The Ultimate Guide to Peakbagging the Catskills
Working on your Catskill 3500’s? It’s a fantastic, life-changing endeavor. This article lists the best Catskills high peaks to do together. Here’s the most efficient way to hike your 3500 peaks.
To summarize: there are 35 high peaks in the Catskills with summits above 3,500 ft. People who summit all thirty-five peaks — plus re-climbing four specially designated peaks in winter — get to call themselves Catskill 35'ers.
There’s no time limit; any previous Catskill High Peaks you’ve added to your peakbagging list totally count.
You can get the full membership info on the Catskill 3500 Club’s website.
Plan Your Strategy
When I first started mountain hiking, I’d never hiked at all before. Hiking my first Catskill mountain to the summit was a major achievement. At that time, I definitely wasn’t strong enough to peak-bag two mountains on the same day.
Even after I got my mountain legs, however, I still had noob-level knowledge. I hadn’t figured out which mountains grouped well together, in sensible ways. I made multiple trips to trailheads I could have visited just once.
Especially if you have to travel to the Catskills, it makes sense to plan things more strategically. By buddying-up mountains, you’ll minimize your travel time while maximizing your peak-bagging.
After some time in the hills, maybe you’ll even feel like tackling a big multi-peak hike like this six-Catskills-peaks-in-a-single-day-hike which is a great way to power-jump through the list.
BTW, the DEC’s website has great information on how to hike safely. (And remember, on every hike, always leave no trace.)
The most efficient way to bag the 35 High Peaks is to bang out as many of them as you can in pairs and triplets. The lists below combine mountains in common pairs and groups.
Okay, first, let’s look at the orphans…
Catskills Orphans
These peaks tend to be done as singles because they’re not readily connected to any other peak. I’ve listed them below in their (roughly) increasing level of difficulty. Each of these hikes can be done with one car, as an out-and-back.
- Windham High Peak — one of the easiest mountain hikes in the Catskills, this six mile total out-and-back from Peck Rd is the perfect introduction to mountain hiking. This alternate route from Cross Road is a little longer but even more beautiful. Nothing technical to deal with on this hike, just stunning forests and great scenic views.
- Slide Mountain — you wouldn’t think the tallest Catskill Mountain would be so easy to climb, but it is. It’s a relatively easy 90 mins to the summit. Here is the best route up and down Slide Mountain, with notes on where to find the best views.
- Panther — a massive mountain with several routes to the summit. The route from the south via Giant Ledge is very popular. There’s also a much quieter 10 mile out-and-back via Fox Hollow.
- West Kill — another huge mountain with relentless, steep hiking and one of the best scenic views in the Catskills. I hiked it most recently as a loop via St. Anne’s.
- Doubletop — an untrailed peak, though there’s a pretty clear herd path to the summit from Seager. (Both Doubletop & Graham are on private property and require advance permission to climb.)
- Halcott — a short but very steep hike, this is another of the untrailed “bushwhack” mountains, so you’ll need to crack out your navigation skills
- Rusk — yet another steep and untrailed/bushwhack peak. Some people combine a hike up Rusk with Hunter and Southwest Hunter, see below, but that’s a big day. I usually just combine it with East Rusk, which is a much nicer mountain.
- Kaaterskill High Peak — several trailed routes lead you to the base of the summit, on either the south or north side, and from there you can follow herd paths to the top. A long, steep, but very rich hike.
Catskills Twins & Triplets
These peaks are very often tackled in pairs and triplets, as they’re close together and both can be hiked on the same day starting from the same trailhead.
The remainder of this list, and so much more, can be read at the link below…
Originally published at https://mountain-hiking.com on June 14, 2020.
