Conquering Mt. Borah

I have always been a bit fascinated with mountain climbing. Thoughts about climbing mountain peaks have lingered in the back of my mind for many years. However, I haven't had too many opportunities to summit mountains or peaks. The boys (Dave and Carson) summitted Mt. Adams last year, but I wasn't able to make it. But I was all in, sort of, when they decided to climb Mt. Borah, the highest peak in Idaho. I say "sort of" because once I started researching the climb and learned about a section called Chicken Out Ridge, I almost decided "nope, I'm out". More on that later.

Before I get to a hike summary I need to say that if you had asked me to do this hike even 10 years ago, I'm not sure that I would have made it. But in this last couple of years, I have seen such an improvement in my physical stamina and mental fortitude. I say "thank you" to marathon training and Isagenix for helping me improve in those areas. The marathon training not only prepared my body physically, it has helpd me to learn that I can do hard things and can soldier on even when physically exhausted. Using Isagenix, has filled my body with quality nutrition that has helped me be able to train for marathons and climb mountains. The week before the climb I used Isagenix's nitric oxide booster, Nox, and it made a world of difference for me. I had no headache, dizziness or shortness of breath due to altitude. It was amazing!

And now for the truly amazing...our summit story.

We arrived at the campsite on a late Friday afternoon. There were already about 12 cars there so we parked in the parking area and set up our tent next to our car. We did a little exploring around the area, but mostly we just relaxed and planned for an early bedtime because the next day was going to be a super early start. Oh, we did have one little interesting adventure that night. Dave decided he needed to charge his phone so he plugged it into the car and ran the car's battery on auxiliary power to charge the phone. Um, he should have turned the car on because he wound up draining the battery. We decided, as we went to bed, that the drained battery would be a problem to solve after we climbed Mt. Borah. We needed to focus on tomorrow's main task...conquering Mt. Borah.

We started the next morning at about 4:30 am. We made the mistake of letting Carson set the pace. I think he was pretty excited to get going and that excitement led to a pretty stiff march as we covered the first mile in about 20 minutes all while gaining elevation. David took a little natural break at the mile marker and that helped slow Carson down. After about a mile, the pitch of the hike increases pretty significantly without a lot of switchbacks to break up the pitch. That could have totally wrecked my calf muscles, but I had been practicing a trick David told me about. When climbing steep climbs, make sure that your back leg extends completely before you bring it forward. It makes your steps a little slower and more deliberate, but it will help take the pressure off of your calves.

Another mile of hiking and we were now above the tree line and out of the mosquitoes! Oh man were the mosquitoes thick as we were going through the last section of trees! Once above the tree line, the trail consists of more loose rocks and skree. I didn't love that very much.

We hiked for about another half mile (now we are about 2.5 miles into our hike and one hour) and decided to take a little break and have a snack. I was using Gu Stroopwafels and Isagenix bars as my trail food. I also had an Isagenix energy shot with me. So at this break, I had a Stroopwafel and my energy shot. And of course, water! I was carrying a hydration pack to make sure that I drank enough water as we were climbing.

Our rest break over, we continued up the trail. Chicken Out Ridge (COR) was in view and I was looking for places to opt out. But seeing only exposed skree, I decided to give it a go. I tried to shut out all of the descriptions of COR I had read and the YouTube videos I had watched as I worked my way towards this big obstacle. I told myself those people aren't me. I can do hard things.

We eventually reached COR. It was only about a half mile from where we took our break, but it seemed like it took us forever to get there. Hiking at elevation takes work and time! There were already a few people on COR when we got there so we had to wait a bit to start our climb. Carson led the way and did a pretty good job of picking a route for us.

We scrambled, climbed, and picked our way up, over, and across COR. I kept repeating in my head, "You can do this. You aren't going to die today" as well as "Three points of contact at all times." Sometimes I had to say those things out loud so I believed them.

I think COR is probably about 200 yards, but it sure felt longer as we were going across. But soon enough, it was time to go down and across the snow bridge.

The snow bridge led to the trail that would take us to the summit. I thought "Finally! Only a half mile or so to go!" But man! That last little push was nothing but UP!

We finally made the summit after hiking for a little over 3 hours. It was windy and cold up on the summit. And the smoke from the fires in the Washington and Montana made the view a little hazy. But we made it!

We spent some time at the summit to refuel, enjoy the scenery and begin thinking about what we were going to do about the dead car battery. Soon enough, it was time to head back down.

I decided that I would much rather climb up than go down. I may have been keeping a decent pact while going up, but on the way back down, I was slow and cautious. My slow pace drove Carson bonkers! Once we finally reached the tree line, we told him to go on ahead and see if he could find someone in the parking area with jumper cables. That was all he needed to hear and he was off at a quick trot down the trail. David patiently waited for me to pick way down and we, too, eventually made it back down to the trail head.

Carson hadn't had much luck finding anyone with jumper cables, which was a bit disconcerting.  Fortunately, a family pulled in that had jumper cables. So while Dave was getting the car jumped, Carson and I broke down camp. Getting the battery to take a charge took a little bit longer than expected, and getting the car to actually start was more of a frustration than it should have been. It wasn't until Dave remembered a tip given to him a few months earlier when he was having trouble getting a rental car to start, that we were finally able to get our car to start. The trick is for cars with push button starts, you need to hold the fob close to the button (or use the fob to push the button) in order to get the car to start. I think it must reboot the computer or something. Anyway, we finally got the car started, loaded, and we were off to home.

We did make a brief stop, with me staying in the car with it running, for Dave and Carson to take a rinse-off swim in the Salmon River. And then we stopped in Salmon, ID for dinner. But those were the only stops on our drive home.

All in all, it was an amazing adventure and I am looking forward to bagging my next summit. As long as it isn't a technical ascent. That's what I liked about Borah, it wasn't too technical. It didn't require ropes, ice axes, crampons, etc.