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Horton Ridge FTW

I never met Horton
But, I bet if someone makes a pretty cool, robust trail sign, with Horton's photo or a professionally looking woodcarved out sketch of Horton, and labelled it Horton's Ridge or Horton Trail with an arrow, it would stay there for a long time.

I was just looking at a map and, lo and behold (yes, I did spell that right), the so-called 'East Ridge' of Quandary actually faces slightly southeast. Therefore, calling it the East Ridge is rather inaccurate.

Horton Ridge is better and more historical. I will be referring to it as Horton Ridge henceforth.

Maybe we could get a stuffed dog and post it like a sentinel at the trailhead. With an appropriate plaque in bronze of course. And an eternal flame...

Where can I send my donation?

I don't think there are any "rules" for naming mountain peaks, ridges, etc. I once worked with an older gentleman who was a land surveyor for the USGS a long time ago, in his younger days he had surveyed a bunch of mountains in Wyoming and named several of the peaks for his wife and kids. To the best of my knowledge, they go by those names on the quad maps. I'm sure there are more "rules" when it comes to major peaks though, I'm guessing Pike's Peak was officially named that at some point.

Horton Ridge sounds like a good name to me....

Vids wrote:I don't think there are any "rules" for naming mountain peaks, ridges, etc. .

Actually there is. USGS has specific rules for naming peaks (I'll see if I can find them). I don't know if there is any "rule" for a ridgeline, saddle, etc.

http://geonames.usgs.gov/docs/pro_pol_pro.pdf

Naming "rules" starts on page 19 I believe.

I stand corrrected. It makes sense that those rules exist. I'm guessing the guy I knew was able to name those peaks since it was about 50 years ago, likely before those rules were in place. From what he told me they were small peaks (8,000 ft-ish) in the middle of nowhere. I'm pretty confident he was truthful about it, he didn't have much to gain by making it up.

I'd be curous to know how much scrutiny there is over naming once you get past the major peaks. Doesn't sound like much, the rules read like you could get a local petition going to name a small peak and if there wasn't much opposition it would go through.

Vids wrote:I'd be curous to know how much scrutiny there is over naming once you get past the major peaks. Doesn't sound like much, the rules read like you could get a local petition going to name a small peak and if there wasn't much opposition it would go through.

There is a ton of scrutiny. My dad's friend tried to get one of the 33 Sheep Mountains in Colorado named Mt. KIA/MIA. Nope, sorry we're not going to do it. He was persistent for 2 solid years (correction, it was 5 years) before the USGS finally got tired of him and named an obscure 11,000 ft. peak Mt. KIA/MIA. It's almost impossible to get a peak named something in a wilderness area.

The process of naming Mt. KIA/MIA.

http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic ... 0KIA%2FMIA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I saw this story:

http://ktla.com/2014/11/28/stray-dog-bo ... gh-amazon/

my mind went back to Feburary 12 of 2010, almost five years ago now, and the day I met Horton.

It was cold up there-- windchill in near -20 inside the snowcloud that shrouded the summit. On the long way up, I remember looking around, checking to see where Horton was, and not seeing him anywhere... until I looked down, just inside my own lee. Two of us didn't go all the way to the summit, but Horton was one of the three of us that did. Two humans, one mountain spirit in golden furry form.



I don't know what drove Horton to climb Mt. Quandary the thousand-plus times he did -- crossing a virtual continent of miles in the process. Whatever it was, it's a beautiful thing. I've walked hundreds of miles along summit ridges and animals are a rare thing. In the game of raw survival, summits are a dead end. As humans, we may feel alone, from the vantage of bipedal, binocular, and bicameral perspective, in knowing that climbing mountains is transcendent, and in no soft way. There is no space for abstraction on a winter summit. Up there, reality is diamond, hard and clear. Horton knew with his being. Hard and clear, that was Horton, and his always-ascending soul.

I got to hike with good ole Horton a few times.

Was a Good dog. Will be missed.

RIP Horton

Was there ever a plaque placed up there for Horton, like suggested? I hiked Quandary Peak this past September but I didn't see anything.