I was itching to get out before heading to Colorado so I could acclimate and get a work out in. However my weekend was spent in Portland coaching softball. So with great weather predicted, I started working with the guys to do a weekday hike. Suprisingly I got John Platt to commit and then John and Dylan. A few peaks were bounced around and everyone voted for Petros Peak in the Pahsimeroi Mountains.

We left Boise at 5am for the long drive over to the Pahsimeroi Mountains. The scenery was great, in fact incredible when we started heading up Arentson Gulch. We drove up Arentson to about 7600'. We started hiking near the base of the ridge we would ascend. The day was perfect and we could see our route up Petros Peak and it looked very doable. Smiles all around!

We made great time heading up the peak. We had gained 1100' in the first 45 minutes until the group finally stopped for a break. After that break we quickly reached a low angle ridge around 9000' that transfers you from dirt/tree/sagebrush terrain to rock and snow. This is where the already great views turned incredible.

From the ridge we continued northeast up a rib to connect into the main ridge on Petros Peak. At around 9700' we stopped for a break. We started discussing how to finish the remaining 800' to the ridge top. Dylan, John, and John decided to put on crampons and head up a snow patch to the top. The snow seemed mushy to me and the rock above me looked fine.

15 minutes later I was cursing my decision... the rock was terrible. It had been a long time since I was on crap scree and it seems to suck worse with age. I eventually reached the ridge and rejoined the team. This 800' slowed down the pace and trashed my legs.

We then headed along the ridge to the upper basin at 11000'. The basin was nearly all snow. We angled up the basin toward the peak, hitting patches of rock from time-to-time.

We arrived at the summit and spent a good deal of time eating, taking photos, arguing about cornice sizes, etc... There was strangely no wind on the summit. I think we might have spent another hour up there had we not been worried about the already sloppy snow getting worse.

As we descended, the snow was a little worse, but we avoided a posthole fest and never really went in above the knees and most of the time we only sank in a few inches.

We arrived back at the top of the rib we had ascended. I decided I was sticking with the team on the snow for sure, even though it was steep looking. Once on the snow, I felt the first 50 feet was nerving, as the steps John had created took some skill to match (nearly doing a squat with each step). However the steepness mellowed after that and I was able to get into a grove and keep up with the pace John F. was setting ahead of me. One last steep and mushy section near the bottom finished off the snow slope and then we were back on rock.

We chose a different route on the way down that allowed us to descend a loose scree slope and then brought us into a creek bed that had seen a huge avalanche this spring. The avalanche deposits were quite impressive. We continued out the drainage and popped out just shy of the car.

Great day, great people, great peak!

Turn off US 93 at the signed Arentson Gulch road. This road is located about 4.7 miles north of Doublespring Road or 3 miles south of Willow Creek Summit.

We climbed the ridge just north of Artenson Gulch. We followed that ridge until it met the main ridge at 10,500 feet, then turned north and headed for the summit.