Bell Mountain

It was said that Robert Bell, a sixteen year-old English immigrant, rose, “from a modest beginning to a high rank among the most useful citizens of Idaho.”

 The same could be said of the mountain in central Idaho that is named after one of the state’s first and most popular mine inspectors. 

Bell Mountain rises from the inconspicuous foothills of the desert. It ends with an exhilarating climb to the peak that tested our group of aspiring amateur climbers with its near vertical scrambles on exposed faces with more than 500 feet of air at our backs. 

  

There are two approaches to climb Bell Mtn., (East and West). We took the eastern approach. Turning off of the North Salmon Hwy (see map for complete directions) we followed the Forest Service road until we arrived at Bell Mountain Canyon.  Although the signage in the area is sparse, you can feel confident you’re headed in the right direction because of Bell Mountain’s convenient “bell” shaped peak. If it looks like it’s the right general direction, it probably is. 

We left our two-wheel drive van at this point because of deep ruts, but our four-wheel drive truck easily took us all the way to the trailhead farther up the canyon. In the canyon the terrain quickly turns from desert to mountain forest. At least in mid to late summer, when we went, there is no water available in the area. Make sure to bring enough for all your needs in this arid terrain.

Gravel turns to dirt, and eventually the road is just two light wheel tracks and ends at the trailhead. Cattle occasionally graze the area. Our group had a dozen people in it and there was plenty of room to camp overnight. Groups could also camp at several locations within a mile of the trailhead.  No permits are known to be required. Probably due to its remote location, not many climbers or hikers frequent the area.

The eight-mile round-trip “trail” to the mountain is only loosely defined. We headed south out from the trailhead leaving at about 5:15 AM. The reason we started so early was to avoid afternoon thunderstorms. We made it back to the trailhead by a little after 6 PM.  There’s a path that leads in the general direction of the peak but eventually tapers off and you can just pick your way through the woods. 

After the forest we scrambled up several fairly steep rock and shale slides. These were followed by going along ridges and crossing more slides (we followed the mountain goat / footpaths across) until we arrived at the base of the side of the bell shaped tip. Good boots are a must. 

The trailhead sits at about 8,000 ft. To the base of the peak is a roughly 3,000-foot gain in elevation. To the peak, our GPS showed we’d add an additional 600+ feet to top out at 11,612 ft. The peak’s GPS coordinates are N 44.236 and W -113.1945.  

This relatively low altitude peak might sound deceiving, but the last bit of climb is pretty intense. For perspective, it’s slightly less difficult than the Owen-Spalding route on the Grand Teton, or significantly harder than Chicken Out Ridge on Mt. Borah. 

I wouldn’t recommend trying it without at least some previous rock-climbing experience or a trained guide.  If you have either of these (in our case we had both) this part is a lot of fun. Without them, it could be deadly. Check your holds for loose rocks. Lots of rocks that appear stable or solid are actually loose or broken.  Ropes can be used for descending.

The view from the top is everything you’d hope for after a good climb. Mt. Borah, Idaho’s tallest mountain is visible to the west across the valley. Diamond Peak is also visible to the southeast. 

Even with the area as dry as it is, you can still run into some wildlife. We had a noisy bunch of elk run through our camp after we went to bed. Once we started approaching the high ridges we spotted a few white mountain goats as well. 

The Luv Docta

Advice for dating at BYU-I

Brett Stone

The Luv Docta is in

It really wouldn’t be “another great day at BYU-I” if love wasn’t wafting through through the air. To help you warm up your skills for the new semester, I’ve put together a quick summary of the best advice I have to offer on the subject. Taking advice from a currently single guy (that’s right ladies) may be like trusting a skinny cook, but it can pay to learn from someone else’s experience. 

For Guys

Don’t wait. It really is all about timing. Being an early bird in most cases is much better than being late. If you think she’s cute ask her out because most of the other 6,000+ guys on campus aren’t blind. Claiming that you don’t go on dates with people you don’t know is roughly equivalent to the logic of never leaving the county you were born in because you’re not sure if it’s safe. If you don’t know if you really like her yet there really  is only one way to find out.

Plan something You don’t have to serve her filet mignon in a cardboard version of the Taj Majal in Porter Park (although, that actually might be kinda cool...), but planning something to do, at least on a first date, is always a good idea. That something should almost never be a movie, and probably never anything to do with a screen in general. A few humble suggestions: mini-golfing at 7N Ranch near Heise Hot Springs, cooking a pizza from scratch at your apartment (stash a Digornio in the freezer just in case that doesn’t go so well) or tie-dyeing t-shirts. 

Act like you don’t care. Always be a gentleman, but once you’ve asked her out, if you think there’s a chance you might actually like her, act nonchalant. Why? Girls, in general, read way too much into things. In fact, there are probably girls I’ve taken out who are reading this column at this very moment who are reading way too much into it (no, that was not about you...). The point is, just because you get a nibble on the line (she said yes) doesn’t mean you’ve landed the fish in the net, and jerking emphatically on the pole isn’t going to help. 

For Girls

Just Say No! It may be fine to go out with a guy you’re completely uninterested in once, but if the first try doesn’t kindle even a casual interest, don’t keep saying yes. Far from being mean, a clear, unequivocal ‘no’ after one date may be the most charitable thing you could do in most of these cases. Guys’ logic is that the more a girl says yes the more likely it is that she’s interested too. Some guys may scowl at you for being frank, but the great majority of self respecting guys will thank you in the long run (about 15 minutes later, standard guy time) for not leading them on. 

If you’re happy and you know it... You guessed right! Most guys are actually somewhat clueless. Those guys who think they’re not? Well, have you ever seen a kid in a dizzy bat race who thinks  he’s running in the right direction? Yeah. So, if you think you may be interested, it’s sure nice to have some sort of a signal, like say, smoke signals. That being said, moderation in all things is good. Some of you (you may or may not know who you are) may want to ease up on the signaling. A forest fire may send the wrong smoke signal for most guys. 

For all

Breakups are like frostbite Having personally had frostbite on all ten fingers at once, I can honestly say, despite what you may have heard, it’s not fun. Breakups can be like sitting out in the middle of a freezing Rexburg blizzard without gloves. Sometimes after being outside you come inside and feel better in about five minutes. Literally. In others, when the exposure is more severe and deep, you can have alternating sensations of burning and then stinging for weeks and the full effects may not go away for months. Asi es el amor. The good news is, unlike frostbite, which can leave human flesh permanently weaker, breakups, if you choose, can make you stronger and more capable. It’s up to you. 

Know yourself A date, at almost any stage, should ideally be mostly about finding out who the other person really is. That can be tough if you’re spending all the time on the date figuring out who you are. Even at BYU-Idaho, an immense variety of people, standards, ideas, and family values exist. Be open to new ideas and concepts, but know what your personal thoughts are on different subjects before hand. Then you can spend more time asking and answering eternally important questions like, “So, how many cows do you think you’ll pay for your wife?”