Unquestionably the leading American female alpinist of her time, Miriam O’Brien Underhill and her husband Robert brought modern mountaineering techniques to the Sawtooths in 1934 and 1935. In the process, the couple made many first ascents and wrote the first mountaineering articles on the range. Miriam’s article is available at this link: Leading a Cat by Its Tail. You can … Continue reading
[Editor’s Note: Joe Leonard is a man who spent his first 5 years living in the Idaho backcountry in his grandparents’ cabin. From that point, his life just got more interesting each year. He was behind many “first” accomplishments in Idaho, including the first Winter ascent of Mount Regan, the first backcountry skiing guide service in the United States, the … Continue reading
Lyman Dye was one of the giants of Idaho climbing. Lyman was a major contributor to the Sawtooth Range chapter in the book where his familiarity with the range, based on his many first ascents and leading clients to the tops of many peaks as part of his operation of the first guide service in the Sawtooths (discussed on Page … Continue reading
The East Face of Mt Borah by Bob Boyles … Continue reading
During the Summer of 1972, three of my friends and I took a basic rock climbing class at Table Rock from Frank Florence, a rock climbing instructor who had just opened a shop (Sawtooth Mountaineering) on Fairview Avenue. Frank and his father Lou moved to Boise from New York City in pursuit of a new life out West where the … Continue reading
Lou Florence served in Africa and Italy in WWII. He moved to Boise with his family in 1972. He and his son Frank started Sawtooth Mountaineering, Boise’s first dedicated climbing and Nordic ski shop. An avid hiker and scrambler himself, Lou used Sawtooth Mountaineering as a venue through which to promote outdoor recreation. Throughout the 1970s, the shop offered introductory rock … Continue reading