The standard route up Idaho's highest peak, a short but very steep trail-then-scramble climb over the famously exposed Chicken-Out Ridge to the summit.
From the signed trailhead off the Borah Peak access road, a steep trail switchbacks up through trees, gaining roughly 2,300 feet in the first two miles before reaching treeline. Above treeline the trail follows a northwest ridge to the base of Chicken-Out Ridge near 11,300 feet. Chicken-Out Ridge itself is a rocky, narrow arete with steep drop-offs on both sides; climbers can stay on the crest or traverse just below it, both requiring Class 3 scrambling when the rock is dry. Beyond the ridge's high point, a steep 20-foot downclimb (the "Nose") leads to a narrow, often snow-covered knife-edge that is the route's most exposed section. Past the knife-edge, a climbers' trail continues below a subsidiary point to a saddle, from which the route stays west of the ridge crest on talus to the summit.