Down time between lists

[bigmoose]

How long do you savor the completion of one list before attacking the next?
Do you bask in your accomplishment, content to take some time off, sit in the Swift or Boquet River, reliving your great accomplishment? Or do you immediately start scheming and plotting, as your next list looks tougher than your last, and you need a new challenge? (After all, reading these VFTT posts can certainly whet your appetite).

Or was the completion of your list the culmination of a project, and you're quite content now to take random scoots & hikes to various pleasurable destinations without the "pressure" to hike for the sake of another list?

 

[MichaelJ]

I catch up on housecleaning, writing trip reports, seeing friends I've blown off for months while hiking...

That lasts about 2 weekends then I get the itch to hike again.


What changed it for me was my breakneck pace to finish the 48 last year. I had no life other than getting ready for the weekend's hiking, and the weekend's hiking. that burnt me out. This year I've taken a more casual approach. As it stands, I could climb Killington tomorrow and Mansfield next week and finish my 67, but in fact I'll relax, do other things, take some vacation time, and finish up in September.

 

[Artex]

I'll be done with the 48 one week from today, and have pondered the same thing. As of now, the plan is to focus on the NE67, but at a more casual pace. I'd like to be able to relax a bit, and not feel like "okay, now I have to do this peak.. and then I'll do these three because they're next to each other and I need those too", and just be able to enjoy hiking without the focus on lists or long-term goals.

But to be honest, I'm not sure how long it'll last. I think with myself and many others there is a goal-oriented part of our personalities that we need for whatever reason. We just can't help it.

 

[skiguy]

Personally I have had mutiple list going at the same time and have tried to plan it so I've finished multiple lists simultaneously.Basically I finished the NH 48,NE 67 and NE100 by climbing Isolation last. Therefore lots of savoring,scheming and plotting.

 

[masshysteria]

It's kinda nice to be done with 'lists'. However, a list can be very motivating. Whether that's a good thing is up to you. After finishing the 46 last year, I'm concentrating on doing whatever I want. Revisit a few old friends with my son, who's now on his own 46 craze. Did the Ribbon slide, the Amp, the Trap Dike last year. This year I may do the Nippletop slide, Bouquet River to Grace (E.Dix), whatever floats my boat. I'm free and my dogs can breathe!

 

[DougPaul]

I've seen people just stop hiking after finishing a list.

Doug

 

[bigmoose]

My take is, if you're a steady member of VFTT, (WARNING!!) you will be dragged into another list, like it or not. I was going to give it a rest after completing the 111 in 2001, but that pied piper of peakbagging, the indefatigable Mr. Sherpa Kroto, posted his Scar-Ridge-from-the-Kankamagus trip report, and I was doomed. I'd given up any desire for the NE 100 after a ridiculous thrashing-through-blowdown-bushwhack on the Little East Pond side, but I followed Sherp's footsteps and twenty climbs later finished another list last fall. This website can be a dangerous place!

 

[carole]

Between lists I’ve found trail work to be quite satisfying especially when you see the good results of your sweat. I’ve actually found it quite addicting in itself – kind of like tending a garden. I’ve got a couple lists that I look at to give me a different place to go that I haven’t yet been but am not pursuing them with any speed. I might even be done with lists – but never done with hiking!!

 

[Tom Rankin]

My take is, if you're a steady member of VFTT, (WARNING!!) you will be dragged into another list, like it or not. I was going to give it a rest after completing the 111 in 2001, but that pied piper of peakbagging, the indefatigable Mr. Sherpa Kroto, posted his Scar-Ridge-from-the-Kankamagus trip report, and I was doomed. I'd given up any desire for the NE 100 after a ridiculous thrashing-through-blowdown-bushwhack on the Little East Pond side, but I followed Sherp's footsteps and twenty climbs later finished another list last fall. This website can be a dangerous place!

I've completed these:

- 3500 Club
- 46R
- NH4000
- NE67
- NE111

And I'm still working on:

- Winter 3500
- Winter 46R
- NEHH
- New York 100 Highest
- ADK Firetowers
- (Trailwrights?)
- Views and Brews
- And my 'nice hikes' list - which hopefully will never end!

 

[DougPaul]

My take is, if you're a steady member of VFTT, (WARNING!!) you will be dragged into another list, like it or not.

Not necessarily.

There are people on this BBS who have little interest in lists.

If you want to chase lists--fine.
If you don't want to chase lists--also fine.

Doug

 

[dr_wu002]

When I announce the East Osceola Hike, the Three Wu-Lists will be ready for all. I'm hoping that the guy translating it into Egyptian Hieroglyphics come through, but if it has to be in English I won't mind at all...

-Dr. Wu

 

[onestep]

closet peak bagger

How long do you savor the completion of one list before attacking the next?

I finished up the NH4k's 2 years ago thinking I was done "peak bagging" (a phrase even today I still feel reluctant to utter) only to get the NEHH itch late last winter.
Oh, and even worse (?) in January I bagged my first winter NH4K and that's got me thinking about "another list"...
I guess my obsessive/compulsive disorder is showing. Is that a disability? Will the state pay me to hike now?
Last week Boundary (NEHH #77), tomorrow Vose Spur, next week PATN.

Onestep

 

[Neil]

If you want to chase lists--fine.
If you don't want to chase lists--also fine.
Doug

What if the lists chase you?

 

[snowshoe]

I dont concentrate on lists. My goal is just to get out and enjoy the outdoors. I just like to hike. I started the Catskill 3500 and have 3 peaks left. Not sure when I will get them but I am not too worried about it. They will always be there. The only list I do is the honey do list my wife gives me. That one seems to never end.
I just enjoy being out even if it means climbing the same peak over and over again. Being outside is my down time.

 

[DougPaul]

What if the lists chase you?

Run faster?
Put on some list repellant?
Wear your invisible coat?
Psych them out by doing the same few peaks over and over?
Frustrate them by refusing to go the last few feet to the peak?
Seek psychological help?

Dunno for certain, haven't had to face that hazard yet.

Doug

 

[Peakbagr]

Have multiple lists going at all times.
Help friends complete whatever lists they have.
Start multiples.
Do them in all seasons.
Go places your lists have never taken you.

 

[amstony]

After finishing the 48 in late September 2004, I moved on to the NE67 as first priority and then the NH 100. However, I am moving at a slower pace than I did the 48.

Barring some last minute surge of time off from work.... (haha) I plan on a 2006 finish of the NE 67. I am doing hikes with my wife and hiking with others, which is fun. I am also training for a marathon, with a 3.5 hour goal time, on Sept 25, 2005, and 50K Marathon in Virginia in 2006.

I am very goal and mission oriented which drives my goal of completing list. Some agree and some disagree with the list focus, but as long as you are enjoying yourself and not making it "hard" for others I think it is OK. Hiking the 48 and 67 and 100 has sent me all over the Northeast, which I otherwise probably would never had visited. It especially has allowed me to meet and hike with folks I never would have met such as- Poison Ivy, Alpinista, MichaelJ, Stevehiker, Bob Humphreys, MelanieK (ultra marathoner), Ed Hawkins, and others. So the list are OK, at least for me.

 

[spaddock]

I'm hoping to finish my 46 this summer or fall. After that who knows. I'll definitely come back to the ADK's in the winter because that season is just so great.

Next summer, maybe white water kayaking, maybe more canoe camping with my wife.

Lists definitely motivate me, but they seem to motivate me to do the same stuff everybody else does. Is that really exploring.... ?

I like the idea of trying different and more challenging routes. Seems most people do that after they've completed the list. I wish I had the patience to go for the toughies the first go round.

The more and more I think about it, the more I want to look over those topo DVD's and figure out a really cool place to get to and just go for it.

-Shayne

 

[sapblatt]

Lists

The lists are a great way to get out and see a lot of peaks. They are not the reason I hike...that has a lot to do with the physical and mental benefits of getting out doors. Some may think that for me it is just a love of being in the rain!
I am working on some lists simultaneously...almost done with my 48...have started the Trailwrights 72, and will have started the NE 67 in about a week. I only have 9 left for my 48.
I am alos creating my own list, the "Spablatt 17." This list will contain some hikes that I am sure will be great but either failed to make it to a 4k list, or they are 4ks that I have done but want to attempt again from a more interesting/difficult direction/trail. I will post this list when I finsish figuring out just what will be on it.

 

[David Metsky]

I finished my 67 last weekend. I'm not working on any lists at this point, and don't see myself picking up any new lists to work on any time soon. Right now, lists aren't a motivating force for me.

-dave-