Why is it called peak "bagging?" - Moved from Q&A

Why is it called peak "bagging?"

When you summit a peak, why is it called "bagging" rather than something like "tagging?" Does anyone know where the term came from? Curious...

Roxi said:

When you summit a peak, why is it called "bagging" rather than something like "tagging?" Does anyone know where the term came from? Curious...

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I don't know, but a guess would be maybe it came from hunters catching game and putting it in their bag. Hence the expression,"I bagged some game" leading eventually to the expression I bagged a peak.

When you shoot a bird you put it in your bag, so you "bag" it. Hence ...

I'd guess it's a British term - you gather items by putting them in a bag, or something like that. There were lists of Scottish, English,and Welsh hills long before anyone in this country took up the hobby.

Mohamed Ellozy said:

When you shoot a bird you put it in your bag, so you "bag" it. Hence ...

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I understand the term "bagging" as used in hunting. But I'm not shooting mountains (other than with a camera), nor are there any bags big enough. *teasing*

What I'm curious about is the history behind how and when that term came to be used for describing summiting mountain tops. Who first used it? How and when did it become popular? Did a particular group encourage its use to describe summiting peaks? Why that term instead of others, such as "hunting, catching, collecting, tagging, topping, summiting" etc? Was it used before the ADK 46 and 48NH4K groups came into existence or did one of those groups decide to use that term? Still curious...

I recall first having heard the term "peakbagger" or “peakbagging” in the early 1970s, while hiking the Adirondack High Peaks. That also was my first encounter with someone who was in a big hurry to “get” another summit because he “needed” it for something or other. I remember thinking that was very peculiar. Frantic. Obsessive. Another hiker referred to the guy as a “peakbagger.”

The terms “peakbagger” and “peakbagging” seemed to have a slightly pejorative connotation back then. At the time, I’d been hiking in the High Peaks on a fairly frequent basis for more than a decade.

My guess, like others’ is that the term “peakbagging” derives from hunting vernacular, in which game animals are “bagged.”

These days I think we tend to see hiking and backpacking and canoeing as discrete activities. In my earlier hiking years of the 1950s and 1960s, they were seen more as adjuncts to hunting and fishing. “Outdoorsmen” of the day did it all, more or less. In fact, it really was interest in hunting and fishing that got me (and many others like me) involved in hiking, backpacking and canoeing. My own interest in actually going hunting has long since fled, and so has my interest in fishing, by and large, but the interest in hiking is persistent.

Intriguing comment offered by Audrey, who reminds us that both the “lists” of summits and the idea of “bagging” game have British roots. When you think about it, “peakbagging” (the word) does have something of a British flair.

G.

Scottish

Well, in Scotland they call it Munroe Bagging and they've been at this a lot longer than we have. I am in the possession of a very old English hunting vest that has a compartment built in the back that serves as a game bag for rabbits, partridge, grouse and the like. Of course over there you don't wear a rain jacket, it's a cagule and you check your oil under the bonnet, and the spare is in the boot. Hiking is something you do from a rope on a sailing craft, and hillwalking is something you do in the mountains, and climbing is technical, and oh good grief..........

Grumpy said:

I recall first having heard the term "peakbagger" or “peakbagging” in the early 1970s, while hiking the Adirondack High Peaks. <snip>
My guess, like others’ is that the term “peakbagging” derives from hunting vernacular, in which game animals are “bagged.”

Intriguing comment offered by Audrey, who reminds us that both the “lists” of summits and the idea of “bagging” game have British roots. When you think about it, “peakbagging” (the word) does have something of a British flair.

G.

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Thank you, Grumpy. I think you and Audrey are right on. And growing up in a family that hunted deer, caught trout, and bagged pheasants, I understand the meaning of the word "bagging." What I'm trying to do is track down actual historical info about when, where, why, how, and by whom the term "bagging" began to be used to describe summiting mountains, as opposed to other terms being used. I think there is a connection between when people began hiking for recreation and use of the term, but I don't have any facts to support that idea. I'm curious if the term was used prior to the formation of the adk46 and nh4K clubs. Did the Crawfords use the term when they guided folks up Washington? Was the term in use prior to the Underhill's mountain climbing adventures? As Audrey pointed out, was it used by folks in the British Isles to describe summitting peaks? When? Pre/post revolutionary years? I'm on a quest to track down the history of the term's use and searches online have not yielded much info so far. I can locate all kinds of info on peakbagging lists, but not much info on the origin and early use of the word peakbagging.

Bill Bryson, who wrote "A Walk in the Woods," about his adventures on the AT, also wrote, "The Mother Tongue - English and how it got that way," a fascinating and funny book about the many cultures and languages that shaped English over the centuries, but I didn't find the answer in there either. I'm curious because language and word origins/history fascinate me (speech/language pathologist w/ M.S. in Communication Disorders). Think of all the words we use on a daily basis that didn't exist 50 years ago, or even 20. "Bagging" mountain peaks just sounds so odd when I think about what we are actually doing, and it made me wonder, why that term instead of others equally descriptive like "tagging," "topping," "reaching," or "summiting"? When did that term's use become popular? What/who made it popular? I may not find the answer, but the journey is interesting and I appreciate everyone's thoughts, help, and input very much.

Grumpy said:

Intriguing comment offered by Audrey, who reminds us that both the “lists” of summits and the idea of “bagging” game have British roots. When you think about it, “peakbagging” (the word) does have something of a British flair.
G.

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Yes, I'd look to England and the continent for many of the roots of American customs, fashions, and jargon for hiking/hillwalking/rambling, etc. I remember the details rather vaguely, but the AMC and ADK 4K lists formed by conscious analogy to alpine lists. Early AMC'ers and probably ADK'ers as well were very attuned to alpine customs as they created American equivalents.

Roxi--have you tried a dictionary of American slang or colloquialisms? You'd have to look at an earlier edition, since slang can normalize into standard, accepted speech fairly quickly.

Roxi,

I do not know the answer to your questions, but I know where you can (almost certainly) find it: in the Oxford English Dictionary. Any big library will have it, either printed or on CD. Alas, I doubt that the Lincoln Public Library does, so I cannot look it up for you.

Mohamed Ellozy said:

Roxi,

I do not know the answer to your questions, but I know where you can (almost certainly) find it: in the Oxford English Dictionary. Any big library will have it, either printed or on CD. Alas, I doubt that the Lincoln Public Library does, so I cannot look it up for you.

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The 1971 compact (2-vol.) OED does not include "peakbagging," either because it is not "standard" English or not in use then. If the latest edition of OED still does not include it, try the slang dictionaries.

Waumbek said:

The 1971 compact (2-vol.) OED does not include "peakbagging," either because it is not "standard" English or not in use then.

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Did you try to look it up under "bagging"? It is often written as two words "peak bagging" so might well be found there.

Peakbagging

Hi, Roxi,
We met earlier this week at Galehead Hut, where you asked your question about "peakbagging". I have no evidence either but that wont stop me from offering an opinion! I am guessing that it is derived from hunting jargon of bagging game and that it started out from the old and (happily) dying-out attitude that summiting a mountain was "conquering" it. So once one had climbed it, one could put it in the bag.
I would be interested in the results of your research of the expression.
Hope you had a good day on the Bonds and were off Bondcliff before the thunder storms came through on Tues.
Wayne

drweo said:

Hi, Roxi,
We met earlier this week at Galehead Hut, where you asked your question about "peakbagging". I have no evidence either but that wont stop me from offering an opinion! I am guessing that it is derived from hunting jargon of bagging game and that it started out from the old and (happily) dying-out attitude that summiting a mountain was "conquering" it. So once one had climbed it, one could put it in the bag.
I would be interested in the results of your research of the expression.
Hope you had a good day on the Bonds and were off Bondcliff before the thunder storms came through on Tues.
Wayne

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Hey Wayne! How how you and Connie? It was so nice meeting both of you at Galehead Hut! Did you succeed in "bagging" Owl's Head, your 48th, before the thunderstorms hit Tuesday? I was thinking of you as I raced back to the hut after "bagging" the Bonds. They are beautiful! I hope your trip through the Pemi was pleasant and dry. Will let you know what I find out. I think you and others are correct. I'm just trying to find the "proof." I hope to see you two again. Happy Trails!

Roxi

Mohamed Ellozy said:

Did you try to look it up under "bagging"? It is often written as two words "peak bagging" so might well be found there.

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In English, the usual semantic drift is from noun to verb, e.g., "priority" to "prioritize.""Bag," an early English word of Norse orgin, drifted from a noun indicating the container or sack, sometimes for game, to the verb "bag," meaning "to put game killed into a bag," or simply, "to kill" by 1814, and, more generally and colloquially, "to seize, take possession of, catch, steal," by 1818.

Classic studies like Carolyn Merchant's Death of Nature provide the background for "bagging" Nature, so I'll cut out of this discussion here.

My old Webster's Unabridged (1961) includes a slang definition of "bag" as

"(British) to lay first claim to or to take after so claiming."

We'd be hard put to live up to that definition now, but I wonder if that may have been the original purpose.

Bagging

Mohamed Ellozy said:

When you shoot a bird you put it in your bag, so you "bag" it. Hence ...

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And when you complete half the peaks, you are half in the bag!!

Fred

Roxi said:

Hey Wayne! How how you and Connie? It was so nice meeting both of you at Galehead Hut! Did you succeed in "bagging" Owl's Head, your 48th, before the thunderstorms hit Tuesday? I was thinking of you as I raced back to the hut after "bagging" the Bonds. They are beautiful! I hope your trip through the Pemi was pleasant and dry. Will let you know what I find out. I think you and others are correct. I'm just trying to find the "proof." I hope to see you two again. Happy Trails!

Roxi

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Roxi, Yes, I did "bag" Owl's Head for my 48th that Tuesday. I made good time till I got to the "old" summit and started bushwacking around looking for the"new" summit. I dont think I was at that precise spot but my altimeter read 20-30 ft higher than the old summit. I had a long way to go to Lincoln Woods so I headed back down the slide. I had just a few drizzles on the lower reaches of the slide, which was otherwise dry except for the spring near the top. (Trails were a bit wet, with the divide at the N. end of Owls Head living up to its trail guide description of being very wet. It goes on longer than I expected.)
I did get caught in the thunderstorm on my way south so I was pretty wet by the time I got out, what with the sweat, rain and wading across Lincoln and Franconia Brooks. Connie met me at the trailhead with dry clothes and a warm smile & hug.
Glad to hear that you stayed dry on your trip to the Bonds. They are spectacular and it is great to climb them from the hut.
Best wishes with the search for the origins of "peakbagging". Let me know what you discover. Hope to see you again, on the trail or elsewhere.
Wayne

drweo said:

Best wishes with the search for the origins of "peakbagging". Let me know what you discover. Hope to see you again, on the trail or elsewhere.
Wayne

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Thanks, Wayne. I hope to see you and Connie again too. Congrats on successfully completing your 48th! The update on the search for the origins/history of the term peak bagging is that one of the research librarians in my town is helping me. She's very good and knows many people who have given talks on the history of hiking, AMC huts, etc. If she can't find it, or someone who does, I'd be very surprised. I did get one phone call so far from her to let me know that she's still working on it. And yes, Mohammed, she thought of the OED immediately, but did not find the term in it, either as a single word or as separate words under "bagging." And the historic info I'm looking for is more extensive. It's an interesting quest....

When you are hunting...

and you make your "kill", you have "bagged" the game.

I suppose it's a bit of macho overkill in the use of the word "bag". Though, some of those peaks have all but bagged me.