Peakbagger's Disease:
An affliction where one climbs as many peaks as possible via the easiest routes to check the peak off a list. Predominate symptom is boredom.

Can't tell you how many times I've read in a summit register or online trip report that one mountain or another is a boring slog. Most of the time the writer had ascended the mountain the easy way, just to check the mountain off the 'list'.

I really don't understand how someone can get bored hiking around in the mountains in the first place. There is always so much to see, wildlife, plants, sky, the list goes on. Not only that, there are so many ways to climb a mountain, why always take the easy way?

I suppose it's not really a disease if you are having a good time out there, as in your case. But to take the easy way and not enjoy it is the sad part.

I do confess to a little bit of peak bagging.

Bryan, don't lie. You are always trying to bag a new peak.




But I do always enjoy whatever route I walk up a mountain. And what is going on around me.








And it keeps me off the couch watching endless TV show repeats.

It's a disease if one sees climbing merely as a (another competitive) project in one's life where ticking peaks off the list becomes more important than the true outdoor experience.

According to this, Bryan e.g. is perfectly healthy.

I'm a self admitted peakbagger and I see no shame in it. However I really like visiting the tops of beautiful mountains and I never think of it as a boring slog. I always enjoy the views, the rocks the plants, etc. Many times I take the easiest way up because its safer for my group or the harder routes may be above my level of ability. (Some of the peaks I've visited don't really have an "easy" way up). I've gone with friends on backpacking trips and fishing trips but I always find myself wanting to make a trip up the top of one of the nearby peaks. I do get great personal satifaction each time I make to a summit (and return safely) but its a lot more than just checking it off my list. But this is just how I see it and know its different for others.

Another sad thing would be collecting all the right routes on a mountain and still not enjoying yourself. The urge for completeness can strike technical climbers as well as peakbaggers.

mvs wrote:Another sad thing would be collecting all the right routes on a mountain and still not enjoying yourself. The urge for completeness can strike technical climbers as well as peakbaggers.

Or finding out you´ve collected the wrong ones! Blows the street cred. out of the window!

charles wrote:

mvs wrote:Another sad thing would be collecting all the right routes on a mountain and still not enjoying yourself. The urge for completeness can strike technical climbers as well as peakbaggers.

Or finding out you´ve collected the wrong ones! Blows the street cred. out of the window!

Haha! There are definite in groups and out groups. In the PNW I remember I could tell when someone really became a peakbagger. Their list of climbs no longer invoked the good solid peaks of the area, like Mt. Daniel or Chimney Rock or Glacier Peak. Instead it became all about COUNTY HIGH POINTS.

"We were up on Peak 6440+ today, lots of wind, the gate is open and 4wd gets you past the slide alder meadow."

No offense of course. I don't want people who can find grid position U640030/532447 in a driving rain from coming after ME.

As I understand, Lolli isn't a peakbagger. She just likes being out in the mountains.

Me neither. While I like summiting, it isn't an over riding concern. I have no lists.

In fact, I spent some time in the Alps years ago and we often would take the passes. We could see the peaks. We couldn't see what was on the other side.

The bottom line of most of the posts here: "It's a disease if you are not doing what I think is important, for the reasons I think it is important."

Some will moan and groan about the "talus slog" no matter what-I know I have from time to time. Although for me it's just describing the route I happened to choose, and it is always a choice, and I still manage to have enjoyed the climb regardless.

The worst day slogging is better than the best day working???

I suppose some folk's reasons for doing an easy route and then complaining about it are hard to fathom.

Not sure if it really means they didn't derive some pleasure or satisfaction out of it.

mountaineers/climbers/peakbaggers/alpinists/hikers? Whether we call it "tribal" (and I have thought of it that way myself over the last 30 years,) or not it really comes down to the ties that bind...

Slope slogging, peak bagging, talus running, ridge rambling,...
canyon cruising, woods walking, creek crossing, ...
boot skiing and glissading, slab smearing, friction foonting, ...
crampon kicking, axe plunging, crack climbing, munge mangling, ...
boulder hopping, lichen looking, pennyroyal sniffing, sky pilot and penstemon pondering....whew.



Sheridan Anderson got it right...

Some of my best climbs have been slogs. The W ridge of White Mountain Peak comes to mind... Maybe half an hour's worth of scrambling (both directions), over the course of 8,000 ft. vertical. Some terrible scree & talus fields en route, with limitless ankle-twisting possibilities. Great day.

It can be quite enjoyable to zone out, put one foot in front of the other, for hours on end, & just not think about things. At some point, you can't go any higher. You enjoy the awesome views. You go back down. Back at the trailhead it's time for beer & a meal that you could never feel justified about otherwise. You sleep soundly that night after a day of fresh air, great views, & an awesome workout! How can you not like that?!

couple of our friends are desert tower peak baggers. I'm an aspiring one (with a large tick list and a tiny ticked list) though my interests go wider and include volcanic choss towers and pretty much other phallus-shaped towers as well. A high five!

mconnell wrote:The bottom line of most of the posts here: "It's a disease if you are not doing what I think is important, for the reasons I think it is important."

I agree. Different people have different goals in the mountains. To each their own.