Yesterday (8/13/23) Teresa Gergen became the first person to finish climbing all the peaks on the CONUS 1000 list, which tracks the 1000 highest peaks in the contiguous U.S. This includes both the traditional map-based list and the current LiDAR-based list.
Teresa's finisher was Brown Cliffs, a remote, technical, extremely obscure 12er in the Alpine Lakes area of the Wind River Range. After an unsuccessful solo attempt with bad guidebook beta in 2020, I got to help out this time by leading a fun 5.4 pitch to reach the true highpoint. The day before, Teresa and I backpacked over her penultimate CONUS 1000 peak, another high 12er called Nebraska Point (recently added by LiDAR), which required thousands of feet of loose scrambling with full packs and a rappel on the descent to Alpine Lakes. After Brown Cliffs, we exited over Alpine Lakes Pass and the Knife Point Glacier, reaching Indian Pass just in time to watch an unreal sunset unfold across the surrounding peaks. I got word this evening that Teresa finished the backpack out to the trailhead, so it's safe to say this one is in the bag.
How about some pictures of our CONUS 1000 finisher?! Congrats Teresa!
Teresa reaching the summit of Brown Cliffs, peak #1000:
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Enjoying the view from the hard-earned summit:
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Brown Cliffs above Lake 11335 (Upper Alpine Lake) shortly after we climbed it:
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Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
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Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
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Last edited by Eli Boardman on Mon Aug 14, 2023 11:30 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
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Approximate topo of our ~30m 5.4 summit pitch on Brown Cliffs, with Teresa visible on the skyline at the start of the rappel:
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Teresa most of the way up the technical section:
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Incredible sunset over Indian Basin after moody weather all afternoon, not a bad way to close out a lifetime project:
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Approximate topo of our ~30m 5.4 summit pitch on Brown Cliffs, with Teresa visible on the skyline at the start of the rappel:
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Teresa most of the way up the technical section:
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Incredible sunset over Indian Basin after moody weather all afternoon, not a bad way to close out a lifetime project:
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Last edited by Eli Boardman on Mon Aug 14, 2023 11:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Having helped Teresa finish this list, I suppose I have some small right to share some thoughts on the matter.
First: this is the kind of undertaking that inspires me. Mountaineering is a pointless sport--there are no trophies, or cash prizes, or societal advancements to be gained. Yet something in the mountaineer ethos says, "I climb it anyway." Or as George Mallory said, "because it's there." At its best, mountaineering is an existential rebellion in the vein of Camus's vision of Sisyphus: the determination to create meaning where there is none inherent. It is a very human process. Teresa's quest to climb the CONUS 1000 is a great example of how mountaineering can highlight the strength of the human spirit. Beyond the persistence required to climb so many peaks, many of them semi-technical and remote, Teresa persisted through a life-changing accident and climbed some of the most serious peaks with major physical impairments. While there's always someone faster, stronger, climbing harder, or pushing further, what inspires me the most is grit. And Teresa has plenty of that.
Second: some of this stuff is dangerous, especially without full mobility. I've thought a lot about how we justify the risks we take in the mountains, and actually wrote an explanation of my current position in a recent Instagram post. For me, it really comes down to two things: being honest about the level of risk we accept, and deciding whether our reasons justify that level of risk. Both Teresa and I have had mountaineering goals that became such an important part of our life that we were consciously willing to accept a significant level of risk to have a chance at achieving those goals. It would be hypocritical to say that others should "be safer than we were" or something to that effect, but I do want to highlight that making a conscious choice to accept risk is different than blindly getting into dangerous situations. I appreciate the level of awareness and reflection that Teresa brings to her climbing.
Third: on the concept of lists, and finishing them. The rise of LiDAR analysis has shaken things up in the peakbagging communities to say the least. While I understand that many of us will want to re-finish lists with peaks that may be added now or in the future, I think it's important to distinguish re-finishing a list from un-finishing a list. In my opinion, you can't un-finish a list. The list may change, but you've already finished, and if you climb the new peaks too, then you effectively finish twice, which is different from "having to" re-finish a list just to get back to where you started. Plenty of early mountaineering pioneers in Colorado and elsewhere climbed a slightly different set of peaks than we do now because they didn't have access to even the same quality of topo maps as we had pre-LiDAR (for instance, Grizzly was considered a 14er and Holy Cross was a 13er), but we still consider those pioneers to be the first finishers of their various lists. For another thing, peaks change--as Gerry Roach says, "geologic time includes now," and if a 5 ft. summit block succumbs to inevitable weathering and falls off the side of a steep peak, that could shake up threshold-based lists or even demote a peak that is close to the 300 ft. prominence level. Even the concept of a summit is ill-defined in LiDAR data, since the "points" represent a nonlinear average over a non-trivial area on the ground, and most people who don't have a background working with LiDAR acquisitions don't understand how much uncertainty really remains in this type of analysis, but that's a whole other discussion. Anyway, the point is, the list is the list, and if you finish it, you're a finisher, even if the list changes in the future due to the rocks themselves or a new way of measuring them; otherwise we would all have to stick around a few hundred million years to see what new mountain ranges get created by the next North American orogeny.
First: this is the kind of undertaking that inspires me. Mountaineering is a pointless sport--there are no trophies, or cash prizes, or societal advancements to be gained. Yet something in the mountaineer ethos says, "I climb it anyway." Or as George Mallory said, "because it's there." At its best, mountaineering is an existential rebellion in the vein of Camus's vision of Sisyphus: the determination to create meaning where there is none inherent. It is a very human process. Teresa's quest to climb the CONUS 1000 is a great example of how mountaineering can highlight the strength of the human spirit. Beyond the persistence required to climb so many peaks, many of them semi-technical and remote, Teresa persisted through a life-changing accident and climbed some of the most serious peaks with major physical impairments. While there's always someone faster, stronger, climbing harder, or pushing further, what inspires me the most is grit. And Teresa has plenty of that.
Second: some of this stuff is dangerous, especially without full mobility. I've thought a lot about how we justify the risks we take in the mountains, and actually wrote an explanation of my current position in a recent Instagram post. For me, it really comes down to two things: being honest about the level of risk we accept, and deciding whether our reasons justify that level of risk. Both Teresa and I have had mountaineering goals that became such an important part of our life that we were consciously willing to accept a significant level of risk to have a chance at achieving those goals. It would be hypocritical to say that others should "be safer than we were" or something to that effect, but I do want to highlight that making a conscious choice to accept risk is different than blindly getting into dangerous situations. I appreciate the level of awareness and reflection that Teresa brings to her climbing.
Third: on the concept of lists, and finishing them. The rise of LiDAR analysis has shaken things up in the peakbagging communities to say the least. While I understand that many of us will want to re-finish lists with peaks that may be added now or in the future, I think it's important to distinguish re-finishing a list from un-finishing a list. In my opinion, you can't un-finish a list. The list may change, but you've already finished, and if you climb the new peaks too, then you effectively finish twice, which is different from "having to" re-finish a list just to get back to where you started. Plenty of early mountaineering pioneers in Colorado and elsewhere climbed a slightly different set of peaks than we do now because they didn't have access to even the same quality of topo maps as we had pre-LiDAR (for instance, Grizzly was considered a 14er and Holy Cross was a 13er), but we still consider those pioneers to be the first finishers of their various lists. For another thing, peaks change--as Gerry Roach says, "geologic time includes now," and if a 5 ft. summit block succumbs to inevitable weathering and falls off the side of a steep peak, that could shake up threshold-based lists or even demote a peak that is close to the 300 ft. prominence level. Even the concept of a summit is ill-defined in LiDAR data, since the "points" represent a nonlinear average over a non-trivial area on the ground, and most people who don't have a background working with LiDAR acquisitions don't understand how much uncertainty really remains in this type of analysis, but that's a whole other discussion. Anyway, the point is, the list is the list, and if you finish it, you're a finisher, even if the list changes in the future due to the rocks themselves or a new way of measuring them; otherwise we would all have to stick around a few hundred million years to see what new mountain ranges get created by the next North American orogeny.
Last edited by Eli Boardman on Tue Aug 15, 2023 1:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
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Oh yeah, one more thing...let the record show!
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Oh yeah, one more thing...let the record show!
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mike offerman
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Amazing job, congrats Teresa!!
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esskay1000
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Wow, huge congrats Teresa, that's amazing and makes my head spin!
“Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!” - Dr. Seuss
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bmcqueen
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Well said Eli, and congrats Teresa!
"Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment." --- Nasreddin
https://listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/Conte ... queen&t=14
https://listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/Conte ... queen&t=14
Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Congrats Teresa, absolutely amazing work to complete this list.. 
Consecutive months with at least one 13er or 14er, 87 months
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seano
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Congrats, Teresa! I'm pretty bad at finishing lists, but I'm good at starting them, so I know enough of the top 1000 to understand how much skill and perseverance this takes.
Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Congratulations!
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Vadim34
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Congratulations Teresa! Happy for you, as I know how much this means to you. This is an incredible achievement and you finally got it! Very fitting that Eli was there with you in WY, for your finisher, and I remember meeting you on your first attempt at the Brown Cliffs, I had no doubt that you would eventually get it.
This is a very cool list and it’s amazing that we now have a finisher!
This is a very cool list and it’s amazing that we now have a finisher!
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12ersRule
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Re: Teresa finishes CONUS 1000
Congratulations Teresa, truly an amazing accomplishment. I bet you've had some incredible experiences on this journey.
Heckuva job on those last peaks, Teresa and Eli.
Heckuva job on those last peaks, Teresa and Eli.
