Climbing the Idaho 12ers - Mount Leatherman
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I wrote this the following day after climbing Mount Leatherman.
July 2020
"Yesterday we climbed our 3rd Idaho 12er, Leatherman peak in the Lost River Range. Sitting at 12,228ft above sea level, its the 2nd tallest mountain in Idaho. We took the dirt road to the Upper Pahsimeroi River Valley and the next morning we woke up early and started our treck to Leatherman Peak. On the trail, you cross the creek plenty of times and eventually you reach the subalpine forest and meadows. Along the trail we found wild onion (my first time finding it in Idaho) and a lot of other plants, as well as a dragon fly covered in frost. I picked it up and my body heat warmed it up enough to start moving. I set it in the sun on a rock and it flew off once it warmed up fully. We encountered a few marmots, heard a pika, and a bird attacked Cy. We reached Leatherman Pass which bridges Leatherman and the 10er next to it. From there we hiked up the West face which we did not realize, is the hardest route. The trail we were following eventually ran out and we had to rock climb up the shelves and over hangs. Cy decided to climb up and over most of them and I searched for an alternate route. At one point Cy accidentally knocked some rocks and yelled out to me. My hat fell off and slid down part of the mountain and I had rocks flying a few feet above my head. After retrieving my hat, I found an alternate route through a rock slide and on one ledge I found a fossil, horn coral! From there I followed the sketchy scree shoots and managed to reach Cy. We then climbed up and often going one way and having to turn around and try another spot. The rock was very loose and we had scree under our feet the whole way up. It wasn't as scary as Borah at night but it is definitely in my top 5 sketchiest moments. We made it to the top finally and found the "easier" route and followed that on the way down. While descending I found some more horn coral fossils as well as clams. What I found crazy is the whole mountain has trails that the bighorn sheep use and we had utilized a few on the ascent. 3/9 12er's Complete! Next we plan on climbing Diamond Peak"
/ zak_klein
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/za...
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