It has been several months, but here are some pictures from our Super Activity for this year. We went as a Scout Troop, but just the Priest’s Quorum of the Paul 1st Ward. We went to the White Clouds here in Idaho. We left around 6:00 AM and drove to the 4th of July trail head.
Our first day we hiked over Ants Basin and in to the Born Lakes.

Looking toward the Born Lakes. Devil’s Staircase is the rock slide down from the deepest notch in the horizon.
We camped at the last lake that still had somewhere to camp around it on the far northwest bank of the lake, just near where the water enters the lake. From our camp at the Born Lake, some call it the third lake, some call it the fourth lake, looking back the way we came earlier in the day.
From our Camp at this Born Lake, the ridge to the south east of us is quite imposing. You can see the jagged rocks standing as sentinels.
We could also look up at the climb that awaited us the next morning. The aptly named, Devil’s Staircase.
We set up camp and enjoyed our evening.

Kerry Sandford stands behind his tent, Ryan Lindsay stands behind the fire, Dallin Fisher sits preparing dinner, Austin Silver warms, and Paul Ross sets up his tent.
The next morning arrived and we all arose for the feat before us. We ate breakfast and mulled around. Nobody overly anxious to start the climb.
The time to depart finally arrived. We tanked up on water and left.
This is from the lake at the base of Devil’s Staircase. Obviously at a 45 angle to get the entire climb into the photo.
Another shot of us starting to ascend.

The team moving upward, Greg Ellinger, Paul Ross, Ryan Lindsay, and Dallin Fisher with more farther up the climb.
A view from the top of Devil’s Staircase looking back over the Born Lakes.
We took a much needed breather and rest at Shallow Lake after coming off Devil’s Staircase.
We passed Shallow Lake and Scree Lake before we descended the steep decline along Slickenside Creek. Here is a shot just past Scree Lake with Castle Peak starting to emerge. Can you see why the ridge from Merriam Peak to the left to Castle Peak is called Serrated Ridge?
Our campsite on the west side of provided a much needed collapsing station.
Oh, and swim.
I did not add more of the swimming pictures in case somebody might get upset. But the water was deep enough to dive in and swim around, cold enough to keep it short.
We crashed pretty hard that night. The dreams were not necessarily pleasant knowing we had to do it again the next day.
The next morning we arose, ate breakfast, and started preparing for our final ascent. We were exhausted by this point so nobody thought much of taking pictures. This is part of our climb out of camp toward the Four Lakes Basin.
We eventually found Cornice Lake, Emerald Lake, Rock Lake, and Glacier Lake. Here is a picture of Castle Peak with Rock Lake in the foreground.
It was a long haul climbing Patterson Peak.
I hope the above picture gives some idea of the climb we just came up. Plus the drop-off is enough that you cannot see any of Quiet Lake beyond the basin. It was a hard climb. Cornice Lake is the furthest with Emerald Lake just closer from it. Rock Lake is to the right of Emerald Lake, and Glacier Lake is closest. Then it was time to descend the other side. It looked so unsafe we were consulting the map just to find out how to get down. It was steep enough we could not see the whole trail down.

Closest is Greg Ellinger, then Ryan Lindsay, and Austin Silva with Patterson Peak in the background.
As you can see from this picture, we came down the rock slides of Patterson Peak (on the right). Half our group took the one right in the middle, the rest trying coming down the left slides (which turned out to be less safe and more steep).
Here is what remained of our party at the end of the third day. We were all so anxious to get out nobody took any more pictures. Plus, all our cameras had died or were out of film.

Patterson Peak with (l-r) Paul Ross, Austin Silva, Dallin Fisher, Michael Fisher, Greg Ellinger, Ryan Lindsay, Kerry Sanford, Martin Barclay, and Josh Barclay. Art Silva took the picture.