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Where the write-ups come from
The ranking, the tiers and the recommended trails are one hiker's — Justin's — ordering of
the 48 from his ranking video, transcribed and split out per mountain. It is a personal
list and he says so himself: a mountain you loved may well be down in the stinker tier.
All nature is good nature, in his words; he would hike any of the 48 any day of the week.
He ranks on three things. How cool is the top — is it dynamic, is it bare, is it
wooded like every other one. What is the trail like — what it offers someone who is
really there for the walk in the woods, judged on what he thinks is the best route up each
mountain, which is the trail named on every card here. And a wild card: whatever else
it has going for it, a hut, a river you can swim in, a slide, a fireplace on the way over.
The four tiers are his too. Stinker (48–44) he would still hike again, just without
much of a smile. Lower (43–33) would not be his first pick but he would gladly go.
Middle (32–16) is fantastic without taking his breath away. Top (15–1) does.
He sets the middle/top boundary at 17/16 when he lists the tiers and then puts Eisenhower,
at 16, in the middle tier as he counts down — these follow the countdown.
The numbers are approximate
Heights are the listed 4,000-Footer Committee figures. Distances and
elevation gain are round-trip estimates for the trail named, gathered for comparison, not
for navigation — they are easily off by half a mile. Check the AMC White Mountain Guide or
the current trail conditions before you leave, and remember that a summer number tells you
nothing about the same trail in April.
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