Dave Hanscom said the pursuit began after he retired from the University of Utah in 2006, saying it was important to have goals after working for more than 40 years.
“I turned 66 and I thought, you know, I should try to get to the high points of all the states. And so, 50 high points, and how about 50 birds in every state too? So, you know, that's kind of round numbers.”
Hanscom paused his ambitions for about 10 years to care for his wife, Mary, who passed away in 2023.
Since he was ten years older at that point and he had already completed some of the more difficult climbs in Wyoming, Montana, Washington and California and had already elected to drop Alaska’s Mount McKinley from his list, he began to focus on the summits he thought would be doable.
“At the end of last year, I thought I need a new goal, because what I have left is easy,” he said. “I woke up in the middle of the night last winter, and I thought 40 after 80, that's kind of a nice round number. I'll bet I can still do 40 high points after I turned 80. I already had all the ones in the middle of the country, so that meant I had to do some tougher ones. So that's what I'm in the process of doing now.”
By the end of 2024, Hanscom had reached 44 high points and documented birds in all 50 states.
This year he started in Texas and has made his way to New Mexico and most recently, Colorado.
“New Mexico’s high point is 13,000 feet, and I wasn't sure how my 84-year-old body was going to respond to that high elevation, but I felt great. So, I thought, I wonder if I could do Colorado again. That's 14,000 feet I wasn't planning to [do]. So, I did that and on Monday, I was standing on top of Mount Elbert in Colorado. Much to my, I don't know about surprise, but relief. Maybe it was, you know, I just was really pleased and grateful, actually to be there.”
The challenge he set for himself, he said, has proved to be an incentive to keep going.
“As you get older, it's always tempting to sit on the couch. And I love being outdoors. I love being on top of mountains. You know, every mountain is a gift these days, so I think you know that's really my, my incentive to keep moving.”
Next month, Hanscom will travel back to New England to summit the peaks in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. After that, he’ll head to Nevada.
He was on his way to hike Mount Mitchell in North Carolina last year when Hurricane Helene hit, destroying Blue Ridge Parkway State Park, which is still closed. He hopes the park can be reopened next year so he can finish the east coast climbs.
Although he’s the co-author of three ski touring books, Hanscom says has no plans to publish his “40 after 80” adventures.
This story was updated to clarify that Hanscom is identifying 50 unique bird species in each of the 50 states, although there is some overlap between the states.
