At 100, climbs will reach Peak performance

After a few warmup hikes this spring, I’ve started to think about the number. Not how many miles I plan to hike this year, although I’d like to get at least a couple of hundred, weekend warrior miles. Not the number of years I’ve been hiking, that advances too slowly to seem to matter. The number I’m obsessed with lately is my number of climbs to Baxter Peak on Katahdin.

First, I started with just one climb to the top, 30 years ago this summer. Ever since, one hike has led to another, and before I knew it someone asked, “How many times have you climbed that thing?”

So I went back and started counting from that first hike. I wrote them down on calendars and saved them. After a few summers and multiple trips to the top, I’d climbed it 10 or 20 times. Then I read a quote somewhere by Richard Nelson. It went, “Sometimes there is more to learn by climbing the same mountain 100 times than by climbing 100 mountains once.”

A hundred times, I thought. That seemed like a good high goal to reach. I might never climb 100 mountains. I figured out that if I climbed Katahdin four or five times a year, I’d make 100 in 20 or 25 years. That’s how these things get started, with me anyway.

Since I started counting, the lessons have been slow in coming, but that lies again with me mostly, although the things a mountain has to teach are infinite and subtle. Some of those involve the weather, which I’ve learned is always changing.

I was reminded of that just a couple of years ago, climbing the Helon Taylor Trail on trip number 79. As I ascended to the ridge above treeline, I hiked into a shower. All around was blue sky, but just over me, it poured. I descended, intending to give up for another time.

Lower down I hiked out of the shower and, looking up, saw the summit was clear. Again I headed up, only to find the shower hadn’t moved from it’s spot over the ridge. This time I headed down for good, trip 79 would have to wait.

Usually, though, the numbers just kept adding up and I learned that no two trips are the same. Even if every day is picture perfect, there’s always something new to see on the mountain or in the view.

One discovery I’ve made, as I near the number, is how the hours of the day just pass along as I hike. The light and shadows as the day progresses change my view of the mountain ahead. Especially if I climb it before dawn, like on trip number 70. Watching the sunrise reflect red on the rock of the mountain was magnificent. Then, the sun rose beneath my feet. I could hike it before dawn alone 100 times.

I’m not the only who hikes Katahdin multiple times. Although there’s no official record, one person is considered to have climbed it the most. He’s Nelson Daigle, a 68-year-old retired paperworker from Millinocket. He has made 303 hikes as of last week, when we spoke over the phone about what it means to him to have been to the top that many times. He made 37 hikes last year. He has climbed it three times this year. He said he started by trying to get to 100.

“That first 100 took a long time,” he said.

He went on, “If I don’t get up there for two or three days, I get depressed. I’d probably get bored if I didn’t have a goal. It’s like climbing a different mountain every time I climb it.”

It made me feel humbled to be talking to someone who has made that many hikes. He put in more miles on Katahdin last year than I did all year, on all my hikes, including Katahdin.

Over the years, I’ve discovered as much about myself as I have in exploring every trail on the mountain. I have some favorite routes, and lately I’ve been partial to the Knife Edge. I never get tired of a good bug-clearing breeze and a sunny day on that trail. My least favorite trail is the Hunt Trail. But, who knows, I could see the day when I might like it more, just because I haven’t climbed that way more than 10 times.

So, my next hike might be the Hunt Trial and number 87, with only 13 more to go for the first 100. If I hike it on six weekends, both days, I could make it to 99 by the end of the summer. But I’ve tried climbing it on consecutive days, and it’s hard. Instead, maybe I’ll just try to get to 90 this year and call it good, until next year.

Brad Viles is an avid hiker who has logged some 8,000 lifetime miles, including the Appalachian Trail. He is a trail maintainer for the Maine Appalachian Trail Club and can be reached at sball1@ prexar. com