Splinter Towers History by Brian Westphal

There were three writeups for the Splinters from 1948: 1) Ralph Widrig in The Mountaineer (Seattle), Vol. 39, No. 14 (1948), 2) W.V. Graham Mathews in Appalachia, Vol. 47 (1948), and 3) Fred Beckey’s AAJ, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1949). Between the three writeups the following can be derived; a) the Splinter Towers “guard one of the ridges from Mt. Heyburn which … Continue reading

Pursuit of “Bluebonnet Tower” and the Search for the “Crystal Cave” by Ray Brooks

Glissading firm snow and going “way too fast,” I tripped and did a couple of fast-forward somersaults. Rolling out of the second somersault, I planted the pick of my ice axe deep in the snow. It was a perfect “ice axe self-arrest” for about a second–then the axe ripped out of my hands but stayed attached to my wrist. As … Continue reading

The Sawtooth Country of Idaho by Gary M Smith

This article was published in the April 1967 edition of the long defunct Summit Magazine. Perhaps the most interesting information in the article is the author’s recounting of his interview of early Sawtooth surveyor, Arval Anderson. Summit Magazine published by was founded in November, 1955 by Jene Crenshaw and Helen Kilness. They published the monthly magazine from mid-1955 until 1989 when they … Continue reading

The Underhill Sawtooth Story by Ray Brooks

“Rugged country. Awful rugged country. Miles and miles of sharp jagged pinnacles of firm granite.” A painter-friend of Bob Underhill told him that about Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains in the early 1930s, when Bob was in the Tetons for a few weeks pioneering big new routes on the Grand Teton and other nearby peaks. Although the painter isn’t named, it almost … Continue reading

FIFTY YEARS OF SAWTOOTH CLIMBING 1934-1984 By Dave Bingham

The Elephants Perch from Braxon Peak

When Robert and Miriam Underhill first gazed from the top of Galena Summit in Idaho’s Sawtooth Wilderness, before them stretched a wild mountain panorama never before seen by mountaineers. It was 1934 and in those days the road past the future site of Sun Valley to the summit was little more than a rutted sheep wagon track. Approaching the remote … Continue reading