Cold weather postponed Larry Russell’s plans to climb Mount Le Conte on his 78th birthday, but two days later on Wednesday, Nov. 24, he climbed Mount Le Conte for the 300th time. In the picture above, Larry is on the right, with fellow hikers Howard Yates and Melissa Coatney. Larry is a retired policeman who began hiking Le Conte in the 1990s. He has made the climb 34 times in 2021, marking his third busiest season on the trails. He had 68 climbs at age 70 in 2014, plus 37 in 2018. Larry is the 24th person on the LeContest.com honor roll to record 300 lifetime hikes, and he is apparently the oldest to reach that milestone. Others of comparable ages were Margaret Stevenson at age 74 in 1987 on her way to a lifetime total of 718, Paul Dinwiddie at age 70 in 1986 on his way to 750, and Ed Wright at 65 in 1991 on his way to 1,310. The honor roll has been updated through Nov. 24, the closing day of the season at LeConte Lodge, and includes 88 hikers with at least 100 lifetime hikes. That club will soon increase, as Tom Atwell signed in with #99 on Nov. 12 and Tim Massey and P-Nut Clarkson both have 97, expecting to log #100 before the year is over. Clarkson is the winter caretaker at the Lodge.