Direttissima Hikes in the Whites

[DougPaul]

Folsom did it in more than one "trip" but his claim to fame was more about figuring out what the shortest route to include all peaks was (hence the name) rather than just doing it the fastest.

At the time I was interested in choosing the optimal Diretissima route from a GIS network analysis perspective(

This is known as the traveling salesman problem (find the shortest route to visit a list of cities) in the computational world. It is an NP-complete problem (very difficult to solve). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelling_salesman_problem

There are closed loop (start and finish in the same spot) and open loop (start and finish in different spots) versions.

Doug

 

[RoySwkr]

I first encountered it in the context of technical climbing in the Alps where it seems to mean a route which climbs straight up the fall line to the summit (thus the winter direttissma on the Eiger). At first, applying it to hiking seemed a bit far-fetched to me, but a check of online dictionaries also yields a translation of "shortest route" (http://www.dictionarist.com/direttissima).

The 1966 Eiger Direct people in "Direttissima" by Peter Gillman and Dougal Haston took weeks to fix ropes up a direct route on the North Face while the easier wandering route can be done in under a day. Similarly the 1971 NH 4k route was allegedly the shortest using trails but he was not trying to do it fast.

If I recall the AMC post talked about a potential longer route with easier footing or less elevation gain or the chance to drop your overnight pack and do some peaks as side trips - it may be a continuous route but not the Direttissima. The 1971 route used the Mt Cabot Trail which is arguably no longer an official trail and there may be other relocations affecting the shortest route today.

 

[DougPaul]

The 1966 Eiger Direct people in "Direttissima" by Peter Gillman and Dougal Haston took weeks to fix ropes up a direct route on the North Face while the easier wandering route can be done in under a day.

Yes, but it was hardly the first or only direttissima route in the Alps.

They were done in a variety of styles.

Doug

 

[RoySwkr]

Yes, but it was hardly the first or only direttissima route in the Alps.

They were done in a variety of styles.

My point is that "direttissima" traditionally refers to the shortest route, rather than a longer and faster route