Hey Folks,
On Sunday we had an epic climb of north face direct on Mt Borah. 17.5 hours car to car. I will back up what Dan said about rock creek - sugar snow! In fact we saw your snowshoe tracks! I put on snowshoes which did alright to climb up out of the trees and into the bowl below the NF. The snow is barely consolidated. The route is alright for climbing at this point, but its snow all the way - even in the couloir. We took screws hoping for ice but found none. We had 3 pickets which we used for protection but even with the dry snow, it was tough to say if they would actually hold a fall.
In the direct route couloir we chose the exit to climbers right, near the top which was snow except for a spicy exit where we had to punch through a cornice while on 5th class rock the last 15 ft. Once up on the ridge, we were blasted with constant 40 mph winds. These continued up and over the summit and all the way down chicken out ridge. Not until we got to the saddle was there any reprieve.
Great climb but a long tiring day. Here are a couple photos
