Summit Registers

Narcisso T.

Within the last year or so, he and his son also completed the AT!!! He still is helping out folks working on the 3's.

I just visited my first NH3K bushwack peak (South Engine) and found many names in the register whose exploits I've heard of here online and occasionally in person. Not sure I'm going to drink the Bushwacking Kool-Aid just yet, but it was a fun day.

-dave-

A new recruit?

Classic view of Stairs from there! No views from NH 3k peaks, right! Drink up Dave!

Here's another statistic for the RoySwkr list: "dms" (Dennis S.) is one of only a few hikers who has been bagging New England 3000s in each of the last 3 (or 4?) decades! I'm sure he knows more climbers, past and present, than any of us. How close are you to finishing, Dennis? I know I'd like to be there when you do.

if i'm not mistakin' he's in the single digits to the very low teens!! can i go too???
only on a weekend for me though.

Just got back from doing both Long & Puzzle Mtn's in Maine. From the canister log on Puzzle:

03-29-87 Dennis Crispo
06-11-88 Roy Schweiker
03-??-89 Narciso Torres

fast forward to the last few years

MJ, missin link, post'r boy...

Onestep

New England Bushwhackers with their Own Lists

Because bushwhacking is about making your own route rather than following a trail laid out by somebody else, there is some logic to saying that the top bushwhackers are those who make up their own lists rather than just being the first to do somebody else's. Of course the list should be both imaginative in scope and challenging to hike. I don't know much about either people or mountains in New York, but here are some of the top bushwhackers in New England:

* Guy Waterman, who climbed each NH 4000-footer from 4 different directions in winter. While there are some such as Jefferson that offer 4 good trail routes, the majority require bushwhacking often quite extensive. Those who find Garfield challenging enough from the N in winter might consider the long approach to climb it from the S, ending with a serious cliff to get up. He was sensitive about the environmental impact of copycats and apparently never published a full account of this project although snippets have made their way into his other writings.

* George Pearlstein, who climbed the highpoint of every town in Vermont, over 200 of them, incidentally becoming the first to complete the county highpoints of Vermont. Like other bushwhackers, he also did trail hiking, he was at one time director of the Long Trail Patrol and is now rehiking all the side trails of the Long Trail except those leading to Georgia and Maine. He was perhaps the first to hike the Long Trail in winter which probably meant a lot of bushwhacking trying to find it back in the '50s.

* Nebushwacker (initials JP, full name hidden to keep his clients from Googling him), who is within about 20 of finishing the New England 1000 highest. He leaves a register with golf pencil on bushwhack peaks without one, and is on his 3rd box of 144 pencils.

* The PeakMaster (AVJ), probably New England's most diverse hiker who as of
2001 had climbed over 3200 different peaks, named summits, and bumps in New England including over 1500 in New Hampshire. He is planning to retire in a couple years and then those totals might really climb, yet he will never finish all the Peaks of the Universe. (Dennis C asked why he didn't call it peaks of the earth, but agreed that if he ever flew to the moon he also would want to climb a peak there. Olympus Mons, anyone?)

And no, I don't think any of these lists are online, but that's not the point - to be listed here you have to make your own!

A mention should go to our own post'rboy. Not a peakbagger, just a more than frequent visitor to these peaks. I'll guess over 400 of them

And then there are Pat, Audrey and bogorshis, well into their 300's if I recall.

Registers

Just back from Big Spruce, Little Spruce and Big Shanty, and all 3 registers are there, but two were in bad shape, we were able to replace one, and added a new ziplock bag to the other. So if'n you are doing the 3's please always bring a new register bottle, paper, pencil and string with you, cuz the original registers are failing fast. Hey Dennis thanks for the kind words, only 12 to go, I hope to finish on Big Squaw next year! But you know with my pace it might still be two more years before I get there!

The usual names

Seeing the usual names in lot's of jars inspires me and reminds me that when I was doing trails back in the day ,these guy's were gettin it done.Not to mention peaks that were trailless and now have trails today.....I have a way's to go ,but the 770 will be done......MJ

dms said:

and all 3 registers are there, but two were in bad shape, we were able to replace one, and added a new ziplock bag to the other. So if'n you are doing the 3's please always bring a new register bottle, paper, pencil and string with you, cuz the original registers are failing fast.

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From what I've seen this week I sure do agree. I found the canister on Long Mtn lying on the ground. The shoelace/string that attached it to the tree had rotted away. I tied it back in place the best I could.

The ziplocks on Black, & Wheeler are torn and need replacing. The register on E Bear doesn't have one.

I'll start packing a "repair kit" with me.

I always carry extra ziplocs with me but when I was on B & W I looked around in my bag and could only find one.

It was pouring rain and I needed it for my camera!

I am now saving PB and jelly jars and whatnot so I can carry the "repair" kit. I added a gatorade bottle on one of the Bakers.

spencer

Collecting jars to use for registers was rather easy when I first started placing registers on New England 3000 footer bushwhack peaks. The 18 oz. PB jar was the standard size I used. At that time nearly all were made of glass. Now most are made of plastic. Non-breakable is better of course, but the critters like to chew on them. To discourage this, I'd put a couple moth balls in the jar along with the plastic bag, paper and pencil. I used to cut out comic strips with mountain humor topics, make copies and use them as cover sheets for the stapled paper booklets. For those of you that climb NY 3000s, be advised that canister (as they're called there) placement is discouraged except those officially sanctioned by clubs (in the Catskills, for example).

devils den

I just remembered one of the coolest registers Ive ever found. ON Mt. Willard in Crawford notch is the Devils Den ( located 3/4 of the way up the face you can see the shallow entrance) anywho inside the cave was a very old tabbaco can, it contained some signed papers that unfortunatlt where so deteriated I could not read them but it was cool non the less.
P.S> the rumors of the cave having bones in it are true.

Erik, I'd like to add Bob Matsko to the list of completers of the New England 3k's. I think he finished about 15 years ago on Sisk with Dennis C..

Passing out some ADK Love

I know the initial question was about the NE registers, and drifted to NE bushwhacking legends. But I thought I'd throw a little love out to the the bushwhacking legends father west in the ADK's........

Please forgive the incompleteness of this list. There is no registry, registers or other acknowledgement of completion for the ADK100, so it's basically word of mouth and guesswork as to who has finished. Indeed, there are even several lists used......... History is nothing unless its written I suppose.

In additions to the already mentioned legends such as - John Swanson, Dennis Crispo, Sue Eilers & Erik Schlimmer, I believe these additional folks have also finished the ADK100 (and as such are ADK buschwhacking LEGENDS): Tom Haskins, Barb Harris, Inge Aiken, Alain Chevrette & Jim Close are also finishers.

Soon, a couple more VFTTers should join that list as Peak_bgr & Bushwhacker should finish within days (they sit at 99 now and hope to finish this w/e). There are others so please feel free to add them to this list if I missed them. Like I said, it's really guesswork at this point.

As for registers on the ADK lower summits, they are currently classified by the DEC as "Non conforming structures" and discouraged. On occasion, you'll see renegades, but it's haphazzard at best. So if your OCD will have you freaking out afterword and questioning if you really climbed the right bump and can count the peak, I suggest staying out of NY. Best I can guess, I THINK I've done about 70

Erik, thank you so much for the information. Also, considering you cited specific numbers of 3k peaks for northern New England, are those lists available anywhere? Even though these might be unofficial lists, are there at least semi-definitive lists out there?

Nate said:

Even though these might be unofficial lists, are there at least semi-definitive lists out there?

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What makes a list an "official list"?

E. Schlimmer said:

And Dr. Wu asked a fine question, who can have "any more power to make their list more 'official'" that someone else?" I have no idea how one group has more power over the other. It's apparent that clubs feel that have the list in their files. For example, the 111-R's (the club for people who hike the 4,000-footers of the Northeast) should actually be called the 110-R's, if going by my list, while others feel the club most accurately would be called the 115-R's.

And yes, DMS, I forgot to list Bob Matsko. Thanks for adding that name.

Sorry for such a long response as usual but seeing I put in only 0.11 messages per day I feel obligated to write 850-word responses to very simple questions such as the one above.

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Nice Post!

I deleted mine because I realized it was not well thought out and seemed like I was pointing the finger while I didn't intend it to be that way.

My point is that 200' is an arbitrary, although legit, number. Change it to 100' or 300' and you have different lists. I was not questioning the FTFC necessarily, more asking the people who follow the lists what makes the FTFC (or any other committee) have the right to say this list is 'official' and that isn't.



-Dr. Wu