The Triple Crown of New Hampshire Hiking – by John Williams

Larry Yetter, under the arch of poles, finishing his “Grid”

When people hear “Triple Crown” they think of thoroughbred horse racing.  Active hikers in the US often know about the Triple Crown of long trail hiking, which includes accomplishment of thru hiking the Appalachian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail.  It is not widely known that little New Hampshire has its own Triple Crown for the few intensely dedicated hikers who have accomplished three great feats within state boundaries.  These are The Grid, Redlining the AMC White Mountain Guide, and hiking the NH500, the 500 highest summits in New Hampshire.  This author considers each of these endeavors to be a five year quest. Think about that. Consider the dedication required to place millions of footsteps in some of the most remote and beautiful places in the great New Hampshire outdoors.

What are these rigorous hiking accomplishments?  Let’s start with “The Grid”.  Hikers and non-hikers alike know about the 4,000 footers, the 48 summits in the White Mountains which are 4,000 feet above sea level or higher.  Enthusiastic hikers who discover the thrill of hiking these high summits will many times strive to hike each one of the 48 summits on the list to achieve this one time goal.  A smaller set of hikers will advance to learn to safely hike in winter and hike the 48 in the winter season.  A much smaller set of hikers love the athletic rigor and outdoor experience so much they pursue hiking each one of the 48 4,000’ mountains in every calendar month.  Consider 48×12 = 576 summit hikes. To accomplish this requires hiking all of the 48 in all four seasons, multiple times.  The best and the worst conditions are experienced by these hearty souls, as they pound their way up and down the well worn trails to seek the summits 576 times.  Grid finishers are proud of their epic journey, and, as expected, are very strong, experienced and skilled hikers.  Some will refer to themselves or others as “Gridiots” due to the perceived monotony of repeating each of the hikes 12 times.  A log of Grid finishers is maintained.  Some gridders have completed more than one round. One notable dedicated hiker, Ed Hawkins, has completed ten grids.  That is difficult to imagine.

Brian Cudihee winter NH500 Deer Mountain South peak, Pittsburgh, NH

So what is “Redlining” the AMC White Mountain Guide?  Redlining is a term which describes methodically tracing trails you have hiked on a paper map with a red pencil.  Redlining is also called “Trail Tracing”. These terms are interchangeable.  To redline the trails listed in the AMC White Mountain Guide is a very complex process involving methodical planning and execution to efficiently hike every trail on the maps and listed in the AMC guidebook.  To help with this massive endeavor, a spreadsheet was created which lists all of the required trails within each tab of the guide.  This spreadsheet is used by hikers to log their progress and serves as an aid to ensure each trail is completed, including nuanced spur trails to lookouts and tent sites etcetera. To efficiently accomplish redlining, hikers have a heavy burden for logistic planning and execution.  Planning to hike efficiently often means traversing trails from end to end and combining more than one trail on a day hike.  Hiking out and back from a single trail head is not efficient in this pursuit.  Redliners often pair up with others to help manage the car spotting for traverse hikes. The first redline finisher was Jon Burroughs who completed the redline of the 25th edition in 1991.

The third and newest leg of the Triple Crown is the NH 500 highest summits. Like the gridding and redlining, the NH 500 highest is a challenging endeavor, the only one of these which I have completed.  When people hear of this pursuit, they pause, as they do if you describe Gridding, or Redlining. A common reaction is, “how could there be 500 mountains in New Hampshire?” “How high are they?”  The mountains listed range from 1,942’ above sea level to the 6,288’ summit of Mt. Washington.  All of the 48 4,000 footers are on the list, as are many of the “52 with a view”.  Hikers can follow well worn trails up most of these peaks.  But the majority of summits for the NH 500 don’t have trails, at least not marked tracks. Approximately 75% of the 500 do not have trails to the summit requiring navigation skills and bushwhacking through the forest and steep slopes. Like Redlining, a heavy dose of logistics is required to plan and execute these hikes which are located from the southern border to the northern border. Extensive hours are spent studying maps, layers of maps with current and historic information, and satellite views of the backcountry.  Road access, seasonal closures, and private lands are challenges to be worked out before boot tracks begin.  During the bushwhacks, cliff bands, dense growth, wetlands, and extensive tracts of forest blowdowns and clear cuts are challenges to be navigated. I spent five years hiking with a group of enthusiasts to complete the NH 500.  Bryan Cudihee and Zach Porter are developers and pioneers of the NH500, and the only winter season finishers to date.

How many Triple Crown finishers are there?  A log of finishers for each of these does exist.  The number of finishers is approximately five.  Some finishers of these hiking goals do not choose to enter their results in the log.   In the past year, New Hampshire Chronical on WMUR featured Lisa and Rick Fregeolle who completed the triple crown in 2024. Source information is available at the grid website: http://www.48×12.com/ (not secure). This resource is managed by Ed Hawkins, thank you Ed.

By the Numbers (approximate), finishers as of 2026-0905:

Anne Packard on Rogers Ledge, October 18, 2024, NH500 Finish