Wyoming 13ers Quest

[d_baker]

Aside: cougar, I think you can just make that your avatar at this point? appreciate the enthusiasm

hahaha...the copy/paste response to multiple threads lately!


Eli B, this is one awesome summer I think you'll look back on for a long time to come! But then again, we'll have to see what 2021 has in store for you! Great job!

[nsaladin]

Holy f**k! Nice work! It feels like I was just reading the first post of this thread a few days ago... Summer went by fast, and you definitely put this summer to good use!

[Matt Lemke]

Major congrats on finishing! Perhaps one of the best elevation-based lists with under 100 peaks in the lower 48, what do you think? Props for getting West Twin, that's some sweet dedication to doing it in "no-asterisks" style. I'm impressed the Koven register was actually legible. Best to your team as well!

Eli,
I would agree that this is probably the best elevation threshold list in the lower 48 with less than 100 peaks. I would say that it's about a third of the difficulty as the WA Bulgers (since it has about a third of the total peaks). I generally like to compare lists by boiling the difficulty of a list on a per-peak basis. For example, the Canadian Rockies 11ers on a per peak basis is probably one of the more difficult in North America due to the extremely fickle weather and conditions. North Americas highest 10 (which I believe has only been completed by Gerry Roach) is likely even harder.

However, since 30 of the 35 WY 13ers are all close to one another, I actually think that makes the difficulty generally slightly easier than if they were all scattered around the state, since a trip like the one Eric and I just did is possible. Anyways, congrats again on finishing! I will be excited to read your report. I am working on mine today and it'll be up on my site tomorrow if anyone is interested.
Matt

[Eli Boardman]

Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! I really enjoyed reading every one of you guys' posts, and they are all appreciated.

Which were your favorites? Which were the hardest?

Favorite would probably have to be Gannett, just because it dominates the whole area so much, and the Gooseneck is a nice mix of not-too-difficult but still interesting. Other favorites are Francs (everyone loves their finisher, plus the Absarokas are cool), Downs (my most-local 13er and farthest north 13er on the Divide), the Grand (obviously), Henderson, Helen, Sunbeam, and Fremont.

I would rank the top few peaks as follows in terms of difficulty:
1. Spearhead/Grand Teton (tie at ~5.4; the Grand is more sustained, but Spearhead might have the hardest move)
3. Turret (unfriendly mossy slabs or chossy couloir; 5.2 with complicated routefinding)
4. Woodrow Wilson (usually a mix of steep rotten snow and steep rotten rock; 5.1 summit ridge)
5. Koven (steep snow and 5.0 rock in early season; might be the hardest 13er in late season)
6. Warren (short section of 5.0 on standard couloir route)

What next? Doing them all in winter?

Hah, I wonder if anyone will ever do some of these peaks in winter...certainly not me. Next up is schoolwork, research that I'm behind on, and rest. Maybe a little cabin building too. (The WY 12ers is a nice list, though...)

Much respect, Eli. It's a tough list, let alone to do it solo in one season. Congrats!

Thanks Teresa! And a special shout-out to you and Sarah for the inspiration to do this and for the pictures. Best of luck on all your peakbagging!

[12ersRule]

Amazing job! Thanks for posting all your adventures.

[Vadim34]

Eli, thanks for sharing this quest with us. That’s an amazing accomplishment. Your pictures with the comments are world class. It takes a lot of skill to do those peaks and you did it in style. That eight peak outing that your had was hard to be believe but you did it with the full pack wow.
Congratulations!

[rijaca]

Congrats Eli! A huge accomplishment!

To finish with your parents along is very cool. Some of my best days in the mountains are the days I've spent with my kids. You've created some great memories!

And thanks for sharing the photos. The Wind Rivers are a special place.

Even Big Boy salutes you....

Big Boy.small.jpg (75.83 KiB) Viewed 3550 times

[nunns]

That's an absolutely amazing accomplishment!!!
Congratulations.

Sean Nunn

[EricGilbertson]

Nice work Eli!

I actually also finished the Wyoming 13ers this summer the same week as you. My total time was 16 days 17 hours, so I guess that's the current FKT.
It's interesting that Matt, you, and I all independently decided to finish the WY 13ers this summer and all finished within a few days of each other.

Btw, my GPS measured a prominence of 266ft for pedestal peak, so well below the 300ft cutoff for list inclusion, which is why I would recommend going with the standard list of 35 peaks.
I also measured East Twin to be higher than west twin, but the measurements were on different days so I'll need to try to calibrate the measurements to be certain.
Also of interest, Matt and I discovered an undocumented class 2/3 way up Warren, so it was actually one of the easiest 13ers for us.

[Vadim34]

Awesome job Eric and Matt. Hard to believe that you guys did all of those peaks so fast. Matt’s website describes your adventure in great detail with many good pictures which is helpful for additional route options! Well done! Thanks for posting!
Vadim

[Matt Lemke]

Thanks Vadim...I am glad it's getting some use! I should have the remaining last few days of our trip added to the report real soon.

It was super awesome climbing all these peak with Eric...he's accomplished so much more than I ever will. I do agree the coincidence that 3 of us would run through the WY 13ers at essentially the exact same time is just wild, although if it weren't for Covid neither Eric or I would have done the WY 13ers so I suppose external elements helped to enable this coincidence.

[Eli Boardman]

Nice work Eli!

I actually also finished the Wyoming 13ers this summer the same week as you. My total time was 16 days 17 hours, so I guess that's the current FKT.
It's interesting that Matt, you, and I all independently decided to finish the WY 13ers this summer and all finished within a few days of each other.

Huge congrats to Eric for the current FKT! Solid work. I've enjoyed browsing the trip reports from both you and Matt, thanks for sharing!