Take a hike   ● If you're interested in meeting some fellow peak baggers, or if you'd just like to try some hiking with a group, contact the Southern Arizona Hiking Club online at www.sahcinfo.org or call 751-4513.

Mark Nichols says he senses "some kind of aura, some kind of attraction" that makes him want to climb almost every mountain he sees. Must be one heck of an aura. Nichols, a resident of Benson, has climbed 2,316 summits and named high points in Arizona. He feels he's barely made a dent. He has identified a total of 7,200 Arizona peaks and named high points that he'd like to stand atop someday. And that's not counting thousands of worthy mountaintops in New Mexico, Utah and other nearby states. Nichols is what hikers and climbers call a "peak bagger." The term refers to someone who doesn't merely want to take a casual hike - but rather someone who wants to "bag," or climb, summit after summit after summit. "It's exploration. It's accomplishment. It's physical challenge," Nichols says in explaining his passion for peaks. "Mountains have some kind of aura, some kind of attraction. They have a power to them that's kind of hard to explain. You just look up and see it, and you want to go." Nichols is by no means the only avid peak bagger in Southern Arizona. Some members of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club admit to the title. "I enjoy desert hikes, and I enjoy trail hikes, but there's no question that peak bagging is my love," says Pat Hammes, a Tucson resident and club member who has stood atop more than 850 Arizona summits. "There's just something about going out and collecting peaks," she says. "I hike every Saturday and every Sunday without fail, and every vacation is a hiking vacation." Hammes says she has two reasons for her peak-bagging habit. "One is that I get fantastic views from the top of the mountain," she says. "The other is that I get a real high on a peak. "I look at it this way: A drinker pays the price for a high the next day," Hammes says. "A hiker pays the price on the way up in terms of effort - but the next day you have a euphoric feeling about what you've done." Nichols, who has been climbing Arizona peaks for the past two decades, says his outings range from easy "walk-up" ascents to climbs requiring a rope. "In some cases, you have very brushy mountains with no roads or trails close," he says. "It's quite a challenge to fight your way through a thicket. Reiley Peak in the Winchester Mountains (northwest of Willcox) is hard to get to the top of." Another challenging climb was Eagle Tail Peak west of Phoenix. "That's a serious roped rock climb," Nichols says. "My desire is to climb mountains. If they're technical, then I have to round up some helpers who know more about it to help get me up." Nichols says he's had no serious falls in his days on the peaks. "Whenever you're scrambling up something, you have to make a decision to keep going or turn back" if the terrain appears too dangerous," he says. "If I don't have a pretty good feeling that I can get down a peak, then I don't go up." Hammes says she takes a conservative approach when the going gets steep. "I don't do roped climbs," she says. "I have a measuring device. If I feel a misstep might cause me to lose my life, I don't do that hike. If a misstep might break a leg, I can afford that risk." To keep the peak experiences coming, Nichols has worked with hiker Bob Martin, considered by many as the dean of Arizona peak baggers, to compile the statewide list of 7,200 peaks and high points. Bob Cardell, president of the Southern Arizona Hiking Club and himself a vigorous peak bagger, notes that most hiking clubs have a definition for what constitutes a peak, as opposed, say, to a high point on a ridge. "Basically, a peak, to qualify, must be at least 300 feet above the nearest saddle," or dip in a ridge line, Cardell says. Peak, summit, mountaintop, high point - whatever you call it, peak baggers acknowledge that not everyone will understand their need to get there. "From time to time," Nichols says, "family members or other people will say, 'Why do you do this? What do you get out of it?' "It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't feel the need to go out and explore and stretch himself a little bit," Nichols says. "I tell them, 'People have strange hobbies, and this is mine.' "