Climbing a New Alpine Route in Idaho | George's Blog

AFC athlete George is part of the Young Alpinist Group programme, which is dedicated to supporting the next generation of British alpinists. In his blog, George shares his recent experiences with us.

Find a New Alpine Route in Idaho

This past winter we spent a bit of time attempting a new Alpine-ish route in Idaho in preparation for other goals later in the year. A bit of random googling had revealed a pretty nice looking winter line up a north face way in the Idaho backcountry. After spending the winter exploring the southern Utah desert for new ice routes (with accompanying 6-hour approaches, early morning drives to get back for work and exhaustion-induced vomiting), we were feeling fairly fit.

The snowed-in road

The First Attempt

A first attempt was made near the end of March. We reached the random road pullout in the mountains, packed our bags for a three day trip, popped the skis on and started skinning through the forest. After a couple of miles on a snowed-in road, we branched off, vaguely following the path of a summer trail. Around seven miles later, we found ourselves stamping out a tent platform below the mountain, stuffing food in our faces, and setting alarms for ungodly hours.

The next day of climbing made us realise we needed an aid kit to get us up the route. We got somewhere between half and two thirds of the way up the face, but ended at a slightly overhanging step of rock with no gear between it and the belay, and no way of drytooling up it. We retreated back down the mountain to return a couple of weeks later.

Starting to bail

The approach

Second Time Lucky?

After recruiting another friend, we drove back two weeks later, re-did the approach (this time with aid ladders, daisy chains, more pitons and a tiny bolt kit added to the bag). I led all the way back to the highpoint, keeping our aid climbing maestro Ryan fresh for the next few hours of nailing. Unfortunately after several hours of tricky, slow aiding through some pretty terrible rock, and realising the lovely looking streak of white we were trying to follow up the face was just total sugar snow, with not a drop of ice or spot of neve to be seen, we gave up again, vowing to learn more about the mysteries of intermountain US alpine conditions, so as to return when there would hopefully be some amazing pitches of ice as opposed to endless scrappy aid climbing.

Name and goal of trip: New route in Idaho (still not completed)

What went well during the trip and what didn’t go as well as planned: Fitness and climbing ability were good, and the gear was pretty lightweight. The conditions weren’t as good as we hoped (vertical powder snow and snow mushrooms as opposed to climbable ice or neve)

How did you prepare for the trip: Lots of climbing

Favourite food and snack while on the trip: Beef jerky

Best or favourite moment: Figuring how to get off the face safely on the first attempt! Figuring out an aid climbing system for alpine routes on the second attempt

Any lessons you learnt which you will remember for your next trip: Mountains in the intermountain west of the US are really dry – they just don’t get ice conditions like the Alps do. The rock also doesn’t get glued together in the winter like it does elsewhere. A lot of work has to go into recording and forecasting precipitation and temperatures to get on higher mountain faces when there’s ice on them.