This 91-Year-Old Man Fell 71 Times While Hiking the Appalachian Trail. He Just Became the Oldest Person to Complete the 2,190-Mile Trek

After 359 days, 71 falls and 1 brief hospitalization, 91-year-old Dale Sanders has officially become the oldest person to hike the entirety of the Appalachian Trail. Shortly before noon on Monday, Sanders—fondly dubbed “Grey Beard” by his supporters—etched his name into the record books by summiting Katahdin, Maine’s highest mountain and the northernmost terminus of the roughly 2,190-mile trail. With his arms raised high in the air, he paused to pray at a sign marking the peak and reflected on the ups and downs of the trek, which included one last fall just 600 feet from the finish.

Sanders broke a record that he’d previously set in 2017, when he completed the trail in just seven months, as a spritely 82-year-old. His achievement stood for four years, until 83-year-old M.J. Eberhart, known as “Nimblewill Nomad,” took the title in 2021.

The pair’s rivalry was nothing but friendly: Sanders cheered Eberhart on and hiked alongside him during especially hard stretches. We’re really close friends.” Now 87, Eberhart returned the favor as Sanders fought to take back the crown. He was one of multiple volunteers who drove a camper van nicknamed the “Base Camp on Wheels” during the first 800 miles of Sanders’ hike, meeting the nonagenarian at resting spots along the way, according to the Trek’s Katie Jackson.

Sanders followed an unconventional route, setting off on September 6, 2025, from Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, roughly in the middle of the trail. As he told Memphis magazine’s Anna Traverse last November, he then hiked south into Georgia “to follow the color of the trees, and hopefully a little warm weather, to Springer Mountain,” the trail’s southern terminus. After pausing for the winter, Sanders resumed his journey in the spring, making his way north from Harpers Ferry to Katahdin.

He averaged 12 miles per day, with just one day of rest each week. Along the way, Sanders frequently encountered “trail angels” who offered words of encouragement, supplies and sweet treats. Guidelines published by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that cares for the footpath, stipulate that a “thru-hike” of the full trail can be completed in multiple segments, in any order and with breaks, over the span of a year.

In August, as Sanders approached the finish line, his attempt suddenly appeared to be in jeopardy. The cumulative impact of six hard falls over the year, including a particularly nasty one in June, landed him in the hospital with a pinched nerve. Around the same time, he received word that his mother-in-law had passed away.