2006 Recap

I dont log anything so I can only say, I hike fairly regular, always a 4k, so maybe 50 peaks or so in NH. To be honest, Im bored to death in NH, just waiting to move back to CO and get back on my 14ers list, ( half done). My main focus has been poker and while that may seem unrelated to the topic at hand, it really is. I have lived in the Sierra's and the Rockies and plan to live in both in the future to continue to climb the biggest peaks in the country ( my focus). I do not make alot of money, proboly way less then alot of people on this board. Sometimes its tough moving croos country on a low budget. Im not carreer minded and outside of being mad on the trails, have little ambition.
I can however play cards very well and my goal is to keep progressing in the money to allow me to travel and climb in the country's best mountains without wondering who will eat best, me or my dog.
P.S. funny as it may seem, there are casino's located fairly close to all the great mountains in this fair land.

I found out what an infrapatellar fat pad is. I found out that an impinged infrapatellar fat pad is quite painful.
Hiked a little, skied a little, ran a little, rehabed a bunch...typical year for me. No complaints.

I climbed every mountain east of the Mississippi ... twice.

Tried to get out as much as possible.

Winter - Hiking!!

Summer - Bicycling!!

2007 - Repeat Above!!

The year 2006 was my best year in hiking:

1) Start and finish the W46 in the DAKS
2) Start and finish the NE 115 in the same year
3) More than 150 summits of 4000K this year
4) More than 60 days of hiking in 2006.

Three memorable quotes from 2006 trips.

"Next time I go paddling with Stan remind me to bring my hiking boots."

After finishing a hike at 11 PM, "Next time, Stan, let's do a shorter hike."

After several paddles and hikes, "So this is how you prevent arthritis."

finished NH4K (whew! only peaks I would rather not visit again are E Osceola and Passaconaway and the Wildcats)

found occurrences of Arctostaphylos alpina, Cassiope hypnoides, Geocaulon lividum, Phyllodoce caerulea, Rubus chamaemorus, some other species, and 3 black gum swamps.

I'm with trailbiscuit. I started off the year getting my knees fixed and got back into killer shape and did my longest hike ever - only to develop a sinus infection / blockage that knocked me on my butt for 4 months. Now I am fat, out of shape and unmotivated - back where I started 2006. Happy new year.

KayakDan said:

Same for us,but add - I sailed. And spent 23 nights on the boat in six different states.

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I only sailed once this year, as a guest on Kaibar's boat. Well, it was more sitting there getting sloshed, not sailing.........

3 k's

I finished the New England 3k's. It's all good!!

Well I accomplished a lot this summer!

June-Dixes
July-Sewards met ADKDREMN and he has become a great friend
August-Street and Nye
Sept-Whiteface and Esther with ADKDREMN

12 peaks that put me to # 42 I have Santononi, Allen, Rockypeak and the finale on Giant on the climb for Grace day

Here is a PICTURE of Seth, ADKDREMN and myself on Whiteface.....What a great year it was!!!!!

Started the year with 22/48 under my belt; finished with 40/48.

Got over my apprehension about hiking solo in the Whites.

Had a blast hiking with Sticks. Met Bob & Geri, McRat, New Hampshire, & Hiker Bob, (& Bunchberry via car windows on 93 North). My apologies if I've forgotten anyone!

Moved north of Franconia Notch and promptly lost interest in completing the 48 due to having too much fun exploring non-4K peaks in nearby Crawford Notch. Mt. Crawford and Mt. Avalon became two of my new favorite peaks.

Revisited old favorite 4Ks: Garfield, Lafayette, Lincoln,...

Got poles and gaitors, and am looking into crampons.

Have seriously considered camping....

Bought a mountain bike as a Xmas present to myself.

Learned that having fun hiking is more important to me than finishing a list, although the 52 With A View list is awfully appealing right now!

2007 goals include, but are not limited to:
1) Continue to have fun hiking!
2) Continue to have fun cycling!
3) MAYBE finish the 48....but only if it's fun.

percious said:

It has been a tradition on this site to do an annual review of sorts. Sorry this tread came so late. It is nice to see other member's progress with their lists if that sort of thing interests you, and also if you see someone close to finishing, it may give you some incentive to join them.

Notable Leads:
5.6 High Exposure
5.4 First Crack (First lead climb)
5.7 Sea of Holes
5.8+ Strawberry Jam
WI1 Central Gully

-percious

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I did not realize there was a VVFT tradition for such a thead, but what a cool idea. Moreover, how long have you been technical climbing, percious? I do not recognize the names of the latter three rock climbs, but I do recognize High E, which has one of the wildest 5.6 pitches, especially on the sharp end. on the planet, IMHO.

Dr. D.

I spent the first part of 2006 in PT for a frozen left shoulder, but then made a valiant effort to complete the NH48 for the third straight winter (all solo this time around) in late February and March. But, I got lost on the Rocky Branch Trail below the Davis Path on Isolation in lousy weather, bailed out, and with only three days of calendar winter remaining for nine peaks, some spread out, realized that I was "mathematically eliminated." I did finally meet the one and only Tim Seaver during this time period, on his and Cath Goodwin's second to last day of their new 9-day (or 10-day?) winter record for the NH48.

I spent most of the remainder of 2006 cleaning up various months on my NH48-12 list, which I hope to complete in the new year. Added one more Colorado 14er in early July; no Seven Summits in 2006, but hoping to get up one or two more in 2007.

dug said:

I only sailed once this year, as a guest on Kaibar's boat. Well, it was more sitting there getting sloshed, not sailing.........

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That's supposed to come at the end. Here's how it works.
Sail...sail some more...stop...take down sails...drop anchor...get sloshed!!

You probably just need more practice!

2006 was a great year with so many new memories. Thanks to my husband understanding I was able to get in 90 + days of hiking and over 150 peaks in 2006….wowie. I really had no goals except to just hike and have fun.

My most memorable trips include Chinook’s trip to Lonesome Lake, both of Seema’s Gourmet Hut trips, climbing Central Gully (many thanks to Giggy for this one), the all girls hike up Madison and Adams (thanks sister, sleeping bear, Yam and Carmel for all the laughs), completing the winter 48 in one season (thanks Kmac, Satori and sister for being there with me!), backpacking the bonds (thanks Dr Wu for all the laughs on this one), Summer solstice Presis traverse with Kmac, sister and Caveman, Pemi Low-Pass hike with Hillwalker, Christmas in August vacation and two trips to Baxter State Park. Oh, there are so many more too but these are the ones that really stick out. If there were any low points in 2006 I don’t remember any of them.

For 2007? I’m not sure what I’ll be doing…I guess I’ll know when it happens.

-MEB

I've only been hiking for 2 and a half years so far, and this was by far my biggest. Total hours spent on the trail came out to nearly 20 days. I started hiking in winter (which I now absolutely love to do ). I made many new friends on the trail and through the websites, even fell in love with one of them!

Almost completed the NH48, section hiked the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway, hiked alot of the Mass AT, got 2/3 of the way through the Y-Alpine 100, and hiked lots of other great hikes.

Highlights for me were (in no particular order):
Pound the Presis
Zealand-Bonds one day traverse
South Taconic traverse
Winter weekend with Jade, hiked the Carters one day, Jackson the next
Section hiking the M-SG with Dugan and cantdog
Isolation traverse with Steve, Amicus et al
Mt Tom via Ethan Pond/A-Z
Tripyramids via the north slide
Failing to summit Owl's Head with lattinhill in October due to icy slide
Ragged Mtn in Mass the day after a blizzard
New Years weekend with una_dogger and MichaelJ, Kinsmans one day, Black Mtn (Benton) the next

For 2007:
hike more in VT, start peakbagging in ME, bag my last two of the 48, try to finish the Y-Alpine and 52WAV lists, get more experience bushwhacking

by far the highlight of the year was summiting mt zealand for the first time.

giggy said:

by far the highlight of the year was summiting mt zealand for the first time.

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Frankly, I cannot even believe that you took the five minutes off the Twinway to summit Zealand!

What I did myself was less than planned, far less than desired, and not worthy of listing except for one item:

I enticed my fiance, Denise, to hike her first 4,000 footer, Moriah, in August, which she accomplished handily despite an aching knee. Her previous summit experience had been limited to the Great Blue Hill in Milton, MA. (For those of you who don't know it, Blue Hill tops out around 450 feet, though if you look carefully you can find a trail longer than one mile.) Though scheduling another hike since then (with her that is) has been impossible, I am confident you will find her Viewing From The Top in the years to come.

Cheers.