Hikers Anonymous is an unofficial hiking organization based around hiking and peak bagging in the Catskill Mountains of New York. They primarily operate through the domain HikersAnonymous.org.
Patches and Achievements
The organization expands upon the Catskill 3500 club challenge by taking it further. Most commonly, Hikers Anonymous awards single season patches for hikers who hike all 35 designate peaks in a single season, meaning Single Season Winter 35er, Single Season Spring 35er, Single Season Summer 35er, or Single Season Fall 35er. There are more patches available through their website such as Four In A Row, Catskill 4 Seasons, 35 Ultra, and the Catskill 420 grid.
Logging Peaks Online
One of the main features and appeal of HikersAnonymous.org is the robust peak bagging tracking system that is setup online. Hikers can log their peaks via a google form. They will select a custom trail name or nickname, and the software will log their progress in a table for everyone to view. These tables are updated for the current season, and everyone's progress can be followed online. This makes coordinating hikes easier as a user would know what goals their fellow hiker is working towards, and what hikes they have left to complete their goals. When a milestone is completed, it is automatically logged and added to the recent milestones section of the website.
Peak List and Deviation from 3500 Club
In late 2020 and early 2021, the owners of the land that encompasses the summits of Graham and Doubletop mountains made it known that after years of allowing hikers to access their peaks, due to the increased COVID-19 traffic to the summits, they would no longer be granting permission. This caused a reaction by the 3500 club and after deliberation, they decided that the list of required peaks would simply shrink from 35 to 33, omitting the two on private land. Hikers Anonymous, being a separate hiking club and entity, decided instead to simply replace the peaks. South Doubletop was selected to replace Doubletop, as the summit can be accessed via State Land and the peak is still above 3,500 ft. elevation. Graham was replaced with Roundtop, due to it being the 36th highest peak in the Catskills as well as it's close proximity to Kaaterskill High Peak which is already a requirement.
Catskill 35 Combinatorial
The most recent addition to the website is the Catskill 35 Combinatorial, which is a challenge geared at not only hitting all of the peaks, but hitting them all in different combinations with each other, including alone. Currently there are 100 combos in the database, and progress towards hiking them all can be tracked in the same way the seasonal efforts are.
Other Peak Tracking
In addition to tracking peak bagging in the Catskills, the website also has the ability to track the peaks and milestones of other popular peak bagging challenges in the Northeast including the ADK 46, New Hampshire 48, Vermont 5, Northeast Ultra 8, New England 100 Highest, and more.
Criticisms
In June of 2022, the NYDEC announced that they would be conducting a study of the trail-less peaks in the Catskills and the condition of their ecosystems and herd paths. The result of that study was a presentation noting the impact that off-trail hikers have had on these peaks when bushwhacking, namely by taking many different herd paths to the summit and spreading out the impact over a greater area than is seen on peaks with trails. In light of this, some in online hiking groups have taken to blaming Hikers Anonymous for encouraging repeated visitation of these peaks and the damage done to their ecosystems, though others believe they are being made a scapegoat for what is an issue for the DEC to manage and solve. The DEC has not imposed any formal restrictions on bushwhacking in the Catskills.
