Climber Norman Clyde

By Tom Lopez

Since my first hike into Idaho’s mountains in 1972 I have been fascinated by both the variety of mountain environments found in our rambling jigsaw-piece-shaped state and the history of those who explored the, to put it mildly, difficult terrain. While there are many well-written histories of these endeavors it was difficult to find the history of mountain climbing in Idaho.

This was a curious phenomenon when you consider that Idaho is a virtual sea of mountains. I set out to remedy this omission when I started to write my guidebook for climbers back in the 1980s.

The first edition of my book was entitled Exploring Idaho’s Mountains and it included a history section that pulled together available information, mostly from magazine articles in the defunct publications and journals of mountaineering clubs, such as the American Alpine Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Mazamas, and the Mountaineers.

I was fortunate to interview a few climbing pioneers like Louis Stur and Lyman Dye as well as countless Forest Service people and many contemporary climbers such as Rick Baugher of Idaho Falls. Rick has climbed more Idaho peaks than any other person, but more important, he is the expert when it comes to the history of the surveyors who mapped Idaho and made many of the first journeys to the summits of hundreds of Idaho mountaintops.

Still, from a historical perspective, there were lots of holes.