Stupid Dingo: Big Cinder Butte

I'm really into goals, the more obscure the better. I'm working on climbing the 11th highest volcano on each continent. So far I've done one... but hey, it's a life goal.

For this year I've set a myself a somewhat less lofty, but still obscure goal: "climb" the highpoint in each of Idaho's wilderness areas. . Climb is in quotes because truthfully none of them are really all that difficult. Beautiful, challenging at times because one must place on foot in front of the other for more times in one day than some Americans do in a month*, but not hanging off rock faces challenging. With any luck I'll summit all the Idaho Wilderness Seven Summits before the snow falls again.

Idaho Wilderness Seven Summits

Wilderness Area	Highpoint	Elev. (ft)
Craters of the Moon	Big Cinder Butte	6,515
Gospel-Hump	Buffalo Hump	8,938
Selway	Ranger Peak	8,817
Sawtooth	Thompson Peak	10,751
Hells Canyon	He Devil	9,409
Frank Church	Mount McGuire	10,082
White Clouds**	Castle Peak	11,815

* Research studies estimate the average American adult may take less than 3,000 steps a day, which adds up to roughly 34 miles, so I may be exaggerating a little, but not much. The average Texan may be more accurate. A number of these peaks will require a round trip distance greater than 34 miles, though I will span the effort across a couple days.

** Ok, so the White Clouds isn't a Wilderness yet, you got me. But it's a great climb in a great location. Plus I'll already have achieved the metric just in case it ever gets approved.

The most difficult are Class III scrambles in remote terrain, the easiest is a short skip up a petrified zit. So I started with the zit, though I did choose to go before the park opened up the roads and part of the Butte was still snow covered to make it a wee bit more interesting. I invited the folks in Idaho Mountain Recreation to tag along and two of them took me up on the offer.

Big Cinder Butte Highlights