Hyndman Peak, ID | Sep 2011 by KF7DDT

Hyndman Peak, W7I/BL-001, It's a 10 pointer! Activated by Boyd-KF7DDT.

Left Boise about 10 am Friday. Drove past houses in the Ketchum/Sun Valley area that look like expensive hotel lodges, but they are homes. Arrived at trailhead at 2 pm. Faithful dog Scout and I who were the only ones to take up this challenge, arrived at base camp at about 6pm. We camped next to a nice creek with lots of water. This area is the last of the flat places for about a mile. Not wanting to carry full gear up what is lovingly called "sagebrush hill," we camped in the Quakies and listened to the creek for two nights.

Left camp about 07:30 am on saturday. Most of the area is trailed. Oddly, where the trail is obvious their are lots of rock cairns, but when the trail gets sketchy, their are no cairns to be found. Past three ponds and finally got to the area with all the glacier debris. Made it to the saddle and turned left up to the peak, which may be one of the most steep, misery generating climbs I have yet to undertake. The scree up is loose and the climb is steep for maybe 1000 feet. This final climb burns time off the clock and burns glutes on the way up and quads on the way down.

Set up the antenna at about 12:30. I got everything laid out to get ready, and my dog ate my logbook. Luckily it was the log for last week. Made a few contacts, with special thanks to chaser extrodinaire VA6FUN for getting me on the reflector.

This entire range is missing its north side from glacial carving as if some one split a Hershey's kiss from top to bottom, ate half and left Hyndman and Old Hyndman. The result is that you can look down from 12,000 feet between your toes and see Wild Horse Canyon 4000 feet below you with only space and wind between your toes and the bottom of the creek below. The words "Oh Geez" enter your mind, but can't find the force to come out.

The climb down is a one only an orthopedic surgeon would love, as quads and knees burned. Faithful Scout and departed the peak at about 3:00pm and worked our way down to base camp by 5:30, at which time Scout splashed in the creek and I took off my boots.

Sunday morning we were in no hurry so we broke camp at 10:00 am and made it back to the trailhead at noon. It was a good trip and weather was perfect with blues skies and temps on top about 50 Degrees. Hyndman is tough and not all that pretty of country, but that view will stop your heart.

Boyd-KF7DDT