52 Peak Challenge

Those of you who follow my Facebook page know I do a lot of hiking and climbing. These days, I usually do it with the 52 Peak Club. On Facebook they are known as Hiking Las Vegas . I know this will come off as snooty, but they pride themselves on being an elite climbing group, that does the most difficult and challenging climbs. Their motto is “Join us or step aside, because we’re going to the top.”

Long before this group, I joined the Las Vegas Mountaineers Club . I’m still a proud member, but they rarely do anything locally anymore. They prefer to climb obscure mountains and travel all over the southwest to do them. Then I went through other phases that lasted for years. Now, I have come full circle and am back into climbing. A friend of mine is an active member of the 52 Peak Club who rekindled my interest in climbing with the 52 Peak Club.

The reason they are called the 52 Peak Club is they award a custom printed playing card for each of 52 designated summits climbed within about 50 miles of Las Vegas. In general, the higher the card, the more challenging the climb. When you complete the whole deck, you get a plaque and become known as a “53’er.”

Here are some climbs of done with the club since getting back into climbing:

So, that is 10 recent cards and 12 in total. I have four more planned for May so far.

I’d like to close this by thanking the 52 Peak Club and all it’s leaders for the fun and sociable adventures. If you live in Las Vegas, consider yourself in top physical shape and are not afraid of heights, please consider joining the club. I’d be happy to have some to talk about gambling with.

Written by: Michael Shackleford