Custer County Highpoint Trip Report

Borah Peak

Date: August 2, 2008
Author: Carl Millsap

My brothers, John and Eric, and I arranged to meet at the trailhead on Friday night before the climb. I pulled my pop-up trailer so that we could enjoy a comfortable night’s sleep before the climb. I was dismayed by the large crowds at the campground. There was a large church group inhabiting the fire pit area and several pop-up campers opposite the fire pit. Among the trailers and tents everywhere, there was not a spot left vacant for vehicle parking. This was obviously the most popular weekend to be here. I like to have my space when I camp so I drove back to the highway. Upon reaching the highway, my left trailer tire blew. I attempted to change the tire out but the lug bolts would not budge. I told my brothers where to meet me. They arrived and attempted to remove the bolts also but to no avail so I pulled the trailer north on the highway and we set it up about 300 yards from a farmer’s haystack. We decided that night to take care of the tire on Saturday morning rather than wait until after our climb so as to assure we got it fixed before shops closed.

We hit the trail about 11:00 am and met so many climbers on their way down. All in all, I estimate there must have been a total of 80 or so climbers or campers on the mountain that day. We summitted around 4:00 pm, spent about 30 minutes soaking in our accomplishment and then headed down. We took our time heading past the saddle just below Chicken-Out Ridge to enjoy the view of the gulch below us and to estimate the distance to the bottom.

We returned to the trailhead at around 6:30 pm to an out roar from the pop-up trailer crew who had also climbed the mountain earlier that day and was congratulating us on our accomplishment. They were partying and having a good time. We decided that being as tired as we were and having such long drives home we would pull the trailer up to the trailhead and enjoy a restful night around the campfire with our newly acquired friends. The next morning we left camp around 10:00 am.

I must say, I'm not in as good a shape as my brother, Dale, who climbed up and back in 5 hours and 40 minutes but I will say that it was easy compared to my failed attempt on this same mountain back in early May with snow still at least 4 feet deep on Chicken-Out Ridge and rapidly melting with the midday sun bearing down on it. I had turned back at Chicken-Out Ridge on nthat trip knowing that I would be very weary by the time I was on my return back from the summit and having to cross over Chicken-Out Ridge one more time. I thought it very unwise to push on beyond Chicken-Out Ridge.