View Full Version : How many mountains does one hike on the AT?
Crabapple
11-18-2014, 22:18
Calling all number crunchers! I was talking to someone about finishing my AT hike this summer (after five summers of hiking sections :D). I mentioned that Mt. K was the hardest mountain that I had ever climbed. She responded, dumbstruck, "Well, how many mountains have you climbed?!"
How many would that be if you count all summits on the entire Appalachian Trail? How many would that be if you count 'almost-summit-traverses' (ex. some of the peaks surrounding Mt. Washington) on the entire Appalachian Trail?
I am just curious if anyone has counted this.
According to the officially sanctioned International Backpacking Federation ATC approved data that would be 74.6. The .6 being that you only go .6 to the summit on one particular summit in Connecticut but since that summit is the highest elev in Connecticut but not the state's high point they officially count that as pseudo summit. And, we all know the IBF counts pseudo summits under this situation a summit. :rolleyes:
Old Hiker
11-18-2014, 23:29
Depends on a couple of variables:
1. How FAR did you hike on the AT?
2. Assuming the entire AT for #1, the answer would be: all of them.
:)
Traveler
11-19-2014, 11:10
According to the officially sanctioned International Backpacking Federation ATC approved data that would be 74.6. The .6 being that you only go .6 to the summit on one particular summit in Connecticut but since that summit is the highest elev in Connecticut but not the state's high point they officially count that as pseudo summit. And, we all know the IBF counts pseudo summits under this situation a summit. :rolleyes:
Why wouldn't the summit of Bear Mountain in CT (2,316') not be a summit on the AT? The CT high point (2,379)' is approximately 1.3 miles to the WNW of Bear, not on the AT. Even using what I understand are common definitions, the low point between the high point of CT, and highest summit of CT is 1,800' feet and the two are separated by 1.25 or so miles, which more than meets the standard of 300 vertical feet and half mile distance commonly used to define separate summits on a plateau, massif, or ridge.
By this standard, every summit below the official hight point of each state would be fractional. I could not find the information you referenced on the IBF site, but I believe they and other groups may define peaks and summits differently.
Slo-go'en
11-19-2014, 11:58
Someone is just gonna have to sit down with the guide book and start counting...
I woulda guessed a number much larger than 75. Kinda a gotcha question though, I mean how to define a mountain? Seems to me you'd have to specify some minimum vertical distance between high- and low-points on the trail in order to qualify. What's that distance going to be? 1000 feet? 2000? 3000?
Someone is just gonna have to sit down with the guide book and start counting...
I don't have the exact number but I believe there are over 250 named peaks on the AT. Georgia alone has 15 or so.
takethisbread
11-19-2014, 13:20
I think I estimated 800 plus climbs on my thruhike. Did it go to the peak each time? Rarely . I think it was each time the trail went up a few hundred feet and down . The number actually decreased in New England, where there less constant up and downs and less climbs with greater pitch and duration and absolutely no footpath to stride on.
garlic08
11-19-2014, 13:25
Just to muddy the waters a bit, there are different standards to recognize peaks. Just off the top of my head, in the US there needs to be 1/2 mile and 500' elevation gain between points, I think. In Europe, it's one kilometer and 100 meters, or something like that. But people mostly don't pay attention to that. For instance, the famous Maroon Bells in Colorado appear to be three peaks from the trail head, are listed as two separate "14ers" by every climbing organization, but by any recognized definition there's only one "legal" summit up there--they're too close together and not enough drop between them to qualify.
PS: I think Dogwood was joking. But I had to Google "International Backpacking Federation" to be sure. It's like Mags' High Holy Council of Hiking (HHCH).
rocketsocks
11-19-2014, 13:44
good movie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVfloNAZiLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVfloNAZiLw
Say cheese. :D Gotcha. :) You've been punked. Don't believe everything on the internet. If there's an IBF that's news to me. IBF site that's really news to me.
colorado_rob
11-19-2014, 15:15
This subject get endless discussion out here in Colorado... The common "standard" for a peak being "ranked" (considered it's own separate peak) includes a 300 foot vertical drop between it's neighboring higher peak, along with some horizontal distance (1/4 mile maybe?). So using this rigid definition, there are only 52 ranked peaks in Colorado above 14,000 feet. but nearly everyone includes North Maroon (which has less than a 300' drop to get to its higher neighbor, South Maroon), because it's a cool climb. Same story with El Diente ("the tooth") which has the same situation with neighboring, higher Mt. Wilson. Finally, there is Challenger Peak that has enough vertical drop to neighboring Kit Carson mountain, but is really close (< 1/4 mile) as the crow flies, but everyone includes it because it was named in memory of the Challenger (shuttle failure) tragedy in 1986. So we're up to 55 14ers.... THEN there are four more that most people include because they have separate names (N. Eolus, Conundrum, Cameron and North Massive), making the list now 59, which is the current tally for anyone claiming to have climbed all the 14ers in Colorado in the last 10 years or so (older folks, like myself are "grandfathered" in to the older list, though I have climbed the newer one as well).
Back to the original question, having hiked 3/4's of the AT, I would guess Sly's 250 is a reasonable number but some sort of criteria.
Slo-go'en
11-19-2014, 15:29
About 200 is about what I was guessing, figuring a peak on the average of every 10 miles. 250 works out to one every 8.7 miles. Of course, that's a little deceptive, as there are some long ridge walks with lots of ups and downs but no actual "peak".
WingedMonkey
11-19-2014, 16:51
Depends on if you count what the geologically challenged call "The Shennies ".
I just read "Hiking Through" and I swear he mentioned it in there towards the end of the book. I want to say it was in the 220ish range but the book is at home and I already read it once so I'm not reading it again to find that one sentence. Now whether he actually counted or just guessed would require someone else to count :)