PDF Reprint - Bushwhacking “The 770” - In the Northeast You Can Enjoy All the Pain at

Catalog No. BPLV2BUSHWACKING

Description

Originally Published In: Issue 2, Spring 2005

PDF reprint of an article on bushwacking "The 770" from Backpacking Light Magazine (Print Version).

• Title: Bushwhacking “The 770” - In the Northeast You Can Enjoy All the Pain at
• Author: E. Schlimmer
• Word Count: 3,322
• Images: 4 Tables, 1 Illustration, 8 Photos

Abstract

In the United States, bigger is always better. Not only for mansions, sport utility vehicles, and presidential campaign budgets, but for mountains as well. Simply put, it’s all about the elevation. Most climbers the world over have heard of the West Coast’s Mount Rainier, topping the 14,000- foot level. East of Washington State, Idaho and Montana conjure up images of monstrous snow-capped peaks; rugged defiles; and high-elevation, crystal clear streams. Utah, though having a reputation for being a dry and desolate area, is also rightfully regarded as a mountaineering destination, possessing more than twenty 13,000-footers. Utah’s name describes the original mountaineers of this land of desert and sky, the Utes: “people of the mountains.”

The Wind River Range of nearby Wyoming, where rugged peaks hold snow and ice well into summer at the 13,000-foot level, is a popular destination for big-mountain, wilderness-seeking groups, especially National Outdoor Leadership School students. Continuing east, Colorado is finally encountered, a state bigger and better in elevation than all others. More than fifty 14,000-foot mountains reside within the Centennial State, surpassing the total number of 14,000-foot peaks in California and Alaska combined. However, once you travel east of the Rockies the elevation drops considerably. The topography, in some people’s minds at least, is less noteworthy, less challenging. East of the Dakotas, no land breaks the 7,000-foot level. By the time you get to where I am, in the Northeast, you have what many westerners call hills. Only ten peaks break the 5,000-foot measurement. Only one of them, Mount Washington of New Hampshire, is daring enough to soar above 6,000 feet. As one Coloradoan boorishly summed up Northeast heights, “I’d have to drill a well to get to that elevation.” Fine. We get the point. The peaks of the West soar above the Northeast’s tallest summits. But that doesn’t mean hiking in the East is easy.

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