“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
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
Editors Note: Appalachia Vol. 20, 1934. This article put the Sawtooth Range in the national spotlight. Use this link to learn more about the author: Miriam Underhill There is a bit of page 188 text missing at this point. I will add it as soon as possible. … Continue reading
This December 4, 1938 Idaho Statesman published a Sun Valley promotional article written by the resort’s manager which discussed Ski Mountaineering opportunities in the mountains surrounding the resort. The article predates the publishing of Andy Henning’s definitive guidebook for backcountry skiing around the resort, the Sun Valley Ski Guide, in 1948. As lift skiing gained popularity and adherents, the resort … Continue reading
According to A History of the Salmon National Forest, by 1916 there were two lookouts in the Salmon National Forest, at Blue Nose and Salmon City Peak (later given the name “Baldy“). It was assumed that most of the forest could be seen from these two points. Cathedral Rock, in the Bighorn Crags, was also used at times to see … Continue reading
Lee Morrison was a USGS topographic engineer who led many mapping expeditions in Idaho in the 1920s and 1930s. He announced in 1929 that his calculations had identified an unnamed peak in the Pahsimeroi Mountains of the Lost River Range as being much higher than Mount Hyndman. The peak was soon there after named Borah Peak (aka Mount Borah). In … Continue reading