BOU AVENUE
Mount Breitenbach
Every once in awhile or perhaps more often
than I realize, I manage to have a real doozy of a brain cramp.
On 10 August 2022, Zosia Zgolak and I made an attempt to climb Mount
Breitenbach in Idaho's Lost River Range, and after a lengthy drive to the
trailhead, we spent several hours working our way up what I presumed was
Pete Creek. Tellingly, the hike up the creek was much more arduous
than expected, and given how frequently the mountain is ascended, there
were surprisingly few signs of human passage. When I finally
checked the map in my GPS unit, I was shocked to learn that we had
actually been hiking up the wrong valley--namely, the south fork of Jones
Creek. Although Mount Breitenbach was right in front of us, its
west face looked too technical to ascend, and we immediately pulled the
plug on our attempt (at the time, I was unaware that a Class 3 route
exists on the west face). To date, I am still unsure how I made such an
enormous navigational blunder, but considering the maze of back roads in
the area, perhaps it is not uncommon to occasionally wind up in the wrong
valley. In retrospect, this error turned out to be a blessing in
disguise as the weather in the area deteriorated considerably as the day
wore on. Had we continued ascending, we surely would have been
caught high up in a nasty rainstorm which lasted well into the early
evening. Instead, we regrouped in the nearby town of Mackay and
waited out the rainstorm before venturing back to the mountains in search
of the correct trailhead.
As already mentioned, the maze of roads
along the western slopes of the Lost River Range can be really confusing
to navigate. Complicating matters are the numerous plots of private
land which are scattered across some of the approaches to the trailheads.
Although easements exist, one of them for Upper Cedar Creek Road--key to
accessing Mount Breitenbach as well as another 12,000-footer, Lost River
Mountain--was recently closed to public traffic apparently because the
private land owners were unhappy about gates being left open. As
such, Zosia and I had to explore alternate roads to get to the correct
trailhead. After a fair bit of trial and error and examining
satellite imagery on my cel phone, we eventually made it to road's end at
Pete Creek where we set up camp for the night.
In lieu of
potentially confusing driving directions, I have provided a
GPS track for the drive to the
trailhead at Pete Creek (high-clearance vehicle strongly recommended).
Incidentally, the usual ascent route via Pete Creek is described in Tom
Lopez's Idaho: A Climbing Guide, and the mountain is officially
named after Jake Breitenbach, a guide from Wyoming who was tragically
killed by icefall on Mount Everest in 1963.
![Doh!](breitenbach01.jpg) |
Zosia finds the hike up Jones Creek to
be quite arduous. Due to a serious route-finding blunder by
Sonny, this turns out to be the wrong approach for Mount Breitenbach. |
![Well that sucks!](breitenbach02zz.jpg) |
The usual access to Pete Creek
trailhead along Upper Cedar Creek Road goes through private land.
Unfortunately, the easement was recently closed to public access by the
private land owners.
Photo courtesy of Zosia Zgolak |
After spending a very restful night at the trailhead, Zosia and
I got up before dawn on the morning of 11 August 2022 and ate a quick
breakfast before commencing our ascent of Mount Breitenbach. Unlike our
previous day's struggles along Jones Creek, our hike up Pete Creek was
considerably easier with plenty of trails and cairns to follow. We
made good progress up the valley and eventually entered a huge
amphitheatre of rubble. Grinding up this sea of rubble was easy but
also quite monotonous. We later perked up a bit while scrambling
past a waterfall tumbling over a black cliff. We faced more rubble
slopes above the waterfall, but at least there was a good trail here to
follow all the way up to a high col on the ridge leading to the summit.
From the col, we easily followed the continuation of the trail up and
over two false summits before finally reaching the true summit.Zosia and I spent about an hour at the summit of Mount
Breitenbach before retracing our steps back over the two false summits
and down to the high col. From there, the remainder of the descent
was mostly dull and tedious. The endless rubble was just as
uninspiring the second time around, and the subsequent hike out Pete
Creek was only memorable for feeling overly long. At least we did
not have to drive anywhere once we returned to the trailhead since we had
plans to climb nearby Lost River Mountain the next day starting from this
same spot. Instead, we enjoyed a pleasant dinner and retired early
for a second straight restful night.
![Much better with a beaten path most of the way up!](breitenbach03.jpg) |
Zosia works her way up Pete Creek
valley. |
![Oh joy.](breitenbach04.jpg) |
Zosia faces seemingly endless rubble
at the head of the valley. |
![Fairly easy to ascend...almost to the point of being boring!](breitenbach05.jpg)
Fortunately, the rubble is not of the treadmill variety...mostly!
![Eveything is bigger in the States!](breitenbach06.jpg) |
The rubble slope contains many fossils
including this large horn coral. |
![Some easy scrambling to invigorate the proceedings!](breitenbach07.jpg) |
The route turns to the right just past the black waterfall but before the
strip of white rock. |
![A new mountain range to explore!](breitenbach08.jpg)
To the south is a view of Mackay Reservoir and White
Knob Mountains.
![A lot of suffering to get up all these peaks but also a lot of fun!](breitenbach14.jpg)
The view to the northwest from Mount Breitenbach
includes five of the nine Idaho mountains exceeding 12,000 feet (3658
metres).
![I still feel like such an idiot, but I guess it all kinda worked out for the better in the end!](breitenbach18.jpg)
At bottom centre is Jones Creek valley which Zosia and
Sonny struggled partway up the day before. On the centre horizon
are the Pioneer Mountains.