Paul Petzoldt (January 16, 1908 – October 6, 1999) was an American mountaineer and wilderness educator who established the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) in 1965. While he is most remembered for founding NOLS and for climbing and guiding in Wyoming he also climbed in the Sawtooth Range where he guided the Iowa Mountaineers. On Aug 24, 1947, Paul Petzoldt Continue reading The post Paul…
Boise climber Doug Colwell passed April, 2026. Doug told the Idaho Statesman in 2017 article that “Part of climbing is you get to go to all these new places, you get to do these adventures and you meet great people and form long-lasting friendships.” This quote captures the essence of Doug’s wanderlust. Undoubtedly, those great people Doug met along the Continue reading The post Doug Colwell 1960…
There were three writeups for the Splinters from 1948: 1) Ralph Widrig in The Mountaineer (Seattle), Vol. 39, No. 14 (1948), 2) W.V. Graham Mathews in Appalachia, Vol. 47 (1948), and 3) Fred Beckey’s AAJ, Vol. 7, No. 2 (1949). Between the three writeups the following can be derived; a) the Splinter Towers “guard one of the ridges from Mt. Heyburn which Continue reading The post Splinter Towers…
On August 21, 1947, two groups were formed under Paul Petzoldt and Ken Jones from the Thompson high camp. The Petzoldt group wentback to “Mt. Bush” to avenge their previous attempt up the north face. This time, they started up the scree field to the col west of “Mt. Bush” and traversed the ridge to the east but had to rappel into Continue reading The post The Iowa Cirque by Brian Westphal appeared…
Derek Percoski finished the Idaho 11ers on July 15, 2021 but even more impressive was his second mountaineering accomplishment. On July 15, 2022 Derek completed his quest to climb all 329 ranked summits in Blaine County, Idaho. His quest covered a wide variety of summits and terrain including volcanic buttes in Craters of the Moon National Monument, the high Pioneer Continue reading The post Derek…
Dave Pahlas is the first person to climb all of the White Cloud 10,000-foot plus peaks. There are 50 White Cloud summits that reach above 10,000 feet. The peaks are spread out over a large swath of rugged terrain and 5 USGS quadrangles. Access to some of these 10ers and 11ers is easy, but the vast majority of the 50 Continue reading The post Dave Pahlas the first to Climb All Fifty 10,000-Foot…
The list of 11er finishers continues to grow. Recent LiDAR measurements have added peaks that were previously unranked to the ranked list. This includes one new peak in the Pioneer Mountains which was remeasured in late 2025. Derek Percoski and Brett Sergenian are the only person listed below who have climbed that peak. Nevertheless, credit for finishing the 11ers is Continue reading The post 11er…
On August 2, 2025 Derek Percoski became the first person to climb the highest 500 ranked Idaho peaks. This journey included all of the 12ers, 11ers and 10ers plus a few 9ers. Derek celebrated his accomplishment by gathering a group of Idaho peakbaggers to climb Peak 10,309 in the Lost River Range. This group included 13 11er finishers. We dubbed Continue reading The post Derek Percoski the first…
Glissading firm snow and going “way too fast,” I tripped and did a couple of fast-forward somersaults. Rolling out of the second somersault, I planted the pick of my ice axe deep in the snow. It was a perfect “ice axe self-arrest” for about a second–then the axe ripped out of my hands but stayed attached to my wrist. As Continue reading The post Pursuit of “Bluebonnet Tower” and the Search for the…
This article was first published on Dan Robbins’ IdahoSummits website. It is republished here by Dan’s permission. In this article Mike Howard recounts the 1977 Mount Borah avalanche that took the lives of his brother Vaughn and Guy Campbell and the subsequent search. This article is important for many reasons but most importantly because it demonstrates the impact a climbing Continue reading The…