Holiday Planning

It's been about one month since I reached my first high point, Guadalupe Peak in Texas.  Sorry for the long silence, but with the Holiday season upon us, I have been using the time to get in condition and plan for the task before me.  It's clear to me that reaching the remaining 49 high points will take a substantial amount of planning and organizing.  So, on Friday, in need of inspiration I went to a favorite NYC high point to clear my head, get the big picture and begin to formulate my plan.

Here are some views from a big apple holiday tradition (the christmas tree) and from one of NYC's better, if not the highest perch, the Top of The Rock, Rockefeller Center.

The NYC icon

My neighborhood in the foreground and the GWB in the background

That's the Chrysler Building behind Metlife

Can you see Saint Patrick's Cathedral down there?

For all of you NBC sitcom fans

The Rink and Tree at Rockefeller Center

The statue of Prometheus bringing fire to mankind by sculptor Paul Manship

On January 14, 15 and 16th I will be in Keene Valley, NY participating in Mountainfest, (Mountainfest Link).  I am signed up for sessions on alpine mountaineering and for intermediate snow and ice climbing.

Next steps are to organize the high points by both geographic proximity and technical difficulty.  My current thinking is to start with the easy ones on the eastern seaboard and branch out as the weather gets better and I improve my mountaineering skills.  Some of the high points are just geological markers in an otherwise fairly flat State like Lakewood Park, Florida elevation 345 feet, Ebright Azimuth, Delaware 445.25 feet, or Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island 812 feet.  Still those trips will be fun and quirky; good for many laughs.  But others are tests of conditioning and determination like Mt. Katahdin, Maine 5,267 feet or Mt. Washington, New Hampshire 6,288 feet, either of those would be truly difficult and or dangerous in the winter.

The challenging mountains with some technical difficulty include many of the western peaks:

Mount Rainier, Washington 14,410 feet (tentative plans summer 2011 with  the climbing school there)
Mount Hood, Oregon 11,239 feet
Granite Peak, Montana 12,799 feet
Gannett Peak, Wyoming 13,804 feet (and a 50 mile round trip hike!!!!)
Mount Whitney, California 14,494 feet
Mount Elbert, Colorado 14,433 feet
Wheeler Peak, New Mexico 13,161 feet
Boundary Peak, Nevada 13,140 feet
Humphrey's Peak, Arizona 12, 633 feet

But the Mother of them all is Denali, Alaska 20,320 feet....This quest will take years, but I am determined to make the process as satisfying as reaching the goal!!!