Awards
Several different organizations offer awards in the form of patches, certificates or T-shirts for completing various challenges involving the Catskills. Some of these challenges involve peaks or trails that are exclusively Catskill. Other awards are given that involve the Catskills and beyond. There are even some awards included that are not for hiking in the Catskills. The latter awards are included as I have completed them or am working on them. The awards below are an explanation of some of those awards.
Awards are nice but they should not replace a hiker's desire to hike their own hike. Awards can make suggestions and supply a goal but the ultimate goal is to get out and enjoy the beauty of the world around us.
Some of the requirements for some of these awards may change over time. The information here will be updated as soon as it becomes available.
Catskill 3500 Club Patch and Winter Patch
This award is the one most hikers set their sights on first. The following is the information currently found on their site at 3500 Club
The Club requires anyone wishing to become a member to hike the 33 designated peaks on the tally list, and in a departure from the requirements of most other such clubs, climb Slide, Blackhead, Balsam and Panther mountains again in winter.
The Club also awards a separate patch for those who climb all the peaks during winter. To become a winter member hikers must climb the 33 designated mountains in the winter season.
The list of peaks can be found in the Catskill 35 section on this site. A tally sheet is available here for MS Excel format or here for PDF format. The official tally sheet is here in PDF format.
Catskill Mountain Club Patches
This club offers a patch for completing 35 peaks in the Catskills when each peak is climbed in every month. This makes a total of 420 ascents. The peak list will be slightly different than the 3500 Club list as the CMC has substituted Mill Brook Ridge and Dry Brook Ridge for Graham and Doubeltop. The most current 420 grid tally sheet can be found here in PDF format.
This club also offers a patch for completing 35 peaks in the Catskills when each peak is climbed in each of the four seasons. This makes a total of 140 ascents. The peak list will be slightly different than the 3500 Club list as the CMC has substituted Mill Brook Ridge and Dry Brook Ridge for Graham and Doubeltop. The most current 420 grid tally sheet can be found here in PDF format.
This club also offers a patch for completing all the NYNJTC trails in the Catskills. The list changes as some trails are dropped and others are created and listed. There are around 350 miles of trails on this list. The most current All Trails Challenge tally sheet can be found here in PDF format.
This club also offers a patch for completing all the trails constructed by the CMC. The list changes as trails are created and listed. The most current CMC Hiking Trails tally sheet can be found here in PDF format.
Hikers Anonymous Patches
This organization offers four different patches, one for each season, for completing 35 peaks in the Catskills in a single season. The peak list will be slightly different than the 3500 Club list. Due to the closure of Doubletop and Graham the club has made substitutions for those peaks. For Doubletop the substitute is the south summit of Doubletop where there is a State Land Wilderness Area sign at 42.02386, -74.52496 and elevation 3,849 ft. For Graham the substitute is the Roundtop near Kaaterskill High Peak at 42.16842, -74.09462 and elevation 3,465 feet. They have an online form to track your hiking accomplishment which is available at here.
This organization also offers a patch for completing 35 peaks in the Catskills when each peak is climbed in each of the four seasons. This makes a total of 140 ascents. The peak list will be slightly different than the 3500 Club list. Due to the closure of Doubletop and Graham the club has made substitutions for those peaks. For Doubletop the substitute is the south summit of Doubletop where there is a State Land Wilderness Area sign at 42.02386, -74.52496 and elevation 3,849 ft. For Graham the substitute is the Roundtop near Kaaterskill High Peak at 42.16842, -74.09462 and elevation 3,465 feet. They have an online form to track your hiking accomplishment which is available at here.
Catskill Highest Hundred
Since some people like to hike to complete lists and find this an added motivation, another list of the highest 100 peaks in the Catskills was created. Mark Schaefer worked to create this list which does not just mean picking the 100 highest mountains. The list takes into account distance from other peaks and prominence. The list actually had 102 peaks listed since there are some ties in elevation. With the elimination of Graham and Doubletop 100 peaks. There is no organization that oversees the completion of these peaks and "membership" is done on an honor system. Tom Rankin, who can be contacted on Facebook, has patches for $5. Since I knew of no other website with the information on these peaks, you can find information on this website by clicking here.
