I’m a Gridiot, the self-deprecating time period used within the White Mountains to explain the loopy individuals who’ve accomplished the White Mountain 4000-Footer Grid. I’m the 179th individual to complete, which is fairly unimaginable contemplating the trouble concerned in finishing this peak checklist, ending on Could 20, 2024, with a solo hike to Mt Isolation.
Finishing The Grid (see my spreadsheet under) requires mountain climbing 12 rounds of the 48 White Mountain 4000-footers as soon as in every calendar month of the yr (48 x 12). This entails mountain climbing about 3000 miles with 1,000,000 ft of elevation acquire, together with shut to six months in winter situations with snowshoes and different traction aids.
Whereas I’m proud that I completed this checklist, it could have been unattainable with out the companionship of my buddies and the opposite Aspiring and Present White Mountain Gridders who supplied me with an countless stream of inspiration, encouragement, and recommendation that made mountain climbing this difficult peak checklist plenty of enjoyable. I’d finished plenty of solo mountain climbing, backpacking, and bushwhacking within the Whites earlier than committing to ending the Grid, so usually peakbagging with companions, a couple of days every week, was a brand new factor for me – one which turned extra significant than climbing the precise summits. Whereas mountain climbing within the White Mountains is world-class, the Grid is particular due to the group of hikers who assist one another to complete it.
I owe particular because of John Sobetzer and Pepper (who’s not with us), who satisfied me to hike the Grid at some point once we bumped into one another a couple of years in the past whereas climbing Mt Cabot. I had not too long ago crammed out the Grid spreadsheet to see the place I used to be and located I had already accomplished 265 summits out of the 576 required. I’d been on the fence till then, however John, who’s accomplished a Grid himself, tipped me over the sting.
Whereas I hiked with many individuals through the subsequent 310 summits, I had a couple of buddies who have been common companions, together with Ken and Karen Robichaud, Lynn Kessler, Barbara Crane, Tom Ickes, and Hilde Getsch. We had plenty of nice hikes and even some backpacking journeys collectively, and whereas my reminiscence of these treks will fade, I’ll all the time keep in mind the camaraderie and friendship we shared mountain climbing The Grid.
What’s subsequent? I’m headed to Vermont to hike and backpack a Lengthy Path side-by-side, which is a path checklist of all the paths that intersect with The Lengthy Path, which I hiked in 2008. I additionally plan to enterprise into the Adirondacks to pattern the ADK 46ers, maybe mountain climbing all of them at some point.
