Trip Report
Borah Peak/Chicken Out Ridge
A scramble of Idaho's high point.
Martin Fisher
- Sun, Sep 14, 2025
- Borah Peak/Chicken Out Ridge
- Successful
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- Road suitable for all vehicles
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- The road to the trailhead is approximately three miles of excellent gravel from a state highway. There are not too many campsites at the trailhead, but they are there.
- This trail is very steep and much of your gain comes before you hit Chicken Out Ridge (COR) Most of COR is gently undulating and went on for considerably longer than I anticipated (I think it was a little over a mile long if memory serves me), so don't
- There is a feature that is called the Snow Bridge, which it isn't technically. However, it is a narrow ridge you walk on after completing COR. It reportedly holds snow into July, and as annoying as it would be to bring traction and an ice axe for that feature, I would recommend it. Because we went in September, we didn't have any snow there.
- Mid-afternoon storm clouds were brewing as we completed our scramble, which is a feature in the Rockies, so keep that in mind regarding your start time.
I was originally scheduled to scramble Tomyhoi Peak with the Mountaineers, but the weekend's forecast led to the scramble being called off. My partner, Regan, and I are pursuing the 50 state high points, so a good forecast for Borah--Idaho's high point--made this trip an easy call.
Well, the one hiccup was that we had to leave from Portland at 8 am on Saturday and be home for work Monday morning at 9.30 am, which meant this was a long, long weekend. The drive is 10.5 hours from Portland without stops. We drove all day Saturday, found one of the last campsites and promptly went to bed, and were up and ready to go by 6 am on Sunday.
The trail prior to Chicken Out Ridge (COR) is fairly steep (more than 1k gain per mile), and the altitude makes the effort feel even more intense. Once you clear the treeline you get pretty good views of Idaho unfolding below you.
The recommendation you'll read about the most regarding the navigation of COR is to stay on the ridge line. We followed this advice on the ascent and found the rock to be really solid and the moves to be fairly straightforward. However, there were some class 3 and a few class 4 moves with exposure, which might be unnerving to folks who aren't used to it. I've included photos of it below to give you an idea of what it looks like.
Toward the end of COR there was a rope that looked as if it had been purchased at a local hardware store (i.e., not a climbing rope) meant to help scramblers climb up and down a feature called The Nose (maybe about 20 feet). We didn't want to trust that rope for many reasons, and besides, the rock was really solid and the moves fairly simple. Downclimbing led to the feature known as The Snowbridge, which it isn't. It's just a narrow ridge line that I was glad wasn't still holding snow.
From there the trail flattens out a bit before the last 1000 feet you need to ascend to the summit. There are cairns that guide the best line to the summit when the path becomes less obvious.
On the way back we took The Nose back up to the top of COR, but soon descended off the top of the ridge line to a way trail we could see below us skiers right. I read more than a few reports advising against taking this line instead of staying directly on top of the ridge because it reportedly becomes sketchy quick. We found the opposite to be true--it was mostly easy class 2 save a few moves toward the end when it rejoins the top of Chicken Out Ridge and some of those moves with exposure are necessary again.
Once off Chicken Out Ridge, it's a straightforward walk down the trail. We saw storm clouds gathering in the distance and knew we had to get off the trail fairly quickly to avoid any potential lightning. Most of the scramble is above treeline and thus exposed to the elements.
Once back at the car it was a long drive home. We ended up getting back a little before 3 am, but we at least had another state high point in the bag.