I love High Points!

Here's a decent site. I like some of their features:

http://www.americasroof.com/


Can't say enough thanks for the private land owners of the High Points in IL and IA. Very cool to let people park and walk on their land. Never met them, but did talk to them on the phone. We call the IA folks said "come by anytime." "Well, we might be there at 6am Sunday morning..." "Okay, that's fine." Very cool.


Jake

Mad Max:

Distance to the other State HP has nothing to do with my Cheater HP list. It's all about the location of the border. Like I said....it's interesting (to me), but totally useless.

It has been suggested to me that I should add Delaware and Mississippi to this list as well. I'm not sure how close the state border is to these. What do you think? Should I have a limit on miles from the border for the list? Less than 10 miles? Less than 5 miles?

More useless trivia (stuff HPers love.)

Bump for county highpointing! (www.cohp.org)

State highpointing has been fun so far...but they've mostly been highpoints of opportunity.
For the record, the highpoints of Ohio and Indiana were better experiences more from a perspective of seeing places I've never been to (and will likely never go to again) than from any kind of mountain climbing thing.

Mt. Hood
Ohio HP
Indiana HP
Kings Peak

Alpinist wrote:The state highpoint for CT must be the oddest of all the state HPs. It is located on the shoulder of Mt Frissell. The summitt is actually located in Massachussets. You'd think they would move the state line a few feet so that the state HP could be located on the actual summit, rather than half way up the ridge.

I don't agree, Boundry Peak, NV; is next to another peak that is actually higher. But the border between CA/NV goes through the saddle of the two peaks. The taller peak is actually in CA, but is higher than Boundry in NV...If the line was moved a few hundred feet, same story as CT/MA

phydeux wrote:Boundry Peak: A 'cheaters' peak if I ever there was one!. Its only about 200 yds from the California border. In fact, its commonly climber (hiked) from the California side.

Well, about 500 yds from the CA border... hence the name "Boundary". The top of Boundary is only about 280' above the col, so by many definitions, it wouldn't qualify as a separate peak. Montgomery in CA (on the same ridge) is a much more interesting climb.

The climb of Boundary from the CA side is really quite hard, so I guess I'm puzzled where the "cheating" comes in.

NV's other 13er, Wheeler Peak, is on the very opposite side of the state, near Utah (which is flat and low in that area).

GEM Trail wrote:Winglady- I have your book- it is our guide for all our highpoint climbs! It is a great guidebook. Especially appreciated are the nonclimbing points of interest near each highpoint. My only quibble is that I wish you listed a climb for each mountain. Maybe highpointers count driving up the mountain as a climb, but a lot of people, including me, don't! I wonder Diane if you have any plans of completing your list and climbing Denali?

Thanks! You're right -- we describe drive-ups when they are possible rather than hikes. The theme of our book, based on lots of discussion with our editor, was to describe the "easiest" path to each highpoint. We don't try to claim that means someone has "climbed" to the highpoint; simply that they have visited it. Naturally, we don't mean for our book to limit the goals or imagination of those who want more of a challenge. On the other hand, how does one "climb" Mt. Sunflower in Kansas (hike across the plains?) or Ebright Azimuth in Delaware (climb out of the gutter onto the sidewalk)?

As for Denali, I encountered a handfull of fellow-highpointers at the last annual Convention who had also completed 49, but had no desire to climb Denali. We've been talking about forming the "49ers Club". Our motto: "Just say No to Denali".

(Let the wimp comments begin. That's OK -- I've already heard them all!)

---------------
D. Winger

Highpoint Adventures

WingLady wrote:As for Denali, I encountered a handfull of fellow-highpointers at the last annual Convention who had also completed 49, but had no desire to climb Denali. We've been talking about forming the "49ers Club". Our motto: "Just say No to Denali".

(Let the wimp comments begin. That's OK -- I've already heard them all!)

---------------
D. Winger

Highpoint Adventures

Sounds like Denali denial.

My daughters and I visited about 40 US highpoints between 1983 and 1992. One of these was with the Highpointes Club annual convention and climb in 1990, which that year was in El Paso Texas and a climb of Guadalupe Peak.

Holsti,

Love that list of cheater high points. Here's a suggestion: it is a cheater if there is a higher point in an adjacent state within a certain distance (say 10 miles) of the high point. So if you are in Connecticut and there is a mountain in Massachussetts higher than yours and it is less than 10 miles away, then it is a cheater. This of course implies many other questions. Like, should you have a list of peaks that are the highest that are not cheaters?

Some earlier states mentioned could serve as examples. As mentioned, Nevada's highpoint, Boundary Peak, is less than a mile from a higher mountain in California and is in fact a subsidiary peak. For this reason many people choose to climb Mt Wheeler on the other side of the state- only 80 feet shorter but a stand-alone mountain and a more satisfying climb.

Frissell in Ct is another example. It is literally on a sloping ridge of a mountain in Mass. So the Ct. highpoint isn't a summit of any kind. (By the way, if you go there I'd definitely recommend climbing the actual summit in Mass- it's a very nice spot with a nice book!)

But what to do about Connecticut? Aren't all of its tallest hills near NY or Mass? What should you call its high point?

And how about Tennessee? East of the Mississippi, Tennessee has more mountains above 6,000' than any state except perhaps NC. But most or all are near the border? How far from the border should the high point be to count? Besides, the high point in NC is hardly higher than the high point in TN. If the difference is less than, say, 300 feet, should we bother calling it a cheater?

GEM Trail wrote:As mentioned, Nevada's highpoint, Boundary Peak, is less than a mile from a higher mountain in California and is in fact a subsidiary peak. For this reason many people choose to climb Mt Wheeler on the other side of the state- only 80 feet shorter but a stand-alone mountain and a more satisfying climb.

Wheeler Peak is truly "Nevada's Mountain"... but you can drive to 10000' to start the climb, which need be no more than class 1.

Boundary is a fairly tough class 2 by any angle. A full trip also involves a climb of Montgomery in CA, which is a class 3 sharp summit. The campground for Boundary is primitive and beautiful, under 9000', and there is no real trail.

Wheeler and Boundary-Montgomery are both beautiful experiences.

This came about while my wife and I drove into South Carolina to climb Sassafras Mountain. We called Sassafras a cheater since it was close to the North Carolina border and it is 3124 feet smaller than the impressive Mount Mitchell. It became an inside joke with us. I also visited Panorama Point, Nebraska this summer and it is a "cheater" as compared to Mount Elbert and the 55 other 14ers in Colorado. This is a fun list and I have decided that only mountains within 10 miles of the border count as cheaters. Distance to the neighboring State's highpoint is irrelevant. We look at it as if the mountain has a "personality" and decided to sneak over the border in order to become a State highpoint. I also think the cheater needs to be at least 1000 feet smaller than the neighbor. I would not call Clingmans Dome (-41') a cheater since it is a big Eastern states mountain at 6643 feet.

If interested in another thread about this check out:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/3897/thr ... Highpoints

Oh my God! What have I become? I must have hung out with county highpointers in Utah for too long.

I've only got 3 highpoints under my belt so far. Drove up and took the short trail to Clingman's Dome, drove right to Mt Sunflower, and drove to Britton Hill. I don't think it matters so much where the highpoint is in a state, it's still the highest point. But it does make for an interesting discussion. I'm going to try a couple winter highpoints this winter if I have the time. Has anyone set their sights on doing all highpoints in summer and in winter too? Just curious.

CRiedel2 wrote:Has anyone set their sights on doing all highpoints in summer and in winter too? Just curious.

It's seems to me that these days, someone would've thought of that (they've thought of everything else that can be on a 'list')! But cool idea.

For myself as far as I can figure I've been to 9 or so, almost all out West. But I've got no intention of doing them all, just as I've got no intention of walking the road up Pikes Peak so I can say I bagged it. That's just me though. Doing the list thing can be fun but my time's limited enough that if I get two days off I'm headed for Baboquivari, not Sunflower Hill.

Unless, of course, there was something going on at sunflower hill. Like an SP party...