Cape Horn is an area on the edge of the Frank Church Wilderness Area, near the head waters of the Middle Fork. Cape Horn summit is accessible north of Stanley off of Idaho State Highway 21. Our approach of the summit was to first pack to Collie Lake from the Marsh Creek trail head. To get to Collie Lake you follow the Marsh Creek trail about 1-2 miles. There you will cross the drainage from Collie Lake. There is an unmarked trail that heads up Collie Creek shortly after you cross it on the main trail. The trail to Collie Lake is well made though isn't maintained and we found ourselves crossing over the occasional fallen tree.

The climb was made by John, Lauri, Tessa, Eri and myself on the Fourth of July. Though we didn't find the unmarked trail right away and had a nice off trial adventure up the first part of Collie Creek until we eventually ran across the trial. Upon getting to the lake, we set up camp at a nice camp we found near the outlet. As we would come to find out there is a really nice camp right near the inlet that I would suggest as the ideal spot for camping at Collie Lake.

The goal was to get up to the summit as early as possible, so we woke up while it was still dark and began to prepare. Though we were not able to make it to the summit before sunrise, we did get working our way up it slightly before light and were able to catch the sun rise peeking though the trees. After the class 2 climb of Cape Horn we worked our way down some snow banks and back to Collie Lake. We then packed up the rest of camp and headed back to our respective homes. The climb is a nice short climb and very enjoyable. From summit one has a clear view of the Sawtooths and a decent portion of the Frank Church.