Mt. Borah. Conquered {almost}

Mt. Borah

Elevation: 12, 662 feet

Idaho's tallest mountain

Across gravel roads and sandy stretches,

grassy knolls and rocky climbs

these boots have carried me safely
over, under, across and through.

Along the coast of Maine atop The Beehive,

up The Saddle in Bozeman, Montana.

For a hike to "The R," "The M," and "The Y."

Crossing ridges of New Hampshire

These boots have been broken in, softened, and even scarred

They are molded to the contours of my feet

And now, last of all they have carried me to heights
I never knew that I was capable of meeting.

I hiked a mountain in these boots,
a mountain of such towering gloom.

I hiked this mountain in these boots!
I hiked it up and I hiked it down!

I did not reach the top most summit,
I did not scale the "Chicken-out Ridge,"

but I met my summit and my goal.

I hiked a mountain in these boots and learned
I could accomplish things I never knew.

I conquered my Mt. Borah

and these boots helped get me there.

Chris and I got to the basecamp at 11:00 p.m., meeting his mom and dad, sisters Nickie and Chelsae and brother-in-law Nick.  We camped and {tryed} to get as much sleep as possible despite the freezing cold, wind and sleeping on a slope.  We got an early start the next morning at 7:00 a.m. and started up the daunting trail.  LITTLE DID WE KNOW WHAT WAS TRULY IN STORE FOR US!!!

This is when the incline really began, and yet "this was nothing" compared to what we would later face!  Apparently we are happy to be hiking here as we still have a smile on our faces!

As we ascend, the trees become fewer and farther between and a view opens up before us:

This is very rugged wilderness! 

The boulders are so huge and jagged that they make the trees look like tiny weeds!

If you look closely you'll see the parking lot at base camp below!

After accidentally going off trail for a little while and scaling loose shale we reached the first "summit" and were horrified to find out that we still had "another two hours!" 

In actuality, the hiker that had told us that was an experienced hiker who had climbed Borah before and in fact, it took another 2 hours just to get to Chicken-out Ridge and another 2- 2 1/2 hours from there to the summit!

The crew at the first summit.  Chris had a bad sinus infection and was experiencing altitude sickness so after rehydrating and snapping some group photos we had to say good bye to him as he chose to head back down the mountain!  I am so impressed at what he accomlished especially considering he couldn't even breath out of his nose!

Dr. Nick took care of all of us, making sure we had plenty of granola bars and water.  He was very patient and stayed at the back of the pack to ensure that no one would get hurt!

At this point the altitude was starting to get to most of us.  Dad was getting shaky and "tipsy," causing some of us to be concerned for his well-being.  What an AMAZING job they did! He and mom decided to play it safe and stay back while the rest of us went on.  We took another nice break, rehydrated and again, took some fun photos! 

     

As we geared ourselved up to continue on we looked around and this is what we saw! 

Here we go again!!!

And then we came to this:

Chicken-out Ridge!

I'm talking scaling rock, hand over hand, foot over foot, don't look down, don't look behind you, type of hiking!!!

Chelsae, ever so bravely went ahead with me trailing close behind.  I got to the top of Chicken-out Ridge and then it hit me- this was it!  I was on the top of THE WORLD! and I had this strange feeling that my body was going to involuntarily pitch itself off of this mountain!  I imagined myself tumbling off the side, never seeing my children's beautiful faces again!  I know, I know this is all very dramatic, but from where I was sitting {literally} on the ridge looking down both sides to what I feared as sudden death this was not dramatic, this was INDEED reality!

Right about the same SECOND that all of this paranoia was flashing through my brain my sis-in-law Nickie had her own panick attack, thus causing me to go into rescuer mode and come to her aid.  All my fears immediately left me as I tried to calm her fears.  It was then that I  knew I had conquered as much of this mountain as I was EVER going to conquer.  As much as I TRULY WANTED to summit this mountain I knew that first and foremost, I AM A MOTHER and I LOVE MY CHILDREN!  No desire could ever be important enough for me to risk my life or health and jeopardize me from returning to them!

I backed down off of the ridge and felt a jitteryness enter into my body that could only have been adrenaline. My knees and legs were shaking uncontrollably!  I was panicky and trying to keep a strong front.  I wanted OFF this ridge as SOON AS POSSIBLE!!  I turned to Nickie and told her we would be okay and that we would stick together.  With lots of encouragement from each other we made it SAFELY down that darned mountain and learned so much about each other as sister, friends and about ourselves.

The entire way down neither of us could stop saying,

 "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE DID THAT!  I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT WE HIKED THAT!"

"DID WE REALLY COME ALL THIS WAY?  I DON'T REMEMBER COMING THIS FAR!"

WHAT A TESTAMENT OF THE TRUE STRENGTH THAT EACH OF US HAS WITHIN OURSELVES!!!  AND HOW WE CAN USE THAT STRENGTH TO BUOY OTHERS!

Nickie celebrates as we come down!

This is how we felt the whole way down!!!

We FINALLY made it down after about 3 1/2 hours! 

The entire hike took me and Nickie just about 10 hours!  That is INSANE!  Two kids met us at the top when we were just heading down and they said it took them 1 1/2 hours to get to the top.  They went all the way to the summit and were back down at the bottom less than an hour after we got down!  Nickie and I were so proud of ourselves though and we were very happy to see Chris waiting for us at camp!  He had taken down our site and packed everything all up for us so all we had to do was lay down and rest!!!  (It's amazing how comfortable the bed of a truck is after hiking all day!)

Meanwhile...

Nick and Chelsae went onward and upward to the summit!!!

This is the ice bridge after the "scramble" at Chicken-out Ridge.  About 20 minutes before we all got to the ridge a man with the Boy Scouts fell down this ice bridge and broke his leg.  He ended up having to slide down to the bottom of the mountain and he wasn't recued until the NEXT MORNING!

After two more grueling hours of hiking, some serious sun exposure, chapped lips and sore muscled Nick and Chels finally made it to the summit- and this was their reward!

 

We finally all reunited {very happily} at base camp at about 7:30 p.m. and took some celebratory pictures!!!  Then we finished packing up camp and headed to town for some grub!  It was an exhilirating day!!!