Admin note: If you are attempting the Catskill 3500 footers on public land please use the Catskill 35ers route page. This route page, the Catskill High Peaks, is largely intended to be a historical record of Catskill 3500 footer thru-hike (Direttissima) FKTs that apparently made extensive use of private land. If you use private land to record an FKT on this route page, please obtain permission from the appropriate landowners. It should also be noted that prior to January 2021, Graham and Doubletop were included as 3500 foot peaks, for a total of 35 summits. They are located on private land and the landowners have closed access to these peaks with no intention of granting access in the future.
The Catskill High Peaks are 33 summits that meet the following criteria:
* Over 3500'
* Separated by at least 0.5 miles
* At least a 250' drop between the peak and any other peak on the list
The highest is Slide Mtn, at 4180'.
The challenge, as set forward by "Cave Dog" Ted Keizer, is to climb them all in "one continuous footpath" (i.e., no vehicular transport between trailheads - essentially a thru hike of the 33 High Peaks).
Mike Siudy gave the following additional information: This route traverses over the 33 summits over 3500 feet in the Catskill Mountains. It is approximately 140 miles long with around 38,500 of ascent. There is about 80 miles of rugged trail, 40 miles of off trail bushwhacking requiring near constant navigation, and 20 miles of pavement to connect the peaks.
Comments
Barring extremely bad weather, I Larsen Tormey will be attempting an unsupported hike of the Catskill 35ers. This route is known as the Catskill Direttissima. The time to beat for the unsupported effort was set by a two-person team; Cory D and Jan Wellford. That time was 4 days, 13 hours, 5 minutes, which was set in May of 2011. So the last completion of this route in an unsupported manner was over 9 years ago. I am aiming for a time of 3 days and 12 hours (84 hours). I will provide a link to tracking through a Garmin inreach, in addition, I will be recording on strava. Fingers crossed! This attempt is planned to start next Friday the morning of October 16th, 2020 and wrap up midday Monday, October 19th.
This will be a trailhead to trailhead attempt, as set forth by Mike Siudy in his supported attempt.
If someone were to attempt this with the new 33 peaks on all public land and unsupported, would a new FKT need to be created or can a 33 peak attempt go under this route?
Wondering the same. I'd think it would make more sense to create an updated route for legitimacy and fairness to the OG's who raced the original 35?
A new route proposal sounds like the way forward.