Rick (61) and Lisa Fregeolle (62) are the primary couple, and Lisa, the second lady, to complete the New Hampshire Triple Crown of Climbing, ending the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid, The White Mountains Redlining Path Checklist, and Climbing New Hampshire’s 500 Highest Mountains in October 2024. That is probably the most troublesome climbing problem in New Hampshire and has solely been accomplished by six individuals beforehand, together with John Gutowski in 2019, Invoice Cronin and John McHugh in 2020, Zach Porter and Denise Stassis in 2021, and Liam Cooley in 2022.
Ending the New Hampshire Triple Crown requires climbing:
- The White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid entails climbing all 48 of the White Mountain 4000 footers in each month of the 12 months, for a complete of 576 peaks. It takes about 3300 miles of climbing with 1,000,000 ft of elevation achieve to finish. 187 individuals have completed the grid so far, some a number of occasions.
- The White Mountains Redlining Path Checklist requires climbing the entire trails listed within the Appalachian Mountain Membership’s White Mountain Information which lists 664 trails for a mixed size of 1478 miles. On common, it takes most individuals near 2500 miles to complete it as a result of the paths aren’t contiguous and repeats are sometimes needed. 110 individuals have completed so far, some a number of occasions.
- The New Hampshire 500 Highest requires climbing the five hundred tallest mountains in New Hampshire that are unfold out all around the state, many in the midst of nowhere. A number of hundred of those mountains don’t have trails, which makes this a really difficult checklist, as a result of it’s a must to navigate off-trail to climb them. Nobody’s counted up the miles or elevation achieve required to finish this checklist but, nevertheless it’s rather a lot. To date, simply 24 individuals have accomplished this checklist.
Finishing all three of those climbing lists is a severe problem requiring years and sometimes many years of climbing. For instance, it took Rick and Lisa 20 years to finish the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid, 10 years to climb the New Hampshire 500 Highest mountains, and 20 years to complete Redlining the White Mountain Trails, though they accomplished most of that last checklist over the previous 3 years.
When requested which was their favourite of the three lists to finish, Rick and Lisa stated the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid was their favourite as a result of they loved seeing the woods change every month of the 12 months. “However we additionally cherished the remoteness, artifacts, logging roads, and herd paths that you just discover whereas bush-whacking the New Hampshire 500 Hundred Highest and the numerous attention-grabbing trails we hiked to complete the White Mountains Redlining Path checklist.”
Rick writes “We want to thank the many individuals we met alongside the best way with particular because of Nancy and Charlie Foote who impressed us means again when. They’re superb! Additionally, Hiker Ed, an incredible hiker who conjures up so many. We admire all he does. Additionally, because of Brian Cuddihee for sustaining the NH500 highest checklist & map and his recommendation. Thanks additionally to Philip Werner for all his analysis, and articles, and for sustaining the Triple Crown finishers checklist.
Congratulations Rick and Lisa!
