Mount Breitenbach

Date: July 17, 2020.

Objective: Mount Breitenbach - 12,140.

Partners: Mark and Tory.

Stats: 9 miles with 5,200' gain.  Class 2.  Strava.

Mark and Tory had two 12ers left so the objective was simple; finish the 12ers.  A 7am start was fairly manageable but we knew the day would be long and we were expecting wind.  We weren't expecting the mosquitoes that bombarded us on the way up Pete Creek.  My overall recollection from my previous climb was that going up Pete Creek was "better" than the last time.

Looking up Pete Creek.

Top of the canyon, start of the scree.

Looking up the upper canyon, toward the south face.  Mark Jones for scale.

Once out of the creek and onto the scree, the route is fairly straight forward.  We climbed though the cliff band where the waterfall is, just a shade above 10,000ft.  Climbing this was quick and easy class 3 and shorter, but I have a feeling that if one were to skirt around the longer way to climbers left, it would still be class 2.  We aimed for the saddle at 11,400 which would be the southeast ridge that leads to the false summit.  It was here that the wind started to kick up.  The climb to the false summit is steep, but I call it class 2.

Looking down the scree field.

Cliff band.

Waterfall.

Class 3 near the waterfall.

Looking south across the scree, heading toward the saddle at 11,400.

From the false summit, it's a little over a mile round trip - out-and-back- to the true summit on a fun ridge walk that is narrow at times but never very exposed.  There was some easy scrambling here, but the consensus was it's class 2.8, if that's a thing.

Saddle at 11,400.

False summit on the left, true summit on the far right.

East side of the LRR.

Enjoying the view at the saddle.

Heading toward the false summit.

True summit on the right.

Fossils on the summit ridge.

Summit ridge.

Getting to the summit of Breitenbach is quite the grind, and mental endurance is a good thing to have.  Strong legs help too.  The wind was really picking up at this point, but there were no threatening clouds.  One gust in particular caused the summit flag to blow out of Tory's hands.  Lucky for us it didn't land too far away, but it was on top of some snow out in a steep gully.  I managed to fish it off the snow with a trekking pole without too much trouble.

Mark and Tory on the summit.

Summit.

Heading back to the false summit.

With the summit flag back in hand, we commenced standard summit duties.  8 down, 1 to go for Mark and Tory!  Time to head back to the false summit.  Pretty much from this point on, it was windy AF.  We estimated easily 30mph sustained, probably closer to 40 and gusting 50.  There were a few times that we had to hunker down for a minute.  I know I dang near got knocked off my feet a time or two.

Heading back to the false summit.

Summit ridge.

We kept pushing on with the intent of getting down out of the wind, but even back at the waterfall at approx. 2,000' below the summit the wind was still blowing strong and coming right up the canyon.

Just below the false summit.

The hike up Pete Creek might not have been "that bad" but going down was unanimously sucky and if anything, probably slower than the hike up.

The shimmer of the Jones' rig thought the trees was a welcome sight.  We immediately went into recovery mode to prepare for Mount Idaho.