How Many NH 4000 Footers Have You Bagged?

[riverc0il]

i thought it would be cool to take advantage of this polling feature. this was the best question i could come up with. i actually had to check how many (NH) 4000 footers i've hiked as i'm not really keeping track. i use that list more as a suggested hiking list than a pursuit of bagging peaks. i've 'bagged' 8 officially, although i've hiked washington twice never making an 'official' summit.

how about you?

(edit: changing the title to clearify i was refering to NH 4000ers - also adding a zero to the poll)

[Greg]

Seventeen for me. I had to check the list as well:

Adams - 3 times
Bond - Twice
Bondcliff - Twice
Eisenhower - Twice
Flume - Once
Galehead - Once
Garfield - Once
Jefferson - 3 times
Lafayette - Twice
Liberty - Once
Lincoln - Twice
Madison - Twice
Moosilauke - 3 times
Monroe - 3 Times
Pierce (Clinton) - Once
Twin, South - Once
Washington - 4 times

[Greg]

Just a little curious as to what people's fascination with completing all 48 4000'ers is. What drives you to complete the list? This isn't something that's ever really been that important to me personally.

Again, I've hiked 17 of the 48 4000'ers - many of them more than once. I tend to revisit the peaks that I enjoy. I also like peaks with views and haven't really made an effort to hike the tree-clad peaks. Just curious as to what motivates others to complete the list.

[riverc0il]

i can understand the fascination with it without actually partaking in said fascination. actually, often times during my hikes, i wonder why i don't pursue more actively 'the list.' it's setting a common goal, working towards it, pushing past the uncomfortableness, and doing something most people don't do. there's also that achievement feel to it as well.

a lot of those emotions or feelings you really can't have without creating a goal and achieving it. so as to 'why set a goal in the first place?' i guess it's to feel that said sense of accomplishment in doing something hard that most people don't do. then again, why not set your own personalized goal rather than a community standard? my hiking goals have always been to enjoy the outdoors, challenge myself, learn something new about myself others or nature, and retain peace of mind and slow down in a disconnected and fragmented world. i've never failed once in my hikes in achieving those goals.

in any case, i love the list of NH 4000ers because i use it as a suggested hiking list. i might never have hiked some mountains if not for seeing them on that list and reading about them. this was part of the original spirit of the list... to show people there's more out there than big george and the franconias.

for future hikes, i want just as much to tag 2000-3000ers as much as 4000ers. however, that 4000+ is often a physical barrier and challenge that you don't get on smaller peaks, so that's always a draw.

so, i understand the pursuit of the list. my pursuit is not in finishing 'the list', it's in seeing and experiencing as many different parts of the whites as possible from as many different perspectives as possible. i'm sure this will eventually lead me to all 48, but i've already hiked an equal number of non 4k peaks.

Greg- Congrats on finishing 17 of NH's 48; rivercOil - same to you on your completion of 8. It's 8 more than most people will ever do.

Peakbagging is an activity that has a history of being maligned as much another activity mentioned in another thread on this board. Over the years, I've heard about all that I'm missing by not climbing other "lesser" mountains and how I've cheapened the mountains into an athletic pursuit. Personally, I just don't get why some people have an aversion to peakbagging. Hike your own hike .... go where your desires take you.

I don't want to brag about all the list I've done; suffice it to say that I've done New Hampshire's 48. Here are a few things I love about peakbagging.

1- Shared experience. I'm a loner out there on the trails, but by doing this list or that last, it connects me to anyone else who has completed the same list. Kind of the same feeling as what you may feel by going through Basic Training. Doesn't matter if you did it 10 years ago or 6 months ago, it's a bond that is shared by a relatively small percentage of the poplulation. Us highly active peakbaggers generally know who each other is even if we've never met.

2- It takes you places you wouldn't otherwise go. Marcy, Algonquin, the Presidentials are all mountains with OUTSTANDING views. But for me, I've come to enjoy wooded summits as much as the peaks with views. Climbing a mountain like, say, Couchsachraga or Reddington or Mendon not only increases your backcountry skills, but it also gives you a touch of that solitude that I'm always hearing doesn't exist in the Northeast mountains.

3- The list becomes like a friend. I'm sure you've heard this before, but when you work on a list for a couple of years, it gets to be a part of you and there's always something of a letdown on finishing. Fortunately, what I've found is that there is ALWAYS another list. If you're a New England hiker, the obvious first big list is the NH 48, but then there's the New England 4K peaks, and New England's Highest Hundred. The Northeast 111 and the ADK 46; the Catskill 3500 Hundred club; NY Firetowers; the Adirondack highest hundred; New Hampshire's highest hundred; and for the truly disturbed .... the Northeast 3000 foot club (a list of 767 mountains which as I understand has actually been completed by at least 3 people, one of which I'm not).

The moral as I see it is pretty basic: Hike your own hike and don't worry about what someone else is doing. For some people, hiking is a diversion; for others, it is an identity.

[Greg]

Welcome N.D.! Hope you'll register and participate more often!

I agree with you totally about "hiking your own hike". If following a list motivates folks to get out and hike, more power to them. I've been hiking in the Whites for 15 years and never really knew how popular it was to hike all 48 4000'ers until recently. Is this something folks have been pursuing for years, or is this a more recent endavor?

Last September, we base camped in the Pemi (talk about a great way to "decompress" after 9/11), and we dayhiked South Twin. On the return hike, I talked my brother into summiting Galehead, despite the lack of views from the summit (although the outlook is great). I have to admit some small part of me thought to myself, "well, here's another 4000'er". So perhaps I can be converted to a peakbagger. Like riverc0il, I'm sure I'll hit all 48 someday, but the list doesn't necessarily define where I go. I'll probably revisit a number of the peaks I've already done before finishing all 48.

A brief history of peakbagging in the Northeast

The first peakbaggers in the Northeast -- in fact, the first peakbaggers in America -- were Herb Clark and Robert and George Marshall. In 1918, this trio set out to climb the 46 Adirondack peaks that were believed to be over 4000 feet at the time. Though time would prove that only 42 of the peaks are actually over 4000, they were successful and the 46Rs were born. They have obviously become legendary in Northeast hiking circles.

Peakbagging in the Whites developed as a copycat of peakbagging in the Dacks and obviously doesn't go back as far. Interestingly, it was originally believed that there were 46 NH 4K peaks as well. But time would bring their true number upwards instead of downwards. Unlike the 46Rs who stick with the original list, new surveys be damned, the NH 4K list is a breathing one. The most recent survey changed the location of one summit from Wildcat E to Wildcat D and added to two mountains (Reddington and Spaulding) to the New England 4K list, which now stands at 67. The 1950s were the first decade that a significant number of hikers completed the White Mountain list.

In all, more people have done the Whites list than the ADK list basically because all White Mountain 4K mountains have maintained trails, whereas a full 20 of the 46 Dack mountains have unofficial herd paths (which present greater challenges). The distances from the nearest road in the ADKS are also generally greater. To date, about 7100 people have done the White Mountain list and a hair under 5000 have done the ADK list.

Additionally, approx. 400 have done the Northeast 111 (NY plus New England 4000 footers); 1400 have done the Catskill 3500 Club, about 500 have done New England's Highest Hundred and 1900 have climbed the New England 4K peaks.

For a more thorough and informative history of peakbagging in the Northeast, refer to Chapter 46 of Forest and Crag (Laura and Guy Waterman) or check out Mohammed Ellozy's website at http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/index.html [edited by Greg - Fixed Link]

The reason the link doesn't work is the period at the end. Try http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/index.html

[Greg]

Thanks N.D.! We both fixed it at the same time. Hey, if you were registered you could've edited yourself...

My wife and I have been hiking and camping in the Whites for decades without a list or any other game plan. However, three years ago I finally quite smoking, and as an incentive to remain smoke free, I agreed to hike all of the 48 4,000 peaks. So as to make it more interesting, we didn't include any peak that we had already climbed but rather wiped the slate clean so to speak.

At first, it was just something to look forward to each weekend as we drove up from CT. As the first season of being a peakbagger came to a close, we tallied up the peaks that we climbed and we surprise that we actually climbed 11 of the 48. Although that might not seem like a lot, we didn't start until June since I needed to be smoke free for about six months before attempting any 4,000 footers. During that season we also climbed other mountains that held our interest.

By the end of July of this year, we will have three left to complete. During the past three years, we have never treated the 48 as a means to an end, but rather as a beginning. After we complete the list this summer, we still plan to hike as many mountains as we can until we both give up the ghost.