Define Purist/Purism

[TJ aka Teej]

What's an AT purist?

What's AT purism?

Please answer as though you were writing an entry for an AT glossary

[owl]

Noun

<DL><DT>1. purist, pedant, bookworm, scholastic <DD>usage: someone who insists on great precision and correctness (especially in the use of words) </DD><DD>Noun

<DL><DT>1. purist, pedant, bookworm, scholastic <DD>usage: someone who insists on great precision and correctness (especially in the use of words) </DD><DD>pur•ism

Pronunciation: (pyoor'iz-um), [key]
—n.
1. strict observance of or insistence on purity in language, style, etc.
2. an instance of this.
3. (often cap.) Fine Arts.a style of art developed in France in the early 20th century, characterized by the use of simple geometric forms and images evocative of objects produced by machine.
</DD></DL>
</DD><DD>(Hiking the AT as a purist I don't know sounds to strict for me)
</DD></DL>

[hikerjohnd]

Gee - what sparked this thread?

Purist: An AT hiker who believes that one must pass all the white blazes, not missing an inch of the trail between Georgia and Maine. This is a pact usually made with one's self.

Purism: Strict observance of or insistence on traditional correctness (from dictionary.com)

[MedicineMan]

anybody got an applicatoin for the blue blaze society?
well i've only strayed once and that was to humback rocks, didnt loose any sleep over it either.

[Whistler]

Here's a guess:

Purist - One who hikes his own hike in strict accordance with a set of highly personal expectations or limitations. This could include but is not limited to: passing every white blaze; never blue-blazing; never yellow-blazing; never slack-packing; only sleeping outdoors; etc.

[Youngblood]

From ALDHA (again ):

Purist—A hiker who makes a covenant with him- or herself
prior to the hike and then keeps the covenant during the
entire hike. Most commonly, the covenant is to hike past
every white blaze or to carry a backpack for the entire distance,
or both.

[Tramper Al]

I think 'purist' in the context of the AT sometimes carries a somewhat derogatory connotation. It may used to label someone whose personal choice of how to hike is different from one's own, and one is not quite content to 'hike one's own hike'.

My style (for NE AT sections) is always northbound, past every blaze. I rejoin the AT exactly where I left it, for the night or for several months. If I realize I have missed one or two blazes by stepping the wrong way around of blowdown or whatever, and it was in no way shorter or easier, then I don't go back. I carry the pack (day or multiday) for that hike, no more.

I'm just saying it's all relative. I wouldn't want to fall into the trap of thinking that everyone who hiked in any way less compulsively than I do to be a slacker, and everyone who does so more compulsively to be a purist. Let's all be pure about hiking our own hike, yes?

[Pencil Pusher]

AT purist: super anal

[hikerjohnd]

AT purist: super anal

Not necessarily... I hope to hike past every white blaze - to me, that will bring me a personal sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Will it happen - I hope so, but if it doesn't then, so be it.

Do I expect others to follow my example - not in this lifetime! It is all about HYOH and let others hike theirs.

[Footslogger]

Something I'm not ...

'Slogger

[Mags]

Purist: One who is hiking the official Appalachian Trail, attempting to follow all the white blazes. Alternate bad weather routes can substituted if following the official trail is not safe (e.g flooding, bad weather above treeline, etc.). These bad weather routes become the official trail during unsafe condtions. Some people will extend the pursit definition to include no slackpacking (i.e. carrying a pack the whole way).

Purism: Following the ideas behind being a purist

[Jack Tarlin]

I think Whistler has said it best.

And Pencil Pusher, who seems awfully judgmental about what other hikers are doing......as a matter of pure curiousity, how much of the Trail have you actually hiked?

[neo]

the only blue blazing i do is to the shelters,some shelters only a few have two blue blaze trails,one in each direction,if i am going north i take the 1st blue blaze in,then i take the other blue blaze out,to avoid doubling back on a blue blaze exit trail,so i have missed a few white blazes,i also did the approch trail from amicola,a blue blaze trail a lot of people skip,but i am glad i did it.i belive it is up to everybody to pick and chooes how they hike,i am doing this hike for me
and no one else neo

[Pencil Pusher]

And Pencil Pusher, who seems awfully judgmental about what other hikers are doing......as a matter of pure curiousity, how much of the Trail have you actually hiked?

Jack, are you being judgemental about me being judgemental? So that would be one of those questions where no answer is good enough for the person asking

[ed bell]

Just a question here, since I am not currently, nor have been a thru-hiker. Can a successful GA>ME or ME>GA hiker not be a purist? This may seem like semantics, but it may be at the crux of what people are having trouble with in regards to this glossary tift.

[ed bell]

By successful I mean followed the white blazes from one end to the other. Forget the loop to a shelter, bad weather routes , trail splitting, did you walk across the road nittpickin.

[saimyoji]

I agreed, whistler is right on.

The negative feelings some people have with purists should be left out of the definition. Though some purists may shove it in your face, that is not part of the definition.

By that defn., though, could someone who makes the covenant: "I will enjoy myself by not defining my hike by any rules." be a purist if?

[fiddlehead]

I don't care what others do but did run into a problem that has to do with someone's idea of a thru-hike.
On our last Nepal trip, we were contacted via email from someone who said they hiked the AT in 99 and would really like to join us as they too were going to be in Asia at the time and didn't want to go to Nepal alone with all the trouble going on there right now. (this was last year, 2004 and a war has been going on there) So, we talked a bit about hiking via email and met up with this guy in Thailand. We went to northern Thailand together for a week of getting ready and checking out his skills, while we waited for the rest of our group to arrive. He went on a day hike thru the jungle and over a small mt. with our slowest experienced hiker. The trip should've taken about 4 hours. It ended up taking about 11 hours because this guy: 1/didn't carry enough water, and we had to give him some of ours, 2/got heat exhaustion because he didn't carry a hat or bandana and wasn't hydrated to begin with. 3/ Couldn't keep up with our slowest experienced thruhiker, 4/ complained the whole time. 5/ wouldn't drink water even after we found it because no one carried a water filter, 6/ flagged down the 1st vehicle he saw and paid them for a ride.7/lost the hiking stick he borrowed and never has returned it!
Turns out that after discussing all of this after the day hike, we found out he didn't really hike the whole AT. He skipped the whites, most of Maine, hitchiked through southern New England, skipped the Shenendoahs because he stayed at Rusty's too long and then hitchiked ahead to catch up with his friends. you get the point. He claimed he hiked the AT but what would've happened if we would've taken him for his word and allowed him to join us on an expedition to set up a base camp at 15,000' and climb to 17,500' and some of us even 20,000' far from help. Luckily someone here was smart enough to test his skills.
So please people, if you are going to claim to have hiked the AT, be honest when lives could be at stake. Again, i don't care how you hike your hike, i even met a guy who bragged about his sky blaze (hitchiked parts of the trail on an airplane) but don't use this accomplishment as a ticket to someone elses safety. fh

[TJ aka Teej]

You guys are great, thanks very much. Right now it looks like young Whistler's & Mag's offering should be combined to replace the Purist def currently in the WB Glossary.

[zephyr1034]

Here's a guess:

Purist - One who hikes his own hike in strict accordance with a set of highly personal expectations or limitations. This could include but is not limited to: passing every white blaze; never blue-blazing; never yellow-blazing; never slack-packing; only sleeping outdoors; etc.

================================================== ==========
You want a purist?

I have the two-volume hardback set of AT stories. One of the tales therein is about this guy who starts out from Springer in 1972. He's somewhere in New England when he hears on a radio that his home town has been flooded out by Hurricane Agnes. So he abandons his hike and goes home to take care of things.

The next year, he started over from Springer, rather than pick up where he left off the year before. On both hikes, he repeatedly declined offers to sleep in people's houses. This was when thru-hiking was still a novelty. He insisted on sleeping in a shelter or tent every night.

Or how about this: You get to a road crossing. Town is five miles to the right. You hitch in and then hitch back to the trail. When you get out of the car, do you first cross the road in order to cover the portion of the trail that is on the road?