 45 minutes of careful driving and a few moose sightings, we were at the trailhead.
 |
| We went up the leftmost "scoop" to the skyline. |
The route is relatively straightforward: Go up the trail until you come across a large talus slope that looks like it will get you where you want to go, then scramble up until you feel like pulling out the rope. We decided to head up the face to a small col, then rope up there.
 |
| The scramble |
 |
| Rope time! |
At about 11:30 I took off from our ledge just below the ridge. It looked like there was about 3 pitches of climbing to the top of the arete. The arete is a beautiful, exposed piece of rock, typical to the Pioneers. Long featured blocks of quartzite took protection readily, and there always seemed to be holds where you needed them.
 |
| Looking up |
 |
| Looking back on P2 |
Somewhere in the middle of the steepest section of the ridge (P2? My memory fails me) a stunning right facing dihedral opens up. It is almost vertical, and looks about featureless. As I got closer to this dihedral, it looked more and more difficult, maybe more than I wanted, given that my last piece was some 30 feet below me. As I made the decision to enter it, however, I noticed a beautiful 1" crack splitting the whole left side. Sweet! Fingerlocks and gear and good feet made that forty or fifty feet the highlight of the technical climbing.
 |
| Topping out P3 |
After the dihedral pitch was another full length blocky ridge pitch, and then the final fifty or so feet of roped scrambling to the end of the arete, bringing the pitch count to 4. Time to stow the gear and head to the summit for the day!
 |
| Wildhorse Canyon below |
 |
| Almost to the top |
We topped out, sunned ourselves for the better part of an hour, and began the talus walk back to the head of Wildhorse creek, and then back to the awaiting cold Wendy's cheeseburger from the night before. One of the best burgers I've ever had! It turned out to be a long day, despite only being about 6 miles and 3,000' of gain.
No comments:
Post a Comment