Pennsylvania peaks
Pennsylvania summits
First Ascent Awards
242 of 1,520 peaks 15%
Top climbing months
July 17%
June 11%
August 10%
Pennsylvania mountains highlights
- Pennsylvania is bisected roughly diagonally southwest to northeast by ridges of the Appalachian Mountains.
Latest summits
"There are supposed to be boulder fields, caves, and broad vistas just below the ridge line of Baker Mountain. Twice now I’ve bushwhacked up the very steep face, and twice I’ve found nothing up top but trees. This is State Game Land 143, but official maps are no help. I’ll come back next week. I think I’ve finally got it figured out. " — briansnyder • Mar 23, 2024
"Fools Knob was still unclaimed on this site, and its name called to me. This is in the Allegheny National Forest, so it's public land. I bushwhacked up the mountainside only to discover a new, unmapped logging road at the top. Not much in the way of views, but the hemlock forests were pleasant--if a little eerie somehow. I love this forest, but it felt oddly spooky today. It's still full-on winter up here. Coincidentally, Fools Knob is exactly the same height as the highest point in Iowa--which I believe is in a cornfield." — briansnyder • Mar 22, 2024
"Easy hike up to the crest of Necessity Hill. There’s no marked trail to the top, but there is a little dirt lane with a sign “Authorized Personnel Only.” (Peak-baggers are authorized, right?) A very young George Washington had to construct a hasty makeshift fort on this hill in 1754—“Fort Necessity.” He had just ambushed and murdered a band of sleeping French soldiers nearby, thus bringing the so-called “Seven Years War” to America, where it’s typically called the French and Indian War. No views from the top, but a pleasant climb." — briansnyder • Mar 17, 2024
"Preacher Hill...as gloomy and dull as its name implies. :) It seems to be on private land, too, with the Mountain Crest Airport at the top--which is just a big, grassy field." — briansnyder • Mar 15, 2024
"A nice rail trail runs along the Allegheny River from the village of Tidioute. At 1.5 miles, a steep old forest lane cuts sharply uphill all the way to the summit. During the 19th century Pennsylvania oil boom, a notorious madame called “French Kate” had a brothel on the mountaintop. Locals called her The Wh*re of Babylon, which might be how the mountain got its name. Kate knew that the cops wouldn’t want to climb the steep hill, but her clients would have climbed Everest… It was a virgin peak until today...ironically." — briansnyder • Mar 15, 2024