View Full Version : How many peaks?
dart7383
02-23-2009, 21:25
How many mountain peaks does the AT hit?
Lone Wolf
02-23-2009, 21:27
christ! hundreds
Bulldawg
02-23-2009, 21:31
They don't call them PUDS for nothing!!!
Gray Blazer
02-23-2009, 21:39
Summits? Shoulders? Hills? How would you define peaks? Every named peak? Every high point of a hog backed ridge? Every little part of a mountain you go up to reach a ridge to another hill/mountain?
warraghiyagey
02-23-2009, 21:42
How many mountain peaks does the AT hit?
All of them. . .
Bulldawg
02-23-2009, 21:42
Tray alone has three summits actually.
Ok, how many notches, gaps, knees, and valleys?
warraghiyagey
02-23-2009, 21:46
Ok, how many notches, gaps, knees, and valleys?
fourteen
Gray Blazer
02-23-2009, 21:47
Forty two.
sheepdog
02-23-2009, 21:48
I wussn't peakin
They don't call them PUDS for nothing!!!
Yeah they do. Otherwise it would be a longer green tunnel.
Probably thousands. The trail goes over every peak or at least it seems like it does. It even goes over peaks that aren't peaks but sure feel like peaks when you climb over them.
Much of the trail is Puds (pointless ups and downs). Each PUD could be considered a peak I suppose.
Somewhere someday some poor sap with nothing better to do will probably try and figure out the answer to this question. When that happens, I hope he or she posts the answer here on whiteblaze!
Course, who is gonna question this person? not me!
David
fiddlehead
02-24-2009, 01:37
Could probably do it with google earth and get close if you wanted to spend a lot of useless time.
YOu know you can hold down the shift key and use the mouse wheel to look at everything sideways and 3D on GE.
Then you can try to decide what constitutes a peak. (every bump probably feels like a peak to some, others don't even notice it)
garlic08
02-24-2009, 01:41
Back in '02, Blaze counted every NOBO white blaze (over 80,000). It's just a matter of time until someone counts every peak.
In the US, the accepted standard for a "peak" is a 300' drop from every point in a 1/2 mile radius, I think. In Europe, it's something like a 100 meter drop over 500 meters. In Colorado, a couple of the vaunted 54 "fourteeners" (peaks over 14,000' high) don't meet either criterion yet they're still famous peaks (like North Maroon Peak, doesn't even come close but it's the most photographed peak in North America if not the world). So it's probably going to be impossible to even agree on what's a peak on the AT, much less count them.
Ox97GaMe
02-24-2009, 01:58
Im thinking that the real question was probably intented to be more like the following....
How many high point peaks does the AT hit. Here is that list (counting peaks that are a short hike from the AT).
Georgia - Brasstown Bald (12 miles off side trail)
Tennessee - Cllingman's Dome - on trail
Virginia - Mt Rogers (.2 off side trail)
New Jersey - High Point - on trail
Massachusetts - Mt Graylock - on trial
New Hampshire - Mt Washington - (.5 off side trail)
Maine - Mt Katadin - on trail
Other high points that are within a half day drive of the trail are as follows:
North Carolina - Mt Mitchell about 1-2 hr drive from Hot Springs/Erwin/Ashville/Elk Park/Hampton area
WV, Penn, MD - about 2 hrs northwest of Harpers Ferry, can all be summitted in a single day
NY - 2-3 hr drive west from Bennington VT
VT - 2 hr drive north from Sherburn Pass
CT?? - Id have to research exactly where this one is at, but it cant be far from the trail. The whole state is only 3 hrs drive end to end, and the mountainous area is on the west boarder, where the trail is.
fiddlehead
02-24-2009, 03:25
North Maroon Peak, doesn't even come close but it's the most photographed peak in North America if not the world). .
Now, i've heard this argument before when a friend told me it was Mt. Chocura in NH. Since then, i've heard: Mt Fuji (which i believe to probably be the one), the Matterhorn, Kilimanjaro, Everest (highly doubtful as you must walk to at least 12,000' to even see it unless it's from an airplane), Whitney, Baker, Grand Teton, and now this North Maroon peak which, sorry to say, I've never heard of.
But, i'm not saying you are wrong Garlic. I think it's another one of those impossible questions. Sort of like the one from the OP in this thread.
Much of the trail is Puds (pointless ups and downs). Each PUD could be considered a peak I suppose.
Pointless ups and downs compared to what? It's a mountain trail, it needs to go over mountains to get from GA to ME. :rolleyes:
Thousands is probably way off. That would be one every mile. In PA you're lucky to get one every day. My WAG would be about 400.
Im thinking that the real question was probably intented to be more like the following....
How many high point peaks does the AT hit. Here is that list (counting peaks that are a short hike from the AT).
Georgia - Brasstown Bald (12 miles off side trail)
Tennessee - Cllingman's Dome - on trail
Virginia - Mt Rogers (.2 off side trail)
New Jersey - High Point - on trail
Massachusetts - Mt Graylock - on trial
New Hampshire - Mt Washington - (.5 off side trail)
Maine - Mt Katadin - on trail
Other high points that are within a half day drive of the trail are as follows:
North Carolina - Mt Mitchell about 1-2 hr drive from Hot Springs/Erwin/Ashville/Elk Park/Hampton area
WV, Penn, MD - about 2 hrs northwest of Harpers Ferry, can all be summitted in a single day
NY - 2-3 hr drive west from Bennington VT
VT - 2 hr drive north from Sherburn Pass
CT?? - Id have to research exactly where this one is at, but it cant be far from the trail. The whole state is only 3 hrs drive end to end, and the mountainous area is on the west boarder, where the trail is.
I was thinking the summit of Mt Washington was on the AT.
Lone Wolf
02-24-2009, 07:54
it most certainly is
garlic08
02-24-2009, 11:50
...and now this North Maroon peak which, sorry to say, I've never heard of.
That's OK, I'm sure I exaggerated a bit when I said it was the most photographed in North America! The Tetons could be the winner, for sure. But here is it, it may look familiar. The apparent high summit on the right (North Maroon) is only the end point of a ridge off the actual peak to the left (South Maroon). Together, they're known as the Maroon Bells, near Aspen. It's so popular the USFS runs a shuttle bus to the photo point.
I believe the AT actually skirts the summit of Mt. Washington. You need to take a spur trail to the actual peak.
Lone Wolf
02-24-2009, 13:29
I believe the AT actually skirts the summit of Mt. Washington. You need to take a spur trail to the actual peak.
nope. goes right over it
Slo-go'en
02-24-2009, 13:31
I couldn't find any numbers for the number of peaks the AT goes over, guess we'll have to sit down and count all the named peaks in the data book. But I did find that there are about 165,000 blazes and 470,000 feet of evalvation change (up and down) on the trail.
I believe the AT actually skirts the summit of Mt. Washington. You need to take a spur trail to the actual peak.
nope. goes right over it
Not that LW needs any help here, but he is absolutely correct. I was just there in August and the trail is deliberately routed right over the peak marker.
CT?? - Id have to research exactly where this one is at, but it cant be far from the trail. The whole state is only 3 hrs drive end to end, and the mountainous area is on the west boarder, where the trail is.
The highest peak in CT is Bear Mtn, right on the AT... all 2,316 feet of it.
The highest point in CT is 2,380 feet on the side of Mt Frissel, which peaks out in MA and is 1.5 miles west of Bear Mtn (not on AT).
Not that LW needs any help here, but he is absolutely correct. I was just there in August and the trail is deliberately routed right over the peak marker.
There are two white blazed trails. One does indeed go right over the top, while the other ones skirts the summit cone to the left.
But, no sense in going around a summit that every hiker doing a hike on the AT is going to summit anyway.
Slo-go'en
02-24-2009, 14:46
There are two white blazed trails. One does indeed go right over the top, while the other ones skirts the summit cone to the left.
But, no sense in going around a summit that every hiker doing a hike on the AT is going to summit anyway.
Unless the weather is life threating, then it would be wise to go around!
Gray Blazer
02-24-2009, 14:56
Unless the weather is life threating, then it would be wise to go around!
........and miss the snack bar/restaurant??
Unless the weather is life threating, then it would be wise to go around!
If the weather is bad, there's no summit where I'd rather be, as there are buildings I could duck into, from which the weather would be fun to watch.
I guess I missed the white blaze over the top. 2 out of the 3 times I've been up there it's been so socked in with fog I could bearly see
dart7383
02-24-2009, 19:16
Thanks for the input. I had been drinking and planning last night. I guess I should have put in there that I was just looking for a WAG. I'm not even sure that I have a definition of peak yet. I live in Illinois so any ten foot tall hill is considered a peak here. I guess counting anything I consider a peak is going to have to be a goal out there this year. I put in my notice at work yesterday, can't wait to be out on the trail.
grizzlyadam
02-24-2009, 19:54
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=31854&c=526 yep....goes right by the summit sign on washington.
grizzlyadam
02-24-2009, 19:59
here you go: