John Platt, accomplished cyclist, helped shape Boise’s outdoor rec world. He died at 66
John Platt was a force to be reckoned with, his friends said. For decades he’d led their adventures, whether traversing the mountains on skis, cycling through the Foothills, scaling rock walls or hiking deep in the backcountry.
On Feb. 8, Platt died of a heart attack while skiing near McCall. He was 66.
Platt played a role in shaping outdoor recreation in Idaho, from kickstarting the Boise mountain bike craze as a co-owner of Idaho Mountain Touring to maintaining trails across the state as a board member with the Idaho Trails Association. Platt had numerous outdoor achievements to his name, including a brush with the U.S. Olympic cycling team, and he was always quick to share his enthusiasm and knowledge with others.
“I just can’t think of anything he didn’t dive into,” said Art Troutner, a lifelong friend of Platt’s. “He was a great athlete and had a great attitude. He just wanted people to have fun.”
Boise man was an outdoor Renaissance man
Platt was a “sharp guy,” said Troutner, who first met Platt when the two were students at Boise High School in the late 1960s. As a teen, Platt fell in love with bicycle racing and joined the George’s Cycles team when the store opened in 1971. Along with his brother Tom, and friend Mike Cooley, Platt was part of the Boise Cycling Club.
“After that, he just never quit riding the bike,” Troutner said.
Platt graduated from Boise High in December 1972 when he was 17 years old. Through Platt’s late teens and early 20s, cycling played a central role in his life. He moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where he worked as a bike mechanic at an outdoor recreation shop and spent his free time training for cycling races. Platt still made it home to Boise to compete, too. He won the Bogus Basin Hill Climb — a race from Boise to the nearby ski area — three years in a row: 1976, ‘77 and ‘78.
Cooley, Platt’s friend who would go on to co-own George’s Cycles with Tom Platt, said John Platt was one of the first Hill Climb competitors to complete the race in under an hour.
By the late 1970s, Platt had been selected as a member of USA Cycling’s Olympic development team. He trained in Colorado Springs and in the spring of 1980 traveled to France to ride in a series of Pro-Am races. That year, the U.S. boycotted the Olympics, which were held in Moscow.
In 1982, John and his first wife welcomed their first child, a daughter named Mariel.
Platt began to step back from cycling and soon went to friend Chris Haunold, a co-worker at the outdoors store in Corvallis, with a proposition: They should open an outdoor recreation store of their own.
In 1984, Platt moved back to Boise and opened Idaho Mountain Touring. Haunold soon followed, and the two brought the cutting edge of outdoor recreation to the Treasure Valley. It was one of the first stores to carry equipment for activities like mountain biking, wind surfing and Nordic skiing — sports Platt would excel at and pursue for the rest of his life.
“In ‘84, mountain biking was kind of a novelty,” said Haunold, who still runs Idaho Mountain Touring. “That was sort of our niche, introducing new products. A lot of that was John. He was like a big kid and always wanted to try the latest and greatest.”
Haunold said Platt set the tone for sports that would become immensely popular in Boise.
“There was no REI in town, no internet. It pretty much all happened locally,” Haunold said.
Platt later realized the store wasn’t his passion — but he’d met someone he was passionate about there. He met his second wife, Julie, at Idaho Mountain Touring in 1985. Platt moved to Eugene, Oregon, to be with Julie. The two worked together as bike mechanics before moving to Bend, where Platt worked as a ski instructor and Nordic lodge manager at Mt. Bachelor. John and Julie married in 1989.
In 1990, Platt joined Trek Bicycle Corporation, first as a mechanic and later as a writer for bike manuals. He and Julie spent three years in Wisconsin, where the brand is headquartered, and welcomed his second daughter, Jasmine, in 1993. The family returned to Boise again that same year.
Back in Idaho, Platt earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in technical communication from Boise State University. He dabbled in mountain biking, backpacking, skiing and mountaineering, among other outdoor pursuits, and began curating a website of his adventures.
He also joined his friend Brian Mahon in a mountaineering series they called the Celebration of Life — a multiday trip scaling peaks in the Cascades in memory of another friend, Jeff Walker, who had died of kidney cancer. Each peak represented a deadly cancer, and the pair used the expedition to urge men to get checked for cancers. Platt would later survive skin cancer.
Platt was known for arranging wild excursions, from skiing across the Sawtooth mountains to an annual New Year’s Eve snowshoe ascent of Cervidae Peak near Boise.
“People that know him knew he was notorious for putting together these adventures and dragging hapless people along,” Haunold said. “Everybody that knows John had been dragged along on some adventure at some point.”
Platt climbed hundreds of peaks in Idaho and across the country. According to Lists of John, an online site tracking peakbagging, Platt had reached more Idaho summits than just about anyone else on record.
“His favorite place in the world was the top of a peak, no matter what peak it was,” said Dave Beck, a longtime friend of Platt’s. At the top of each mountain, Platt would insist the group have a “summit hug.”
In 2012, Platt and his wife moved to McCall, where he spent much of his time exploring the Lick Creek Range with Julie, his friends and his dog, Ruby.
“He probably knew that mountain range better than anyone,” said Tom Lopez, a friend of Platt’s and author of “Idaho: A Climbing Guide.”
Platt loved to teach, share adventures
Along with Platt’s many accomplishments, he was known for his willingness to teach others about the activities he loved. His daughters accompanied him on hiking and skiing trips early on. “Carrying a kid in a backpack makes for good training,” Platt noted on his website.
Jasmine Platt recalled weekends spent on dusty trails or snowy mountains with her parents.
“It wasn’t a ‘normal’ childhood, but he wasn’t a ‘normal’ father either,” she said. “He was John Platt.”
Jasmine said her father’s love for his children, his wife and later his grandchildren was immense and evident in the smallest actions — like the way he would ferry Jasmine and Julie over creek crossings on their adventures.
“My dad would cross first with all of our backpacks, leave them on the other side, and return across the creek — often in fast, freezing, thigh-high water — to carry my mom and I over on his back, one by one,” Jasmine said. “I was not a small child; he just had a big heart.”
In the 1980s, Platt led mountain bike rides in the Boise Foothills. His website, Splattski.com, was a blueprint for adventurous Idahoans hoping to find a new trail or climbing route.
“He was really good at directing people outdoors, “ Troutner said. “He loved to take people who’d never done it before under his wing.”
Platt also served as a board member of the Idaho Trails Association, where he volunteered to lead trail crews and, with Troutner and Beck, was retracing the route of an old mining trail.
“John made everyone feel a part of ‘the crew,’ sharing his skills and love for the backcountry,” Idaho Trails Association officials said in a statement on Platt’s passing. “John was an important part of the ITA family, and the absence of his big smile in the middle of a tough hike on a hot day will be deeply felt.”
Friends came to rely on Platt as a leader, someone who could be trusted to take charge and keep people safe. Platt put those skills to use joining Valley County Search and Rescue, where he aided in finding missing hikers.
“I used to tell people if you have John with you, you don’t need The Ten Essentials (for hiking),” Lopez joked.
Bob Boyles, who spent years rock climbing, said Platt was the person he’d want with him if he was ever injured in the backcountry.
“John would always wait for you,” Boyles said. “He would’ve carried you out no matter what the conditions.
Jasmine Platt said her father’s death has been devastating, but her family has found comfort once more in his guidance.
“I can’t help but feel lost without him, but I find comfort in how my dad never ‘got lost,’ ” Jasmine said. “He would just improvise a new path, and so will we.”
