On September 8 and 9, Ky Hart and I climbed a new route on an unnamed spire in the Sawtooth Mountains. The north-facing wall of the spire rises above the cirque that drains the north face of Decker Peak, a few miles south of Redfish Lake and the Elephants Perch. The summit (9,860’) is a subpeak on Decker’s east ridge.

Our route’s first two pitches were thin nailing and other aid through loose rock. The effort paid off, as the rock quality improved the higher we got. We bivied after pitch three—more for fun than necessity.

Pitches three through six went all free, around 5.9. They had excellent granite, as though it was meant to be climbed, with a great position high on the spire. The best pitch was the last: a perfect clean corner, 80’ long, to the summit. We found a cairn on top but have not found any information on the tower; we presume it was climbed from the ridge. The spire is not visible from anywhere but within the cirque, so we named our route Seldom Seen Spire (650’, 6 pitches, IV 5.9 A2).

— Matt Ward