Too tired to walk down? It'll cost ya

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If you are calling 911 & it's after hours, sounds fair. And some complain about a pricey one way ride on the Cog.

Wow, no I know is asking about plowing the Mt. Washington Road to retreive hikers or send an after hours train up to fetch the lazy, careless or just folks out of sorts with the concept of sunset & carrying a light. (You can't even ride a horse up or down anymore.....)
 
That's an excellent part-time job in the making. If I lived near there, I'd do it. Call this number for a ride down...fee is $100-$500...
 
I visited Pikes Peak a year and half ago. Spoke to a couple of people about hiking it. One kid said his father and him hiked it all the time, in a day.
Others camp near the summit in a camping area.
I also heard you could reserve a seat on their cog rail train for a trip down.

I don't have the specifics on the fare or whether it's fact, but reserving a paid trip down in advance sounds good.

DaveG.
 
Two threads on 14ers about this. Note the warning signs and that they don't seem to do the job...some things are the same everywhere! (But, man, 7300' and 25.2mi round trip, and better be off the summit by 1! That's a stiff climb, alright.)
 
most climbed?

Extremely unlikely. There are a couple of sacred peaks in China that see *millions* of visitors every year. (Edit: found a UNESCO report for Tai Shan that estimated 1.6 million visits per year.) The last time I saw a reliable number for Monadnock (a 2003 park service estimate of visitors, probably an overcount since many visitors don't reach the summit), it was 95,000 a year. Estimates for Fuji run around 200,000 a year.
 
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Thought Mount Monadnock is now the most climbed ahead of Mt Fuji :confused:
The claim that Monadnock pulled ahead of Fuji was based on busses going further up Fuji, so it "doesn't count." How 1200' of Monadnock counts but 5000' of Fuji doesn't, I don't know.

Not sure where Pike's fits in. Could be including non-foot ascents, not possible on Fuji or Monadnock.
 
The claim that Monadnock pulled ahead of Fuji was based on busses going further up Fuji, so it "doesn't count." How 1200' of Monadnock counts but 5000' of Fuji doesn't, I don't know.

Not sure where Pike's fits in. Could be including non-foot ascents, not possible on Fuji or Monadnock.

I wouldn't think too much into it. Just another case of a journalist reading something somewhere once and assuming it was correct. Pikes Peak gets nowhere near Monadnock's attention.
 
A couple articles...

Here are a couple articles I came across...not that it really matters ;)

From A Guide to Cheshire County, NH winter 2008:

"Besides being the most popular mountain in America, Grand Mt. Monadnock is known as the most climbed mountain in the world. Monadnock has long been described as the second-most-climbed mountain in the world (after Mt. Fuji in Japan). Since 1990, it has been suggested that so many of Fuji's climbers have shifted to newly available public road transportation for that ascent, that Monadnock's annual total of foot traffic now exceeds Fuji's. Now in southwestern New Hampshire, 125,000 people every year hike to the top of Monadnock.

From Monadnock: It's Never Lonely at the Top
by Christine Schultz Yankee classic August 1991:

"Monadnock is considered the most climbed mountain in the world. (Until a few years ago, Mount Fuji had that distinction. But since the Japanese built a road to within a few hundred feet of the top, there's not much "climbing" necessary. It is still the world's most summited mountain, however!) "
 
Yep, I recognize the phrases in both those quotes. They're from the same source, and the source is wrong.
 
Mt Washington has had a pay policy for years, it used to be they charged a premium price to fetch you but now it's just the regular stage fare which is the same for 1w as 2w

Seems like on Pikes I would just look for vehicles heading down that weren't full and ask for a ride before I would pay $500
 
I checked the website for the Cog in Manitou Springs.
If you reserve a whole trip on the cog for "both ways", you may be able to hike up and ride down.
I'd read the fine print though.

Guess I might consider the 24 miles on the Barr trail. After acclimating for a week and the trails are really easier than the northeast. It would be a long day but I've done 20 in a day on the AT. It won't kill me, but lightning might though.

Guess I'll have to think on this one some more.
Dave G.
 
The Barr Trail on Pikes Peak is like a sidewalk. I attempted the Pikes Peak Ascent foot race last August and turned myself around at the 10 mile mark (of 13 miles) due to snow/sleet/lightning.. I ran the 10 miles back down and didn't really feel it much the next day. If I had done that in the Whites I would have been much more sore.
 
Ok...this kind of goes along with the whole "hike safe" discussion on another thread.

Duh...don't you realize you have to go TWO ways: up and DOWN!? Down, often being harder then up! And, seriously, 12 miles up...that's going to take some time to get down...DUH!

I think it's great that they have a way to get them down...and THEY pay for it (responsibility for being...um...silly and unprepared:mad:)

Also...as someone else said...a part time job. Hmmmm...in a down economy, could be a good thing
 
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