Sue Johnston. "Grid" in "One Calendar Year". Year 2016

[B the Hiker]

Wow!

This news dropped on December 27, 2016 from Hiker Ed.

Brian

# # #

Hi to All

Yesterday, Monday, Dec 26, 2016, Sue Johnston ( Snow Flea )
became the "First ( #1 )" finisher of a "Calendar Year Grid".

Sue has now hiked the "48" NH four thousand footers
in "every calendar month" ( 12 x 48 = 576 ), "Start to Finish" in a
"Single Calendar Year" ( Year 2016 ).

On this day, Sue completed her "Calendar Year GRID" on the summit of
Mt Isolation, via the standard route from the Rocky Branch Trail trailhead
parking lot on Route 16. She attained the summit with her husband Chris
at about 11:00 AM. They celebrated with a bottle of Champagne.

CONGRATULATIONS TO SUE!!!!!!!!

I know you will all join me, in congratulations to Sue, on completion of
of this unique, fun & rewarding goal & achievement.

Thanks and Take Care

Ed


"GRID" website: www.48x12.com

 

[DayTrip]

Incredible stuff. The bar for these accomplishments just keeps getting higher and higher. Doing the 48 4k's is starting to seem like taking an elevator ride in comparison. Congratulations!

 

[J&J]

A tremendous accomplishment, indeed. Read Sue's story here: http://runsuerun.blogspot.com

A million feet of elevation gain in one year. Incredible. Then include the add-ons: all of the Trailwright's peaks and a 48 Direttissima. Outstanding.

And hubby Chris is well on his way to his first grid. Go, Chris, Go!

Run, Sue, Run!!!

John & June

J&J

 

[TJsName]

So, single season winter redline is next?

 

[Becca M]

Given how most of these trails are so eroded, it is definitely amazing to do this in 1 year. Does she also work a full-time job? (Just curious???? 1 grid is more than enough for me....)

 

[kerry13]

I thought is was a misprint when I first read the headline. Absolutely amazing!!! Congrats!!

 

[Raven]

I wonder when someone will get the crazy idea to try to grid in a calend......

Oh.

Really awesome and admirable, Sue. Congratulations.

 

[una_dogger]

Amazing! I've read SnowFlea's grid worksheet, but what I really wanna see is her food journal from that year!!!!!

 

[SpencerVT]

What an awesome accomplishment! Congratulations!! A million feet of elevation gain in one year, wow!

 

[Snowflea]

Thank you for the kind words. It was SO MUCH FUN, and I am kind of sad it's over. (My husband's opinion may differ.) As J&J mentioned, there is a short summary and some stats/numbers over on my blog runsuerun.blogspot.com Also the monthly breakdown of peaks, mileages, and elevations.

I am retired. My husband is mostly retired but still does some part-time consulting work. I think it would be very difficult to do a calendar/single-year grid while working any regular kind of job. This enabled me to cherry pick my days for the winter above-treeline peaks for both safety and enjoyment. December had me anxious because there weren't too many Presi days and there was lots of snow! We ended up getting REALLY lucky for the northern Presi's and Franconia Ridge.

As for diet, on the trail it was cheese sandwiches or PBJ's, nut butter-filled Clif bars, Snickers, Jolly Ranchers, bacon jerky (OMG that stuff is evil), and in winter, Campbell's tomato soup and sweetened herb teas. I usually have one good beer nightly (lately I'm into sours!). The rest of my diet was pretty normal for me--don't think I really ate much more than usual because I am always very active. Generally I eat whatever and whenever I want and don't overthink it.

Throughout the year I never lost focus and always wanted to walk in the woods and climb mountains. Not sure what's next, but I did tell my husband that 2017 was "his" since he sacrificed so much in order to help me.

 

[egilbe]

Wow. Thats 48 peaks each month of the year? Some days, 2,3, or 4 peaks?

 

[blacknblue]

Congrats on a fantastic accomplishment! I appreciate your blog post with the day-by-day breakdown.

 

[RollingRock]

Congratulations! An amazing feat!

 

[chomp]

Congratulations Sue, unbelievable!!

 

[drewski]

I bet she used the Arthur white trailhead ����

 

[marty]

Hey Sue! Congratulations on an absolutely amazing accomplishment

Best regards,
Marty

 

[weatherman]

Even made the front page of the Denver Post! (rare to have any East Coast outdoor things in the paper here, much less on the front page) Congrats!

 

[Ann]

Big time congratulations Stinkyfeet!!! I have been following your blog and it's been sheer joy to see your accomplishments, I had to come out of hiding/lurking on VFTT to say, you are amazing!!!

 

[wardsgirl]

What an amazing accomplishment! Congratulations!

My son (who hiked the 4000'rs when he was a wee lad) told me about Sue's accomplishment before I saw it here. I had a cold last week, so I informed him that I wasn't going hiking on the weekend. His response: "A cold wouldn't keep Sue Johnson from hiking!"

 

[Snowflea]

Hah! Actually a cold *would* keep me from hiking!

Thanks for the kind words. (Wow, Chomp even came out of the woodwork!)

Comical that the story made the front page of The Denver Post. The AP picked up the little Concord Monitor article, so it was distributed widely... including local TV (WCAX and WMUR) news. I don't watch regular TV so didn't see (and surely would have cringed at the post-story chit-chat). Must have been a slow news day and they needed a filler story. It WAS kinda cool to hear on NPR and see under the banner of the NYT though.

What's been sort of an eye opener is how all these outlets just regurgitate the same story without doing any fact checking (there were a couple of small inaccuracies). Crazy!