In defense of the drive-up

Gustav on the summit of Pikes Peak 14,109 ft, P5525 ft, Colorado,  in the middle of the parking lot - photo by the aithor

Backstory

Richard Harbron wrote in the August 2023 3rd Edition of the Baggers without Borders Journal on the use of mechanical aides to summit mountains, attempting to write in a neutral tone on whether drive-ups should count as 'peak-bagging'. Simply reading his terminology for the two types of ascents, “drive-up” and “fair”, eroded his neutrality and put him firmly on the side of disrespecting drive-up peak-bagging.

Clearly, the other side of this op-ed needed to be written, so I’ve thrown my hat into the ring to defend the drive-up. Over the past seventeen years I’ve been involved in peak-bagging, and have hiked many peaks, driven up to or close to many peaks, have taken chairlifts to some peaks, hiked up peaks that I could have driven, and have even returned to a peak or two to re-hike what was at first a drive-up.

This article is divided into two sections. The first is a defense of the drive-up and why it should count in a peak-bagging list. The second is a list of drive-ups in North America.

Defense of the Drive-up

Richard Harbron discusses the “my rules” concept in peak-bagging and in doing so, adds his own rules to his tabulations. He calls a drive-up any ascent requiring less than 100m of height gain, and only looks at 600m+ prominent peaks. Right there is where we come to the issue. If peak-bagging and leaderboards are going to have one set of rules that are applicable to all, it makes sense that the rules are as clear as day, and so inherently obvious that they don’t need to be looked up to be discovered. 

To me, I only classify a peak as a drive-up if it takes less than a minute to get to from where I parked, or got off the chairlift, etc -unlike Harbron’s 100m gain. This is the only time I use the Vehicle to Summit dropdown on Peakbagger. If the effort is any longer, it’s a class 1 hike. This is my interpretation of how to tabulate my own hiking data, but it shows that it really is a to-each-their-own situation. The only thing that the person who steps out of the car onto the summit and the person who hiked twenty miles up to the top have in common is that they stood on the summit of that peak. They both had been there. To draw any such line in the rules about how much gain you have to have to make a peak count is adding arbitrary standards to what is otherwise a black and white issue. Either you have touched the top, or you haven’t.

If we do delve into drawing restrictions on what kind of an ascents count, countless opinions and options for revisions could be raised.

-       Limiting personal vehicle drive-ups: if we are anti-car, Zugspitze in Germany/Austria would still be in with its cable car that’s open to public rides, but Mt. Blue Sky, Colorado would be out with its highest-in-the-US paved road serving private cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

-       Minimum gains: This metric would make it so that flat, but prominent peaks, would require unnecessarily long distances covered to summit an unimpressive peak. Grove Hill, Michigan, with over 300m prominence, would require a great distance of walking along the grid of roads surrounding it past houses, fields, and forests to make the ascent count, while one could park right at the peak or at any shoulder, intersection, or parking lot halfway to Detroit where its key col lies.

-       Limiting access off the road grid: Peaks like Denali are traditionally accessed by a flight into basecamp, but if you restrict flying close to a peak to start a hike, then this would be illegitimate, and the one percenters who hike the original route from the park roads would remain the accomplished few.

-       Only including peaks open to the public: Privately-held peaks where there isn’t a right-to-roam like Texas’ Chinati Peak, or peaks where access is limited for environmental reasons like Sunset Crater in Arizona would be either unobtainable numbers on a list, or would be ignored from lists altogether, removing even those who had summited the peak before access was closed from the ascent lists.

-       Use of tools: Baboquivari is the only technical major summit in Arizona, but does the use of climbing equipment bar the ascent from being worthy? Should only free climbing be counted as a “fair” ascent?

-       Using motors: There is one restriction which I don’t find arbitrary, is fairly obvious, but is seldom used. We could institute a rule that says no motorized transport is allowed from any distance, and you can only log a peak that you reached from home entirely on your own power. In my personal experience, I have only executed this a few times, mostly on the tiny summit that lies ten minutes from my house with the town’s letters on it- TC Hill. Once I did take on Vermont’s state high point from home in an all-day round trip of biking and hiking that temporarily destroyed my stomach, but left me with memories of a grand adventure. If this were implemented, of my thousand ascents logged, not even half a dozen individual peaks would remain.

In my opinion, a peak-bagging list has an inverse relationship between the appeal and the criteria defining it. The Ultra Prominent Peaks (5000ft+ prominence) and Country High Points are both great lists because they require just one criteria to define what is on that list. Lists like the Arizona 20-20 Challenge Peaks, on the other hand, require a paragraph full of explanation, and some judgement calls to define which peaks count, and hence they come across as low interest, niche lists.

The same goes for the rules on reaching a peak. If you set up more standards on what counts as an ascent, then you will cause more infighting in the community of climbers and alienate more climbers from even wanting to be a part of the community. Of course driving up a peak won’t get you a quick completion of a world-based list, but the fact is that roads are our primary way to get near to peaks, and it’s not a personal choice whether a road exists to the top, or to within a day’s hike of the summit. Each peak has its own characteristics and crux points, and we are free to approach each as we want, while meeting or avoiding the challenges it presents as suit us. All that merits comparing in the records is whether you touched the top or you didn’t.

North American Drive-ups

Fred Beckey once created a list of the Great Peaks of the (North American) Continent. Katrina, my wife, and I have been driving around in our 2007 Toyota Corolla for almost as long as I have been peak-bagging, and we affectionately refer to the car as 'Becky', named after the randomized license plate that was once on the car “BCE6896”. In the spirit of Beckey and BCE, I give you a new and incomplete list of the Great Drive-ups of the Continent of which I have personally visited, and not always by vehicle.

Although the quality of the peaks above range wildly, the point is that there are drive-ups all over the continent, and all over the world. Should you visit them the easiest way possible? That’s up to you! If you’re looking to make the best impression on your friends or get the most followers on ‘InstaTok’, then you’ll have to make the call on whether more peaks in less time, or fewer peaks via greater effort brings you the most clout. Either way, you’ll need to visit the top to claim the peak.