I started hiking this trail at 1pm after hiking 8-9 miles doing the Pioneer Cabin loop just before. I really didn’t plan on trying to make it to the top since I had already hiked a fair distance that day. The plan was basically to hike maybe a few miles in and then turn around and call it a day, possibly go as far as the snow depending on how far that was. Turns out I actually made it to within .3 miles from the top before finally turning around and going back down. If I had started a few hours earlier or if the weather had not turned bad, I probably would have made it all the way up, even with the snow. As it was, the only two people that were in front of me turned around, it was almost 4:30pm and slower going because of the snow, and I ended up in the middle of some dark looking clouds that high up. The thought of being alone up there without seeing the top, possibly 30 minutes to an hour away plus the trip down through the snow in the center of some dark clouds wasn’t something I wanted to risk.
The mountain isn’t going anywhere so I will be doing this one for sure once summer comes around and the snow melts. All in all that day with the Pioneer Cabin loop was just over 20 miles I think, longer than I was planning on hiking, but an ok experience none the less even though I didn’t make it all the way up. Better safe than sorry I will always say. Elevation for Hyndman Peak is 12008 feet and #9 on the list of the 9 12,000 footers in Idaho.
