The Seven Devils Mountains are located near Riggins Idaho, and are home to some very scenic alpine terrain and rugged peaks. The most popular area lies at the center of the range, where there is a cluster of tall peaks and lakes surrounded by a 25 mile long loop trail. In the middle of all this lies Sheep Lake, and the range highpoints He Devil and She Devil. With over 5000 feet of prominence, He Devil is one of only three “ultra-prominence” peaks in Idaho. It also has a vertical rise of over 8000 feet from the bottom of nearby Hell’s Canyon, which is the most in the state. Neither He nor She has been officially measured, but maps show both extending above the 9400’ contour line. There is some debate about which is highest, but if you climb both peaks, it seems pretty obvious that He Devil is a bit taller. But the debate continues, so most climbers will choose to summit both peaks to remove all doubt.

Our plan was to take the climbers shortcut trail to Sheep Lake, then climb the northwest ridge of He Devil, and traverse the ridge all the way to Tower of Babel, for a total of four peaks. We left Boise at about 5am to embark on our 4+ hour drive to the trailhead at Seven Devils Campground. Michael, Sean, Jammie, and I practiced our story telling for a while, stopped in McCall the meet John and Julie, and then caravanned to the trailhead from there. Once at the campground, we picked one of the numerous braided trails heading southwest up the hill into the forest. After a little while, the trails converge where the grade steepens in the back of a good sized cirque. Julie and I trailed behind the others talking about birds and other important things. It was a little smoky, but otherwise a very nice morning.

Once at the first saddle above Mirror Lake, we got a great view of the north ridge of Tower of Babel. At this point, we decided to split up. John and Julie had been burning the midnight oil as of late, and ended up taking slower pace. The rest of us would forge on ahead in hopes of completing the entire ridge traverse. The unmaintained trail down to Sheep Lake sees a fair amount of traffic, but it’s still not for the faint of heart. After contouring around some ledges, we made the somewhat steep scree descent down to the lake. The lake is very pretty, with crystal clear waters and rugged peaks as a backdrop.

We circled around the south side of Sheep Lake, then up the official trail to the saddle west of the lake. After a brief but unsuccessful attempt to find a use path, we just chose our own way south along the hillside, and then contoured around to the northwest ridge of He Devil where we stopped for a snack. The amount of smoke was increasing, and we could actually see two small plumes rising out of the forest a couple ridges over. They had likely been started by dry lightening the night before. But we were not detoured, and made our way up the well cairned northwest ridge. It was a fun easy scramble up to the summit block, with just a little class 3 climbing to reach the summit of He Devil.

The crux of the day was finding a way off the east side of He Devil in order to reach the saddle between He and She. John had given us instruction, but the route still wasn’t obvious. After descending from the main summit block, Sean and Jammie explored further east along the ridge. They ended up descending a westward slanting ramp before dropping down a notch below. Michael and I took a more direct route down a steep gully with a couple class 4 moves along the way. We think this was John’s route, but not positive. Both of these options would be tough to spot from below.

Now that we were below the main summit ridge of He Devil, the next step was to make our way around to the saddle between He and She. There was still some good sized drop-offs below us, and we thought we might get cliffed out. But with Sean in the lead, we were able to find a way around to the saddle. From there, we started boulder hopping our way up the west ridge of She Devil. Along the way we also did some steep and exposed scrambling up some short broken ledges, which was one of the highlights of the day. The last section to the top of She Devil was straightforward. We paused there for a break, and to check out the sizeable plume of smoke rising behind us to the south.

From She Devil, we continued east, making an easy descent to the next saddle, followed by a quick scramble up the unofficially named “Mount Baal”. The next section would be the ridge traverse to Tower of Babel, described by Tom Lopez as a top 10 scramble. Fatigue was setting in a bit for all of us, and Michael decided to head down to Sheep Lake from Baal and meet us back on the trail. Sean, Jammie, and I continued on toward Tower of Babel.

The south ridge of Tower of Babel was pretty interesting, with towers and outcroppings along the way. After a little weaving back and forth, we made our way over to the west side of the ridge just before the summit block. From there, we enjoyed some really fun scrambling up a notch, across a ledge, then up another blocky area. Above that was a little boulder hopping, and then the summit. We arrived there a little tired, but very happy to be on our fourth summit of the day.

The clock was ticking, so we didn’t stay long. After a brief discussion about trying to descend the north face, we made the safer call to backtrack down the south ridge instead. From the base of the lowest notch, we headed down the talus and around to the west side of the peak. We weren’t sure there would be a way off this side of the mountain, but we lucked out and found a weakness in the cliff band which allowed us to reach some sandy slopes below. From there we continued on around the peak, and climbed maybe 100 feet or so back up to the north ridge. This bit of route finding saved us a bunch of heinous scree descent and the resulting re-climb back up the trail.

Now on the flatter section of Tower of Babel’s north ridge, we put our mountain goat goggles on and quickly spotted 5 goats at the southern end of Mirror Lake. After watching them for a while, we then followed a goat trail back to the saddle above Mirror Lake where we met Michael and finished the hike back to the trailhead. Back at the car we found a note from John and Julie saying that they had been able to summit He Devil, and that we had only missed seeing them by five minutes! It was a great day in the mountains. Hard to beat the excellent scenery, fun scrambling, and four summits. Round trip was 7.4 miles and 4800’ elevation gain in 9 hours. 

Map of our route, 7+ miles and 4800' elevation gain round trip. We went counterclockwise.	Starting up the trail from the campground.	Tower of Babel above Mirror Lake.	Airy section of the climber's trail to Sheep Lake.	Descending to the lake.
Descending to the lake.	View of He Devil from Sheep Lake.	Looking back at the complex south ridge of Tower of Babel.	Almost to the northwest ridge of He Devil.	He Devil summit block.
Nearing the summit of He Devil.	View south of a growing forest fire.	He Devil summit shot.	Vertical cliff on the east side of He Devil.	Michael downclimbing the steep gully to get off He Devil.
Chute on our way to the saddle between He and She.	Jammie climbing some slabs on She Devil.	Broken ledges on our way up She Devil.	Michael making his way up the ledges.	Jammie and Sean on the summit of She Devil.
Sheep Lake from the summit of She Devil.	Mount Ball from the west.	Tower of Babel from the summit of Mount Baal.	Scrambling up a steep notch on the south ridge of Tower of Babel.	Looking back on Mount Baal, She Devil, and He Devil from the summit of Tower of Babel.
Neat looking spire while downclimbing the south ridge of Tower of Babel.	Descending a ledge on the south ridge of Tower of Babel.	Downclimbing a chimney on the south ridge of Tower of Babel.	Sean making his way around the west side of Tower of Babel.	Six mountain goats near Mirror Lake.