This article was first published on Dan Robbins’ IdahoSummits website. It is republished here by Dan’s permission. In this article Mike Howard recounts the 1977 Mount Borah avalanche that took the lives of his brother Vaughn and Guy Campbell and the subsequent search. This article is important for many reasons but most importantly because it demonstrates the impact a climbing … Continue reading
Thomas M. Bannon was also a self-taught mountaineer. Although his name is not widely known in mountaineering circles, during his surveying career from 1889 to 1917 he climbed nearly one thousand summits in the American West. More than two hundred of these summits were in Idaho. Bannon’s cryptic reports, supplemented by the rock Cairns, Wooden triangulation signals, chiseled cross-reference marks; … Continue reading
The Idaho Statesman reported this accident in its September 3, 1954 edition. Lightning Hits Climbers MACKAY, A lightining bolt struck a mountain climbing party near the top of 12,655 foot Mt. Borah Thursday iatternoon, causing the disappearance of one man and temporarily paralyzing another. A third escaped unhurt. Missing is John Landenberger, 18, son or J. C.Landenberger, superintendent or the … Continue reading
[Editor’s Note: In 1938, Robert Fulton published this article in Seeing Idaho, a long defunct magazine that focused on the state’s wonders. Clicking on a page will provide a larger version of the page.] … Continue reading
Bob Boyles provided the following history and, with Wes Collins, the route descriptions (below) for these two East Face Routes. I first visited the East Side of the Lost River Range (The Pahsimeroi Valley) in 1972, while working on a helicopter contract for the Forest Service. Flying through the range provided me a view that few ever get to see. … Continue reading
In 1987, an experienced climber descending Mount Borah fell on the snowpack and lost control of his self-arrest. He landed just above a water chute/water-melt tunnel as the avalanche he triggered pushed him into the chute and buried him. Water Chutes/Water-Melt Tunnels When temperatures warm, water melts below the snow surface and flows in river-like patterns downhill. As the water … Continue reading