Wendy Cone possesses mountains of motivation. She’s the kind of person who abides by such mantras as “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready” and “Time waits for no one.”
So Cone, who is charging through a self-imposed challenge to walk 10,000 steps a day for 100 days, appreciates it when someone dangles a new endeavor in front of her.
And this spring, the Timpanogos Hiking Co. did just that. A year after it began offering free badges to anyone who summited its namesake, it unveiled its Ten Peak Challenge. Now, anyone hardy enough to hike to the top of what are probably the 10 most notorious northern Utah peaks — including King’s Peak, the state’s tallest mountain (13,528 feet) and Provo Peak, by most accounts the range’s steepest hike (1,800 feet per mile) — can collect a commemorative patch at the Provo store. The shop is also offering a bonus patch for people who climb to the top of the rock Y above BYU.
For Cone, the 10 Peak Challenge was just the nudge she needed to take on some new adventures.
“I’d been told about it by friends, coworkers and my husband,” the 55-year-old massage therapist from Saratoga Springs said. “But not until I saw somebody else posted about the badge and she’s like, ‘I did it!’ that I was like, ‘I’m going to do that. I’m going to do that now!’
“So it 100% got me out there, absolutely.”
Getting people outside is the whole point of the Timpanogos Hiking Co., and the badges, said founder Joe Vogel.
In 2020, Vogel’s life went into a tailspin. His father caught COVID-19 and nearly died, Vogel said. His mother was suffering the cognitive and emotional repercussions of a severe head injury. And, he was going through a divorce.
“It all hit at the same time,” he said. “And it just shattered my life.”
A tenured professor of literature and film at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, Vogel temporarily moved back to Utah to care for his parents. To care for himself during the stressful time, he moved on trails in the state’s mountains and forests.
“It’s almost a form of meditation, like just hearing your feet,” he said. “And moving and sweating, I think there’s something to that as well.”
In part because Mount Timp looms so large over Utah County, and in part because he likes the resonance of the name, Vogel started the Timpanogos Hiking Co. as an online apparel store. Much of the messaging on the clothing emphasized mental health, with one collection dubbed “Escape the Noise.” That, in turn, resonated with consumers.
Last year, Vogel decided to go all-in on the brand after finding a storefront in a hip area along University Avenue near BYU in Provo. An author with several titles to his name, he said he organized the store like he would a book. In fact, he has copies of works by Henry David Thoreau and Mary Oliver scattered throughout the space.
“I was thinking, ‘What do I want people to see first?’ That’s my introduction, right? What’s the journey? I was just thinking about that,” said Vogel, who still teaches a few literature courses at Utah Valley University. “So I have no idea if this is following any kind of standards, it was just kind of thinking in terms of an audience and what I wanted them to see and in what order.”
Anyway, the mission of the company isn’t to keep people inside but to get them out. That’s where the badges come in.
The idea for the badges came from a history book Vogel stumbled upon while researching what he dubbed “all things Timp” prior to opening his store. He discovered that nearly a century ago, an organization began giving pins to anyone who hiked to the top of the 11,753-foot mountain.
But the program, which began in 1934, was a victim of its own success. On a summer day in 1971, more than 5,000 people showed up for the official “Mount Timp Hike” — an annual outing started in 1912 by a BYU track coach to encourage physical activity among students. The trail couldn’t withstand the swarm of hikers. The next year, the hike and the badge program were disbanded.
Then, last summer, Vogel brought the Mount Timp badge program out of dormancy.
“I thought, ‘People are still hiking the mountain all the time, so what if we just gave [out] badges,’” he said. “Obviously it’s good for our business because it brings people to our store, but it’s also kind of just a public service.”
To claim a badge — which is similar to a Girls Scout patch — hikers must take a photo of themselves at the top of the peak and post it on social media with a Timpanogos Hiking Co. tag. Then, they must go to the store to collect their badge, which cannot be bought.
Vogel underestimated how popular the Mount Timp badges would be. He initially ordered 300 last year, but quickly had to place a second order for 500 more. This year, he started off with a thousand Timp and Y badges and 500 each of the other nine peaks: Kings Peak, Mount Nebo (11,933 feet), Pfeifferhorn (11,331), Lone Peak (11,253), Provo Peak (11,068), Mount Superior (11,045), Spanish Fork Peak (10,192), Ben Lomond (9,716) and Mount Olympus (9,026).
They are going quickly, as Cone can attest. The day she hiked the Y, she said she met three or four families whose kids were “gaga” over getting badges for finishing the hike. It’s not an easy trek, she noted, and she credited the reward, even one smaller than a Matchbox car, for motivating people to get out and push their limits.
“I’m not that mom who wants to give a trophy to every kid simply for participating,” Cone said. “But I think this is a level up, definitely, of hiking. So, how cool is that? It can get people going to the next level, basically, and enjoy our [mountains].”
That includes Cone, who followed up her summit of the Y with a hike to the top of Provo Peak. Next, she is planning her first trip to the top of Mount Timp in September. Then she has her sights set on the Camino de Santiago, a 500-mile tramp through Spain. It’s unlikely she’ll stop at that, though.
After all, to quote Thoreau: “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
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