Reddington Questions

[RoySwkr]

Places like Allen, Esther, the back of Saddleback, Bondcliff, Fort, Katahdin, etc can't be lied about.

There is enough information on the web to fake most any hike, and enough photos to add yourself to with Photoshop. But what do you gain by doing so?

 

[Mike P.]

There is enough information on the web to fake most any hike, and enough photos to add yourself to with Photoshop. But what do you gain by doing so?

You could fake all the photos and if you had just one of two left, you could remember somebodies elses trip report but if you had two left, why would lie about those, you'd just do them. (oddly, I have few pictures of me on summits, it's not about me, it's about the trip. my grandmother just passed away & in an old book from her 75th B-Day the Rockpile was there twice, a summit photo with my wife & one with my Uncle & his family -they drove)


If you lied about a lot of peaks, how would you remember all the details. Normally, if I end up at a peak, a hut, hostel or bar & I start talking with another hiker, the conversation flows all over the place, it might be talking about getting turned back on Panther, worse winter trips, or best, it might be the Fort bushwhack or comparing 1990 herd paths to the "unmaintained" herd paths of today. You can't script it & just talk about comparing NY & NH Whitefaces becauses that's what I studied from VFTT or ROT.

 

[RoySwkr]

If you lied about a lot of peaks, how would you remember all the details.

If you actually climb a lot of peaks, how do you remember all the details

First off, most hikers aren't that observant - when they get down ask them what sort of survey marker was on the summit or what was the predominant tree species at the trail junction halfway up and odds are they won't know. An amazing number of people won't even remember the correct trail names unless they were the leader.

Second, memories tend to fail with age and number of peaks climbed. If you climb a peak several times, it may be hard to remember what things happened on which trip. If you climb a lot of peaks, it becomes harder to keep them straight. (As the PeakMaster and I log old trips online, we are often consulting on what happened when.) And years take their toll - I can't remember a thing about the summit of Isolation from when I climbed it in the 50s but just accept the word of others that I was there. (Just like my birth date is second-hand information because I didn't know how to read a calendar yet.

 

[Tom Rankin]

(Just like my birth date is second-hand information because I didn't know how to read a calendar yet.

I know how to read a calendar, but I do not actually remember my birth, so that is a matter of faith as well!