Leatherman Peak 6/1/06

[ski_faster]

This is a trip that I have been waiting to get done for a while now. Leatherman is the second tallest in Idaho at 12228 feet. With word from the ranger station that they received 15 inches of new snow early in the week we weren’t sure if we would even be able to get in to the trailhead. Mtnjam and I left Boise around 4:00PM we arrived in Mackay around 8:00PM with about 30 minute delay at Craters of the Moon because of road construction. We arrived in Mackay and stopped to get something to eat here.


We looked up on the wall and it was an easy choice.


We ordered the BIG MACKAY!


After dinner we got back on the road and headed for the West Fork of the Pahsimeroi. After a long a bumpy ride we arrived at the trailhead at 11:00PM. By the time we got everything ready it was midnight and we where hoping to get up at 4:00AM. I didn’t get much sleep because I kept checking my watch. For some reason my alarm didn’t go off so we slept about 40 minutes later. Once on the trail there were a couple of creek crossings.


As we headed up the trail we saw a peak that must be skied.


Shortly after that we got our first view Leatherman!
We continued up the trail and then after about an hour the trail disappeared in a meadow. So we bushwhacked for a while and eventually came out into the meadow.


Mtnjam enjoying the views.


We got to the snow field and started up. It was steep right from the beginning.


Then once we got to the bowl it leveled out for a little bit and more views of Leatherman.


Mount Borah in the background.


Once we got up high the snow started to soften up and it was kind of spongy. The higher we got the snow got softer and softer.


We made the choice to get to the saddle and give it a go from there since the snow was getting so soft. We figured if we would of got up on time we could have made it up in time. We were about 330 feet from the summit. As we got our gear ready I dreamed of some of the lines I wanted to ski. Can you find a line? I know I can!


A little roll over at the top.


Mtnjam was nice enough to give me first tracks.


Once we got down lower I had my eye on this. Mtnjam might of got some pictures of it or maybe even a short video clip.


I had to throw this one in just because everybody is doing it.


As we got to the meadow below we noticed there had been a few more point releases since we had been up there.




Leatherman on Leatherman!


A couple of scenic pictures







Mtnjam feel free to post any pictures you may have.

Update: Link to videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjzl4oEdGaE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa-hPRWCuj8

[shera]

Wow, beautiful mountain.

[skiing-in-jackson]

Great pics! Did you find the Leatherman on Leatherman?

[boarderline]

Yeah buddy. That snow looked awesome.

[Conundrum]

ARGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH! I just got a small ride in. Way to get after it.

[BushwackerinPA]

Yeah awesome scenic pics and TR the mountian below you leatherman pics is pretty sweet.

[snowfunk]

Cool. I skied Leatherman way back in 1990 with my brother when I was but a mere 18yo. That drive in was nutz and the other car from our group dropped the transmission and could only drive in Low2. The mountain looks different for some reason. Perhaps cause we skied it on the 4th of July weekend.

Thats it on looker's far right, correct?

[ski_faster]

Great pics! Did you find the Leatherman on Leatherman?

No I didn't find the Leatherman up there.

Cool. I skied Leatherman way back in 1990 with my brother when I was but a mere 18yo. That drive in was nutz and the other car from our group dropped the transmission and could only drive in Low2. The mountain looks different for some reason. Perhaps cause we skied it on the 4th of July weekend.

Thats it on looker's far right, correct?

That is Leatherman on the lookers right.

[FrankZappa]

Thanks for the TR. Cool place.
This hill is wild lookin'!

[mtnjam]

thanks for the write up ski_faster!

I'll be posting some more pics and maybe even a little viddy later this evening

[Skis4Fun]

Thanks for sharing.

I liked this photo.



Is this what SummitPost calls the Amphitheater? http://www.summitpost.org/view_objec...text_id=152079
Posted by Klenke
...The mountains of the Lost River Range are built upon Paleozoic sedimentary strata (Cascadia, p. 262, 1972). Differential erosion between layers of varying hardness is what has caused the terraces to form. The "mountain" range was once a sea floor or sedimentary basin (a geosyncline) that was later uplifted and folded to form the present day range. The Paleozic Era was from 540-250 Million years ago. At that time, the equator (the "Silurian" equator) ran through the Pacific Northwest because North America was farther south than its present day position. In such a tropical environment, sedimentation was much more vigorous.

[mtnjam]

the fault blocked slope there isn't the Ampitheatre, but I'd consider the whole valley an Amphitheatre. I have a pretty cool photo of the ampitheatre I'll post later

[hose-man]

Wow, great scenery pics. There area a dozen lines in there that had me drooling!.

We've been kicking around the idea of trying to get up onto Borah this summer before the snow is all gone. Maybe even make an overnighter of it.

Is Borah way off in the haze on the horizon, or is it the among those ajoining Leatherman?


Thanks for the TR. -J

[RootSkier]

I am pretty sure that is Borah right there.

[mtnjam]

yup, Borah is the tallest one in that photo, it has a really cool east facing slope that looked skiable that we saw while we were hiking out. I'll see if I have a photo of it that I can post (finally this afternoon I'll get around to it). The peaks way off in the distance are the northern part of the Lemhi's south of Salmon and Challis

[ski_faster]

Here is a little better picture of Borah. Its the tallest one in the center of this picture.

[hose-man]

Are we looking at the south face in that image? Somehow I expected that there would be quite a bit more snow left on it. Hmmm

[mtnjam]

Leatherman Pass in the early morning:


ski_faster trying to figure out were we are:


taking in the scenery:


meadow before the climb:


turned around and looked up at where we were headed:


getting ready to head up the snow:


after the first "pitch"


we got into the snowbowl:


ski_faster ahead of me as usual:


we made it to the bowl, the sun was on the snow already and we decided to climb the steeper part of the bowl on the fin to avoid wet slides. There was quite a bit of new snow already in the bowl which made for tough climbing with crampons, the snow kept balling up quite a bit and slowed us down. There was some new snow also covering some rock reefs on the fin which made for some sketchy areas of climbing.

here the snow was fairly soft, ski_faster looking back:


the view back down:


where we were trying to get to:


finally made it to our high point on the east shoulder of Leatherman about 300 feet from the summit:


We stopped short of the summit due to fears of the snow softening up too much and wet slides. We were both kinda bummed we didn't make it to the summit but it's better to live another day in the mountains than not. The Lost Rivers are some of the coolest and youngest mountains in Idaho, all the forces at work making this place like it is blow me away.

here's the Ampitheatre:


looking across to the Lemhis, Bell Mountain (left) and Diamond Peak (right)


after some looking around we got some work done, I let ski_faster go first considering he put most of the boottrack in on the way up:

frame grabs from my video




turns:




our turns from the meadow:


everytime we looked back on the hike out we saw this:


beautiful stream, I can't believe how clear this was:


the hike out wasn't bad we found the trail and the going was pretty easy, but our packs were so uncomfortable. It was a relief to get back to my truck.
All in all a great day though

[Grange]

Great TR.

[iskibc]

Some good stoke coming out of ID these days. Great work.

[Dside11-11]

Beautiful mountains up there. Thanks for sharing.

[powstash]

nice, extreeeeemly nice.

[mtnjam]

bump......it's getting to be that time of year

[Blurred]

Wow ski_faster, can't believe I missed this the first time. I now know the sick terraced mtn you speak of now....wow...SICK!

nice TR btw

[mtnjam]

thanks blurred....those photos bring back some good memories of a really fun day