A Catskill 3500 Club Gift Guide
The Catskill 3500 Club asks for thirty-three peaks. Four of them again in winter, which the by-laws define as December 21 to March 21 regardless of what the weather is doing. That is thirty-seven climbs.
Fourteen of the peaks have no trail. You reach those by compass bearing, looking for a blaze-orange canister bolted to a tree, and you will be doing that on your hands and knees through blowdown for part of it.
Fewer than 5,000 people have finished since 1962. If someone in your life is working the list, here is what actually helps.
For the aspirant
Wool socks. More than they think they need. Unglamorous and the correct answer. Bushwhack days are long and wet and the ground gives way under leaf litter.
Microspikes. The winter four are required, and the ascent up Blackhead in February is not the day to discover you own the wrong traction.
The New York-New Jersey Trail Conference map set. They probably have it. A second copy that lives in the car has saved more days than any single piece of gear.
A tank of gas. Genuinely. The drive from the city is two hours each way and the trailheads are not near anything.
For the finisher
The finish is strange. Most people summit their last peak, realize there is nobody to tell, and walk back down. The anticlimax is close to universal.
Something that marks it. Not more gear. Gear wears out and gets replaced and carries no memory.
A framed photograph from a summit they actually stood on. Ask which one. The answer is never the highest.
Something that puts them back at elevation. This is our argument for a candle, so weigh it accordingly. Catskill Forest No. 01 is balsam fir, hemlock moss, and bluestone, built off the spruce-fir zone above 3,000 feet. It gets a Tuesday in February closer to a Saturday in the Catskills than anything else on this list.
What not to give
A patch. They get one from the Club, and it means something because of who issued it.
Anything with a mountain graphic that is not one of these mountains. The list is Slide, Hunter, Blackhead, Thomas Cole, West Kill, Graham, Doubletop, Cornell, Table, Peekamoose, Plateau, Sugarloaf, Wittenberg, Southwest Hunter, Balsam Lake, Panther, Big Indian, Friday, Rusk, Kaaterskill High Peak, Twin, Balsam Cap, Fir, North Dome, Eagle, Balsam, Bearpen, Indian Head, Sherrill, Vly, Windham High Peak, Halcott, and Rocky. A generic peak silhouette gets noticed, and not in the way you wanted.
Sherrill Mountain was founded by #2132, who spent a few years leading Club hikes for aspirants. That is the entire basis for this list.