Kent Peak

Art and I fulfill a 35 year wish by climbing Kent Peak.

• September 13, 2008
• Team: Art, Carol, and Samson; and John
• Summit: 11,664', ~5000' gain, ~12 miles
• 9 hours car-to-car

  Foreword: Art and I, with some additional friends, climbed Ryan Peak when we were teenagers. From Ryan's summit, Kent was both awesome looking and scary. We talked about going back, but it took us almost 35 years to finally do it. Here is our story. We hadn't made really firm plans. Art and Carol were driving down from McCall, and would call me when they got to Hailey around 8pm. Meanwhile, I drove over to Hailey and had dinner with Mariel, my daughter, and her S.O. Eric. Around 9pm, I called Art. He was in Stanley. We agreed to touch base at 6am the next morning. When Art and Carol got to Smiley Creek, the road was closed due to smoke from the fires on the South Fork of the Boise. They bobbled around a bit, but eventually got to Hailey at midnight. Fortunately, I was fast asleep at the time.
  But we were on the phone at 6am, and moving a little after 7. We drove the Jetta wagon to the trailhead on the North Fork of the Big Wood River, and were walking right about 8. It was Art, Carol, and their dog, Samson. Mariel has low iron and has been grounded by her doc.
  The trip reports I had read all warned that the trail to West Pass was hard to find, but it was well-marked and obvious when we got there. It starts to climb steeply, then stays at that same grade pretty much the whole way. This is a view up the canyon, with Kent faintly in the background. It was actually blue sky, but my camera (or the photographer) doesn't handle the contrast well.
  After about 2 hours, we reached the 9400' contour and left the trail. The sun was just peeking over the ridge, so the photo is a little off. But that is Art, heading to the saddle out of frame to the right. From the saddle, we would climb to the ridgetop 1100' higher, just left of center. Really fun scree. Not.
  Once you slug your way up the loose, shaly scree to the ridge top, it becomes a very cool climb. It's quite a ways across, but with a path to follow for much of it, a few towers, and a couple catwalks (not really knife-edges, but narrow enough). From this view it all looked a little intimidating. Plus I had read a comment about the scary nature of the final ridge to the summit.....
  You can see the path behind Carol.
  And here's Samson, Art, and Carol negotiating one of the towers.
  Several hundred feet below the top, we had to cross a narrower, more exposed catwalk. Art decided it was no longer a dog-friendly route, so he was chivalrous and sat down with the dog while Carol and I made a bid for the summit. As the climbing got steeper and hairier, Carol was fairly terrified. But she worked through her fear and made it to the summit in a little more than 15 minutes from where we left Art. We got a summit shot, but could not find a register. We didn't stay long, because we didn't want to make Art jealous.
  The views were great. Here is Mystery Peak to the east.
  Ryan Peak on the adjoining ridge.
  And off the the northwest, one that Art and I climbed last year, Glassford Peak.
  So after about 10 minutes, we re-crossed the summit catwalk.
  When we got down to Art, we took the dog and he headed up to tag the summit.... one that he'd been dreaming about for all these 35 years. Note: That is Art on top, but that is not the summit.
  THERE he is on the summit!
  We took our time getting down, marveling at the incredible views, and the fact that we were still alive.... as shown by Carol's exuberant pose, mid-pic at the top of the grassy area. We had a lengthy discussion about the rating of this route. Art called it Class IV, but I think it's more like somewhat exposed Class III- and lots of it. In either case, it's got lots of scrambling that is steep and loose.
  But it has been a special day, and even though Carol was relieved to be off the mountain, she still had to take a last look before we dropped down fully into the valley. Note that you can see almost the entire route in the picture, with the saddle on the right and the summit on the left.
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