Fastest known time.

[Neil]

You never know. Lately I've been going at it hammers and nails ( nice sounding expression) bushwhacking the ADK 46er peaks and now I'm down to just 12 left to go.

I began this quest 7 weeks ago (ha ha!, not true. My first ever 46er-B was probably in 2004 with a bushwhack of Wright via the airplane slide).

I haven't been hurrying this list, picking it up and putting it down again although my last group of hikes (Big Slide, LWJ, Armstrong, Porter, Gray, Emmons and Whiteface) have been directed at terminating this list. Some of you may have heard of the notion of "one gene one polypeptide". Well, this list is similar: "one bushwhack one summit" in that it's not easy to rack up two-fers.

The point of this thread is to encourage the super-fit nut jobs out there to best my probable time of 7 years. I believe that a restless, unemployed and very fit peakbagger can plow through the 46-B list in 30-40 days without using a gps, a guide book or doubling up on peaks.

For more information on the rules of the game, which include no flagging of the route the day before by one's crew don't hesitate to contact me.

 

[adamiata]

Posting in the loneliest thread on Views.

 

[iceNsnow]

Neil - cool list! We should compare notes. I still have a few left - maybe some in common! Which ones do you neeeeeeeeeeeed?! I know Armst/Donald w/o digging it out are on there.

 

[Neil]

Lonely thread?
Bushwhacking the ADK46 can be a lonely endeavor.

Inge, my remaining peaks are Marshall, S. Dix, Hough, Panther, UWJ, Basin, Saddleback, Allen (this should fun!), Sky, Colvin, Blake, Street.
There are actually a few potential two-fers in there. Allen-Sky, Colvin-Blake and Basin-Saddleback. The only two-fer so far was Seymour-Seward.

 

[iceNsnow]

Looks like we have Panther and Colvin in common!

 

[Neil]

Could do Blake from just north of the Blake Slide, descend the slide and walk back upstream to the base of Colvin and go up the nose of this (sort of a) ridge. I would cross-slope from 1150 meters to directly below the summit.

Mastergrasshopper wants to do Panther from this pond. Might as well.

 

[iceNsnow]

Neil! I like the Panther approach!

For Colvin, I was thinking of coming up the face from the lake.... I know.... that's why I still haven't done it... maybe a winter trip?

 

[Neil]

Maybe you could buy the lake.

In his book, "A Bushwhacker's View", John Winkler stated that he did Colvin by the marked trail, descended to the B-C col then followed the other trail down towards Upper Lake to the end of state land, traversed over and then climbed straight up. Straight up being the key phrase.

I find that to be too contrived, which is why I will do it from the drainage out of Elk Pass. Up from Elk Lake poses the same constraints as from Upper Lake.

Another approach would be down Nip Slide.

 

[Raymond]

I may have mentioned this before, but when I first heard that John Winkler had bushwhacked each of the High Peaks, I assumed he had bushwhacked each the entire way from a road, without ever using any trails. I was pretty disappointed when I read the reprint of his account of his climb up the ‘‘most difficult,’’ Colvin. It doesn’t even seem like real bushwhacking, to climb to the top via a trail, then climb back down, go over a little bit, and climb back up. It’s nothing I’m interested in doing, either, but it’s not nearly as impressive as going the entire way without being able to see where you’re going, particularly pre-GPS.

On the other hand, I can see that even trying to parallel a trail, just staying a short distance off it, in the woods, could be a real pain, literally and figuratively.

 

[Neil]

Bushwhacking the 46 with no use of trail at all both up and down would certainly be a major undertaking. Thinking of peaks like Haystack and Skylight, which are far from trail-heads I don't think I would want to do that. When I get to the summit I'm usually quite happy to pull the plug and follow a trail out.

 

[BlackSpruce]

John Winkler will for ever be the one and only that really counts!

Actually the only REAL bushwhackers were the one who ploughed throughout the Adirondacks in the 1800's...

 

[BlackSpruce]

"When I get to the summit I'm usually quite happy to pull the plug and follow a trail out"
That says it all!

 

[John H Swanson]

John Winkler will for ever be the one and only that really counts!

Actually the only REAL bushwhackers were the one who ploughed throughout the Adirondacks in the 1800's...

And he put together a nice book too....

 

[Neil]

"When I get to the summit I'm usually quite happy to pull the plug and follow a trail out"
That says it all!

Yes indeed. It says that I'm quite happy! And I fully agree that it really says it all.

I prefer to do long, convoluted bushwhacks UP the mountain. The fact that there is a trail off the mountain factors into the plan and enables one to make an even more interesting route up, knowing that once on top you can get out OK even if it's dark out or if you're knackered. Bushwhacking downhill while fatigued and perhaps with darkness impending is an unsafe practice. Safety first! Of course on the 30-odd ADK-HH bushwhacks you can't "pull the plug" and must plan accordingly.

What other hikers do with their day off is their business.

Winkler was definitely "De man". A true pioneer.

 

[Neil]

Actually the only REAL bushwhackers were the one who ploughed throughout the Adirondacks in the 1800's...

One day I will become a real bushwhacker. Until that happy day arrives Garmin is coming out with a new GPS that will have a time travel feature (DougPaul will confirm). This will enable the user to dial in his or her year of choice and whack the dacks as they were back in the good old 1800's when winter was colder and when bushwhackers could hike up clear cuts and logging roads alongside wide open virgin forests right to the top.

As a bonus I understand the unit will allow these real bushwhackers to make a name for themselves as they lounge in camp, smoke their pipes and pass the jug, while the guides do the real work hacking the route out for pennies a day.

 

[skiguy]

As a bonus I understand the unit will allow these real bushwhackers to make a name for themselves as they lounge in camp, smoke their pipes and pass the jug, while the guides do the real work hacking the route out for pennies a day.

I think you should just bushwack them all naked and then you'll have some real stories to be told and the scares to prove it.

 

[DougPaul]

I think you should just bushwack them all naked and then you'll have some real stories to be told and the scares to prove it.

But the scares are more likely to occur to the people you meet rather than yourself...

Doug

(Yes, I know it was a typo, but I couldn't resist...)

 

[skiguy]

But the scares are more likely to occur to the people you meet rather than yourself...

Doug

(Yes, I know it was a typo, but I couldn't resist...)

LOL..Maybe it was not a typo but a Freudian Slip

 

[Neil]

Back on topic. I'm quite surprised at the large numbers of people who have contacted me privately regarding the ADK-46er bushwhack speed record concept. It looks like we have some sort of an event in the making. I doubt it will ever reach the level of the Lake Placid Iron Man competition but we will have to get a web site set up and determine a few logistics it looks like. Who'd a thunk it?

 

[Kevin Rooney]

The first person who does it for speed gets to make the rules.