“You New Englanders are obsessed with your lists!” Maggie Slepian texted me the other day. Maggie is a New Hampshire native who relocated to Montana, and seeing the list culture’s impact—from her friends to her father—was mind-blowing.
“There’s so much competition and it seems like everybody knows everybody else.”
I’ve always been intrigued by the subculture of New Hampshire’s White Mountain list hikers, along with the spillover into Vermont and Maine.
As a major data junky with a Type A(+) personality, there is nothing that drives me more than a good list. In 2016, I discovered the Appalachian Mountain Club’s 4000er Hiking List, and all of my wildest hiking dreams came true. Composed of the 48 tallest mountains in New Hampshire, the list was established in 1957 to spread out the traffic on more popular peaks and encourage hikers to explore lesser-known areas of the White Mountains. When the list was established, the founding members couldn’t have foreseen that in less than 60 years the number of aspiring 4000er Club members would be in the tens of thousands, or that yearly inductions into the club would be in the thousands, growing each year. It seems like everyone and their neighbor is working on “The 48” and with Facebook groups with memberships totaling over 70,000, the likelihood of aspiring 48ers will only grow.
As exciting as it was for me to finish “The 48” in 2018, the best part about this list is that it will take you down a rabbit hole of variations, spinoffs, and extensions. To name a few: the New England 67 requires all of the tallest peaks in New England. The 52 With A View are 52 peaks not on the NH 48 list, but all have views. The Belknap Range Hiking Patch means you’ve hiked all 12 peaks in that range. The two most coveted—and hardest—lists are the GRID, which means hiking each of the 48 4,000-footers in every month of the year, and the White Mountains Trace. The Trace is formerly known as Red Lining, or hiking all of the 1,400+ miles of trails in the Whites. Over the past three years, I’ve plunged into the abyss of hiking lists face first, and the more time I spend in the New England hiking community, the more lists I learn about. There are over 15 hiking lists you can work on in New England, all of which come with varied levels of commitment, and all which come with the classic hiking patch.
The History of New England Hiking Lists
As much as we’d like to take credit for the hiking list phenomenon in New England hiking subculture, we have New York to thank for the initial idea. The popular Adirondack 46ers List—hiking the 46 tallest peaks in the Adirondacks—was established in 1948 and as far as I know, was the first big hiking list in the Northeast. The founders of the NH 48 took the ADK46 hiking list and adapted it for the peaks in the Whites. Farther south in 1962, another popular hiking list was born from this same idea: The Catskill 3500 Club is a list of 33 peaks in the Catskill Mountains..
So what is it about New Englanders that makes us so obsessed with hiking lists? A quick search for hiking lists in the United States brings up no shortage of hiking challenges around the US. However, two of the more prominent hiking challenges found in other parts of the country, the South Beyond 6,000 (Carolina Mountain Club) and the Colorado 14ers seem to be the only ones that garnish even a fraction of the attention that the lists of New England receive. So we know that peaks, ranges, challenges, and lists are found all over the US, but something sets this Northeast subculture apart.
What Makes New England Different?
I’ve lived in New Hampshire my entire life, but my husband grew up in New Mexico. He drives the speed limit, is in no hurry to get anywhere, loves to stand around and chat, heck, he makes eye contact with people who he passes on the street! I, on the other hand, have no time for any of that nonsense because there is too much to do and no time to do it. Although some of those differences can be chalked up to our personality types, I can’t help but think that some of my own attitudes and behaviors are directly caused by where I was brought up. Namely, as he so kindly puts it, I am a “typical New Englander.”
To say these “typical New Englander” personality traits spill over into the hiking community would be an understatement. As a general rule, people working on the NH 48 tend to be heavily motivated both intrinsically and extrinsically, love to feel accomplished, and have a desire to be working toward a goal. The seemingly endless number of hiking lists can work on checks off all of the boxes, not to mention the major draw of connecting with fellow mildly neurotic, high-energy, nature-loving, weekend warriors. Although we might be less apt to stand around and shoot the breeze with someone while hiking (we’ve got peaks to bag), the mountains have a way of melting some of that New England attitude.
With a smaller geographic footprint and a large population living within driving distance of some of the most beautiful and rugged mountains in the United States, it doesn’t surprise me that so many people flock to the Whites (or the Adirondacks) and that the number is steadily increasing.
So who’s doing it “right?” New Englanders, who are driven to the mountains every weekend, in all sorts of weather and conditions with the hope of joining the 4000-Footer club, and maybe eventually the Gridders? Or casual hikers who don’t race home to document the peak and count backward to the ones they have remaining on their latest list? I don’t believe that there is a right or a wrong way to “do” hiking as long as you follow LNT and respect other hikers. I love working on hiking lists (I’m unofficially working on 8-10 at all times) because lists give me a sense of direction and purpose. They guide me in my planning, and with so many different hiking lists to work on, the options are endless in terms of what kind of hike I want to do on any given day.
Having a Healthy Relationship with the Lists
Over the years, my use of the hiking lists has evolved. Now, I use them as a way to plan my hikes. With so many to choose from, there is something out there for everybody and every kind of adventure. Some days I’m in the mood for a long walk in the woods, so I break out my White Mountains Trace guide. Other days I want stunning views, so I head to the classic NH48 list and pick a peak. More recently, I’ve wanted to challenge my navigation skills, so I reached for the New England Hundred Highest list to hike a trail-less peak or two. As much as we get a lot of flak from outsiders for not being able to just go hiking for the sake of hiking, there is nothing wrong with having a goal, or hiking to check off a peak. Whether we understand why we are a subculture of weekend-warrior, high-energy, data-driven list-o-holic hikers or not, I think that it’s safe to say that New England hikers love their lists, and that’s not about to change.
Additional Reading
Guide to Northeast Hiking Challenges
Great American Hiking Challenges
Hiking Lists in New Hampshire and Beyond
