Rick (61) and Lisa Fregeolle (62) are the first couple, and Lisa, the second woman, to finish the New Hampshire Triple Crown of Hiking, finishing the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid, The White Mountains Redlining Trail List, and Climbing New Hampshire’s 500 Highest Mountains in October 2024. This is the most difficult hiking challenge in New Hampshire and has only been completed by six people previously, including John Gutowski in 2019, Bill Cronin and John McHugh in 2020, Zach Porter and Denise Stassis in 2021, and Liam Cooley in 2022.
Finishing the New Hampshire Triple Crown requires hiking:
- The White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid involves hiking all 48 of the White Mountain 4000 footers in every month of the year, for a total of 576 peaks. It takes about 3300 miles of hiking with 1,000,000 feet of elevation gain to complete. 187 people have finished the grid to date, some multiple times.
- The White Mountains Redlining Trail List requires hiking all of the trails listed in the Appalachian Mountain Club’s White Mountain Guide which lists 664 trails for a combined length of 1478 miles. On average, it takes most people close to 2500 miles to finish it because the trails are not contiguous and repeats are often necessary. 110 people have finished to date, some multiple times.
- The New Hampshire 500 Highest requires climbing the 500 tallest mountains in New Hampshire which are spread out all over the state, many in the middle of nowhere. Several hundred of these mountains don’t have trails, which makes this a very challenging list, because you have to navigate off-trail to climb them. No one’s counted up the miles or elevation gain required to complete this list yet, but it’s a lot. So far, just 24 people have completed this list.
Completing all three of these hiking lists is a serious challenge requiring years and often decades of hiking. For example, it took Rick and Lisa 20 years to complete the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid, 10 years to climb the New Hampshire 500 Highest mountains, and 20 years to finish Redlining the White Mountain Trails, although they completed most of that final list over the past 3 years.
When asked which was their favorite of the three lists to complete, Rick and Lisa said the White Mountains 4000 Footer Grid was their favorite because they enjoyed seeing the woods change each month of the year. “But we also loved the remoteness, artifacts, logging roads, and herd paths that you find while bush-whacking the New Hampshire 500 Hundred Highest and the many interesting trails we hiked to finish the White Mountains Redlining Trail list.”
Rick writes “We would like to thank the many people we met along the way with special thanks to Nancy and Charlie Foote who inspired us way back when. They are amazing! Also, Hiker Ed, an amazing hiker who inspires so many. We appreciate all he does. Also, thanks to Brian Cuddihee for maintaining the NH500 highest list & map and his advice. Thanks also to Philip Werner for all his research, and articles, and for maintaining the Triple Crown finishers list.
Congratulations Rick and Lisa!
