The 2015 Spring Outing was a hit. We assembled to climb Bear Mountain in the Lemhi Range of Idaho.

I rode to the outing with John Fadgen, John Platt, and Tom Lopez. That day, we had a good opportunity to survey snow conditions and the approach. Based on our observations, we decided to approach the peak from the south via Summerhouse Canyon. With this approach, we felt adding Little Bear (Peak 10112) would make a nice loop and still make it a reasonable day.

That night, 16 of us would enjoy fireside conversation and the impressive views at Summit Creek Campground. It was a fun group and great to reunite with many of them and meet a few new people.

In the morning we were joined by Dan and Teak and the team of 18 people was set. We drove the bouncy road to 7700' in Summerhouse Canyon. The group actually got ready amazingly quick and I had to rush to get the group photo snapped before people hiked on.

We chose to ascend the west ridge of Little Bear. This was a mostly forested slope that opened up just before the summit. It turned out to be steep, but the footing wasn't bad and we made quick work of the slope with everyone arriving on the summit around the same time (except Grant and Alicia, who were ahead of the group).

After the excitement of a new peak, the group begrudgingly started off for the saddle between Bear and Little Bear peaks. It looked steep and we could see some snow, so we knew things could get ugly. There were indeed some pockets of snow and a bit of postholing, but it wasn't terrible and it was over soon enough.

Now we had to start up Bear Mountain. The initial slopes to 10400' seemed fine, with limited steepness and snow. However, we couldn't see beyond 10400' and didn't know what was beyond.

When I finally reached the treeline and the final slope, I was a bit nerved. It looked narrow and STEEP! I could see a few people in front of me on some steep slopes with a lot of exposure to the right. Thinking to myself it must not be that bad if 5 or 6 others had already done it, I pushed forward. Turns out it wasn't too bad and the boot track was set well. Only a few moves where the slope transitioned from rock to snow were a little tricky. All-in-all, the ridge was a blast!

It was nice to arrive at the summit with everyone buzzed about how fun the route was. However, it was a tad windy, cloudy, and cold on top... after a few minutes of celebration and conversation, it was time to head down.

Some people glissaded a avalanche chute off the south side and others hiked down a rock rib and joined the avalanche chute lower down. We all made good time to the vehicles, some because they wanted to get a start on the long drive and others because the beer was waiting in the cooler at camp.

Proud to say that everyone made it down safely. For some it was there first experience climbing a peak. For others it was the most difficult terrain they had been on. And for others, it was just a walk in the park. But everyone had fun and it was a great group of people and new friends. Can't wait to do this again next fall!

From Howe take Lost River Highway, formerly the Pahsimeroi Highway. In 28 miles you will pass a BLM double wide where the Pass Creek Road heads west to Mackay. Stay on the LR Highway. The camping area will be on your right, in about 9 more miles.

After you pass the campground, you will turn right onto a dirt road at 2.15 miles beyond the campground. Follow this road for 1.25 miles, then take a right and an immediate left after crossing a ditch. Follow this road as far as you can get into Summerhouse Canyon. We stopped about 4 miles in from the highway at 7700'.

See the GPS tracks. Basically, we hiked up Summerhouse Canyon, took the west ridge up to Little Bear, then traversed to the saddle between Little Bear and Bear Mountain, then ascended Bear Mountain via the southeast ridge. To get down Bear Mountain, we dropped down the ridge just below the summit to the 4wd road shown in Summerhouse Canyon and walked that back to our vehicles at 7700'.