Peakbagger lists question

[Elizabeth]

I've seen reference on the VFTT site to the "New Hampshire 100 Best" hikes. I am assuming that what is generally meant by this are the 48 4Ks plus the "52 with a View" list. Is that correct?

I've also seen reference to "100 Finest" lists. Are they the same as the "100 Best"? If not, what are the criteria, and/or where can those lists be found.

Just curious.

Thanks

 

[MichaelJ]

There's a New England 50 Finest
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_Fifty_Finest
http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/Prominence.html

The "Finest" lists are made up of peaks with the greatest prominence, by which is meant the most elevation difference between the top of that peak, and the lowest elevation on that peak that is part of no other peak. In simpler terms, the greatest cols, if you extended the notion of "col" all the way down to the valley/ground/sea level.

 

[Papa Bear]

I've seen reference on the VFTT site to the "New Hampshire 100 Best" hikes. I am assuming that what is generally meant by this are the 48 4Ks plus the "52 with a View" list. Is that correct?

I've also seen reference to "100 Finest" lists. Are they the same as the "100 Best"? If not, what are the criteria, and/or where can those lists be found.

Just curious.

Thanks

The term "Finest" refers to prominence based lists. It refers to peaks, not hikes. That's a whole topic which comes up here from time to time. Some folks don't like this usage of the word "finest" and they prefer something like "Fifty Most Prominent Peaks" or such.

Here's a reference: Prominence

And here's my web page on the New England Fifty Finest: NE FF

Not sure if there's an objective definition of "best". I haven't heard of it used in a specific way. Someone else here will surely chime in.

 

[nartreb]

Interesting way of looking at prominence, but it's actually "the difference in elevation between the summit and the highest point that's part of no higher peak"

--oops, Papa Bear beat me to the reference link. I like the "island" metaphor myself...


I've not heard of "100 Best" lists for NE peaks - popular lists include Hundred Highest lists, 50 Finest, and the AMC / ADK lists (combined, the "115").

 

[Elizabeth]

Thanks!

Thanks for your responses. I will keep a look out for the next reference I see to "100 Best" and will ask the person posting what it is they mean.

 

[RoySwkr]

I've not heard of "100 Best" lists for NE peaks - popular lists include Hundred Highest lists, 50 Finest, and the AMC / ADK lists (combined, the "115").

When Andy Martin got tired of county high points and decided to compile rise-above-col lists, he used the euphonious term "Fifty Finest" - one would assume that with a different page size he would have used "Sixty Silliest", "Eighty Easiest", or "Hundred Hardest". The term "prominent" was later adopted for these lists and I don't think "finest" is generally used for this purpose any more.

When Dan Doan wrote his first guidebook, it was called "Fifty Hikes" because that's exactly what is was - descriptions of 50 hikes that he selected from among the hundreds he'd done. Of course there weren't any competing books then. Now if you see a book or particularly a magazine article it might well be named "The 50 Most Sensational Hikes of All Time" or "50 Hikes You Must Do Before You Die" due to cutthroat competition in the publishing industry. Perhaps somebody posted one of these "100 Best" lists from an article, quite possibly written by someone who has only ever done 70 hikes but stretched it to 100

 

[Elizabeth]

How about the 52-with-a-View list? That one seems to get around quite a bit. Once I finish with the 48 NH4Ks for the second time around (this time with canines), I am thinking it would be fun to tackle a different list. I am not interested in doing a lot of bushwhacking to viewless peaks. So the 100 Highest is out. Maine and the Adirondacks both require too much driving for me. I might just make up my own list of best hikes less than 100 road miles from home.

 

[TenPeaks]

I'm nipping away at the 52 with a view list (42/52 so far) and really enjoy it. So far I've done all of them as day hikes and the mountains are less travelled than the 4K footers. This gives you a lot more solitude to enjoy the trails and peaks. The list has also allowed me to explore mountains and regions I may not have considered visiting.

Once I finish this list I'm not sure what I'll hike next. Maybe I'll make a 52 without a view list.

 

[Elizabeth]

Once I finish this list I'm not sure what I'll hike next. Maybe I'll make a 52 without a view list.

There seem to be a lot of nice mountains with views that didn't make it onto the 52WAV list. I don't think you will be forced into viewless hiking!

I've done about half of the 52WAV already and am looking forward to hiking the rest.

 

[Mike P.]

Once I finish this list I'm not sure what I'll hike next. Maybe I'll make a 52 without a view list.

Why not just do the one closes t to your home 52 times, the views would all be the same.

(Okay I'm an admitted view junkie, I shoudl look at the 52 WAV list, I'm preety confident I've done a bunch)

 

[bjc]

Once I finish this list I'm not sure what I'll hike next. Maybe I'll make a 52 without a view list.

How about section hiking the AT through NH, car-spotting with a friend ?