The year in hiking

Hm, I sure have been silent for a while. I don’t know why that is except for the generic being busy answer. Anyway since it is just about the end of the year and I’m not going to get another hike in, I’ve decided to present this quick retrospective on my hiking this year. It was quite a season for me. We started hiking in March on Monadnock, and finished up just last weekend on the same mountain. I still managed to take two whole months off. I also had some forced time off due to a knee injury. This is way more hiking than I’ve done in many many years, and is even more than I did when I was in scouts and did this sort of thing regularly.

Anyway, let’s run through some numbers:

• Total hikes taken: 20
• Total solo hikes: 2 (Moosilauke, Pierce)
• Miles hiked: 135.2
• Elevation gained: 47,960’
• Most frequently hiked: Monadnock, four times. This is easy because it’s only 45 minutes away.
• Runners-up: Chocorua, Lafayette, Little Haystack, Moosilauke, twice each
• Named peaks summited (including duplicates): 27
• 4000’ers summited (including duplicates): 14
• New 4000’ers summited this year (not including duplicates): 12
• Total 4000’ers summited to date: 16
• Longest hike: 11.0 miles (Tripyramid loop)
• Most elevation gain: 4300’ (Washington via Tuckerman Ravine Trail)
• Steepest trail section: 1200’ in 0.5 miles (Mt. Tripyramid Loop, north slide)

Now let’s try some more subjective stuff.

• Favorite hike: This is hard. It’s either Mt. Washington via Tuckerman Ravine for the sheer scope and scenery of it all, or Eisenhower for the good trail and almost as good scenery, or the successful Franconia Ridge loop for the huge amount of time spent above tree line.
• Least favorite hike: Webster-Jackson loop. This probably has something to do with that whole head injury I sustained towards the end of it and feeling ill at the beginning.
• Hikes to repeat next year: Moosilauke from the Ravine Lodge, Mt. Eisenhower, Franconia Ridge
• Hikes to probably not repeat next year: Mt. Tripyramid loop (can only do that so often), Cannon, Avalon/Field/Tom (a good hike, but not a favorite - I’ll go again if someone else wants to).
• Regrets: Not making it back up to the Northern Presidentials, not getting to see the Bonds, not doing the loop from Flume to Lafayette.

So after all that, where do I go next year? I think the first order of business is to take care of this year’s regrets. I’d like to try out some new stuff like the Carter-Moriah range, backpacking through the extreme north of the White Mountains or the interior of the Pemi Wilderness, and climbing through Huntington Ravine on Mt. Washington. I also have some numeric goals of beating the 2006 mileage and elevation totals and completing at least half of the NH 4000’ers. I can do both of those if I follow through with most of my plans. Finally, there’s the big goal of spending a week in the Sierra Nevada and climbing Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the lower 48 states.

The really great thing about all of this is that I have gotten back into some physical activity that I really enjoy. It’s a bonus that it involves spending hours walking around through the mountains. Along the way, I was able to share one really great hike with Paul and Lisa, and introduce Sarah to it with a quick trip up Mt. Willard. Hopefully I can spend a lot more time up in the mountains this coming year. If only it weren’t so far away.

That’s it for this retrospective. Some time next week I’ll write a little about the brewing I did. Then I’ll be all through with talking about hobbies for the year.