On July 15, 2022 I completed my quest to climb all 329 ranked summits in Blaine County, Idaho—everything from 5204′ Dinosaur Ridge to 12,009′ Hyndman Peak. Volcanic buttes in Craters of the Moon National Monument, massive mountains in the Pioneers, scrambles in the southern Sawtooths, and lots (and lots) of sagebrush hills.

For as long as I’ve been climbing Idaho’s tallest peaks, I’ve also been hiking to the top of the mountains and hills surrounding the Wood River Valley. I mostly started with the ones I could see from roads. I enjoy being able to drive around and recall being on the top of every peak I look at. I also wanted to visit all the various drainages so I would explore new mountain bike rides, hikes, 4×4 drives…but eventually I got to the point that every outing needed include a summit. I had become a ‘peakbagger’ and started logging my ascents on Lists of John, a painstakingly-made database that includes every mountain in the country. Peakbaggers need some sort of criteria to determine what constitutes a summit (vs. a sub-peak, disregardable hill, etc.). The general ruling is 300′ of prominence—which basically means vertical independence from other mountains. To give a local example, Seattle Ridge only rises 200′ from Broadway Saddle so it does not count as a separate mountain from Baldy. On peak the database anything with 300’+ prominence is ‘ranked’ as 1st, 2nd, 3rd…100th highest in a region (usually viewed by state). Once I noticed the sections that showed the total peaks in each county the thought of completing all 329 in my home county naturally popped up. At first, it was a pipe dream. “Maybe 20-30 years from now. But still probably not.”

As the 2020 climbing season came to a close, I had only a few 11ers left so that project was as good as done in my head. I started looking into what it would take to finish the Blaine County Peaks. I planned out all my routes and link-ups so I knew I had a plan for every last one. The next spring, once the ski resort closed I went right to work on the smaller peaks north of Carey. I’d drive out a drainage and knock off as many as I could before it was time to rush back home for dinner. I was making great progress and saw the dream becoming a reality. Despite breaking my ankle that summer, I checked off around 130 peaks from the list in 2021. Coming into 2022, I was hoping to finish the list on my birthday in July (as I had done with the 11ers on my previous birthday). A barrage of late-season snowstorms made that goal start to seem unlikely—but ultimately it just meant I had to be more strategic, patient, and dedicated.

Mountains ⛰

Blaine County’s summits are spread across a few mountain ranges: Smoky Mountains, Sawtooth Range, Boulder Mountains, Pioneer Mountains, and some buttes in the Snake River Plain.

Here’s how their elevations stack up:
12ers: 1
11ers: 24
10ers: 57
9ers: 67
8ers: 55
7ers: 60
6ers: 44
5ers: 21

Click here for an interactive map of the list.

Planning 🤔

Planning out climbs is actually one of my favorite aspects of all this. Each peak is its own puzzle that needs to be solved—and of course some are easier than others. I love sitting down at my computer with a digital map open and deciding on the best way to attain a summit. First, I’ll look at all the nearby roads and find the one that reaches the highest elevation. Keeping vertical gain to a minimum is my #1 priority. Then I’ll see if there are any trails in the area that can help me out. I’m almost always hiking off-trail, but I can certainly move faster (and sometimes even mountain bike) if I’m on trail. The other component to planning is grouping together peaks. I like to be efficient, so I want to do as many as seems practical in each outing. I do a lot of clicking around with the mouse to measure distances and elevation gains. Once I have a route idea I like I draw it in as a tentative plan.

Driving 🚙

Nearly all these ascents start from a dirt road. Sometimes you’ve got a graded dirt road to a popular trailhead that’s maintained regularly. Other times you’ve got an old mining road that was built 100 years ago and left to decay. 4x4ing tends to be a big part of peakbagging for that reason. Without a capable vehicle you’ll often be adding mileage to your hike. I’ve got a designated trail vehicle that can handle and and every backcountry road and keeps all the abuse off my daily driver. Nothing fancy—just an old Grand Cherokee with a lift, burly tires, pre-cracked windshield, and a lovely collage of scratches down the sides from branches.

Snowboarding 🏂

I enjoy collecting snowboard descents of these peaks as well. For the printed maps I have on my walls, I put in a white pin instead of a colored one to mark a peak I’ve snowboarded. My current count for Blaine County is 58 of the 329 peaks.

Family time 👪

Visiting the tops of mountains is clearly a big part of my life, so it’s always great when my family members can come along too. Even little Remi has already completed 18 of these peaks! We’ll sometimes go on little adventures to the mountains that have a road that leads most or all of the way up. We’ve certainly had some great family picnics on drive-up summits.

I’m not sure how many Danielle has summited but she was there for the lowest, the highest, the first, and the last. My first Blaine County summit was actually on Danielle’s birthday. Back when we were dating I was visiting Ketchum and we hiked up Dollar Mountain.

And, of course, there’s Skye. My trusty sidekick of 9 years has done almost all of these peaks with me. Most of the ones she missed were on linkups where I’d be up on ridgelines most of the day. Since there aren’t any water sources it means I would have to carry more for both of us. I’ve yet to meet a dog that can out-scramble her!