Ready to take a hike? Check out The Catskill 3500 Club

GREENE COUNTY―Tucked away in the land of Rip Van Winkle, a unique community of outdoor enthusiasts has been ascending for over six decades.

Founded in 1962 by the late Bill and Kay Spangenberger, The Catskill 3500 Club has become a model of adventure and conservation that today has a growing membership list of thousands.

To become an official "Catskill 35er," hikers must complete treks to 33 designated peaks above 3,500 feet in elevation and four specific peaks again in the winter. The highest is Slide Mountain, topping out at 4,180 feet in the Ulster County town of Shandaken, followed by the 4,040-foot Hunter Mountain.  

The club also offers aspirant memberships for hikers working on finishing their climbs.

"We have members who have done all of the peaks as young as four, five, and even six years of age,” explained Membership Chairman David White.

"And we also have members in the octogenarian ages of 80 years old who have completed their second run of the peaks,” he said.

White recounted the story of an 85-year-old member who completed the hike before and after a knee replacement surgery, earning him a special membership number.

"He was number 949, but because he did the hike a second time after the surgery, I decided to give his new knee its own membership number: 949 ½," White said.

The Catskills themselves are a fascinating terrain, shaped by tectonic uplift, erosion, and glaciation. Not true geological mountains, these dissected plateau feature flat-topped peaks and deep valleys carved out by rivers and streams over millions of years. The Catskill 3500 Club’s mission is to foster interest in hiking, provide ongoing education of outdoor skills and safety, and engage in public service, stewardship and responsible conservation.

At the heart of the non-profit club's activities are the canisters that sit atop the peaks, serving as a registry for hikers to check in. In fact, The Canister is also a quarterly newsletter published by club since 1968.

According to President Michael Bongar, a former clown college graduate and entertainment industry professional, these canisters play a crucial role in trail monitoring.

"The DEC uses those canisters for scientific study of the mountains and how often the trails are being used," he explained.

"Since Covid, we've seen a lot more traffic on the trails than we used to, and hikes that were once trailless are becoming navigable by way of what we call herd paths caused by the heavy traffic of visitors hiking in the area,” Bongar said.

"This can have effects on the local ecosystem obviously including plants and animals that we like to keep an eye on,” he added.

The club's history is filled with memorable moments, such as the annual New Year's Eve hike to the top of Slide Mountain.

"We would go up there with champagne and carbide lanterns to listen to the bells chime in the valley at midnight,” said Ann Clapper of Cairo, daughter of the club's founders.

She also shared a story of a mysterious noise while camping near Kaaterskill High Peak.

"It sounded like an engine roaring, but what we had come to discover was that a porcupine was gnawing on the metal of one of the downed planes up there in the mountains all night,” Clapper said.

Avid outdoorspeople who were inspired by the Adirondack Forty-Sixers Club, the Spangenbergers organized the first meeting of a hiking club at the Mohonk Mountain House. Among those in attendance was birder and naturalist Dan Smiley who had studied Bicknell’s thrush―one of North America's rarest songbirds whose preferred nesting area includes the balsam fir forests found above 3,500 feet in the Catskill Mountains.

Smiley’s list of the bird’s habitat locations would become the foundation for the club’s own list of official peaks.  

And while the original roster consisted of 35 peaks, it was reduced by the club to 33 in 2021 after Graham and Doubletop mountains were closed to the public.

Ready to take a hike?  Whether you're a seasoned peakbagger or just starting out, the Catskill 3500 Club offers a community of like-minded individuals who share a passion for the great outdoors. They organize guided group hikes, an annual dinner, cleanup and trail maintenance outings and this weekend will host a wilderness first aid and CPR course.

For more information, visit www.catskill3500club.org.

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