Best, Worst, Heaviest, Lightest - Stories Backpackers Tell

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BrentD22

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I think it was Wilderness Ethics by B. Waterman where he talked about how people go to the extremes on how heavy or light their load was, how far they hiked in weather that was worst than anything they've ever....

You get the point.

I thought it would be interesting to talk about your MOST EXTREMEs. Your heaviest wieght hiked with, your lightest load on a lengthy trip, your longest single day hike, tallest mountain climbed, quickest climb, ect. Feel free to inflate your numbers if it makes you feel better.
 
This could get interesting

Heaviest Load - over 60 lbs. for a two night trip that ended up being an overnighter. It was my first solo trip when I first started getting into backpacking.

Longest Dayhike - Devil's Path, Catskills.. 26 miles, and around 9k' of elevation gain.

Worst Weather - 0 degrees and 100 mph wind gusts on Madison.

Those are just a few extremes. I can do without the first and the third, but that dayhike was epic. Still, everything is a learning experience, so no regrets. :D
 
Heaviest load: Hm. I was on a nine-day backpacking trip back in 1985 with a Sierra Club group. We had some sort of weight limit, but I don't remember now what it was. I do know that I managed to meet it by keeping my camera equipment (35 mm SLR; 28mm, 50mm close-up, 70-150mm zoom, and 300mm lenses; tripod) off the scale.

Longest single dayhike: Distance-wise, 22.9 miles, I think it was, for The Bonds from Lincoln Woods. Time-wise, maybe Seymour in the Adirondacks. I know that was 12 hours 20 minutes. There were probably ones that took even longer, but that one stands out. On my bicycle, I did one century, in the Northeast Kingdom, back in 1982.

Quickest climb: Probably my climb of Tecumseh, one hour five minutes. I had already climbed Starr King and Waumbek earlier in the day, and I didn't even start that hike until 11:30 a.m. I started the Tecumseh hike at 5:20 p.m. on September 21, 2000, so I made it to the summit just before sunset. Descended the ski trail in the dark, reaching my car about eight o'clock. Slide Mountain was just over an hour too, I think, with my then-10-year-old son along.

Tallest mountain: Mount Washington is the tallest mountaintop I've summited on foot. Maybe Slate Peak in Washington is the highest I've reached by car. The highest point I've reached on foot was Red Peak Pass in Yosemite National Park, 11,300 feet in elevation. I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from Harts Pass to Rainy Pass back in 1984; it looks (from my notes) like our high point was Tatie Peak, 7000 feet high. I don't remember hitting any summits on that trip, though, so that must have been a shoulder.

Windiest summit: Probably Wright, October 7, 1998. Susan and I were afraid to stand up on the summit. Cardigan was memorably windy, too. I know my son (maybe about five, then) was terrified. His hat blew off his head and sailed down the mountain, luckily landing at the feet of a man looking at the scenery. He returned it to us. I can still hear Cam's wail of "my hat!".
 
Not sure for most of them. I don't keeping records much for most things. Not sure how to compare, either. What's quicker, round trip Marcy in 3.5 hours, of Grand Canyon rim-river-rim in 7 hours? But these are far from fast.


I've done many day hikes of around 30 miles, but I have no idea exactly how long. I really don't see much of a difference between 25 and 30 miles, or 30 and 35 miles, since tral conditions make more of a difference than a 10% distace difference.


I'm used to a heavy pack. Like carrying 60 pounds through Mahoosuc Notch, and I do know the heaviest pack.. sort of. About 80-90 pounds. When we re-installed the cables on Gothics.

http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/trailwork/Gothics/cables.html

Steel is heavy. I found out that carrying a real heavy pack up a steep trail was very different, than say a 60 pound pack. It gave me new respect for my son, who carries 100+ pound packs for his job.... but don't tell him I said that.
 
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can't add much since many folks have been there and done that.

heaviest probably somehwere around 50 pounds on a winter overnight. or maybe hauling 12 rack of beer to hut in summer - not sure

worst weather has to be on mt washington 1999 -2000 winter - standing temps on summit about -30 and winds over 100mph - camped out in huntington ravine that night - and tried for summit (just for the laugh - knew weren't going to make it) and didn't make it past lion head. probably the coldest I have even been.

http://www.mountwashington.org/weather/archive/2000/01/today-2000-01-22.html
 
Worst Weather:Arrive at the summit of N Hancock at dusk,heavy snow and fog,wind blowing 40-50,temp is 8degrees. Wake up the next morning and it's dark in the tent. We are under 30 inches of snow!
Looong trek back out!
 
A friend and I once hiked Mt. Baker and Mt. Rainier on a three-day weekend. We drove from Seattle to a campground near Mt. Baker on a Friday evening, set up the tent and slept a few hours. Got up around 2 a.m and drove to the trialhead, hiked up and down, then drove to Paradise at Mt. Rainier. We slept in a campground near Paradise, then hiked to Camp Muir the next morning. Slept a few hours, got up around midnight, summitted, hiked down and drove to the Sea-Tac airport before dark.
 
Heaviest pack, 60/65 lbs. on a 20+ mi trip to Mt. Olympus, a woman on the trip with me had a pack of 55 lbs., which was one half her body weight of 110 lbs.!! Incredible!
 
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The longest day hike I ever did was about 4 years ago in the Massanuttens in VA, around Signal Knob. There used to be a 50K hiking event and I did it in 12 and a half hours. One heck of a day. I was on the slow extreme that day. I heard that some guys did it in like 3-4 hours or something crazy like that.
 
Ok, mine are not that impressive, but...
Heaviest: 62 lbs on a trip to Tuckerman's during college. What's a weekend of skiing without plenty of beer?

Longest: I'll guess the Pemi traverse on a rainy June day. Miles are not the only thing that contribute to a long day. I do remember some romps in/around the Great Gulf and in the Mahoosucs when I was in my teens that were 25+ miles, but I had the luxury of picking the nice days. I remember back then thinking that it would be easy to hike the AT, as 20 miles was an easy day. Ahhh, to be that young and naive again...

Highest: I'll let you know in a few weeks...

Worst weather: Adams: November, 1979. Washington Obs recorded 115 gusts with steady winds near 90mph while we were on Adams (needless to say, no summit that day.) Don't want to do that again.

Best?: Again, I hope to be able to tell you in a few weeks...
 
heaviest pack: 55lbs on a multi day trip in BSP where the last day we hiked out from Russell Pond to Nesowadnehunk.
we bagged the last night, and my friend didn't want to hitchhike

Or, do two packs count? I ended up carrying my nephews backpack as well as mine to Chimney Pond as we were racing a thunderstorm - only cause he was 7 and afraid every time it thundered. We beat it. :)

Another time, we carried a kid's pack down, but we alternated carrying it.

coldest hike: minus 17 up North Crocker.
though I laughed while standing half naked to add long johns part way into the hike, my fingers were quickly frostbitten (or nipped?) at lunch - though they were only exposed a few seconds - scary!

highest peak: Mt Washington
this could also be my "sickest hike" - it was about 90+ degress all the way up, and I had a major migraine buy the time I got to the top - I spent my hike down trying not to throw up

longest day over the shortest distance: from 9am to 6pm hiking 4 miles on the AT with a group as sweep.

most intersting weather: at Chimney Pond - once, wind that sounded like a freight train tunneling through the basin. Another time at CP, having sunshine one minute then marble sized hail the next.
 
Not sure on the heaviest load . I did haul a small keg not sure of the size to Crag Camp in my 20's I think one time I had about 100 lbs but never weighed it .

Highest Denali via the Cassin ridge

Coldest -45 at 16,000 ft in the coldest part of the day. strongest wind toss up 130 Denali, or Mt Washington. surpsisngly it was not all that cold either day both times temps were in the teens or single digits .

Longest. I am not sure of the milage but years ago I hiked from Crag Camp to Pierce over the peaks both ways for some unklnown reason and back to Crag. At least I think it is the longest.
I could not do it now.
The longest I did recently was the 22 mile day hike of Snowmass but it is fairly easy for all but the river crossing and the 4.5 miles up and down the mountain proper.
Hardest. either the Grand Teton or Denali solo
Hottest. Madison on one very hot humid day last year . I will never do that again. Not sure of temps
Lightest not sure
 
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Still working on *ests since I only started hiking again a little over two years ago after a long, long break.

I would never have predicted it, but my toughest hike to date has to have been Hale last winter, and that was with Poison Ivy doing most of the trailbreaking! Ivy, I still owe you for that trip :)

It was supposed to have been a warm up hike for a trip to Bondcliff the following day but Hale wiped us both out.

Hale was my 13th winter 4k. In complete contrast my any season 13th, two days shy of a year prior to Hale, was Washington and a relative breeze.

Weather rules!

Bob
 
Hottest: 101F at the 19-Mile Brook Trailhead; mid-90's when I got to the hut.

Coldest: -26F at the summit of Nye.

Longest: a number of different 14-milers; the Brothers, Fort, and Coe is up there.

Stupidest: a tie for solo on Nye at -26F, or solo 50F pouring rain Whiteface/Passaconaway loop including the ledges.

Heaviest: 55lbs to backpack into the Great Gulf for my first tent overnight; I learned quickly.

Wettest: days 2 & 3 of our Memorial Day epic backpack from Rte 4 to Caribou Valley Road.
 
heaviest: 90-100 lbs (I weighed 120 lbs.)

lightest: just a water bottle

highest: 14,162 ft, Mt Shasta

greatest climb in a day: 6000 ft, Mt Shasta

coldest: -30F, Camp 13 Falls

hottest: 113F at 6pm, bottom of Grand Canyon

farthest daytrip: 25mi backcountry solo ski (broke trail ~8mi)
longest daytrip: 17.5 hr solo, same ski
longest daytrip: 24 hr solo, including the drive

Doug
 
Longest: 22 miles - 19mi brook trail to Wildcat, down to hut, up over Carters, down to Dodge Camp, hike up Rt.16 to 19mi brook parking lot.

Hardest: 19 mile brook to Carter Hut the day after thanksgiving with the beginnings of the flu. We were going to hit Wildcat day 1 and at least Carter Dome, if not the whole Carter range, on day 2. I brought plenty of cold meds with me and thought I could make it. I was so wiped out, I turned around halfway up Wildcat, unable to take a deep enough breath to keep the muslces going. We stayed the night at the hut, and hiked out on day 2. It felt like I did 50 miles in 2 days. This bailout was the reason for the longest hike mentioned above.

Smitty
 
Sort of in showing how I don't pay much attention to the details...

I climbed Whitney last month. I don't know how much of an ascent it was. I don't know the hight, except that it is higher than a lot of others, and I don't know the distance. The normal distance is smoething like 11 miles each way, but the switchback section was snow covered, so I just went straight up the sno wall (ice axe-crampon), which probably cut out a lot of the distance.

I've probably climbed more feet in a day than that, and I know I've gone greater distance, but the thin air and several hour climb up a snow wall in thin air made it a tough day.

Nothing was an 'est', though, except maybe a highest.
 
Coldest: 5 days worth of -40 in NW Ontario.
Thickest ice to chop through for water: 3 feet.
Longest distance: 50 miles in just over 24 hours.
Longest day hike: 15 hours. Donaldson in Feb.
Hardest: Seward in April
Most fun: Seward and Seymour in Dec. with beautiful interwoven rivers of ice and a dusting of snow.
Craziest: Arriving Bradley Pond LT at 3:00am at the end of April.
Hottest: Moose and Mckenzie 2 wks ago.
Most unusual: Crossing Lake Winnipeg in the dark at -40.
Closest brush with death: Being charged by a griz.
Most depressing: Tabletop
Funnest slide: Colden 1992.
Worst: Gastroenteritis while winter camping at Uphill brook LT.
Best ADK hike: Wright slide to Marshall traverse.
 
Longest distance – Road march in the army with 45 lb rucksacks. 25 miles in 8 hours
Most difficult – same
Coldest – Several winter camping trips in Whites with overnight temps to -25F. One bivouac in Germany for several nights -10F
Windiest – February hike up to Hermit shelter with sustained winds of 60 MPH gusting to 85 with ice and snow
Highest – Just shy of 10000’. The Zugspitse in Germany.
Scariest – two contenders First – Solo trip up Wildcat. I turned to look out off the ledge and my pack almost pushed off the ledge when it hit the cliff face. I actually thought someone tried to push me off the ledge. Scared the hell out of me. Second – Miserable solo winter camping experience at Nauman tentsites Sounded like something with claws was scratching at my tent on the outside. Wound up being that when the frozen rain accumulated enough weight it would make a scratching noise as it slide off my tent.

Keith
 
Coldest -17 atop Jackson with 40-50 mph winds in near zero visibility on my first winter hike solo. I couldnt believe how fast my toes got cold on that rock I didnt have time to be scared.

Bloodiest In sustained 80 mph winds,on Washington, a loose strap with the 3 prong buckle hit me in the eye and cut me wide open right in my eyebrow. I couldnt believe how much I bled and my eye swelled shut of course.

Longest Day Crawford Notch to Franconia Notch (Tom and then back to A-Z and over Zealand, S.Twin -skipped Galehead- over Garfield and Lafayette then down OBP.....ten years ago now but I can recall the pain of Garfield Ridge real fast. Also I once biked from Manchester,NH to Providence, RI in a day. 115 miles in 8-9 hours ( I stopped to swim at Walden Pond)

Most Embarrassing My cell phone rang in my pack on top of Algonquin. To make matters worse, here I am in NY during the playoffs with my RED Sox hat. It was the 2003 series; bouncing Zimmer game.
 
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