Brian Westphal discoverd that the Mazamas climbing club took a number of historic summit registers home with them after climbing excursions in Idaho. Those registers taken were from Mount Borah, He Devil, McGowan Peak and Thompson Peak. The contents of these registers undoubtedly includes valuable historical information. Hopefully, these registers will be returned to Idaho at some point. The Idaho … Continue reading
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
On August 21, 1947, two groups were formed under Paul Petzoldt and Ken Jones from the Thompson high camp. The Petzoldt group wentback to “Mt. Bush” to avenge their previous attempt up the north face. This time, they started up the scree field to the col west of “Mt. Bush” and traversed the ridge to the east but had to rappel into … 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
The Summer of 1949: Fred Beckey, Pete Schoening and Jack Schwabland went into Idaho’s Sawtooth Range to finish “some business” with two peaks that had repulsed their climbing attempts the previous Summer. They also had a shopping list of other unclimbed peaks in the Sawtooths. Their “Idaho adventure” may well be the most exciting epic in Idaho’s climbing history. Fred … 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