Are you ready to climb Katahdin? I know for some of you it will be a few months before you summit. However, you want to be ready when the time comes. Baxter State Park has developed a quiz to see if you are ready. It’s fun to take the quiz even if you are not summitting this year or if you have already summitted.
Bilko
that quiz is stupid, i’ve climbed Katahdin 3 times in my life and have taken the knife edge twice, and i failed the quiz. Honestly, who would turn around when a thunderstorm is coming and you are in sight of the A-frame sign?? not me. A slower hiker is having hotspots, I would tell him/her to wait there and we’ll be back in a few hours. that quiz is for car-campers who have never been higher than 2000 feet and are wimps. an F5 tornado could be at the summit and i’d be right there to see it. Turn around is not in my vocabulary.
K-Town Down
I’d have to agree - that quiz is worthless.
Mt. K is NOT an all day climb. I completed it round trip in 4 hr 20 min last June with 16oz of water and no snacks.
And it’s difficulty is grossly overrated in my opinion.
Phreak
I agree with K-town and Phreak. I climbed it as a day hike last summer and all I did was eat a light breakfast of oatmeal and then climbed, I carried a full 48oz camelpak, and no food. When I returned I had about 1/2 of my water left, and I went into Millinocket for dinner. big deal, it took about 6 hours roundtrip. if someone can not go 6 hours without eating, they do not belong in the outdoors.
5ALIVE
OK, OK its a studpid quiz. How about starting a new quiz.
1st question: Have you ever hiked for 6 hours without eating?
2nd question: Have you ever hiked in the rain?
3rd question: Have you ever had a hot spot or a blister? Did you continue hiking with either?
4th question: Have you ever hiked 4 hours without drinking any water?
If you answered No to any one question you need to forget about summitting Katahdin.
If you answered No to 2 or more you need to drive to the top of Mt. Washington, not hike.
If you answered No to 3 or more you need to take the Cog train to the top of Mt. Washington.
If you have answered No to all of these you should be mooned by the entire Cog train crew.
Bilko
That has to be the most worthless waste of time since “PONG”. Must be a grad student working on their Piled Higher and Deeper degree.:nerd
Al
My opinion: Only an idiot would walk in a thunderstorm in an exposed location un-necessarily. If you keep doing this sort of thing, your number will eventually come up. I have been hiking now for over 40 years and I have a distressingly high number of dead friends. If in doubt, I always turn around. The mountain will still be there tomorrow. The trick is to ensure that you will be. It’s called experience.
Kea
Yep, Kea, to paraphrase an old pilot’s saying, “There are bold climbers and there are old climbers, but there are no old, bold climbers.”
And overheard in a Boulder climbing shop, “All the experts are dead. Just the careful ones are left.”
And from my climbing mentor in Seattle, now 79, “The longer I live, the longer I want to live,” as he carefully backed us off an icy slope.
All that being said, it sure is exciting to be out there on the edge sometimes. Gotta have balance, though.
Stay safe!
Garlic
…seriously…i think it’s good to be reminded of safe climbing at katahdin (or anywhere), so that your summit day doesn’t turn tragic…SHOOT!..i missed TWO on that test!..i reckon we complied with most of that stuff on there, though i couldn’t sleep AT ALL the night before we summited!.. ‘boots’ is the correct answer for footwear, but i admit to wanting to wear my trusty ‘new balance’ for good footing on katahdin! (i DID consider it to be the most difficult climb of all…though there were some children going up that seemed to be doing fine!)…never saw any moose (yeah…‘dealing with a moose’ was one of the questions)…and…believe it or not, paw-ee and i did get seperated briefly from each other on the way down! (i won’t attempt to state WHICH one of us was the ‘LOST’ party!)…DO BE SAFE OUT THERE, HIKERS!..our prayer is that this will be a great year for you on your HAPPY adventure on the appalachian trail!
maw-ee