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The Boot

 The Boot - 1640M

100M Prominence

50.02772, -124.11716

June 8, 2025

4H 10M C2C, 3H 50M Moving

525M Elevation gain


The Boot has interested me since one of the first few times I got into the mountains with my family a number of years ago. It is the gnarly looking feature that lies on the same ridgeline as Skwim, just to the North. The South West side of the mountain is the only side of the mountain that we were aware of anyone ever climbing, and is seldom climbed. The route is extremely dense in small trees sprawling all over the place between loose wet rock. I was not exactly too stoked to try this route after having failed it late last year on a half assed attempt. This time around I was joined by Tyler who was keen on getting some more alpine trad in, so we set out to climb the North ridge, we didn't really have any beta on it, but we knew was it would be steeper. The little beta we had was a few pictures from a far, but we went for it anyway. At 8:54 we parked the truck at the Skwim trailhead and got going. This trail has to be the shortest access to alpine terrain in Qathet, in 35-40 minutes we were on the Northwest side of The Boot, hiking along the South Powell Divide towards the Northern side of The Boot. We scoped out a mellow snow chute that took us up onto the ridge. We took a quick snack break on the ridge, overlooking the Skwim cirque, and then kept going south as far as the snow would take us. The snow steepened up at the end, and we carefully climbed a 25 meter long narrow band of 45 degree snow. At the top of the snow there was a perfect tree to set up a belay station, so we got geared up. I took the lead based on the picture I had taken of the North ridge, and our discussion while the route was still in eyesight. The short route started with some basic 4th class moves that took me up onto a mossy ledge. From this ledge I spent a good while evaluating what the next step would be, this was definitely the crux, so I looked around and found some pro above my head. I opted to climb the large flake to the left. I wedged my way up with some foot jams and arm jams, which took me to another smaller ledge. The crux was 5.6-5.7 in my opinion, with what appeared to be solid rock. From the next ledge I would climb another crack of equal length, but easier climbing. This took me to the top of the rock, and there was a solid little tree that was perfectly placed for a belay station. The pitch was roughly 30-35 meters long. I belayed Tyler up, and once we both arrived at the anchor we untied. A bit of hiking up some snow took us to the summit, 2 hours and 45 minutes from when we started in the morning. On top we hung out for a few minutes to grab a snack. We opted to downclimb the scramblers route on the descent instead of rappelling down our climb. The shrubs were insanely dense and our gear was getting stuck on every branch. It was a bit of a nightmare, but it was a thousand times easier than ascending this route. From the base of the South side of The Boot, we re gained the trail and hiked out to the trail head.

Looking at The Boot's South face from the FSR



















Working our way up a snow slope after leaving the Skwim trail



















Traversing snow along the South Powell Divide to arrive at the North ridge





















Snack Spot, looking at Skiwm lake



















First views of the North ridge




















Getting closer to the climb, our route in red



















On the first few steps of the climb



















Me nearing the crux






































Tyler nearing the top belay tree



















Coiling the rope back up near the summit




















A few snowy steps to the summit



















Summit Shot




















Skwim center, Freda back right










The descent




















Getting back to the Skwim trail



















Route in green, SPD in Blue, Skwim route in red




















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