Last weekend I passed the halfway mark on my way to Mountain Goat. As one of my friends puts it, “I can already start to smell the goat”. Thank you, chasers!
539 points
103 summits
100% uniques
It looks like my goal of “getting my goat” with 100% uniques will be readily feasible.
1 year / 0 months / 22 days
This was possible due in large part to the absurdly, almost embarrassingly easy 10-pointers in the DM Association. (10 points for 850 meters! – and rarely do you have to hike very long to get to the summit.) Doing three 10-pointers in one day is no particular challenge; I know people who have done five and more 10-pointers in a single day. There’s a good reason why so many people travel to DM for activations – there’s probably nowhere else where you can rack up points so quickly.
68% with public transportation
I think this might be a world’s record of sort? And it would have been even higher if I didn’t take my car into the DM Association. The Swiss public transport system is simply excellent, with trains and buses reaching almost every village. I purchase an annual transport pass (GA = Generalabonnement), which allows me to travel on any train, bus, boat and even many cable cars just by flashing my card. It’s not necessarily cheap (CHF 3550 for 2nd class), but if I were to consider the miles/gas by using a car, I’m probably better off. Besides, I’m self-employed and can write it off as a business expense. Anyway, I look at the map of Switzerland, select an interesting summit or group of summits anywhere at all, simply hop on the train, fall asleep and ride to any corner of the country. Who cares if it takes 4 hours to get there on the train/bus and another 4 hours to get home? Get a comfortable seat and sleep/read/have a beer/watch the scenery and the people. What’s also advantageous is that I can get off the bus at one summit, hike along a stretch doing two or three summits, and then get on the train/bus at the end of the stretch rather than having to double back and find my car. Finally, also contributing to this ease of use is a free mapping service at http://map.wanderland.ch/. It shows all the established hiking trails along with all the train/bus stops along with direct links to the timetable. That makes it extremely easy to plan your day.
Let’s see how long it takes to get those second 500 points…
100% uniques. It looks like my goal of “getting my goat” with 100% uniques will be readily feasible.
An excellent proposal. I am all up for Uniques. I managed Goat on Uniques and VHF/UHF only to qualify the hills. Targets which mattered to me personally.
68% with public transportation
Sadly we do not have a comprehensive public transporation system in the UK and very few summits are actually accessible by that means. Personal transport is essential and I doubt anyone here would seriously consider attempting Mountain Goat using public transport alone.
Best wishes for your next 500 points and for enjoyable relaxing journeys to and from the summits. I will think about you when I am next driving up the motorways to get to the next batch of unique summits - normally around 4 hours before I can start walking!
“Personal transport is essential and I doubt anyone here would seriously consider attempting Mountain Goat using public transport alone.”
In reply to Gerald - Phil G1OPV and his ex summiting partner the late Roy G0HDX, do (or did) most of their activating by public transport, I would guess over 90%. Phil is on 906 activator points, so even in the public transport starved UK it may be possible to achieve goat that way. Im sure that if there werent so many real ale pubs next to railway stations then Phil would already be a goat.
73, Steve. (Heading for some DM/RP summits next month)
Your system and ticket for Switzerland sounds brilliant. But your % of activations by public transport is not a record. Phil G1OPV and Roy G0HDX (sk) used to do all their joint activations using public transport, even with our inferior system here in the UK.
Yes I agree the DM association points distribution is something of an anomaly and would probably look different if launching today. But I guess it is there equally for all of us to get there and take advantage of when and if we can.
Phil G1OPV and
Roy G0HDX (sk) used to do all their joint activations using public
transport, even with our inferior system here in the UK.
Wow! Those urban legends about the poor public transport system must not be true! I thought I was doing well at 68%, but the 90% mentioned in another post is fantastic – congratulations! That’s worthy of some sort of award or recognition.
Hmmm, yes. Apologies to Phil for my forgetfulness. My grey matter seems to have been affected by the 03:00 start required on most activating days!
While public transport might be convenient for some, I would think the time taken would be prohibitive for most. Unfortunately, the UK train system generally goes to sleep for most of the night - typically until 06:00. In my opinion, the urban legend is intact.
What Paul has achieved is admirable. Aiming for Uniques using public transport certainly requires some serious planning.
Last weekend I passed the halfway mark on my way to Mountain Goat. As
one of my friends puts it, “I can already start to smell the goat”.
Thank you, chasers!
Congratulations Paul,
That’s some achievement.
Funnily enough I’ve been looking at the DM summits with a view to a week or so visit. I’ll check out your log to see what groups of summits you’re managing to fit in in a day.
I’ve just managed to achieve 100 activator points and I’ve now run out of anything over a single point less than 100 miles away.
I can only dream of a 10 pointer, as yet I haven’t put in the miles to get to one!
I really am envious of those that can go out for the day and chalk up 20 or more points. My best effort to date is 14 points in a day, which means a 200 mile round trip with associated time and cost for a couple of hours activating.
Still, at my current rate of activating, I’ll get there in 12 years time which must be far better value for money!
The source of the maps wanderland is using is here: http://map.geo.admin.ch/
You get exactly the same when you buy a 1:25’000, 1:50’000 paper-map in the shop.
A hidden feature: right click with the mouse and you get all the details you need. And the search box on top of the map accepts several formats. Try e.g. “Naafkopf”.
