Ascents per month

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daway8
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Ascents per month

Post by daway8 »

Curious if anyone knows a way to extract data showing some kind of measure of ascents per month for each peak?

Obviously they all spike way up in summer and the numbers would change from year to year based on snow/weather/etc.

But it would be sort of interesting to see which peaks see the ascents/month rise the quickest and how much the flux tends to be for various peaks (one peak doubles traffic by March, another not until June, etc).

I know CFI releases some annual stats and a plot of overall summer traffic but I've never seen per peak month to month numbers... (just geeking out while waiting for a break in the weather...)
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nyker
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by nyker »

That would be an interesting analysis but would have to imagine there would be a lot of ascents that wouldn't be recorded in any "official" channel.
TH registers might give some indication of foot traffic but not summits since many who start may not summit (or even have a goal of summiting since trailheads often have multiple destinations).
If everyone signed them, summit registers would but many people don't sign them.
You would probably need to install some sort of video/foot pad counter at the summit which is probably violating all sorts of LNT.
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Scott P
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by Scott P »

Here's how you could get a rough estimate:

Go on LOJ and look at the calendar grid for each peak. Calculate the percentage that the logs were signed in each month. Multiply the percentage of each month by the CFI annual numbers.

It won't be exact, but will give a pretty good estimate.
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Trotter
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by Trotter »

daway8 wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 11:49 am Curious if anyone knows a way to extract data showing some kind of measure of ascents per month for each peak?

Obviously they all spike way up in summer and the numbers would change from year to year based on snow/weather/etc.

But it would be sort of interesting to see which peaks see the ascents/month rise the quickest and how much the flux tends to be for various peaks (one peak doubles traffic by March, another not until June, etc).

I know CFI releases some annual stats and a plot of overall summer traffic but I've never seen per peak month to month numbers... (just geeking out while waiting for a break in the weather...)
You could email CFI and ask. They have that data, at least for the 14ers they put counters on.
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pvnisher
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by pvnisher »

Google has it.
Just like their traffic analysis, and it'll include almost everyone.
Just gotta figure out a way to get it. You could buy it for advertising. Can probably get it sorted by demographics, tbh.

Best way at this point would be to start a project where you plan to do something to insult Trump with the data, and Google will just give it to you.
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Scott P
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by Scott P »

Trotter wrote: Sat Feb 20, 2021 7:09 pm You could email CFI and ask. They have that data, at least for the 14ers they put counters on.
Unless things changed, CFI counters are only in place for the summer to early fall season.
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yardman
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Re: Ascents per month

Post by yardman »

Some of CFI's counters are in place over the winter, so on some peaks we have 365 day counts. Snow over the trail sometimes has people going far enough away from the thermal counter that the data isn't as valid as during the summer/fall season. Our placements tend to be on the peak above the last turnoffs for other directions, so are often more than a mile from the trailhead. While this doesn't mean it gets the number of people summiting, it does show the number of people likely trying to summit. The attachment showing raw data for Quandary (2017-18) and Pikes Peak (2018-20) gives an indication of the off-season use in comparison to the peak-season use. Once we get more of a track record for winter season use, we might issue a report.
Attachments
TRAFx Weekly for Pikes Peak--Barr and Devils--7.2018-4.2020.jpg
TRAFx Weekly for Pikes Peak--Barr and Devils--7.2018-4.2020.jpg (167.83 KiB) Viewed 1641 times
Quandary 2017-18 Raw Data.jpeg
Quandary 2017-18 Raw Data.jpeg (38.4 KiB) Viewed 1641 times
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