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Route: South Beyond 6000 (NC, TN)

Location
North Carolina, US
Tennessee, US
Description

The "South Beyond 6000" (SB6K) is a program of the Carolina Mountain Club and the Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club "to encourage hikers to climb the 40 peaks over 6000 feet in the Southern Appalachians" of North Carolina and Tennessee. Speed records have been established by linking all the peaks on foot. This requires summitting 40 peaks, 15 of which are unmarked and untrailed, and connecting the peaks on foot, which adds up to roughly 260 miles of trekking.

35.3064948, -82.8890204

FKTs

Images
SB6K map

Comments

Geoffrey_Warne
Wed, 10/19/2022 - 12:01pm

I would recommend renaming this route to South Beyond Insanity Ultramarathon (SBI).

The rules for the South Beyond 6000 Challenge (SB6K) are outlined here: https://www.carolinamountainclub.org/index.cfm/do/pages.view/id/23/page…

The relevant rules to completing The South Beyond 6000 Challenge (SB6K) are:

  1. The true summit of each mountain must be reached. Special Note: The summit of Mt Hardy is further beyond the USGS benchmark disk.
  2. Climb all 40 peaks by routes involving hiking at least 5 miles with an ascent of at least 500 feet. This distance and gain require is PER HIKE--not per peak. As many peaks as you can climb within one route of at least 5 miles and 500 feet of gain qualify for this requirement. Each hike qualifies if it is uninterrupted, continuous boots-on-the-ground. Riding a bicycle, getting in a vehicle, paragliding from a summit, or using an ATV or horse--any form of travel that is not on-foot--interrupts a hike and makes it non-continuous.
  3. For alternate routes other than those in the hike data base, you may send a description to one of the committee members for approval to assure that the hike meets South Beyond 6000 standards. As long as your hiking route is at least 5 miles in length and at least 500 feet of elevation gain (each are cumulative per hike, regardless of amount of peaks bagged), it qualifies.

However in the description for this FKT, it says, "This requires summitting 40 peaks, 15 of which are unmarked and untrailed, and connecting the peaks on foot, which adds up to roughly 260 miles of trekking." which is not a requirement of The South Beyond 6000 Challenge (SB6K). 

Therefore, I recommend for this FKT to be renamed to "South Beyond Insanity Ultramarathon (SBI)" and a new route created for the South Beyond 6000 Challenge (SB6K).