HikeArizona.COM

How are things progressing this year? In keeping with the idea that you are only as good as the numbers you post, I'm up to 61,436' of elevation for the year and a modest 132 miles.

Added August 2019: Looking back 10 years later, I honestly can't think of anything more offensive or unhealthy to say about one's hiking, than the above statement. Thats was my OP in 2009. Hiking should never just be about the stats recorded.

January 31, 2023: Have at it.

Several days in, and I presume the 2015 totals are all in.

Mark, AKA Badbern, does not appear to be taking the much needed rest he wrote about last week. Shooting for that million, in 2016?

Mostly, I just wanted to update the thread title.

I still have 100 miles and 12k AEG to add to my 2015 totals, however 18.5 of those miles fell on the 1st. Should I split the triplog into 2 parts or keep those miles in 2015 because that's when the trip started?

When I backpacked, I think I counted the stats to the day the trip started, but if you really want to track them for 2016, you could probably split it in to two trips, just to keep the stats separate. Just depends on how much you really want to be in 2016.

Maybe I should log my hill repeat workouts. Last year I ran up almost three times as much AEG in conditioning as in recreational hiking.

@big_load
Isn't that what many people do on HAZ?

@Jim_H
Yes, it seems fairly popular. I should use the next one as an opportunity to check the latest route scout update and see how well its AEG matches my calculations and previous measurements.

1,000,000' AEG over a years time would not be all that difficult... just requires consistency and some luck. The problem is it also might take the fun out of hiking. 3,000' daily... done on a nice 900' per mile route... might use up only four hours. If you lived in Tucson, Finger Rock trail at over 4,000' AEG hiked five times a week would get the job done. That is a not too hard four hour up/down.

I found that over the course of months logging high AEG, just for AEG, I got further and further out of shape. I never hit a 12,000' day (the base level where I feel I am finally in good hiking condition). The more hours I logged, the slower I went. I may revisit high AEG when I turn 70 in a few years.

The current pattern of exploratory canyoneering is yielding a much more fun set of months. Maybe there should be some team AEG accounting... four hikers joined... handicapping... augments for weight and age???

I've hiked every day this new year(admittedly nothing major) and am in 29th place. Tough crowd...

Jason Cleghorn wrote:29th place.

Don't get too frustrated. Focus on the more important things in life. You'll be happier:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY

@chumley
Do you still have that sweater?

@The Eagle
Yeah but I use it for something else now.

Would it be a heretical of me to think about hiking simply for "FUN". Me thinks if you bag the Colorado 13ers, then I might be willing consider that a worthwhile accomplishment. But the rest is just ego stroking.

@SAMBA
Can you elaborate on that? Obviously, if someone logs and tracks their yearly stats, there is an element of ego stroking, but hiking really did start out as fun for me, and I suspect most other people. I try to keep it that way. It's a fine line between just enjoying hiking and racking up numbers, and then becoming obsessed with those numbers. That said, what is wrong with a little honest ego stroking? Is that any different than when you post a route of your bar hops? You're proud of something you did.

Ego-stroking and attention-whoring are two related -- but very different -- arts. Both, however, are very well represented on this site and many others. I'm moderately good at one of them, and I've set a goal to get better at the other one. Always improving...

@Jim_H
"Proud" is not an adjective that comes immediately to mind when I talk about "bagging" bars. Dive (aka "neighborhood") bars are my "thang". Granted, my life is a little short on stimulus, but talking about, comparing notes on, sharing experiences of the bars I've "bagged" usually filters into every conversation I have at one of these not-so fine watering holes. I "bag'em", because it's FUN. And I post'em as a (hopefully) humorous counter to the self-congratulatory, "numbers" posts so common on this distinguished forum. Got a bike? If so, come join me on one of my forays into the darker, seamier (redundant?) side of Tucson's social scene, and see what my fascination is

@SAMBA
Well, to each their own. I think you would have plenty of those same people who irritate you with self congratulatory numbers posts, joining you in Tucson's lesser watering holes, as that is a very popular HAZ event, too. I never minded your posts. I find, that if there is something I don't care about, I click the "x" to the upper right. Problem solved. There have been several people who greatly resent this self congratulatory act, but no one forces you to observe it, and the site has much to offer should one enjoy hikes but not the pseudo-competitive aspects of it. That said, I recently changed my header to reflect the number of days since my last hike, becuase I was not on the board for 2016 and it read all zeros. I might leave it that way, to get my mind off the numbers and to help me to want to go out, simply to go out. Right now, I find that the analysis is a little depressing. Not because I am not competing, but because I am not hiking. We're nearly 1 week in to 2016, and I have no hikes in sight. I may not be able to hike until the 11th, at the earliest. That, not a lack of performance compared to others, is what bothers me.

Now, please enjoy this blurry image from my last really enjoyed hike at Castle Dome:

@chumley

chumley wrote:Ego-stroking and attention-whoring are two related -- but very different -- arts.

Yo Chums,

Was that a gratuitous comment, or was it directed at anyone in particular? If the latter, and I'm the one, then I feel like Navin Johnson when the new phone books arrived, "The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!" I say that, because this would be absolutely the first time anyone used the word "art" in the same sentence as "SAMBA (aka LaFong)".

These past few posts seem to validate Chumley's Theory of Non-HAZ normalness.

Wow, just wow. I now think I'm pretty normal Chumley, having thought about it.

It appears going on a long backpacking trip at the start of the year is a good way to get on top of the mileage leader board. Now I need to figure out what to do next.

@rcorfman
I did a version of the Phoenix Seven Summit Challenge (home version) last January 2, it put me at the top of the mileage and elevation list for a few days at least. ;)