Lost Weekend climbing

Published on 2026-05-01 by Michael Stanton

Friends: Kevin
Location: Mortal Earth, Paymaster Peak, Lost River Mountain
Elevation gain: 2486m = 50m + 1066m + 1370m

Day One - The Fins

Kevin and family met me around noon at Mortal Earth, the Fins crag for mere mortals! We climbed and set top ropes on two excellent climbs, first "Heart of Gold" (5.7), and then "Hold the Line" (5.8). Logan didn't have rock shoes, so he had a serious extra challenge once the footholds got small. So he got to bend the rules a little bit and grab a quickdraw if the going got too tough. Erica enjoyed solving various climbing problems, and dealt well for the first time with the "cold water" of leaning back on the rope to be lowered.

Erica on "Heart of Gold"

Kevin belaying

Logan on a ridgetop tower

Erica and her dad

Michael starting up a chimney

These were really nice climbs. I especially liked "Hold the Line" for the verticality in the upper half. We also top roped "The Joker" (5.9), which has the same anchor as Heart of Gold. It really didn't seem much harder to me, aside from a single move about 1/3rd of the way up.

We lost the sun and were shivering a bit as we packed up to leave. We drove over to the trailhead for Paymaster and Gray's Peak, where Kevin and I had met for the first time just two weeks before. Kevin had a cast-iron pot with an amazing turkey stew, and ladled out many portions to prepare us for the next day. I fell asleep with many of the great conversations through the day had with Kevin and Logan and Erica.

Michael with Kevin

Logan figures out the moves

Logan near the top of the climb

A fantastic dinner

Day Two - Paymaster and the Secretaries

Note: it turns out we didn't go up Paymaster Gulch, but an unnamed gulch before it. So even if we didn't all stand on the summit, we explored an interesting area that few visit!

We walked up the road and turned north into Paymaster Gulch (at least we thought so), then starting grinding up the hillside, intent on Paymaster Peak. We'd decided not to bring boots - things looked so snowfree from down in the valley. The kids did a great job with the mental tax of a great big monotonous hillside that somehow contains 2000+ feet of punishing elevation gain. We used all our tricks to inspire ourselves.

In Paymaster Gulch

Resting in the huge slope

"What's that shock of pink fuzzy hair up there? Perhaps a meddlesome middle school administrator, intent on discussing gender orientation?!" Hee hee. We'd get up to it, and espy some new feature another 400 feet up. "Perhaps there are arrowheads at the base of that rock, maybe no one has been there since 1793?"

At one point we made a story, I'll see if I can give the flavor of it:

Old Cary Limes worked for the railroad in those halcyon days of driving for the Golden Spike. He'd been a quiet boy, and a quiet man. Married to a Crow woman. Although this diminished his social prospects, he was a happy and industrious fellow. A fact known only to locals of the Pioneer Mountains, he'd been part of a survey party in the major western drainages of the range, seeking a possible secondary rail line safe from the floods that swept the main spur below Hailey. In fact, he sat on this very rock, and did find an arrowhead. This is the reason we didn't find ours today. In later years he often mused that---

Okay, it just goes on like that -- practically writes itself, and this was our music on that long hillside!

Finally we gained the ridge crest, and our energies lifted. We saw a big summit to the east, and marched to it. I gave Erica a lesson in classic "French Technique" cramponing. On top we were dismayed to see there were not one, but two summits more on the ridge, including Paymaster. Ach! We set off anyway, though the ridge became tricky. There were cornices and rock steps. Eventually the young ones, not so gripped by the quasi-ideological summit fever that tightens around the older folks like a noose, had had enough, and declared a rocky bump perched in the sky with cornice and snow fluting on all sides to be the proper high point for the day. Kevin and I marched on, passing a tricky step on the ridge, then gaining easy ground, though the snow got deeper and deeper.

Very different terrain up here!

On the ridge to the Second Secretary

Negotiating a step

Kevin below Second Secretary

Kevin and Paymaster, the forested bump

Kevin with Cobb Peak behind

My inspiration ran out on the far side of the middle summit, and I hollered over to him that I'd go back and keep the kids company. He was in the last quarter mile, so he gritted his teeth and marched up Paymaster, doubling his pace on return to keep us from waiting long. Meanwhile, we moved back to the first summit, which we called the Secretary to the Paymaster.

Soon we were plunge-stepping and leaping down, and many giggles were heard. Energized by the snow, we retraced our steps and stayed on the snow down our initial ridge for a good while, eventually traversing a broad gully and finding our ascent footprints. Down past the woeful school administrator and the lonely arrowhead site we raced. I was surprised how fast we were without any trail. Rabbit-like, we snaked between sagebrush, feet scurrying like millipedes.

Returning to the First Secretary

We're just having fun

Hoffmans and Cobb

The Lost River Range at sunset camp

Tired, back at camp, we were happy with our adventure. We made our farewells, and I drove east to meet folks for a climb the next day, and they west, after a good spaghetti dinner.

Day Three - the Lost River Supergully

In the morning, Josh and Ericka (a different Ericka!) and I started up Lost River Mountain from the Supergully trailhead. I pulled ahead, because they were mostly excited about skiing the gully, and had proper downhill boots and skis lashed to their pack. More than a 1000 feet of very steep trail later, I emerged into the gully, applied crampons and started switchbacking up. I had a nice chat with fellow Idaho Fallsian Dan, on his way down. I reached the summit ridge and traversed over to the true summit. There were a couple of spicy steps where I had to balance on the crest.

The Super Gully

Looking to the side on the ascent

Looking down the gully

Crazy, complex shapes

It was a glorious view up here, with really steep and interesting shapes below me. I said hello to two fellows coming up, then started down the gully. First I was careful, but eventually the snow softened so I could plunge-step then glissade a while. Josh and Ericka got a picture of me in here. I wished them a good ski, then continued quickly down.

Once back on the dirt, I found a way to move really quickly. The angle of the trail really allows you to "fall" down the hill. Dan and I enjoyed a beer at the cars. The two guys came down, then Josh and Ericka appeared. We'd all had an excellent day. 4500 feet up and down, big thanks to good friends!

Vast peaks to the south