7 year old summits Borah Peak

7 year-old summits Borah Peak, a father-son adventure

Having to cancel our trip to Borah Peak in 2006 due to me fracturing my foot the weekend before our trip, Sebastian and I were even more determined to go to the mountain this year. Sebastian, son, was 7 years old this year and fit. He played fall and spring recreational league soccer, ran running club at lunch time recess, in late spring he won his age group beating 83 other 7-year old boys in a 1.2 mile race at the Capital Kids Classic, and did enough short one hour training hikes in the Boise foothills to be ready for Borah. My goal was just to have a good day on the mountain.
From our home in Boise it took 4 hours to get to the trailhead. If you are going to Borah Peak from the Boise area you save about an hour by going via Ketchum and taking Trail Creek Road to Highway 93. (Photo) We arrived at the crowded trailhead 8:30pm. We spotted the friend we invited to climb and found a parking spot near their camp. The trail head was crowded. This was my sixth trip to Borah Peak and I had previously not encountered so many climbers at the trailhead. After quickly setting up our tent we ate some food. I fired up a small propane burner and Sebastian roasted a few marshmallows while I worked on packing my pack for the climb. I want to get most of the pack packed so I wouldn’t be so frantic in the morning. My invited friend invited one of his friends and decided to climb with him. He was convinced to get up at 5:00 AM and start way too early (5:30am) for normal folks, so Sebastian and I would be unaccompanied.
It was a restless night due to the all the activities of arriving climbers through the night. Sebastian and I stirred around 5:45, dressed, ate cereal (photo), waited in line at the pit toilet, and finished packing. I didn’t make and drink any coffee because I didn’t want the diuretic effect. I looked at my new Cannon digital SLR camera and decided to leave it behind to save 1.5 pounds of weight. I was packing a Cannon PowerShot SD110 Digital Elph that is compact and lightweight. I carried a fully charged spare battery. Since adventuring racing summer of 2002, I’ve become more discriminating when packing. I was going to wear a medium height Merrell hiking boot but when I compared its weight to the weight of my Salomon adventure racing style shoe, I chose my Salomon shoes because they weigh 1.5 lbs less. They were a tried and true shoe for me but now worn with tears in one shoe along the toe box. I dug out the new pair I’d been saving for five years and wore them. I first purchased the shoes the summer of 2002 when I adventure raced, including the Armed Forces Eco-challenge in Alaska, the shoes were a perfect fit so I immediately purchased a second pair saving them until the first pair had to be retired. I’ve safely and comfortable covered a lot of ground in those shoes (my eyes are welling up with tears). Because I wanted to optimize Sebastian’s chance of reaching the summit, except for a kids size Camelbak, I would be carrying everything else: all our food, water, clothes, a couple carabineers and a 30 foot length of rope to keep Sebastian safe climbing down the end of Chicken-out Ridge, small binoculars, and a small camera. At the last moment Sebastian said Tigeree (“tiger ree”)wanted to go on the hike so he rode on the outside of my pack. Tigeree is Sebastian’s “sleep aid” stuffed animal he’s had since he was three years old.
It was 06:40 on 11 August 2007, when we started up the trail (photo). I had on one layer of clothing, a fleece head band, and gloves. Sebastian had one layer of clothing, a fleece vest and his Idaho Winter Games hat. Our plan was to maintain a pattern of hiking for 40 minutes followed by a ten minute rest. Within 15 minutes, we passed two unfit looking gentlemen who had stopped to catch their breath. All kinds of people would be on the climb that day, from seasoned elderly Borah veterans, to “Mr. Blue Jeans” (pants and jacket), to slow and fast solos, to a 40 something blond Heidi look-a-like, to a group of Mormon teenagers, to generation Xers in sneakers, to the hard-core adventure racer type , to groups of inexperienced but fit looking 20 and 30 year olds, to groups of experienced 40 and 50 year olds, to mixed men and women groups, to couples.
Forty minutes into our climb we reached the start of the steep section of trail through the forest. We stopped as planned for 10 minutes (photo). The teen group was resting there as was a pleasant woman, originally from Franklin, Pennsylvania. It’s a small world because I too am originally from western PA, and she and I also lived in Fairborn, OH within 5 blocks of where I had lived. I adjusted my trekking poles and Sebastian and I started up the steep forest trail, picking off other climbers and groups as we motored along at a steady pace. I had to keep reinforcing Sebastian to slow down and just keep a steady pace. Sebastian was already getting noticed. Climbers were asking how old he was. He politely replied seven. The forest section is steep and worse coming down when you have tired legs and maybe sore knees. We stopped periodically during this section just to catch our breath.
At the top of the forest there is a nice circle shelter, dugout on one side and made from fallen pine logs on the downhill side. Probably 15 persons or so were stopped at this area. Everyone turned to watch an adventure racer type descend. He had already bagged the peak and was likely back at the parking lot by 09:00 (he had the most powerful looking quads one could imagine), flexing with power as he, with a happy confident look working his trekking poles, powered his way down the steep trail past the crowd. We stopped too, as we had gone another 40 minutes. We ate our first food, some bars, drank a little water and shared a quart of Gatorade. I was planning to stash 2 liters of water at this point to recover on out descent but since we really didn’t take in much water I decided to stash it at our next 10 minute break. I removed the lower pant legs from my convertibles and Sebastian put his running pants back on. The crowd of climbers were exchanging pleasantries. “Heidi and her group caught up. She spoke to Sebastian and pointed out the pattern of the two circular fields and a rectangular field down in the valley looked like Mickey Mouse. After ten minutes we took off again. We still had a steep climb of 20 minutes or so until the trail leveled out along the long ridgeline leading up to Chicken-out Ridge. Now the sun was over Borah and the saddle so we stopped and put our sunglasses on. I/we forgot a ball cap for Sebastian. He wore his lightweight winter hat most of the day. We continued at a steady pace mostly passing people at our pace. As we neared the ascent to chicken-out ridge we had gone another 40 minutes and took another break. Our food lights were on low so I opened one of two containers of an orzo mix I brought. We shared the orzo and we both agreed it hit the spot (photo). After taking big drinks of water I refilled our water bladders from the two liter container, then stashed the remain water from the 2 liters along with two fruit cups of peaches. We’d be picking up the water and fruit on the way back. During our break a co-worker of mine, Richard, climbed by. He stopped to say hello. We’d be joining his camp that evening for a Dutch oven feast. Richard, and avid hockey player, was using cut-off hockey sticks as trekking poles; odd but effective. I couldn’t let it slide and made a comment about the lack of ice on the mountain this year.
We worked our way up the trail to Chicken-out Ridge. There was about 15 people approaching Chicken-out along with us. We held our position and scrambled up the chute to what I say is the official beginning of Chicken-out Ridge. One must hug the boulder face of the ridge and step about 4 feet over air then another 3 feet over air to wider boulder platform. On previous climbs I’ve seen unsure climbers turn back at this first obstacle. The shoot below was about 30 feet down and on the opposite side of the ridge it dropped off about 50-70 feet. If you fell either direction you would continue down much farther. I wasn’t sure how Sebastian would handle the exposure. I planned to heed the warning from my wife to keep Sebastian near me and I did. It was exactly 09:00 AM.
Sebastian was fearless as we entered the ridgeline. I got ahead and reached back for him giving him my hand and pulled him across the void. We stayed right on top of the ridge for another 30 feet then dropped down the south side a bit to skirt around a section (photo). The fastest route over the ridge is to stay right on top, bouldering along the south side of the ridge (photo). At the first tricky down-climb I went ahead and coached Sebastian down, keeping him within reach at all times. He was completely comfortable and listened to my instructions. We were working as a team. He was getting looks of amazement from other climbers. Everyone was being really friendly to him. At some point along the trail Sebastian said, “It seems like I’m the main attraction out here”. We continued to work our way across the ridgeline ending at the 15-18 foot cliff at the end. I brought a 30 foot length of rope for this obstacle. Safety first for this climb. As we prepared our hook ups, about 6 people climbed down the cliff. I hooked Sebastian into the rope and let him climb down. There is a good chute with foot and handholds right down the center of the cliff. He climbed right down without weighting on the rope. He had a big grin on his face. I instructed him to move back from the cliff and then I tossed the rope down to him. I then climbed down. In the years of above normal snow pack there is often snow in this small saddle below the cliff. There was no snow this year as Idaho forests burn out of control. Sunset last night over the Boulder White Cloud Mountains was beautiful because of the colors from the forest fire ash in the air. I stashed the rope and our carabineers on a ledge on the far side of the saddle. We saddled up and headed for the large saddle below what I call the summit hump. This section follows the contour of the mountain so it makes for a nice recovery prior to the SOB (shortness of breath) upcoming on the final hump. We were walking along with a friendly 49-year old man from Pocatello wearing blue jean pant and a blue jean jacket. We named him “Mr. Blue Jeans.” It was his first climb of Borah. He was slow but steady. His aerobic training for the climb was tending to his 8 acre spread.
A couple groups were resting on the saddle when we arrived. There was still snow on the south east slope. Sebastian dropped down to touch the snow (photo). The view down the valley from the saddle is magnificent: emerald green lakes, various rock colors, and forests, all 2000 feet below. (photo) We dropped Sebastian’s Camelbak at the saddle to save him a couple pounds of weight and headed up the summit hump. The trail is distinct through the scree. An alternate route is to head to the ridgeline once you’ve gone up the scree trail a few hundred feet. Most climbers stay on the trail. I’ve climbed via the ridgeline at least twice but today I thought the trail would be best for Sebastian’s safety (photo). I was wrong. We’d climb until we needed to catch our breath, stop for a moment, and then continue. With the elevation this occurred with more frequency than on the steep trail through the forest. We kind of played tag and periodically chatted with “Mr. Blue Jeans” for about half the climb to the summit. There are two or three particularly slippery areas of smaller scree and gravel. We just switched back on the switchbacks to get up those areas.
We were about ¾ of the way up the summit hump, Sebastian right in front of me, only an arm’s length ahead, when I heard some rocks slide and someone shout “rocks”. I looked up to my right to see a woman in a white long sleeve top followed by a guy in a burgundy top with a goatee about 20 feet below her. They had cut up from the trail and were paralleling the trail about 60 feet from us. The guy had started a rock slide and one large rock got momentum and tumbled toward us. It was a flat rectangular shaped rock, about 12” by 15” by 3” thick was bouncing on its edge hurtling right toward us. I stepped even closer to Sebastian and faced the oncoming projectile. It look liked Sebastian would be missed. Thankfully the rock stayed on a straight line trajectory. As it took a final bounce to us and became airborne I got my hands on it and guided it right between us! It all happened so fast. If I had laser vision, like Gort (photo), the guy would have disintegrated from my glare. Sebastian started to cry, crying “that was really scary”. I comforted him saying were okay and safe and gave him a long hug. The guy and woman didn’t even apologize or show any concern for us, and it wasn’t his “rock” warning that I heard. It was another climber who alerted us. I was going to “dress him down” at the summit. Everyone who observed this incident was a little on edge as they proceeded to the summit. The summit was soon ours. It was packed with over 40 people. Lots of people turned in amazement when they saw Sebastian had reached the summit. We reached the summit exactly at noon. I eventually confronted the guy that caused the rock to tumble but I decided not to cause a scene and dampen the mood at the summit. The guy seemed contrite and apologized. I explained that I was upset about his seemingly lack of concern for us. Why did I have to approach him for an apology, I don’t get it?
Sebastian and I found a spot to sit down, rest, and eat some more orzo and other food. I took some Ibuprofen and gave Sebastian some Tylenol. He did complain of a headache and of being tired. He was on the verge of crying about being too tired to make it down. I just comforted him and we rested another 10 minutes. I told him we would take our time. (photos) I signed us into the summit log; we took several photos, had someone take photos of us together and headed down. I wish I had taken a photo that showed all the people on the summit. Old Glory and the Idaho State Flag are flying on the peak.
The descent off the summit is tricky in sections where the trail is gravel covered. I kept looking over my shoulder to see who was above us. I held Sebastian’s hand through some of these sections and stayed right in front of him in case he slid. With all the people descending and people still ascending it was like a stop and go traffic scene. Groups would wait for others to clear chutes with the looser scree or gravel. We stopped briefly a few times during our descent off the summit hump (photo). It really was a gorgeous day on the mountain (photo). One tends to view the scenery more on the descent.
When we reached the saddle (photos) we picked up Sebastian’s CamelBak and continued toward Chicken-out Ridge. We watch some groups head down the saddle draw below Chicken-out Ridge instead of climbing up on the ridgeline. It looks easier to skirt down, around, and back up the ridge but it’s not. The footing is loose and you go down then back up. When we reached Chicken-out we picked up our rope and carabineers right where we left them. Before starting the ridge Sebastian put on a fresh pair of smart wool socks. He had small blisters developing on the back of both heels. He said with the fresh socks he didn't feel the blisters. I climbed up the cliff with the rope attached to me. Once on top Sebastian climbed up. He’s so amazing! He climbed up without any help from me pulling on the rope. We unhooked from the rope and stowed it away. I was a little nervous as we started across the ridge since the wind picked up speed. I had to remind Sebastian to stay in a crouched position keeping handholds. We stayed on the windward side of the ridge so if a gust knocked us off balance we would fall into the ridge instead of being blown off the ridge. The wind was stronger in places with openings along the ridge. We stayed high on the ridge except for a couple spots where skirting around the ridge is obviously easier. At the small cliff midway over the ridge I had Sebastian climb right in front of me. It was easier going up than it was coming down. We passed some climbers and some climbers passed us. The affect of descending climbers is more focused than when ascending, likely due to fatigue. At the end of the ridge, heading down, we stayed high and overtook a group of 6 that were trying to skirt around. Going that way the final chute obstacle is more difficult. Stay high on the ridge, on the south east side, as your approaching the end of Chicken-out.
The next section leading down from Chicken-out is steep. We took our time. Sebastian was tiring and I was worried about his footing. We held hands as much as possible as we continued down. About halfway down this section we stopped and rested about 15 minutes. I knew Sebastian would feel better at lower altitude so I didn’t want to take a long rest. A group of older guys going by asked if we needed food or water. I told them we were fine and that I had water staged up ahead and thanked them for asking.
We started to descend again taking our time. Sebastian was really tired and asked that I carry him complaining of a headache aggravated by the pounding of his stepping down the trail. Where the trail was stable I scooped him up and descended with him hugging me until the trail leveled out. I got a nice “I love you Daddy” from him. We continued at a slow but steady pace. Once down on the flatter section Sebastian dismounted and walked. We somehow missed our staged water and fruit cups, but we still had plenty of water in my water bladder. It wasn’t long before Sebastian asked for another rest stop. He leaned against the rocks and nibbled on some gummy bears and quickly fell asleep. (photo) I let him sleep for about 20 minutes. We had rested 30 minutes when I woke him. He still complained of a headache so I gave him an Ibuprofen before we started again. With a concerned tone Sebastian asked if we were the only ones left on the mountain. I assured him that we were not. I knew "Heidi" and her group of ladies were behind us as were some others. We experienced some brisk wind gusts over the next 30 minutes as we continued along the relatively flat section heading to the where the trail headed down to the forest. It was good to look down and see the trailhead parking area closer than before. Not many cars were left in the area. During this section we were able to plunge step a few times and ride the gravel or small scree. Sebastian was getting a second wind and feeling better. When we reached the top of the tree line we took a break at the circular dugout. We drank water, ate another bar and gummy bears. Sebastian was now acting just as energetic and when were started the day, smiling and having fun. We picked up our discarded Gatorade bottle from this morning.
I broke out the trekking poles for this next section letting Sebastian use them. Within two switchbacks I took back one of the trekking poles from him so we both would have one for the steep descent (photo). It worked out well as we both were more secure descending. The descent through the forest always is the most dreaded section for me, but it didn’t seem so bad this year. Maybe this was because we had taken my time during our descent. Sebastian slipped at least 3 times in the trees, just slipping down onto his butt. Many of the pine branches that overhang the trail have the feel of a polished stone due to many years of many hands running over them. At one prominent one I lifted Sebastian up to feel how smooth it was. We stopped and took a few photos of some of the interesting burned trees (photos). Once off the steep section we were really motoring along (photos) and caught and powered by two guys. We only had 20 minutes to go. Sebastian was talking about the Dutch oven feast we would enjoy later that evening at my co-worker’s (Richard) camp we would be joining. We picked up two sticks to use that evening for roasting marshmallow. We spotted a group of 6 or 7 ahead and zoomed past them. A nice older guy said Sebastian smells the barn. He sure did. We did it!!! We reached the parking lot at 5:45 pm, 11 hours, 5 minutes after we started!!! (photo)
We did wait long to throw the tent and gear into our van and head to the other campsite joining a party of 15-20. We enjoyed an excellent dinner, climber comradery, and star gazing for the evening. It was good to stay and relax at the trailhead the night after the climb. We slept better that night without all the activity of the previous night. We pulled out early, skipping a hot breakfast opportunity. At Highway 93 we looked back for on last view of Borah. (photo)

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