Mount Le Comte 2010m, P415m, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennessee, USA, - photo Amelia Bysinger

(This picture file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License)

For the introduction to the Poly-baggers' Register and Hall of Fame, see here.

2023 is the fifth year of the Tables, comprising a Hall of Fame (with various levels), a Progress Register (for between 100 and 499 ascents), and a Roll of Honour (for deceased poly-baggers who did not make the Hall of Fame before their deaths).

53 people and 14 deceased feature in the 2023 Table, with many again recording poly-bagging of multiple hills.  The 2023 Table contains 158 entries - 65 in the Hall of Fame, 90 in the Register and 3 in the Roll of Honour.  From this year, only those who made progress in the year feature in the Progress Register – i.e. entries for +0 and ‘R’ (retired) have been removed.  This change does not affect entries in the Hall of Fame.

There are six new entrants to the Hall of Fame in 2023 – newcomer Lars Holme at Level III, Henry Marston at Level II, Tom Gold, Asher Waxman, Glen Mizenko and newcomer Ed Jones at Level I.  Welcome all!

The most ascents in the year were recorded by Brian Kalet (250) at a local peak close to his home in Colorado.  How he managed so many ascents while also continuing as one of the most prolific mainstream peak-baggers in the USA is a marvel.  Tom Lopez also recorded over 200 ascents.

Last June I was pleased to accompany Ian Charters on his 70th birthday for his 700th ascent of Winter Hill 456m, P218m in the Pennines, northern England.

We mourn the passing of Hall member Ben Woolsey (1942 - 2023).  On his ascents of Mount Timpanogos 3581m, P1606m in Utah, USA see here.

Mount Le Conte 2010m, P415m in Tennessee, USA has increased its lead this year as the most ‘popular’ poly-bagging peak, with seven poly-baggers.  My thanks go again to Tom Layton for sharing with me his researches on peak-baggers for this, and other mountains in the USA. 

Mount Monadnock 965m, P660m, in New Hampshire, USA still remains as the mountain up which the most recorded multiple ascents have occurred.  The news here is that Larry Davis has taken up his ascents again, having moved back to the southern part of New Hampshire close to the mountain.  Fran Rautiola continues, though hampered in 2023 by health issues.   

Despite further attempts to get more definite information, my researches into reports of claims of huge numbers of ascents of Camelback Mountain/Cew S-wegiom 824m, P406m and neighbouring Piestewa Peak 794m, P360m near Phoenix, Arizona USA by Sam Wagman, Sandy Kloch, the late Nick Palomares, Jack Dunn and Joe Bartells have got no further (see here).  I fear I have reached a brick wall on this.  Sam was still climbing Piestewa as late as February 2023, then aged nearly 88.

All the ascents recorded in the Poly-bagging Tables so far are for peaks in the USA and Europe.  However, these are not the countries where the largest number of people ascend a peak. The record for the most ascents is likely to be in east Asia – specifically Fuji-san 3776m, P3776m on Honshu Island, Japan, and Tài Shān 1533m, P1491m in Shangdong Province, China.  These peaks are likely to witness significant poly-bagging activity too.  If anyone reading this report has any information on people making multiple ascents of these peaks, I would like to hear from them.  Please contact me at the address given on the landing page of the BwB website. 

Mark Trengove

April 2024