Katahdin

Looking towards South Peak and the Knife Edge (to the left)

Last weekend, Kim and I, with two friends Cheryl and Ginger, succeeded in our year-long goal: reach the summit of Katahdin (the "Mount" is superfluous although officially part of its name).  At 5267' (almost a mile high), Katahdin is the highest point in Maine and the 6th highest in New England.  It's also the second most prominent mountain in New England and third most prominent East of the Mississippi.  See my previous blog An Achievable Goal? for an explanation of prominence.

Being from Maine, Kim of course has a special reason to climb Katahdin and it was her goal, established last year, that we were fulfilling.  At the start of the year, I didn't think I would want to go all the way up myself.  But a funny thing happened on the way...  As Kim puts it, I got "summit fever" and became determined to get to the top.

What is it about these mountains that makes us want to climb them.  Mallory famously said of Everest "Because it's there."  And I think there is something in that.  A mountain as tough as Katahdin represents a challenge that we feel, to some extent, compelled to meet.  While there are probably more difficult trails in New Hampshire and elsewhere for that matter, what is unique about Katahdin is that there is no easy trail to the top.  All of the trails are difficult.  This contrasts with, say, Mt. Washington (6288') where there are some trails which are relatively easy.  There's also the auto road and the railroad to the summit!  But, if you want to stand on the summit of Katahdin, you must do it by your own not inconsiderable efforts.

I've written up the details of our hike here, but suffice it to say that our route requires just under 4000' of actual climbing and a total round trip of 11 miles. The hike took us 15 hours all told, including rest stops and a three-hour exodus in the dark. You can also see more photographs here and there is a video here.

Planning for the trip was considerable.  First, there were all of the training hikes, starting back in April and totaling 35000' of climbing and 110 miles for Kim and a little less than that for me.  Then the logistics of the hike itself: it's over six hours driving from our house to the parking area at the trail-head, but of course we needed to stay overnight both before and after the hike.  Then there's the little detail that only Maine residents can reserve parking spaces (there are only 35!) more than two weeks ahead of the day.  When Kim logged in at midnight two weeks ahead, there were three spaces available!  Then of course, there's the worry that the weather will turn out to be bad, or the mountain will be cloaked in clouds affording no views.  We would have rescheduled under those conditions.

So, it is with a great sense of achievement and relief that I write this.  The best time to climb Katahdin is when you're young and fit.  Three of our party are significantly past our sell-by date and that doesn't bode well for fast hiking. But we did it. And we also have a great sense of gratitude, especially to Percival Baxter, for whom the State Park containing Katahdin is named.  He was Governor of Maine 1921-25 and spent his life and fortune buying up the land around Katahdin.  Then he donated it all to the state together with an endowment to pay for its upkeep, requiring that it remain a wilderness in perpetuity.

As it turned out, the weather was absolutely perfect: cool and dry.  The only problem was that it was slightly too cool -- with patches of ice up on the summit (you can see the ice - rime to be precise - in the photo at the top).  Several trails were actually closed, making our chosen trail much more popular than it otherwise would have been.  But the views, and the feeling of elation at the top, were just incredible.  Unforgettable!

Robin, Ginger, Cheryl and Kim on top of the world

An achievable goal?

Well, I've had quite a problem with blogging this summer.  Some stories were too big to go in the blog, some were too insignificant.  Some I just couldn't describe appropriately.  There are several embryonic drafts in my folder.

Kim and I just got back late last night from our final training hike of 2011 - in preparation for the "biggie": Mt. Katahdin later this month.  Our goal yesterday was Mt. Monroe, a distinct peak on the shoulder of Mt. Washington and, as the name implies, part of the Presidential range.  At 5372', Monroe is the 4th highest mountain in the Northeastern US.  We had planned to summit Monroe then Eisenhower (4760') on our way back down which would have involved an extra 0.8 miles (in addition to the 9+ that we did) and another 300' of climb.  I was too exhausted, though, even for that.  I'm not sure why but the three-week layoff didn't help much.  More detail in my report on EveryTrail.

These hikes have to be planned quite carefully.  We need the right amount of distance and climb to fit into the training schedule.  This final training hike entailed (in practice) about 3650' of elevation gain and about 9 miles round-trip.  Katahdin (5267') will require about 3750' of elevation and more like 11 miles round-trip.  It will also require some scrambling over boulder fields and some challenging sections (but don't worry, we will not be attempting the knife edge).  So Monroe was excellent training for that.  We will also have to start very early in order to have as much light for the descent as possible, now that the days are getting shorter.  We'll probably be on the mountain for 12 hours or more.

So that's twice in as many hikes that I've missed the secondary peak (Kim got the earlier one) but it doesn't help my chances at the "48" club**.  But then I never aspired to belonging to that club anyway.  Kim isn't sure yet - she has 19 now (would have been 20 with Eisenhower) and might want to complete the other 29.

But I think I've adopted a new goal, one slightly less onerous: the eight 5000 footers of New England.  After Katahdin (fingers crossed), I will only have two to "bag": Mt Washington (which at 6288' is hard but probably no harder than Katahdin) and Mt. Adams which was planned for our Presidential range hike seven years ago but which I couldn't manage due to lack of fitness (again it was only 300' to the top but wobbly legs aren't good for climbing mountains).

But these lists of peaks have a big flaw.  They are based on a completely arbitrary value for minimum prominence: 200 ft.  Prominence is defined thus:

The prominence of a peak is the height of the peak’s summit above the lowest contour line encircling it and no higher summit.
It is in some ways a better indication than the actual elevation of the summit to the amount of climb necessary to get to the top.  This is because the starting point for an ascent is often one of the cols (or saddles) around the base of the mountain. When mountains are listed by prominence, many peaks are relegated beyond the practical limits of the list -- all of the Presidential range, for instance.  Of course, listing peaks with no prominence requirements at all would be an impossibility -- the number of peaks approaches infinity as the prominence threshold gets smaller and smaller.

There is an entire web site devoted to lists of prominence throughout the world.  In New Hampshire, for instance, there are 14 peaks with prominence greater than 2000'.  And we've climbed slightly more than half of these: Carter Dome, Lafayette, Kinsman, Moosilauke*, Carrigain*, Osceola*, Kearsage, Monadnock (*I'm taking credit here for some that Kim only has climbed).  There are 12 in Vermont, of which we have climbed only one (Ascutney).  There are 16 in Maine of which we haven't climbed any - yet, although we've been close (Bigelow's Avery Peak - West Peak).   Katahdin will be the biggie: over 4000' of prominence.  And this list makes it more important to climb Massachusetts' own Mt. Greylock: the only mountain in Southern New England with 2000' of prominence. 

I'm even looking at the lists for the British Isles.  I note that Paul and I have climbed #67 Croaghaun with 688m (2257') of prominence (this page has a great photograph) and #112 Cadair Idris (608m, 1994'). which comes just after Ben Loyal (which I would like to climb one day as we didn't have time on our last visit to Sutherland).

So, perhaps a realistic goal is to climb all of the peaks in New Hampshire and Massachusetts with at least 2000' of prominence.  Only seven to go.  Many of the Maine peaks are simply too far out of the way to be practical.

** people who have climbed all 48 of New Hampshire's 4000'-plus mountains.