Showing posts with label Idaho's 12ers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Idaho's 12ers. Show all posts

Thursday, June 11, 2020

Dan Noakes skis all 9 of Idaho's 12,000-foot peaks

Hi all,

Many of you may remember my story about Donnelly resident Dan Noakes hiking the Idaho Centennial Trail in only 52 days in the summer of 2018.

Considering the HUGE amount of downfall and brush that he had to plow through on the 1,000-mile trail, plus using serious route-finding skills necessary to stay on course -- and having the mental toughness to persevere on a mostly solo adventure -- you know that Dan Noakes is a super strong outdoor athlete!

And he's ambitious! His next big adventure was to summit and ski all nine of Idaho's 12,000-foot peaks in one year! He not only skied the peaks, he often skied the most extreme line possible on the way down those mountains! Phew!

To top off the adventures, Dan is super handy with video production, using GoPros expertly in the field, to share some of the most challenging, hard-to-film moments of his journeys with all of us. You can learn more how he climbed and skied each mountain on a separate YouTube episode on Dan's Channel.

Thanks to Star-News writer Drew Dodson and editor Tom Grote for sharing Drew's story, published today, about Dan's adventure ... I have a few quotes to share for perspective below his story.

Peak Performance - McCall man climbs, skies all 9 Idaho peaks over 12,000 feet 

BY DREW DODSON
The Star-News

Clinging to a steep snow-covered mountainside near the apex of Idaho itself, Dan Noakes peered down as his fear and self-doubt plunged to the mountain floor in a procession of snow chunks and pebbles.

“I mean, these peaks could gobble you up in a second if they wanted,” said Noakes, 35, of Donnelly. “If the snow fractures or a loose rock gives out, you could just be a goner.”

“They’re almost like a loyal friend that notices your full potential,” he said.

Noakes recently completed a personal quest to climb and ski all nine of Idaho’s 12,000-foot peaks, a feat known to have been completed by only professional skier Mark Ortiz and a few others.

The idea was born in a waiting room at St. Luke’s McCall a year ago as Noakes’ wife was in labor with their first child and he was watching a ski movie that featured Mount Church in Idaho’s Lost River Range, which is home to seven of the nine peaks.

Noakes tackled that peak almost immediately last spring, and within a year, managed to climb and ski all eight others, some accompanied by friends and others alone.

Collectively, the undertaking took Noakes a total of about 80 hours, 92.2 miles of hiking, skiing and bicycling and one calendar year.

Now Noakes is releasing a docu-series on YouTube chronicling each peak. Producing episodes using footage from his trips requires about another 16 hours per peak, Noakes said.

New episodes are released Wednesdays on Noakes’ YouTube channel, which can be found by searching “Dan Noakes” on youtube.com.

Each of the nine peaks offered unique challenges, but the toughest peak for Noakes’ money was Diamond Peak, the last he completed, and on his 35th birthday no less.

Rocky and near vertical terrain covered by a couple inches of fresh snow made finding footholds sketchy at best, even with the use of crampons, or spiked cleat attachments for ski boots, Noakes said.

While walking the tightrope ridgeline, Noakes’ right foot slipped and brought him face to face with the prospect of a 2,000-foot tumble to the mountain’s base.

“The main thing that caught me was my whippet, which is an ice axe connected to the handle of a ski pole,” he said. “That was really scary.”

That experience was the only true close call among all of the peaks, though much of it was a balancing act eerily similar to navigating icy, narrow ridgelines, Noakes said.

“It was a battle of is this intuition or is this fear?” he said. “With each step forward, I said, ‘I think it’s my fear, I’m gonna go for it.’”

That lesson is applicable not only to skiing Idaho’s tallest mountains, but also to the challenges people encounter every day that at first seem too daunting, Noakes said.

“If you just go one step closer, then you find out ‘oh, I can go one step further,’” Noakes said. “And then you keep going and you find out, ‘oh, it’s not as bad as I thought.’”

“You can take that energy and put it somewhere else, whether it’s a relationship or starting a business,” he said.

Noakes is not producing the docu-series for profit, but in hopes that it inspires others to derive self-worth from fulfilling personal goals rather than letting their net worth or career dictate it.

“You come back with a sense of self-confidence and self-peace,” Noakes said. “But I think what a lot of people struggle with is that society doesn’t really reward you for these endeavors.”

Powder conditions made Mount Idaho’s near 50-degree slopes the best of the nine peaks, while Mount Church claimed the title for longest outing at 14 hours and 23 miles roundtrip, Noakes said.

Noakes escaped any falls while skiing or scaling near vertical snow walls, but was forced to drop-trou on top of Donaldson Peak after the urge of nature calling became too much to ignore.

Each mountain ascent was plotted using Google Earth and uploaded to a Garmin GPS device Noakes used to keep him generally on track for each peak.

Noakes owns a local animation company called “Motifize” and is known locally for his pursuit of extreme outdoor activities, including in 2018 when he hiked the 1,000-mile Idaho Centennial Trail.

(c) McCall Star News

This is what Tom Lopez, author of Idaho: A Climber's Guide, had to say about Dan's adventure:

"Just summiting the 12ers in a short period of time is an impressive accomplishment. Doing it in winter-like conditions takes the effort to another level. Skiing down them? The first thought to cross my mind was "wow." The next thought was what a crazy, bold, dangerous challenge. Dan Noakes rocks!"

SS: Which was harder? Tackling the ICT or summiting and skiing all the 12ers?

DN: "I have asked myself that question. They are two different beasts. I would say that the 12ers are scarier because there are spots with high consequences if you fall. Skiing is the same, high consequence if you fall and then are alone out in the Lost River Range. 

"With that said, the ICT is more of a challenge overall IMO. It is longer miles, a ton of bushwhacking, more of a commitment for sure and more endurance because you have to travel 940 miles instead of 90 is what I traveled on the 12ers. This is all my opinion."

SS: Which was tougher mentally, the ICT?

DN: "Oh gosh. Yes I think overall the unknowns and being away alone in the wilderness for so long on the ICT was more mentally taxing. With the 12ers you had the thrill of skiing, which made up for any agony that you felt on the way up."

There you have it! Are you inspired?

Idaho’s 12,000-foot Peaks

1.     Mount Borah: 12,667’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
2.     Leatherman Peak: 12,228’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
3.     Mount Church: 12,201’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
4.     Diamond Peak: 12,197’ – Butte County, Lemhi Range
5.     Mount Breitenbach: 12,140’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
6.     Lost River Mountain: 12,078’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
7.     Mount Idaho: 12,064’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
8.     Donaldson Peak: 12,023’ – Custer County, Lost River Range
9.     Hyndman Peak: 12,009’ – Blaine County, Pioneer Mountains

(All photos courtesy Dan Noakes)

- SS

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Boise woman conquers all 9 of Idaho's 12,000-foot peaks in 1 year; who's going to do it next?

She's summited all nine 12ers in Idaho! Irene Vogel on the summit of 12,228-foot Leatherman Peak
Hi all,

I like to climb mountains, and I know a lot of you do, too. But I'm not a technical rock-climber. I had a really close call on the side of Mount Washington in Montana while I was in college that almost got me killed, so I'm much more comfortable bagging peaks that are doable as a walk-up or a hands-and-feet scramble.

I noticed on Facebook this summer that Irene Vogel of Boise was on a quest to climb all nine of Idaho's 12,000-foot peaks -- the highest peaks in the state -- in one year. That's something that I've never done, but it's definitely something I'd like to do, so I thought I'd share her story in case it's something you'd like to do as well.

Vogel made it a goal to climb all of Idaho's 12ers in one year last January. She thought it would be a neat and challenging thing to do the year she turns 40. She had climbed the state's highest peak, 12,662-foot Mt. Borah and 12,228-foot Leatherman Peak the year before, and she had gotten hooked.
Irene on the trail ... Check out her gear 
Both of those climbs were challenging, she says. "It took me 16 hours to climb Leatherman from the Pahsimeroi side," she says. "I loved it but I was totally exhausted. It was really hard."

Two weeks ago, Vogel achieved her goal by summiting Leatherman again, this time in only 3 hours (the climbing part). Eleven of her friends went with her. Each of them brought back a rock for a cairn they built at Vogel's home, with their name on it. "It's been a really cool journey," she says. "I have so much support from friends who went with me on the climbs, and support from friends and family who live here in town. It's been a great experience."
View from the top of Hyndman Peak in the Pioneer Mountains
Getting ready - training. Vogel says she didn't do any specific training for the big climbs, but she did a lot of biking and hiking on Boise foothills trails, road biking, and snowshoeing in the winter. She also worked on three winter ascents in early 2012 -- Cobb Peak and Hyndman Peak in the Pioneers, and Cone Peak in the Boulders. "That got me in shape," she says.

Planning resources: Summitpost.org and Idaho - A Climbing Guide by Tom Lopez. Lopez's book has great information on getting to the trailheads, and details on different scramble routes, and summitpost has helpful notes from other people who have climbed the peaks and posted photos of their journeys.

She didn't quite make it to the top of Hyndman because of winter weather, so that would have to wait.
In May, she climbed 12,197-foot Diamond Peak in the Lemhi Mountains. There was still snow on the mountain (it's recommended as a better winter ascent than summer), and she did the steep ascent with crampons.

Sequence of her 12er ascents: 1. Diamond Peak; 2. Lost River Mountain; 3. Hyndman Peak; 4-5. Donaldson Peak and Mount Church (both can be done in one day); 6. Mount Idaho; 7. Mt. Borah; 8. Mount Breitenbach; 9. Leatherman Peak.

A mountain goat lording over the high country
Vogel had a friend, Jake, who also was working on bagging all of Idaho's 12ers, so she followed his priorities as their weekends allowed. She fit in the other peaks with friends. She and Jake did five of them together, including Leatherman at the end.

She didn't let the smoke from the summer's fires slow her down. She had to deal with some smoky air from time to time, but it didn't bother her lungs. "It might have caused problems for other people, but it didn't bother me," she says. "We had lightning, thunder, sleet, rain, snow, high winds -- weather was a bigger deal."

Storms can come up quickly with little warning at 12,000 feet. The toughest ascent was 12,078-foot Lost River Mountain, Vogel says. The main route to the summit is a "super" gully, described as being "nasty" over a mobile rock scree field. "The snow in the gully was rotten, and we had to climb up the rock scree chute with 45-50 mph winds blowing the whole time," she says. "It was tough on a knife-edge ridge ... I didn't want to get blown off the mountain."
Irene's route up Lost River Mountain amid 45-50 mph winds 
Easiest climb: Mt. Borah "because there's a trail all the way to the top" and Leatherman (this year).

One of the challenges for Vogel is that she's found that she is susceptible to altitude sickness, so she has to force herself to eat snacks on the way up the mountain and hydrate. Her favorite trail foods are trail mix, peanuts, peanut butter pretzels, fruit bars, things like that.

Equipment: She carries a windproof and waterproof jacket for ridgetops and summits. She wears zip-off hiking pants, Asolo hiking boots and gators. Layers of clothing on top that can be peeled. She likes to use hiking poles especially for the way down. For some peaks, she needed crampons or an ice ax. She also wears rubber-coated gardening gloves for ascents. "Rubber is good. It helps with gripping  onto the rocks when you're climbing hand-and-feet on steep slopes."  
Most of the routes up the 12ers are "pretty much straight up" 
For water, she carried a big 4-quart water bladder and an extra water bottle.

All of the climbs are different, she says, but one commonality is "a lot of the climbs are pretty much straight up and all of them have rocks and scree."

Looking at the list of 12ers, you see elevation gains of 4,500 feet, 4,100 feet, 4,200 feet, 5,500 feet, etc. For some, she camped at a trailhead and started out early to head for the summit, returning by late afternoon. For others, she packed into a base camp one day, and climbed the peak the next day.
Heidi-ho! 
Why go to the top? "For me, it's the pristine beauty of it. It's so pretty being able to see all of the different mountain ranges in Idaho from the top." And being at over 12,000 feet, you are on top of the world in Idaho, standing above the many 10,000-foot peaks in Central Idaho. "A lot of people think the Lost River Range is ugly, but I love the stark beauty of it."

Cool tradition: She took a cotton American flag to the summit of each mountain, unrolling it for a photo each time. The flag comes from her grandmother. In each picture at the summit, Vogel held her flag and Vogel would show which peak she had summited in the progression, such as No. 5, No. 8 or whatever, with her fingers.
Irene carries her grandmother's cotton American flag to the top of all the 12ers
Advice for others: Try climbing Mt. Borah, see how you do, and go from there.
  • Bring at least one buddy on all of the trips. 
  • Get in good shape before you begin doing the summit climbs.
  • Listen to your body and know when to turn back if you're not feeling well. 
  • Know when to pull the plug if bad weather sets in. Don't play chicken with lightning. 
  • If you get into a steep rocky area that has no foreseeable scramble route (it's getting too technically challenging and scary), you should turn around and find a better route. 
  • Stay hydrated. Drink lots of fluid and snack food on the way up. Some people may cramp up from dehydration. 
On the rooftop of Idaho. Nice going you guys!  
Vogel has met hiking mates through the Meet Up Boise Trail Heads and the Idaho Hiking Club Facebook groups, and the Idaho Outdoors Yahoo Group. I'm a member of those groups, and there are people making open invites for a wide variety of trips all the time. Leo Hennessy is leading a mountain bike ride in Silver City this weekend through Idaho Outdoors. Check out the web sites and join these groups if you're looking to join group hikes, bike rides, paddling trips, backpack trips, etc.   

I hope you fine Vogel's story inspiring. I know I did. I'm not sure I'll be able to knock off all of the 12ers in one season, but in my opinion, it's a laudable goal to try to notch them all in a lifetime. It's a cool bucket list item for the outdoorsy Idaho soul -- the Idaho equivalent of notching all the 14ers in Colorado (there are over 50 of them).  There are actual speed records for bagging all of Idaho's 12ers -- Dave Bingham and Rob Landis of Hailey did them all in 1 day, 14 hours and 50 minutes. My god! Nick Stover, a former adventure racer in Boise, did them all in 3 days, 11 hours and 16 minutes. Wow! 

You decide what kind of pace you want to set. 

Have fun! 
-- SS