How are things progressing this year? In keeping with the idea that you are only as good as the numbers you post, I'm up to 61,436' of elevation for the year and a modest 132 miles.
Added August 2019: Looking back 10 years later, I honestly can't think of anything more offensive or unhealthy to say about one's hiking, than the above statement. Thats was my OP in 2009. Hiking should never just be about the stats recorded.
January 31, 2023: Have at it.
Last edited by Jim on Dec 31 2023 8:54 am, edited 16 times in total.
big_load wrote:@hippiepunkpirate Don't feel too bad. I had to cancel most of my trips this year. I'm really thankful for the few that didn't fall through.
Same thing happened to me from August on. California, Colorado, the Chuskas, and Tucson, and now it seems like my long weekends are having a pattern of windy dust storms and rain or snow established during them.
Sadly, it appears I'll have to be content with 2nd in the biking category, since there's no way I can challenge the leaders on the hiking board. :worthy:
Hiking, though, 300 miles seems doable for the year, especially with an upcoming long weekend.
Maybe I should try for exactly 365 miles, one for each day of the year.
I long ago lost my top 5 spot for AEG, and now I just hope to not be out of the top 10. It will be the last year, I suspect, for being in the top 10. I've been in it every year since I joined HAZ in 2006, but people didn't log as much a few years ago. I might even be able to recoup my poor performance over the last 2 months and pass 270,000'. It all depends on if the weather cooperates, too. Next year, I just hope to make 120,000', or about 10,000' a month on average. I feel that is respectable, but it won't keep me in the top 10, unless the other guys pull back on the hiking reins.
Interesting to look back at the totals for the years prior to 2008 when I joined, they were consistenly lower. Joe appears to have made a major annual re-commitment to higher efforts in elevation since 2009, redefining what a high effort year looks like. On some of the Colorado hiking sites, folks post that they score one million feet in a year, though they do not log their specific activity... it does look as if HAZ is headed towards that million feet per annum mark...? Really, if someone has a nice 1,000' per mile trail, that might only be three hours of hiking daily...
Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is...
I read about 100,000' a year on 14ers once, which is a good claim, but 1,000,000' is an incredible amount for one year. That works out to a mean of just under 20,000' a week, which is an incredible amount for any human, even if they don't work, that is four 5,000' elevation gain hikes a week, and that is keeping busy. If they do work, well, I think that is impossible. Weather, mountain conditions, and so on, that will make it pretty hard to do all of that.
I'm sure 1,000,000' has been done before. Things would have to fall into place, but it's doable. imike did 100,000 in a month at age 59 if I recall. Imagine what he could have done at age 25. Maybe Joe will do it next year.
100,000 feet for a month is one thing, sustained elevations for the entire year is another. What month did Mike do that? You certainly aren't working if you make that, or you're a mountain guide where you are paid to do that. Colorado isn't exactly known for perfect conditions year round, so it's going to be hard to get out and get elevation after storms, ect. I don't doubt it has probably been done by someone at some point, but I do doubt that people, on websites such as 14ers, who are making that claim, have in fact actually achieved their claim. I remind you that Colorado is not Arizona or southern New Mexico with respect to weather.
I just think that someone who is in good shape and has the time and good health can accomplish 1,000,000' in a year. No doubt it would be tough to do outside the SW because of weather etc. I also don't doubt some will greatly exaggerate their totals. Three Piestewas a day and you're in.
Again away from elevation: still looking to break 250 for the year. At 234 with a month to go. If I do a mile a day (not too hard), it'll be in the bag without a problem.
"The only thing we did was wrong was staying in the wilderness to long...the only thing we did was right was the day we started to fight..."
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Oddly enough, it is more of a mental accomplishment to score the 100,000' per month... physically, there is not a lot to it. Even someone working fulltime could easily knock it off if they had the motivation. Decades ago, over in endurance biking, Pete Pensyres won Race Across America, off of a training program that included a full time job. He had the motivation. He simply got up at 2am to log in his training hours!
100,000' of hiking monthly is just a three hour daily effort, maybe less in the right conditions... If you go log in a nice 6,000' Saturday and Sunday, then your midweek efforts could crop to less than 2 hours daily. The true difficulty comes from finding the motivation to keep to the pattern... I find the necessary mindset much more difficult to achieve than any of the physical efforts. I am considering addressing the challenge for 2012, just to see what it might really take. I think the easier pattern will be to pile on the miles/elevation in the early months, get way ahead of schedule... then, plug away the rest of the year trying to maintain the average.
Oddly enough, I would not have been able to come anywhere near these levels of efforts when I was 25... I was bike racing back then, and my limits have greatly expanded over the decades. It is easier now, in my 60's, than it was in my 20's, 30's or 40's... and I am performing at ever higher levels. I'm sure that will stop soon (this coming year?)... but, it is fun while it lasts!
Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is...
imike wrote:my limits have greatly expanded over the decades
I think this has to do with mental strength and motivation. Right now I am much more willing to push myself to physical exertion than I ever was in my teens, such as when I was 14 and wanted to run a mere mile per day in order to get in shape to try out to play high school basketball, but I don't think I ever once got out to do it by myself. Then when I took PE class and we were required to run the mile, it seemed beyond painful. Nowadays, doing something like that actually sounds like fun.
As we are now tripping down memory lane, I remember when something equivalent to Mt Elden was an incredible hike, something I might get to do once a year. I used to consider a 12 mile bike ride on level and often paved surfaces a challenge. A 50 foot hill was big, and 5 miles was a long distance even to walk. Not so, today.
Finally hit 50k elevation! I thought I would get it in early November but I unexpectedly started working 40 hours a week on a tiling job with my father-in-law (in addition to my 30+ hours a week at the pizza restaurant) so that put a kink in any hiking plans until late last week when I got out a couple times. Barring no other schedule complications, hopefully I can tack on another 5k and top my AEG totals from 2008 (which was actually a "shortened" year because I didn't start hiking until late April). 2011 has turned out to be a shaky hiking year for me. With a light schedule the first few months, I actually started better than I normally do, but my hiking spiraled during the summer with a stiff schedule of two jobs, but still being broke because of paying extra rent from a roommate moving out, and also from the financial hit taken from paying for a very nice wedding in Sedona back in May. I'm looking forward to 2012...although if I end up going back to school or getting a second job, my numbers may not bounce back like I hope.
I should probably get my 100K and 500 miles by the end of the year. Which is not too bad, I think, seeing as during late winter and spring I both worked full time and went to school full time, (doing homework on weekends), and the first half of the summer I spent in Eagar while the mountains burned down around my ears (the Wallow Fire, for those of you with bad memories), and later in the summer I spent almost 3 weeks very happily sitting on my backside on a raft while floating 280 miles down the Grand Canyon. So if I'm not mistaken (I'm bad at math), more than half of my miles and AEG I have posted starting mid August.
There is a point of no return unremarked at the time in most lives. Graham Greene The Comedians
A clean house is a sign of a misspent life.
Nice, at least you can get your goals, even if you have to change them, and you live in places where you can hike and do stuff, as opposed to a lot of places in the country.
I made 260,000' and should pass 265,000' effortlessly. I might cross 270,000', but I feel much over that is unrealistic. Around the time I moved, I had set a revised goal of 275,000' for the year, but I just don't see that happening. You never know until it's over. I would like to make 750 miles, but I lost some with my Humphrey GPS and log revisions and I think 30 more miles is going to be more than I can get. Maybe 735 to 740. Next year, while I still hope to cross 100,000', mileage may be a bigger priority for me. I may end up doing cross country hikes over almost level terrain, as PT 6919 is nice, but requires little time. I can hopefully go to Tucson a few times in spring, Colorado at time in winter and maybe summer/ fall, and then explore some stuff east of here. Driving to CO yesterday I found I like the terrain out there far more than the stuff towards the west. Awesome views of the all the distant mountains, too.
hippiepunkpirate wrote:Finally hit 50k elevation! I thought I would get it in early November but I unexpectedly started working 40 hours a week on a tiling job with my father-in-law (in addition to my 30+ hours a week at the pizza restaurant) so that put a kink in any hiking plans until late last week when I got out a couple times.
Work really kills the ability to do fun stuff ... ;) I know I hike more when I am on holiday ...
http://prestonm.com : Everyone's enjoyment of the outdoors is different and should be equally honored.
How about adding Kayaking and or other paddle related activities to the self propelled totals?
"I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts."
That's a good question. "Self propelled" is what jim named this forum topic. The analysis is currently only available for the specific momentum category. The categories are...
Momentum
Assisted Float
Assisted Ride
Float
Ride
The core site is hiking, hence the full momentum leg activities. Paddling is neither leg nor full momentum as you can float.
Other analysis may be added in the future when the project model proves stable. The current setup is still in development as the chief DBA quarrels with the development team. Recent improvements do look promising.
"I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts."
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