best of cc.com [TR] Mt. BORAH (12662') - North Face traverse - AI3, WI3 10/10/2010

[AlpineK]

Cool route. Looks like a fun time

[Going up?]

Thanks alot... now my buddy from Spokane has convinced me to drive there for a weekend climb... from Cheyenne WY.

[Buckaroo]

6 star TR, you go girl, or as the kids would say 100 internets to you

 

Nice open terrain too reminds me of Shasta, none of the ugly NW bushwack

[Lucky Larry]

Very nice; good 4 u guys.

[TMO]

Great TR, looks like a fabulous route

[sobo]

I love this pic! Veronika, you actually took the time to shoot this pic whilst sketching across this? Very nervy! :tup:

 

[YocumRidge]

now my buddy from Spokane has convinced me to drive there for a weekend climb... from Cheyenne WY.

 

Jeff, watch out for fresh snow and avy conditions if you end up going. We stumbled across some shaky ground while midway on the face.

 

Have you been "going up" a lot lately?

[mountainmandoug]

This is one of the more seriously serious alpine adventures I've read about on this site for a while. Congratulations on a great climb of what sounds like a great rout. I'll have to put that on the list for someday.

 

Anybody else noticed that it seems like ice climbing and beautiful women go together? Who would have guessed?

[sobo]

Anybody else noticed that it seems like ice climbing and beautiful women go together? Who would have guessed?

Of course! Remember icegirl? TheLawGoddess? caolyn? Kitergal? Lotsa others here...

[OlegV]

Kids, the mountains are not about cruising superlightly through cool slippery terrains, looking like heros in a clear sunshine. Let me explain, if I am not clear on this one. It comes down to a simple fact: men climb, men fight wars and men carry your shit. Respect deserved.

Understood?

 

[ivan]

all russian, all the time

 

oleg's a lucky man to be sharing so much fine compnay for so long in so small a tent

[LostCamKenny]

Kids, the mountains are not about cruising superlightly through cool slippery terrains, looking like heros in a clear sunshine. Let me explain, if I am not clear on this one. It comes down to a simple fact: men climb, men fight wars and men carry your shit. Respect deserved.

Understood?

i have decided that i am going to get a smaller pack now so that my capacity is is less, thus forcing the other climbers in the party to step up and carry more - humping a 50lb pack is in no way alpine style!

[Kevin Hansen ID]

Wow its been almost 3 years since this climb was done, and still this TR keeps popping up. What a great trip. I took a similar route as the one you took on one of my first trips into the North Face. I have a few corrections I'd like to add just so future groups don't have to experience what we went through. There is a passage from the North West Saddle that drops down into the Cirque. I have taken this a few times since and I've marked it in Green.

 

Additionally Psycho Therapy is the couloir to the Right of the one you highlighted in yellow.

 

http://www.rockclimbing.com/photos/Alpine/Psycho_Therapy._III_AI_4_M6_5.9__18147.html

 

All in all a great trip report. Who doesn't love a ton of photos! Keep it up you guys!

[YocumRidge]

Thanks for the approach improvement beta and for the correction on Psycho Therapy.

 

I wish we were able to find at the time the passage from the NW saddle - that looks like a sweet shortcut that puts you straight down to the base of the NF. Now in retrospect, all that side hilling, loosing significant elevation on the west side and then gaining it back again in the basin were not the happiest moments of our lives while on Mt. Borah.

 

As for the Psycho Therapy, both lines seem to follow the same couloir before splitting below the tower: the left was nicely filled with ice, the right (named "Phycho Therapy") was dry when were up there - in October. Perhaps, it is a seasonal thing hence my confusion.

 

 

[Kevin Hansen ID]

I've done a lot of research on Psycho Therapy including speaking with Dean Lords about it. He climbed it in Nov and said it was more of a dry rock climb. The ideal time to get in on it is May and early June. Brad Schilling (City of Rocks ranger) and Doug climbed the couloir(s) to the left. Brad said in speaking to me that "it was overhanging 5.9 choss". But he told Dean "some of the best alpine ice I've ever climbed!" I have yet to find a partner for either of these routes.

 

As far as Beta for how to get to the North Face of Borah, this is about the best resource you'll find. I was even criticized for how complete the beta is.

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/105717/thread/1369152445/Conditions-Partners+N-+Face+Borah