Six Summits Every Hiker Dreams Of

By Wren AldanaMar 148 min read

A hiker with a backpack standing on a rocky summit above the clouds

Every nature-lover keeps a private list of peaks — the ones saved in phone notes, circled on maps, whispered about in huts. Here is mine: six summits every hiker should climb at least once, ordered from gentle first-peak to the big white dream.

Start gentle, finish high

Begin with the grassy dome you can walk in trainers — every range has one, and the picnic at the top teaches you the rhythm. Graduate to the rocky pyramid with the fixed cables, then the hut-to-hut traverse where you sleep high and wake above the clouds.

Snow-covered peaks rising above morning mist — The big white dream — best admired first from a lower ridge

The mountain decides

All six share one rule: the summit is optional, the descent is mandatory. Turn back times are written before you leave the hut, and no view is worth a storm. The mountains will still be there — that is rather the point of them.

“The summit is optional, the descent is mandatory — the mountains will still be there.”

Go prepared

Season windows, hut booking leads and difficulty grades for all six are in The Mountains collection — and the packing list that gets you up and down safely is in my week-on-the-trail guide.