The statistics of climbing Borah Peak can be a little daunting: the standard hiking route starts at roughly 7,500 feet elevation, meaning a vertical gain of nearly 5,100 feet is required to achieve the summit in just over 3 miles, which in turn means a nearly consistent 25-30% uphill grade. Not only that, the easiest route features a knife-edge ridge at about the three-quarters mark of the hike that has spooked many a climber, including me back in 1996. This would be my second attempt, and a chance to exorcise the frustration of failing the first time. Up to this point, Borah Peak is the only mountain that I ever turned around on because I got too spooked about a climbing section. Bad weather or blisters, that's something I can live with in my mind. Chickening out, that's not so good. I hadn't even bothered for a second try since my 1996 failure, partly due to other climbing interests and partly due to my not wanting to face the mighty Borah until I knew I could handle it!

Back in 1996 when I was pretty new to this hobby, and before I had tried any true technical climbs, I decided to give Borah a try, accompanied by my friend from college, Jennifer Marchant, with whom I'd climbed in California's Mount Whitney four years earlier. We both met in Boise and drove the 200 miles or so through the lava fields and past the town of Arco, arriving at the trailhead in the dusk amid a fairly powerful thunderstorm. Maybe I should have viewed this as an omen, as well as the speeding ticket I got near Arco, going 70 in a 65 mph zone. Pshaw. In any case, Jen and I started up the trail the next morning, with a third hiker named Dave joining us for much of the uphill slog. All was well (and steep) until we came to the appropriately-named Chicken Out Ridge (COR). The three of us came upon the first significant obstacle of this ridge, and frankly, none of us was sure what to do. Jen and I were quickly losing the jones to proceed further, but we waited for awhile to see if anyone would come along with some bright ideas. Dave, however, was close to completing the state highpoints and really wanted to continue. Finally, a hiker appeared on the other side and directed Dave how to traverse this section. It didn't look nice and both Jen and I admitted defeat, turning around and hiking out with another hiker who had also 'chickened out'. We consoled ourselves with a trip to Craters Of The Moon National Monument, a fascinating park amid miles of black lava fields with lava tunnels, ice caves and snakes galore. Nevertheless, it bugged me pretty good for a long time that I turned around on Borah. I knew I needed better skills and better experience.

So fast forward to 2003. Since 1996 I have climbed plenty of peaks requiring climbing/scrambling skill, notable Granite Peak in Montana, which was nothing but vertical for most of the last mile to the top. When my hiking buddy Adam H. suggested a climb of Borah, I felt I was ready. We were joined for this bid by Barney Metz, a native Idahoan from Lewiston. I flew in to Salt Lake City instead (about the same driving distance to Borah as from Boise, but about a hundred bucks cheaper), and took a quick detour to bag a quick county highpoint, Bridger Peak in Rich county, Utah. That went fast and I made the long drive to the Borah trailhead and campground, arriving about 7 p.m. in beautiful dry conditions. I expected to meet Adam and Barney there but they got a bit lost on a peak they were doing that day and they didn't show until after dark fell. I spent that evening talking to others and making short walks about the area. Once Adam and Barney arrived, we chatted very briefly then slept, arising at 4:45 a.m. and starting up the trail at 5:25 a.m. in the pre-dawn purpleness.

Knowing full well we had a ton of uphill hiking ahead of us, I deliberately went rather slow at first, and both Adam and Barney fell into line behind me. The first portion of the trail enters a small canyon and gains moderately, with one main turn, before topping out at a saddle just east of a knob with spot elevation 8,714 feet. We reckoned we covered about 3/4 mile and gained about 1,100 feet in about 50 minutes. The trail was well constructed and looked much improved over what I remembered from 1996. There was a party ahead of us as we could see their headlamps, but no one had passed us going up on this short section. We took a breather at this little saddle; the time was still not yet 6:30 a.m.

From this saddle the trail continues directly up the prominent ridge. The trail herein is very steep and dusty, and relentlessly so. We went slow and simply huffed and puffed up this unexciting section. We were passed by some quicker hikers along the way. We took our next break nearby a lonely fir tree right about at tree line, figuring we gained about another 1,000 feet along the way. After our rest, we continued up the steep slope until it finally moderated. For about the next 1/2 - 3/4 mile, the trail stays high on the ridge, with gently sloping talus to our right (south) and cliffs and air to our left (north). Borah's magnificent mass was fully visible up on this ridge, still maddeningly high up. The trail goes up, sometimes was level and even dropped slightly near a windbreak... then resumed it's steep uphill grind. We passed a knob marked with spot elevation 10,632 feet along the way. From on this ridge the route seems to get impossibly steep as the ridge narrows near a colorful band of strata. However, this section proved to be easy and not as steep as originally feared. The trail grew weaker amid the talus and scree, although following it was never difficult. Finally, we scurried up some rock steps and headed for an obvious cleft in the rocks immediately ahead of us. This is where the famed COR starts, and where Jen and I turned around last time. Me, I was eager to see if it was really as bad as I remembered it, and even if I was on the right path at all (I had doubted if we were sometimes). Turns out we were.

So here we were, at the foot of COR, roughly at about 11,300 feet elevation. We had covered about 3,800 vertical feet of gain in just over 2 miles to get to this point. 95% of the time that's good enough for most peaks. Yet we were just now beginning the challenging part of the climb! In this notch, we glommed in with a couple who had hike Borah the previous year, and they knew the ins and outs of what to do on this section. Turns out that instead of traversing the rock face as Dave had done in 1996 (and it looked real sketchy when he did it), it's wise to go up and directly over the rock. The rock is solid and with plenty of holds for the hands and boots. The five of us made it up and over this first rock, then a second, to come back onto more firmer, less exposed ground. Ironically, one can see the trail from the start of this section, just about 20 feet away. That felt great, to get past this section! We hiked up the trail continuation up and over a small hump, and down the other side briefly to a small saddle.

This next section has some options. A trail hugs the cliffs to the left (north), and we followed this for about 100 horizontal feet. It leads to a chute. Adam and Barney up-climbed this chute to top out on the ridge again, while I followed the couple as they took a sketchier trail that bypassed this chute to the left, then went up the slopes to regain the ridge. Adam and Barney had to downclimb a 15-foot rock section, while me and the couple scrambled our way up the sloppy rock to meet at the ridge and a saddle. Well... without being aware, were were now sitting in the 'notch', a small but pronounced notch usually filled with snow (there was none) and the end, if you will, of the COR section. Turns out Adam and Barn had the right idea, and that the little route variation I took, even though it had cairns, was really bad.

Well, it felt great to be past the tricky exposed scrambling sections. From the notch the trail continued, fat and wide and easy, as it traversed mostly level on the west flanks of the peaklet marked with elevation 11,898 feet, until it came to the main saddle to the north of Peak 11898 and the south of Borah itself. The top was still 800 vertical feet above us, and many people had said that even though it's not technical, it's sloppy and slow going and you never feel like you're making progress. In any case, I'd have to find that out for myself. The trail continues up the west face of Borah, plain as day in the talus, before coming to a notch about 400 feet below the summit. This section was steep and slow, but I made good time. Here, Adam and Barney just went at their own pace and both were ahead of me. Past the notch the trail gets very sloppy and loose with scree. Most people stayed on it and eventually achieved a small ridge to the left of Borah's summit. A few hardy souls veered right and up the steeper but more solid rock to achieve the top. I was happy to just be making upward progress, but finally I grew weary of the scree being kicked down by everyone and I opted to scramble up toward the right. I achieved the ridge just about 100 feet south of the summit, and in short order, staggered to an open spot just beside the summit rock and the register. Victory! Borah was mine and it felt so good.

It had taken me just less than 6 hours one way to make it (The sign at the start said 5-7 hours, so I guess I'm average). Adam and Barn were there already, as were about 20 others, spread about on rocks here and there. We took photos, shook hands, and relaxed. The weather was magnificent and rather warm for this altitude. But... I knew I still had a long hike down ahead of me, plus a second go-round with the COR, so I wanted to get started down as soon as I felt up to it. I spent about 20 minutes on top, I'd say, before starting down.

The hike down went slow as I never got good footing on the loose scree, but still I made decent time to get down to the saddle and across to the notch, where Adam and Barney and I took a break and waited for a party of five to get past the rock section so we could tackle it. The three of us went up the rock (this is where I'd upclimbed the 'bypass', which I don't recommend). The rock was bomber and was no problem. Barney opted to continue high on the ridge, whereas Adam and I downclimbed the chute (about 50 vertical feet) to meet up with the trail. The three of us met up a few minutes later. We went up and over a small hump than down to the first section of COR: those two little humps of rock. Downclimbing them went fast, and just like that, we were down below COR, with the toughest climbing done for the day! Barney and I called our respective wives to say hi, while Adam swigged some water.

With no compelling reason to stick so close together as a group now that we were below the tough stuff, we hiked our own pace down the steep trail to our cars. However, I sensed I might be in for a little rougher time than I planned. When we made our phone calls, I assessed my water: two 20-ounce bottles, which seemed to be enough for 2.5 miles and mostly downhill. Well... I started to lag on the ridge, and when I reached treeline I had sucked down one bottle and knew I wouldn't have enough to cover me for the remaining stretch. Adam and Barney had gone ahead so I couldn't ask them for some water. After my stop at treeline I started down the steep dusty trail, a slow process for me as usual. A guy passed me on the way down, a real nice guy I'd talked to up high, and I sheepishly asked him if he could spare some water. All I needed was maybe a half bottle, to augment my one remaining full bottle, but he said he had two full bottles he knew he wouldn't need, so he gave me one and was happy to lighten his load in the process! I thanked him and sucked it down. I continued at my slow pace, emerging to the vehicles at 4 p.m. sharp, completely dry. I had some waiting in my rental car in a cooler, but I had to wonder... I'd packed five 20-oz bottles plus a liter of gatorade, yet I went through it all and still needed some more. Oh well. My thanks to the guy for giving me a bottle. It made my descent a lot less nasty.

Well, 10.5 hours after starting were were all out to our cars. Barney and Adam drove into Mackay to get some gas, food and drinks, while I spent some time changing and relaxing before meeting up with them at the Chevron station. I rewarded myself with a gatorade and a Stewart's Orange & Cream soda (yumm). The three of us convoyed south to the town of Burley on Interstate-84 where we had burgers, then camped that night at the City of Rocks State Park for our next morning's drive-up of Bull Mountain in Box Elder county, Utah.

It had been a successful summit day and the weather had behaved for us the entire time. My thanks to Adam and Barney for being good partners and everyone else on the hike who helped one another through the rough bits. In retrospect, I'd have to agree with all the advice I'd heard about COR: always stay high. Other than that, it was just a very steep hike. The views were magnificent, and it was a beautiful climb all the way around.