Achievements
As well as having the pure and genuine ecstasy of having reached a Geohash, many Geohashers like to complement those feelings with the joy of having won an achievement. There are many different kinds of achievements, ranging from unavoidable to statistically impossible.
Some are easily obtainable by just about anyone with time and persistence. The "I'm Better Than You" Achievements represent the literal and figurative pinnacles of the sport, showing current and past record holders for various extremes. Some achievements are merely comedic, not very attainable and unlikely to be achieved. For ease of browsing, they are arranged in sections, alphabetically within each section, with one-line descriptions. Click on the achievement names to see the details of each award and to claim your ribbon.
- Category:Achievements - Links to all the achievements without descriptions.
- Proposed achievements - How to propose a new achievement.
- Category:Proposed_achievements - A list of proposals in the Proposed achievements category.
Be sure to click through and read the page describing an achievement before you claim it. Many of the requirements are not obvious from the names and/or short descriptions.
Contents
- 1 Common and Rare Achievements
- 2 Location Achievements
- 3 Activities & Attire Achievements
- 4 Challenge Achievements
- 5
HumanInteraction Achievements - 6 Timing Achievements
- 7 "I'm Better than You" Achievements
- 8 Ultimate Achievements
- 9 Consolation Prizes
- 10 "There Should Be a Ribbon for This" Category
- 11 Catch all
- 12 Proof
- 13 Ribbons
Common and Rare Achievements
This table means to be a useful aid showing which achievements are most common and which are rarities. Feel free to pursue either of them!
For detailed numbers, see achievement statistics, for descriptions of what the achievement is, see below or at the individual achievement's page.
Location Achievements
Everyone can earn one of the Basic Location achievements just by going to a geohash. You may need to wait a while, or go to another graticule for the right conditions to arise for a Lucky Location achievement however, and some require you to actually do something other than merely arrive at the location. Supply the proof of your achievement on your expedition page, and award yourself the appropriate ribbon. Some of these come with physical prizes also.
(Alphabetical within sub-category)
Basic Locations
Every geohash you reach qualifies for one of the Basic Location awards: Land, Water or Air. As altitude is not specified in the geohash algorithm, it's also possible for the same point to be reached through more than one medium. There are also a few special cases here, stretching the meaning of 'basic.'
- Air geohash achievement -- To geohash while in the air.
- Land geohash achievement -- For getting to a geohash on land. This is most people's first achievement.
- Going deep geohash achievement -- Reaching a geohash while underground
- Water geohash achievement -- Reaching a geohash that lies in water. Probably requires a boat
- Underwater geohash achievement -- Reaching a geohash while underwater.
- Walking on water geohash achievement -- Being at geohash while on the surface of the water, on foot.
Lucky Locations
The ultimate in lucky locations would place the geohash right where you're sitting as you look it up, but then you wouldn't get to go on an adventure. Be alert for geohashes occurring in places that would allow you or someone else to claim one of these achievements.
- Admit One Geohash -- You pay a required admission fee for access to the geohash
- Coffin Potato Achievement -- Your coffin being located at the hash.
- Couch Potato Geohash -- Location is at your home
- Cross that bridge achievement -- You reach the coordinates while on a pre-existing bridge.
- Cubicle geohash achievement -- Location is at your office
- GeoSquishy Geohash -- Geohash falls near a vendor of flavoured slush drinks
- Golf Geohash -- The geohash falls at a golf course, and you cause a golf ball to land at the geohash point.
- Hash collision achievement -- Find an already existing geocache at a geohash.
- Holy hash achievement -- Location is at a sacred place
- Phonebooth stuffing achievement -- Fitting many geohashers into a phonebooth
- Pub Geohash -- Having a pint with your geohash
- Restricted area achievement -- Area requires special clearance which you just happen to have.
- Speed racer achievement -- Pass through a Geohash on a drivable road at the maximum legal speed
- A Tale of Two Hashes achievement -- Issue or meet a challenge to hash in a certain place
Activities & Attire Achievements
These achievements commemorate what you do, wear, or don't wear en route to or at the geohash.
Getting There
You have to get to the geohash somehow, and the spirit of adventure encourages you to get out of your car and use alternative transport. Most of these achievement descriptions include a page where you can list the distance you travelled to get to the hash.
- Beast of burden geohash achievement -- Reaching the geohash under the power of one or more living, non-human animals
- Bicycle geohash achievement -- Going by bike. For travel by unicycle see also Circus Geohash
- Border geohash -- Crossing a frontier to reach a meet
- Geohash by proxy achievement -- A remote device reaches the geohash instead of (or in addition to) the geohasher(s)
- Hobbit achievement -- Reach and return from the geohash in the style of a hobbit: barefoot, fed, and bearing a ring.
- Juggernaut achievement -- Reach the hash following a straight line, overcoming all obstacles.
- MacGyver achievement -- Like the Maker Achievement but you built or improvised the vehicle specifically for that hash on the day.
- Maker Achievement -- The geohash is reached in a vehicle built largely by the geohasher.
- Public transport geohash achievement -- Taking only the bus, train, subway, or other mass transit
- Puppet Master Geohash -- Causing a non-geohasher to reach the geohash and return with proof
- Speed racer achievement -- Driving through a road-located hash at maximum possible/legal speed
- Thumbs Up Geohash -- Hitchhiking
- Tron achievement -- Reach and return from the geohash without ever crossing your own path
- Walk geohash -- Walking all the way to the geohash
Geohash Fun & Games
Geohashers are encouraged to play games at the geohash or at a nearby safe location. Some of them will even earn you ribbons.
- Buccaneer Geohash -- Geohash in pirate attire, hire some crew, and sail the seven seas!
- Circus Geohash -- Display any kind of circus skill at a geohash
- Formal attire achievement -- Going to your Geohash in formal attire
- Geobrush achievement -- Commemorate your expedition in a piece of art
- Geoflashing -- AKA birthday suit geohash.
- GeoSquishy -- Various geoSquishy related achievements
- Geotrash Geohash -- Respect the Geohash point and pick up litter
- Fly a kite achievement -- Fly a kite at a geohash.
- Hashcard achievement -- Send a postcard of the geohash to a geohasher, while geohashing
- Media Attention Geohash -- Receive media coverage of your geohashing expedition
- Musical achievement -- Playing an instrument at the geohash
- No Batteries Geohash -- Reach coordinates using a compass and/or sextant.
- OpenStreetMap Achievement -- Contributing a feature to OpenStreetMap encountered near the hash
- Picnic achievement -- Have a picnic meal at the geohash
- Pie Geohash -- Share home-baked pie at the geohash
- Sex Geohash -- Get laid at the geohash
- Star photographer achievement -- Submit a photograph to the current calendar selection contest.
- Snowman Geohash -- Build a Snowman at the geohash
- Twister Geohash -- Playing twister or encountering a tornado or both
Challenge Achievements
Into every geohash some rain--or raptors--may fall. The challenges in this section commemorate reaching geohashes regardless of external or self-imposed challenges.
Single Geohash Challenges
- Camping geohash achievement -- Stay overnight, in a simple shelter.
- Drowned Rat Geohash -- Reach coordinates during significant rain, through swimming, or by falling in water
- Frozen Geohash -- Reach coordinates where the ambient temperature is below 0C / 32F / 273K
- Globalhash -- travel to the one point on the globe generated by the geohash algorithm
- "Mother Nature is my Bitch" Geohash -- Up a mountain, down a valley, through the fire swamps. See also MNB
- Multiple elevations achievement -- Reach the same coordinates at multiple elevations
- No Batteries Geohash -- Reach coordinates using compass and/or sextant
- Velociraptor Geohash -- Reaching a geohash despite raptor attack
- XKCD-100 -- travel 100+ miles to make an XKCD meetup (Saturday 4pm geohash)
Multiple Geohash Challenges
- Consecutive geohash achievement -- Visit geohashes day after day in a row.
- Endurance Geohashing -- Geohash continuously for a week, without going home
- Globetrotters Geohash -- Visit coordinates on all continents
- Graticule Hopper -- Visit hashes in 100 different graticules
- Minesweeper Geohash -- Visit coordinates in any graticule, and in all eight surrounding graticules
- Multihash -- Visit more than one geohash on a given day.
- Regional geohashing achievement -- Visit a geohash in all graticules of an area.
- Reverse regional achievement -- Visit hashpoints in all regions of a graticule.
- Subdivision geohash achievement -- Visit Geohashes in all subdivisions of a region.
- Time-Traveller Geohash -- Visit two geohashes on the same day at the same local time
- Two to the N achievement -- Reach the next level, for example when you reach your 24 th geohash ( = 16 ).
- xkcd centurion achievement -- Make 100 XKCD meetups (Saturday 4pm geohashes)
Human Interaction Achievements
Never forget that Geohashing is intended as a way for people to meet. Whether you meet friendly curious strangers, hostile authority figures, or other geohashers, you have achieved something to celebrate.
- Abduction achievement -- Convince someone you met at a geohash to come to your home
- Ambassador achievement -- Obtaining permission from a property owner or institution to access what would otherwise be a No Trespassing Geohash.
- Birds of a Feather achievement -- Encountering a threatened species recognised by the National Red List.
- Drag-along achievement -- This can be achieved by introducing a friend to geohashing.
- Hashcat achievement -- Patting a cat you encountered during the expedition
- Handshake achievement -- Meet up with several other geohashers on your attempts (successful or not) to go geohashing.
- Meet-up achievement -- Meet at least one complete stranger at the geohash
- Migration Geohash -- Meet up with people from at least 5 different graticules at the geohash
- Police Geohash -- Encounter the police/park ranger/authority
- Sex Geohash -- Get laid at the geohash
- Largest geohash achievement
Timing Achievements
Generally, it doesn't matter what time you reach a geohash, but these achievements depend on time or date.
Daily Coordinates
- Déjà Vu Geohash -- You visit a geohash and have proof you were there on a previous day.
- Earliest geohasher achievement -- Earliest arrival at the day's geohash for your graticule
- Last man standing achievement -- Not your timing, but everyone else's: be the only geohasher in the world to report an expedition for that date.
- Midnight Geohash -- Visit the hash at midnight, preferably the first midnight (if possible). May be combined with endurance.
- Sunrise geohash -- Visit the hash at sunrise. May be combined with endurance.
Annual Events
Geohashing expeditions on particular dates may earn you a ribbon.
- Geohashing Day -- Go on a unique adventure on May 21st or the following Saturday.
- Birthday Geohash -- Reach the daily coordinates on your own actual birthday.
- Hashiversary achievement -- Go on a geohashing expedition on the anniversary of your first expedition.
- Towel Day achievement -- Carry a towel to the hashpoint for Douglas Adams on May 25th!
Less than Annual Events
- Leap geohash achievement -- Reach a geohash on a Leap Day! (or in a leap second)
- Dark Ages achievement -- Attempt a geohash during the Dark Ages! (let's hope that it is far less than annual)
Commemorative Dates (Retro expeditions)
Achievements in every other section on this page represent visiting that day's coordinates in any graticule. Achievements in this section require you to visit coordinates for some date in the past. These are good possibilities for dates when you really feel like geohashing, but the algorithm has produced unreachable coordinates.
- Origin geohash achievement -- Visit the geohash in the graticule where you were born, for the day on which you were born.
- Displaced origin geohash achievement -- Visit the geohash for the day on which you were born, in a graticule other than the one in which you were born.
- Wedding Anniversary Geohash -- Visit a geohash for the day of your wedding, either in the same or a different graticule.
"I'm Better than You" Achievements
"I'm Better than you" Achievements represent extremes, that is the individuals or parties who have ventured to the highest mountain or the deepest cave, the coldest lake or the hottest desert to get a Geohash. These may require a level of toughness, or at least willingness to travel to a graticule that has these extremes. Others you receive just for being you. On each page, there is a high score table, and if you're brave enough, it may finally be a way to immortalise that Internet alias you use.
NOTE: It is possible to achieve a "best of all the rest" geohash achievement for a particular date, only to be dethroned at a later time when someone older/younger/taller/etc. takes the award. That's ok, you get to keep your achievement for that time. Just like Babe Ruth had the HR record, even though it's been broken since then.
Geographic
- High geohash achievement
- Low Geohash
- East geohash achievement
- North geohash achievement
- West geohash achievement
- South geohash achievement
- Hot geohash achievement
- Cold geohash achievement
- Graticule Unlocked -- Be the first to visit a hashpoint in a particular graticule.
Geohashers
- Oldest Geohasher -- You're never too old to geohash (the record is currently 87 years young)
- Youngest Geohasher -- Giving birth at the geohash ensures a ribbon for your child (the record is currently 5 days old)
"My Graticule is Better than yours" Awards
- Most Active Graticule Award
- Most People at a Geohash Award (current record is 26 people)
Closest pairs
I didn't know where to put this, but these are pairs of successful expeditions very close to each other physically.
- 6.10m: 2011-07-21 59 18 and 2012-10-18 59 18 (Per S)
- 6.11m: 2019-07-01_50_8 and 2020-11-12_50_8 (Mampfred, LadyBB, EmmJay; Mampfred, EmmJay)
- 30.5m: 2010-03-26_33_-84 and 2016-11-02_33_-84 (NWoodruff; NWoodruff & Thomcat)
- 33.1m: 2010-07-27_52_-0 and 2021-12-31_52_-0 (Benjw)
- 33.1m: 2010-07-27_52_0 and 2021-12-31_52_0 (Benjw)
- 43.5m: 2008-09-07_26_-80 and 2013-04-26_26_-80 (Dtobias; Million Zillion)
- 46.3m: 2019-03-03_53_10 and 2023-05-05_53_10 (π π π)
Ultimate Achievements
- Bill Gates achievement -- In Capitalist America, you position the hash
Consolation Prizes
Despite all your preparation, hard work, and defence against raptors, sometimes you are unable to reach the correct location. You've still achieved something, however, and thanks to this section you can say to yourself, "at least I get a ribbon for this!" To earn these ribbons you must get out there and make the attempt, right up to the point where you cannot go on. It is not, for example, sufficient for the Cliffs of Despair award to look at the terrain contours in Google Maps and declare the grade impassable.
- Blinded by Science -- You travel to the wrong point because of mucking up the technology.
- Curse of Unawareness -- You reached a geohash without knowing it was there. And probably cannot prove it, either.
- It's a Kitty! -- You forget about the geohash because you become distracted (as by finding a cute kitten.)
- "Mother Nature's Bitch" Geohash -- Fail because of Mother Nature
- My Kingdom for a Boat -- Your quest was ended by an unexpected body of water.
- There Might be Alligators! -- The hash point lies in an unexpected marsh, bog, swamp or sewer which you don't dare to cross.
- Cliffs of Despair -- Terrain too steep to continue
- White Rabbit consolation prize -- Turned back due to time constraints
- No Trespassing Geohash -- Forced to turn back because of signs forbidding access
- Posted achievement -- suffering through one hundred No Trespassing geohashes
- Prize poultry -- Chickened out.
- Trail of Blood -- You or a member of your party is injured too badly to continue.
- Train wreck consolation prize -- You fail to reach the meet because of a transportation failure.
"There Should Be a Ribbon for This" Category
This category is to allow geohashers to commemorate things they have done or seen with colourful ribbons even when the thing they have done is not an achievement, is not provable and/or couldn't be done in enough graticules to make sense as an achievement. Award them to yourself. Award them to others. Have fun.
- Easy Geohash -- The geohash was so easy to reach you would have had to go out of your way to not reach it.
- Radio Yerevan -- Should you have won an achievement? Yes, but there was a technicality.
- Gratuitous Ribbon -- Customize this ribbon for all your "do we get a ribbon for this?" needs.
- Combo -- Combine multiple achievements into one, while maintaining all the original categories.
If you see a ribbon on someone's page but there is no corresponding achievement listed on this page, that ribbon is probably a gratuitous ribbon or a combo.
Catch all
If you are in the mood for bad puns and your expedition is cool, try this one.
Proof
It is recommended that you take photographic proof to demonstrate your achievement. This is, however, only important for proving to the community that you are an accomplished Geohasher and, for many, personal satisfaction is enough. For maximum recognition and commemoration, try to obtain one photograph including:
- 1. You! (The Stupid Grintm is optional.)
- 2. Something displaying the date
- 3. A Geosync device showing your location or alternatively
- Something in the photo that proves your location.
A tracklog may also be submitted as evidence of your journey.
Particular achievements may require further or more stringent proof, specified on the individual achievement pages.
Ribbons
Most achievements include ribbons you can display on your user or expedition page. Just copy the template linked in the achievement to the page where you want to see it and fill in the details.
If you gain multiple achievements in one expedition, you can fuse them into a single ribbon using the Combo template, to add a silly flavor to your reports and user pages.
