Peak bagging

Ojos del Salado, a member of the Seven Second Summits

Peak bagging or hill bagging[1] is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world, with lists such as 100 Peaks of Taiwan, four-thousand footers, 100 Famous Japanese Mountains, the Sacred Mountains of China, the Seven Summits, the Fourteeners of Colorado, and the eight-thousanders becoming the subject of mass public interest.

There are numerous lists that a peakbagger may choose to follow. A list usually contains a set of peaks confined to a geographical area, with the peaks having some sort of subjective popularity or objective significance, such as being among the highest or most prominent of the area. Some maps and lists may be inaccurate, however, which has implications for climbers and peak-baggers who rely on publicly reported data.[2]

Although peak bagging is a fundamental part of the sport of mountaineering, the term is strongly associated with hiking and other non-technical activities like snowshoeing. A handful of lists, such as the eight-thousanders and the Alpine four-thousanders, have an extremely high reputation among mountaineers, but in general the term "peak bagging" is a pejorative to many climbers.[3][4][5]

Peak bagging is distinguished from highpointing, where the goal is to reach the highest point in some geographic area (e.g. county, state, or country), whether or not it is a peak.

  1. ^ "Hill Bagging". www.hill-bagging.co.uk.
  2. ^ Michal Apollo, Joanna Mostowska, Kamil Maciuk, Yana Wengel, Thomas E. Jones & Joseph M. Cheer (2020) Peak-bagging and cartographic misrepresentations: a call to correction, Current Issues in Tourism, https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1812541
  3. ^ David Reuther; John Thorn (1 October 1998). The Armchair Mountaineer. Menasha Ridge Press. ISBN 978-0-89732-092-4.
  4. ^ Meyer, John (2019-11-21). "Colorado woman first to climb all 846 peaks above 13,000 feet in every state but Alaska". The Know. Retrieved 2020-03-29.
  5. ^ Frick-Wright, Peter (2019-01-15). "The Mad, Obsessive Quest to Summit the World's Highest Points". Outside Online. Retrieved 2020-03-29.