# What is the youngest age to have finished all 48 4000' in NH



## Anonymous (Oct 8, 2002)




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## Max (Oct 8, 2002)

I doubt that he is the youngest, but my son completed them when he was 11 years old.  I would have to research further if you needed the exact number or months or days after his 11th birthday.  He did his first peak, Mt. Liberty, when he was 5, and finished up on Mt. Carrigain.  This would have been in 1988.  All he ever wanted to do was hike, every weekend.  He first climbed Monadnock when he was 3, never complained, loved every second of it.  He looked forward especially to overnight trips.  I never once pushed him to finish a peak.  We turned back once on Wildcat 'A' when he didn't feel well.  Completed it later on a Wildcat Ridge hike.  And the first time we tried Washington after a night at Lakes, we got to the foggy summit, the weather started to turn bad, so we took the train down to avoid problems.  A few other highlights:

1.  He did Owl's Head as a day trip from the Kanc.
2.  Another day trip was Up 19 Mile Brook trail to Carter Notch, up Carter Dome, across South and Middle Carters, over North Carter (not a 4000 footer, down the Imp trail, hike back up the road to 19 MB.  I asked him after Carter Dome if he wanted to go back and we'd do the other Carters on a different day, and he said "No, I want to keep going."  I think he was 10 at the time.
3.  We did Washington finally by climbing into Great Gulf from Pinkham and camping overnight.  The next morning we went up the Great Gulf Headwall, and he kept leaving me in the dust.  And he was carrying his share, a frame pack with sleeping bag, clothes, food and water.  Down through Tuckerman Ravine.

We celebrated his accomplishments with a trip to the Grand Canyon, hiking to the bottom and staying there for several days, exploring lots of trails and trail-less areas.

The moral:  spend time with your kids, get them interested in the outdoors and take them with you all the time.  Start slow, stay within their interest range and work from there.  They grow up too fast and soon it will be too late.  Now he has brought my 1st grandson into the world this past July.  I can't wait to take him hiking!

Max


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## pedxing (Oct 8, 2002)

Pretty Kewl Max!  In your shoes, I'd have been so proud that I'd be unbearable.  

The mountains are such a great place for kids to learn to stretch themselves and test their abilities.


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## Anonymous (Oct 10, 2002)

A kid named Ben Anderson from Vermont finished the Northeast 111 at the ripe old age of 9.  As far as I know he still holds the record as being the youngest 111er.  Kind of makes you feel like you've been wasting your whole life away, doesn't it???


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