White Knob Peaks

With a great NOAA forecast for Saturday, Michael and I decided to climb a couple of obscure White Knob 10K foot peaks - White Knob and South White Knob.  The road up Alder Creek was in good shape and we were making good time, until we hit a patch of Qwyhee gumbo at 7800'.  Unable to proceed without traction, we gently slid back into a "parking spot".  Might as well start walking, perhaps it will be dry when we return.

We followed the road up until it split and decided to go left, up Stewart Canyon.  It wasn't long before we could no longer skirt the snow patches in the road and had to walk over them.  Ahhh, let the postholing begin!  With our snowshoes back in the truck, we decided to forego the pain of knee deep snow.  So, we crossed the creek and headed up to gain the ridge that would take us to our first objective - "South White Knob".

South White Knob on the left

Our route to gain the ridge

There was a fresh dusting of snow covering everything, but we didn't let that stop us as we moved through the aspen thickets only to be confronted with thick Mahogany.  Luckily, we found a game trail that angled up through the tangle of Mahogany, which eventually led us to the rocky ridge.

Taking a break in the Mahogany

Once we gained the ridge at 9100', we had clear sailing.  No more Mahogany and the snow was supportive.

South White Knob peeking out

Michael heading up

The broad ridge to the summit

A cold wind was blowing on the top of South White Knob so we didn't stop.  Just touched the top and dropped down the wide expanse heading toward White Top.  Just past the saddle, between our two peaks, we found a spot out of the wind and stopped to have some lunch and gawk at the sights. 

White Knob Mountain

Unlike the previous Saturday, it was cold above 10K feet, so we didn't linger too long for lunch.  White Knob was only 1/4 mile and 350 feet above us, so we powered up it to stay warm.

Summit of White Knob (10,835 feet)

Looking back at South White Knob with Shelly and Redbird in the background

A nice ski line off of Lime Mountain

 After a couple of summit photos, we retraced our steps over South White Knob and back down the ridge.  Since we are a couple of educated guys, we took a slightly different route getting off the ridge and bypassed the tangle of Mahogany.

Looking back up

We walked back down the mining road, crossing paths with a half dozen side by sides before reaching the truck.  Thankfully the soil was dry, we pulled right out and headed home.

Stats:
Distance - 8.75 miles
Elevation Gain - 3750 feet
Time - 6 hours car-car

Mt. Borah- West Face

After seeing some info on the West Face of Mt. Borah being in good condition, I suggested to Nicole on a Saturday afternoon we should go take a stab at it. She agreed, and we loaded the car and headed for Mackay. After finding a "camping spot" at the Mt. Borah trailhead, we made a nice dinner of pasta and mushrooms and went to bed around 9. A 4am alarm comes soon.

We awoke to a full moon, made some coffee and oatmeal, and headed out exactly at 5am.

The first thousand feet up the COR (Chicken Out Ridge) trail passed quickly, and soon we were at our turnoff, the saddle at 8,600'. We trended north, headed for the West Face valley. Time for a typical Lost River off-trail adventure- deadfall, scree-in-trees, and postholing. As we tried our best to stay on the 8,600' contour, it became apparent we needed to drop down to the creek to avoid the worst of the trees. We did, and were quickly rewarded with patchy knee deep snow. About an hour of plugging up this valley got us to the West Face cirque (I'll call it).

Looking up. Now where are we going?

Looking down-valley. Note how supportive the snow is. 

We could now see up to COR, and the snow looked great. Knowing our route curved up and left, we stuck to the left side of the valley, skirting old wet slide debris and keeping off the rocks in the valley bottom.

My recollection of a route photo informed me that to get into the long arcing couloir on the right side of the face we needed to stay right (duh) and go through a tight slot. The right slot had a nice big water ice bubble in it, and figuring we could connect to the upper face through the leftmost couloir, we chose left. 

Going up. And left.

The next two thousand feet of climbing went relatively easily. Head up the couloir, avoid the sun, etc. 

Higher

Luckily for us, at about 11,500' things get interesting. The main couloir ends, and a variety of chutes and towers emerge on the upper face. Knowing the summit was a little to the right, I kept us trending up and right, staying on snow as much as possible. There were, however, some nice rock steps to practice our mixed climbing. 

Steep!

We kept it up and eventually gained the trail as it crosses right below the summit. Now to traverse a few snowfields and try not to posthole...

Are we there yet?

The summit had a nice light breeze. It was 12:45.

We took a long break up top to dry out our socks and call our moms. It was Mother's Day, after all. 

Nicole's new foot warmer

Do we have to go down??

We picked our way down the summit block, across the saddle by Sacagawea, and over to Chicken Out.

Down

The upper West Face. We did not take any of the obvious lines in this photo

By the time we got to COR, it was around 2:30. Late, especially with the warm May sun baking since 7am. Going over the top wasn't an option, there were soft melted cornices in both directions. Going around didn't seem a safe option either, with both aspects steep and the snow too soft to support weight. Shit. Well, we knew the couloir below us led back down to the West Face valley, and that would, eventually, lead back down to the car. We headed down the couloir at around 3pm. 

We downclimbed, sidestepped, and glissaded down to the bottom of the valley. Now, I can write that all in one sentence, but it took the better part of two hours. 

Now to walk out the valley and get back into the trees. Remember how supportive the snow was at 6am? We did. And it sure wasn't anymore. Taking baby steps helps reduce the jarring from a deep posthole when you aren't expecting it, and it has the added bonus (not) of being excruciatingly slow. And that only works when you don't expect every step to be a wade. 

Wading

Two more hours elapse. We're finally down in the valley again, looking for the right chance to turn up  to get back to the saddle and meet up with the trail. There is about half an hour of light left, and we know we need to make it to the trail before dark.

We do. 

The rest of the hike out was painful on the toes, but otherwise uneventful. 

The car was waiting for us, alone, at 9:11pm- 16 hours, 6,000 feet of gain and loss, and 7 miles after we had left it.

Peak 10,740 aka The Clapper

It was the middle of May, and a few of us local mountaineers hadn't been above 10,000 feet in 2020.  Michael figured it was time we solved this problem, and he had an easy peak in mind - The Clapper.

After a bit of back and forth, we decided to drive over together and wear masks, to follow CDC guidelines.  After a four hour drive, we arrived at our destination - the base of the peak's southwest ridge, north of Deep Creek.

It was a beautiful morning, mid 40's and no wind.  Based on the lack of snow, we left the snowshoes in the rig, but carried ice axes and crampons just in case we encountered any snow.  From Larry Prescott's trip report  http://larryprescott.blogspot.com/2016/09/trip-report-clapper-10740-lemhi-range.html, we knew that the route would be relatively easy, but wanted to be prepared.

Bell Mountain

Though we were climbing, The Clapper, Bell Mountain at 11,612 feet, would be the theme of the day.  It was staring us in the face all day!

The route starts at roughly 6900 feet and follows the southwest ridge through sage brush until about 8400 feet.  Nice low sage brush too.

Entering the forest section

Though hiking through the sage brush was nice, the forested section was even better.  Wide open trees with a nice carpet of pine needles made for soft hiking.

Bell in the background

We kept a steady pace and didn't encounter any snow until we thought about going around point 10,095.  So rather than walk around and through the snow to save a 100 feet of gain, we just went over the top.  Once again Bell Mountain was right there!

Bell Mountain from Point 10,095

We could finally see The Clapper at this point.  All we had left was a walk across a smooth ridge and a climb up some Lemhi talus.

Michael with the Clapper straight ahead.

Looking back at Point 10,095

We were on top a short while later enjoying the views.  There was barely a breath of wind and not a cloud in the sky.  What a day to be in the mountains!

Summit shot with (what else) Bell Mountain.

After a leisurely lunch, we packed up and retraced our steps back to Michael's rig.  We definitely violated the windshield rule - 3 hours to summit, 2 hours to get down vs. 8 hours driving - but it was more than worth it!

Stats:
7 miles
4200 feet elevation gain
5 hours car-car