Thursday, April 30, 2020

Go viral? Not for monthly climbers

 Anyone who had a streak of consecutive months climbing Mount Le Conte was thwarted in April, when the national park was closed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
From my research, the record for consecutive months climbing Le Conte seems to be 160 by Ed Wright, from 1986 to 2000, when he was sidelined by knee replacement surgery. Significantly, Wright didn't even miss a month when he had open-heart surgery in 1999. He made his April hike before surgery and was back on the mountaintop in late May.
 Aside from the streak, Wright had an incentive to hike monthly. "One hike per month is required for maintaining my status with the park's VIP program," he wrote in his book. VIP stands for Volunteers-In-Parks, a  program that uses volunteers to patrol trails and provide other services. The monthly requirement refers to any hike in the park, not necessarily climbing Le Conte.  
Paul Dinwiddie (750 lifetime climbs) counted 135 consecutive months with his 735th climb on June 1, 1992. Two weeks later, he had surgery for an aneurysm and double kidney bypass. He didn't return to the summit until May 1993.
 Margaret Stevenson (718) rarely climbed Le Conte in winter, so she never had a long streak of months. 
Dewey Slusher once had a six-year streak with at least one climb per month.
 If you know of similar streaks worth mentioning, tell us: LeConteLog@gmail.com.

1 comment:

  1. I had a streak of 48 consecutive months climbing my home mountain of Elk Knob, broken by the shutdown of North Carolina's state parks. —Tom Layton, Boone, N.C.

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