FKT: Benjamin Stout - Boulder Crest Traverse (ID) - 2020-08-12

After parking my car at Galena Lodge, I rode my dad's ancient mountain bike down the Harriman Trail (only almost ate shit twice) to the Boulder City road parking area, where I stashed the bike in a clump of sagebrush. I took a moment to collect myself, then started my watch from the pavement on Idaho 75 and began the climb up the cobble-strewn road. I made decent time up to the point where the route departs the road, though I wasn't feeling very good. It could have been all the water I was carrying, as I wasn't sure what my prospects for filling bottles along the route were. Somehow, in the narrow creek bed I was ascending, I couldn't seem to get my gps app to ping me, so I ended up taking a different fork than Sam Linnet and ascending Boulder Peak's south ridge, which seemed to add a bit of distance and some additional 4th class scrambling to the route. It was pretty smooth sailing from there, though I think I dropped a bit too low to get around impassable ridge sections on both Silver Peak and Lorenzo Peak, which made the subsequent scrambles back up to their summits a bit more difficult. There were probably a few 5th class moves in there that could have been avoided. Once I was past Lorenzo, the ridge running was lovely, though I wish I had felt strong enough to run more. The remaining summits came relatively easily, with some intense wind gusts adding some excitement. On the descent into Cherry Creek, I took a really bad line, having to backtrack and sidehill to avoid some nasty cliffs. From there I stumbled my way back to Galena Lodge via the Grinder, Spring Creek and FS200, finishing to the confused looks of the mountain bikers that tend to frequent Galena's trails this time of year. I think this route could go significantly faster with a little scouting of the initial ascent and the final descent from the ridge into Cherry Creek. 5:30 or better is definitely possible. This is a seriously gorgeous line, and made for a challenging and awesome day!