Climb every mountain

COEUR d'ALENE - The list, written in pencil, starts in 2004 under Highpoint Completion Log. First is Granite Peak in Montana. Next, Mount Rainier in Washington.

The list, in hurried handwriting, continues in 2005 with Mount Borah in Idaho, Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Elbert in Colorado.

It grows longer in 2006, with Mount Sunflower in Kansas, Panorama Point in Nebraska, Wheeler Peak in New Mexico, Guadalupe Peak in Texas, Humphrey's Peak in Arizona, and Mount Whitney in California.

That list belongs to Julie Lilienkamp.

The Coeur d'Alene woman has climbed them all - and many more.

Each time, when she reaches the summits, often around 12,000 or 13,000 feet, she knows what drove her there.

"Looking out from above at all the creation that's there, you just appreciate life. Everything else doesn't matter at that point," the 49-year-old said. "All the worries that you have, all the troubles that you have, kind of go away, and you get refreshed, you get filled up again."

The writer, certified mountain climber and rock climber, adventurer and advertising sales rep set a goal to climb the highest peak in every state. She's closing in.

"I got sidetracked when I moved to Colorado to finish an internship with a climbing magazine," she said. "I kind of immersed myself into that whole mountaineering experience."

Can't blame her. Nothing like leaving work early on a Friday, driving to a mountain, rising early Saturday, and just heading up, climbing and living.

She works the desk job because it pays the bills, but Julie Lilienkamp loves adventure.

Another glance at her notes in her book "Highpoint Adventures" make that perfectly clear.

In May of 2006, she covered 5,100 miles in 7 days. "Whew!"

2006-2007, lived in a tent for months near Mount Sopris in Colorado.

2007-2009, lived in Sandpoint, worked at Schweitzer. She walked to work, in hiking boots, to build strength and endurance.

"Then I'd run down," she said.

"May 2008 Mt. Everest B.C., and Island Peak, summited 20,305 feet." She didn't stop there. She climbed down and went to work on painting a school and building a library in a village - and helped raise money for the project, too.

In 2009, she moved to Moscow to finish school at the University of Idaho.

There are two words that continually resurface to summarize 2010, 2011 and 2012: "Road Trip."

The list of states she visited included Wisconsin, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

She chronicles her adventures and gives presentations on mountaineering and the places she's seen, the people's she's come to know. She is on a mission to climb, to travel, to share and to make a difference for those that need help.

There is a great need for education in Third World countries.

"They don't have paper and pencil," she said.

Challenges

Lilienkamp has faced her own dangers. Comes with the territory when you're in thin air, packing gear and fighting for each breath.

Mountain weather, she says, changes constantly, dramatically.

"Anything over 10,000 feet, you better be ready for the mountain to do its thing. And almost every time, it does."

She fell off a summit, saved only by the rope that linked the climbing team together.

She suffered what is known as High Altitude Cerebral Edema, another name for swollen brain caused by being at high altitude.

"The only way to get rid of that is to hike down and get out of there," she said.

On an outing to Mount Rainier, she and a partner were caught in a sudden whiteout and couldn't see but a few feet in front of them.

"We followed a set of tracks that we assumed knew where they were going. The wind was blowing so hard, as soon as we'd get to them, they blew away,"

It worked. They found their way.

"But if that person had gone the wrong direction, we would have gone in the wrong direction," she said.

She has asthma and Hashimoto disease, which is inflammation of the thyroid gland.

"As far as Hashimoto, I am 90 percent gluten free diet and take thyroid medication," she wrote. "Asthma comes and goes, so I use inhalers. When mountaineering, however, I don't use the inhalers unless it's an emergency. My biggest challenge is the hives from the cold from Hashimotos - I get hives on my skin, in my eyes, in my throat, stomach and lining of lungs. It goes away with heat and warm beverages in 2-3 hours."

Yet, comes one more challenge.

Her identical twin sister recently learned she has cancer on her right kidney and is going in for surgery.

Julie Lilienkamp knows what that means.

"Now I am committed to climbing for her and I want to do it for cancer awareness," she wrote.

Adventure

Lilienkamp grew up in Wallace in a home at the edge of a mountain on King Street. She and four sisters, the daughters of Gene and Michelle Lilienkamp.

"The mountain was our home and playground," she said.

Boy, did they play.

The family camped, often, on the St. Joe.

"It was one big huge party, camping with the family every summer," she said.

It was then that spirit for the outdoors took hold. It was then she discovered a love for pushing herself to the limits, and then some.

Which explains why she see mountains, and the pulse quickens.

"What I like the most is the fact it's an adrenaline rush and it's spiritual," she said.

"You blend those two together and it's almost impossible to describe the feeling you have when you get to the top of a peak," she said.

"When you summit and you've struggled and you take that one step at a time up, you know it's a struggle, but yet you accomplish it, there's nothing like it."

So, success depends on what?

"You have to be courageous, you have to be stubborn, and you have to have a spiritual drive. I really think it takes a spiritual drive to do it."

Next on her to-do list is getting in shape for a return trip to Nepal and a climb up Mount McKinley in Alaska's Denali National Park and Preserve, and a visit back to the village where she helped build that library.

The muscular, 5-foot-2 Lilienkamp bikes and hikes while wearing a heavy pack, and trail runs carrying weights. This is serious training. Has to be.

"It doesn't take me long to get in shape," she said. "If it's doable, I'll try it."

She's a part of Education Elevated, whose mission is "to support and promote education and to eliminate economic barriers in primary and secondary schools in needy communities throughout the world."

Education Elevated achieves this through hiking and climbing teams that raise financial support for every foot of elevation they climb.

"I promised that village I would go teach English, so that's next," she said.

Might as well climb a mountain while you're at it.