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| Hyndman Peak |
Hyndman Peak is the 9th ranked Idaho 12er
standing at 12,009ft. Having lived in
the Boise area for the last 8 years I have made plenty of excursions to the
Pioneer Mountains and to this day this is still one of my favorite areas. Hyndman has become one of those peaks that I
climb almost every year, if I don’t summit I always enjoy the wonderful
wildflower hike into the upper basin.
Now that I reside in Colorado the trip to the Pioneers is a bit more
difficult, but with Kristi’s folks living in Hailey it makes for an easy entry
way into the mountains.
I ended up getting together quite the crowd for this
hike. The original plan was for my friend
Harsha to climb his second 12er after doing Borah last year and also try to get
Michelle to the top on her second attempt.
I invited a few other climbing friends; Mike, Loren and Jeff, and it
turned out to be much more of a social outing which was nice. The night before the hike I drove up to the
trailhead and met up with Harsha and Mike and kicked back with a few beers and
told stories of my climbs in Colorado this year. I brought everyone some beer from Colorado
called Colorado Native Lager; a beer made of 100% Colorado products and only
sold in Colorado. So, I smuggled a
12pack on the plane. It was great to
catch up with old friends and we all looked forward to a great hike the next
morning. After a bit I headed back to
Hailey where I would bed down for a short sleep before the 4am wake up. The only problem is when I got back to town I
kept drinking good old Ninkasi and ended up not hitting the sack till almost
midnight….oh well.
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| Cobb |
I never have a problem rising when I know I’m heading into
the mountains, but I was much more sluggish today. Michelle had the coffee ready; we tossed the
packs into the rented Chevy Cruz and were off to pick up Lisa. It was still pitch black out and a little breezy
by the time we made it to the trailhead.
Everyone was up and getting their final preparations done as we arrived. I got a head count of 9 people and we were
off on the trail by 5am with headlamps donned.
So usually I can fight through the hang over, but the
Ninkasi Total Domination did just that to me..domination. I wasn’t feeling the best but still trucked
on up the trail. The lead kept changing
as people would constantly be shedding layers or adjusting packs, somehow I
ended up in front. I am still used to
hiking solo a lot and found myself getting far in front of the pack at
times. When we got to the split to Big
Basin we made sure everyone was still with us and did our introductions since
we could now see faces in the early morning light.
I tried eating some food, but that didn’t go so well, so my
plan was to sweat out the booze. I took
off up the hill heading to the first mosquito pond. The grade here seems steeper every year, but
I would rather have it in my face than dragging out miles of no gain like the
previous two miles. Somehow I always
find another gear hiking the steeps, I think a good mix of a rest step and
establishing a rhythm is the key. From
hiking the 14ers in Colorado this year I found this is the most efficient way
to get up the monsters. I made it to the
pond by an old camp site and waited a while for everyone to re-group for a
rest. Unfortunately the mosquitos were
out and they wanted that sweet nectar from the IPA in my blood. I had a good sweat going, and I thing I dried
up my food and water resources in my body but was able to eat a granola bar and
a shot block. I was still a bit queasy
but doing better….dam beer!
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| Upper Hyndman |
Up the “levels” as I like to call them we all spread out a
bit more. This was a nice social
section of the trip where I got a chance to talk with pretty much
everyone. The wildflowers were out and
they were amazing. I always love this
hike because of the great Geology and the magnificent wildflowers. At one point I was in the back hiking with
Michelle and Lisa and we noticed Mike was coming down the trail. He said he was done. After climbing mountains the two previous
days his legs were starting to cramp up so he was heading to the car. We said adios and continued up. Not 10 minutes later Lisa looks down the
trail and said: Is that Mike coming back up?
It sure was. Typical Mike, he
just couldn’t turn around on such a beautiful day. Mike is always good for a laugh out in the
mountains. The four of us were a bit separated
from the others at this point since we were talking more than hiking. I must note this now that Mike and I are the
only ones up here to previously climb Hyndman.
So, we knew the route and didn’t have as much desire to climb as the
others did.
I think Jeff was in the lead at this point and we noticed
everyone was following him up a boulder field in-between the snow chutes. Michelle had a good idea this wasn’t the way
since she had been high on the mountain before, so she waited for me to catch
up. I pointed everyone in the right
direction and we all found our way down to the standard trail except for Loren
who was tackling the boulder field on his way to the ridge. We found a nice trail heading up to the
saddle and in not too much time we found ourselves an excellent view.
I had made it clear on the way up this was a “saddle day”
for me. I fear that I imbedded a bug
into everyone. We took a good rest at
the saddle and nobody else had enough desire to climb the ridge to the
summit. So, we all watched Loren climb
like an ant on a hill. Once he figured
out we were all lazy and were calling it a day he took off like a jack rabbit
up the mountain. A few of us had “saddle
beers” instead of “summit beers” at 10am, took many beautiful photos of the
Pioneer range and enjoyed the great weather we were having. We thought we could see Loren summit and we
hooted at him, but later he told us our hooting was a little premature. But, like I told everyone this is like a Himalayan
Expedition, we all worked together to get one of our team to the summit. Haha, not really but it made us feel better
inside by saying that. While at the
saddle Jeff stumbled upon an ammo box with a register saying something to the
effect that they got tired and left a register here. Like Loren said after the climb, this is one
register that can be taken away.
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| Pioneers to the North |
We started down the mountain after what seemed like an hour
and all of us were constantly searching for Loren up in the rocks. After we dropped a few levels we all took a
nice nap on the grass as we waited for our lone summiter. Jeff and his crew took off once we could see
Loren was almost to us. Lisa and
Michelle took off about the same time as Mike, Harsha and I waited for
Loren. He told us of the great views and
talked a bit about the upper mountain then we were off.
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| Upper Lake Surrounded by Wildflowers |
The hike down was more of a scenic walk. I was in no hurry, so I took the chance to
have more conversations and get photos of all the wildflowers. I always dread that last two miles where it
becomes much more of ground pounding, but the scenery is still so good I never
let that leg of the race bring me down.
Once I got down to the creek I dunked my head in the cool water and was
refreshed again. Somewhere around 2:30 I
made it back to the car. Jeff and crew
had already left, Harsha was packing up his camp then Loren gave me a
beer. I took the beer and headed to the
creek to dunk my feet in for an ice cold bath.
Man, once I put my feet in my arch cramped up…ewww didn’t enjoy that
part at all.
The rest of us sat around Mikes car had some beers and sodas
and talked about the trip today and other trips we had done this year. Not long after CAPS LOCK DOUG showed up with
Spider Legs from their climb of Old Hyndman.
This was my first meeting and I think he speaks with CAPS LOCK on as
well. We finished off what I had left of
the Colorado Native Lager and Loren got me hooked on Deschutes Twilight, by
3:30 we called it a day and headed back into town. We had a BBQ to get to and if there is one
thing I love like the mountains its good BBQ!
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| GPS Track |
Date: 7/22/2012
Starting Elevation:
7,040ft
Hyndman Saddle: 10,800ft
Total Gained Elevation: 3,760ft
Distance: 11.8 miles
Time: 6:32 moving, 4:09
stopped
Climbing Partners: Michelle, Lisa, Harsha, Loren, Jeff and
Crew
Picture Link:
http://s282.photobucket.com/albums/kk243/nickkarl72/Hyndman%202012/
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