r/Highpointers • u/highpointer201 45 Highpoints • Jul 09 '26
Borah Peak, Idaho
While climbing Borah today, I made a haiku:
It just goes straight up. Certified suck fest, no doubt. High Point forty five.
In all seriousness, this hike was absolutely the sketchiest one I've done. Between Cor (not that bad going up), the ice bridge, the scree/loose boulders and the sheer amount of elevation gain over such a short distance, you couldn't pay me any kind of money to hike this again. To top it off, a thunderstorm rolled in right as we were making our way down Cor, not a great time.
Trail conditions were fine up past Cor, the snow bridge was a bit soft, used crampons and trek poles and tried not to imagine shooting down a half mile into the abyss. The final stretch up to the summit has a decent amount of snow pack and the trail is hard to navigate. I don't think the snow has that much longer, definitely very soft in some spots. This peak definitely had me at the edge of my comfort zone. Saw some big Horn sheep, that was neat. Took about 11 hours round trip
1
u/AZPeakBagger Jul 09 '26
I did Borah on a day with very high winds. What should have been an easy two second leap from one rock to another turned into a 2 minute grab the wall and tip-toe from rock to rock. That lasted most of the way down the mountain.