Fadgen's Adventures: Prescott and Inspiration Peaks

The Lemhi's in the early morning alpenglow

A couple of weeks back, John offered up a dozen peak selections for a Saturday trip. Though all looked interesting, I liked his idea of climbing Mounts Inspiration and Perspiration in honor of fellow mountaineer, Larry Prescott. Larry passed away from medical complications while climbing these peaks the prior weekend (Oct 29th). Though I had only met and climbed with Larry once earlier in the year, his death was a shock. A shock because he was a lot like me - 56, in pretty good shape and loved to get out and climb peaks.

After a warm night in our triple bed motel room in Arco, John, Michael and I met up with John's friend, Jeff, who drove down from Salmon. After a quick stop at the Charcoal Kilns, we proceeded up the four wheel drive "road" in Michael's FJ until we found a convenient turn around spot.

Getting ready in the cold canyon

It was clear and cold as we walked the remainder of the four wheel drive road before it turned into an ATV trail. At the end of the trail, we took a hard right and wondered through the open forest before gaining the north ridge to Peak 10,546.

Michael heating up as he moved into the sun

It wasn't long before we were above tree line and had the rugged north ridge of Peak 10,456 in our sights. Unfortunately, the view of our first peak of the day, Mount Perspiration, was blocked by Peak 10,456.

Peak 10,456 and it's north ridge

Once out of the forest, we also were in the hard crusty snow, and we opted to put on our crampons.

Heading up in the sunshine

John and Jeff stop to catch their breath

The snow depth was pretty variable, necessitating some rock cramponing. Just after the large gendarme shown in the above picture, I removed my crampons to make a tricky move across the rock. John and Jeff followed, while Michael looked around and found an easier way around the rock without taking off his crampons.

John finishing up the Gendarme

The final ridge to Peak 10,456

After reaching the summit of Peak 10,456, we removed our crampons and then proceeded up the gentle, snow free slope to Mount Perspiration. Someone on the Idaho Summits forum had provided the GPS location of where Larry passed, so the four of us stopped at this point to ponder the meaning of life. We enjoyed the amazing views while discussing re-naming the peak in honor of Larry. Though there is no official USGS name, Peak 10,693 will now be called Prescott Peak in our minds.

There's our peak - Prescott Peak

Mt Inspiration

John almost to the summit

As it was getting late, we only spent a short time on the summit of Prescott Peak before we dropped down the steep 400 feet to the saddle between Prescott and Mt Inspiration. With little snow to contend with, we made good time to the summit of Mount Inspiration at 10,715 feet.

John and Micheal heading down to the saddle

The final steep push to the summit of Mount Inspiration

We were all a bit tired as we re-traced our steps down Inspiration, up Prescott, and then back to the FJ. A long, satisfying day in the beautiful Idaho mountains with some great friends.

If I figured one thing out that day, it was to continue to live life to its fullest.