The scouts decided they wanted to climb Mt. Borah. So they did. They invited anyone who wanted go. I am the scoutmasters wife, so of course I went...... (what was I thinking) :)
We left the Hamer church at appr. 5:00 am and arrived at the trailhead at appr. 7:00am. 24 people went.
Our area had been experiencing thunderstorms all week that would come in the evening. Our goal was to conquer this mountain and get back to the vehicles before that storm hit. Right.... We did pretty good until almost the top, then a hail storm hit, then past. Another storm hit when we were just about back to chicken out ridge. There were 4 of us, the rest of the group about an hour ahead. The four of us hid in chicken out ridge until the storm past. We also stayed there to wait for one member of our group who was about 20 minutes behind due to altitude sickness. The sickness hit him before chicken out ridge and we thought he had turned around and went back down the mountain but he had decided to conquer the beast on his own.
Luckily we stayed mostly storm free the rest of the way down. Clouds kept rolling in but the wind was blowing just right that we only caught the edge of the storms.
We got back to the vehicles at appr. 7:00 pm.
Now for pictures. I'm just going to warn you that there are a lot.
Making our way to the first rest point
This is where we are headed. The jagged rocks before that snow area is called chicken out ridge.
Chicken out ridge. ya, we climbed down that... it makes me a little sick when I look at that now
The end of chicken out ridge
Someone said this part was as wide as a school bus...
It wasn't... This picture does it no justice. The drop off is really quite steep and a long way down. (that's me walking across)
Tyrel and I at the top. I know this makes it look like the area from chicken out ridge to the top was a piece of cake, it wasn't. It look a long time and in my opinion was the hardest part. From chicken out ridge to the top had a nickname and I won't write it on my blog but you can figure it out for yourself. It was called "Witch" Mountain (rhyme witch with another word now...) Oh that last little bit to the top certainly lived up to it's name.... Also, we arrived at the top in a hailstorm. All I can say is ouch.
The view from the top. This made it all worth it.
Coming down off "witch mountain" You can get a little idea of how bad it sucked from this picture
Taking a quick rest about halfway down
I just thought this tree was cool
Our group of 24. We are smiling because we are soooo happy it's over!!
Most of us vowed to never climb Mt. Borah again... Well I think I just might be crazy enough to do it again..... Keyword: crazy.
