About a mid-Atlantic meetup: Hell yeah! And if anyone is going to the Philly Folk Fest this weekend, let me know and we'll go climb Spring Mountain!

GEM Trail wrote:sjarelkwind, what an awesome project! I have to admit that I think it would be cooler to do the European HPs than the US HPs. The Alps, Urals, Tatras, Iceland and Scandanavia- oh my God! Harder, too, since I bet there are very few drive ups. I wonder how many of those are on par with the Western US HPs?

I am pretty sure that this project will be harder than the us highpoints... For every american summit i can place a harder european one ...
Denali vs shkhara is a good example ...
http://www.summitpost.org/shkhara/186306

But harder means more climbing and more climbing is more fun

Also logistics will be a complete bitch but it seems like a lot of fun so want to give it a try ...
Only weak spot is travelling at the moment ... how to do it ...

Nice job, TigerLilly. I agree the salt-deprived mountain goats made for interesting entertainment. Also, FWIW, the summit register was still intact when we were up there on July 30. I hope it wasn't my group that forgot to replace the cap.

Been working diligently on my Rainier/Gannett/Granite TR over the last week. Hope to put it all together and get it up sometime early next week.

Florida Frank wrote:

GEM Trail wrote: Definitely up for a weekend hike sometime.

I'm in Wilmington. Holler if you guys want to hook up for a local adventure some time. Elichten was in Exton but I believe he moved to Europe. Hotoven is in Lancaster. Maybe time for a SE PA SummitPost gathering!

I am extremely busy, but would be willing to carve out a Saturday or Sunday to hang out and climb/hike.

tigerlilly wrote:Hi All,
FYI

We got a group of 5 up the SW chute of Montana's Granite Peak, this past weekend.

I posted details here: Northern Rockies Forum \Granite Peak Conditions.

BTW, Congrats to Bob Webster~ this was his 49th successful peak ! only Denali is left....


-TL

Great work!

OK, so my Trip Report is up. I put my heart and soul into both the trip and the TR. I hope you at least enjoy the pictures.

http://www.summitpost.org/state-highpointing-2012-rainier-gannett-granite/807438

great report and accomplishment catamount!!! I would highly recommend hiking through the sw face of Granite, it's a completely different terrain and highly worth the effort

I've heard lots of guides on Hood and I may go with them next year in June.

thank you so much for such a great one-hour read.

-Alex

Thanks sm0421! I can't explain it but Hood totally has my number. Ali had Frazier and I have Mount Hood. Thinking I might try the Cooper Spur approach (guided) next time I'm out there. I'd like it to be next year but my life is in a state of transition right now and I'm going to have to see how things shake out through the Fall and Winter.

Thanks again for reading.

I looked at the Wikipedia entry for highpointing the other day and thought it was pretty bad. So I took a little time to rewrite part of it. I honestly wanted to rewrite the entire thing but didn't want to be rude to the people who made the original entry, so I left most of it. Please check it out and let me know what you think. And if you want to add to it or amend it, feel free!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highpointing

What I did, mostly, was change the first few paragraphs, updating their definition of highpointing. I also put a little more about state highpointing in there!

HooBoy, you're right. There are a lot of things I'd do differently with that page. Here are a few suggestions.

1) The definition below for county highpointing is incorrect/missing.

The most prominent groups of "highpointers" in the U.S. attempt to either climb to the highest point of each state in the U.S. or to the highest point of a specific U.S. state. These activities are called "state" and "county" highpointing, respectively

2) Highpoint is spelled inconsistently throughout as high point.

3) No mention of or link to highpoint records other than the first person (speed ascent, oldest, etc.)

4) It should be clarified that manmade structures in a different location than the highpoint do not count if they are higher. (Example, Sears Tower in Chicago.)

5) I would eliminate the references to Ireland, England, Australia, etc as they inadequately capture highpointing in other countries. Replace it with a more general comment that most other countries have similar highpoint goals as the US.

6) No reference to the US State HP page on SP.

7) No mention of risks or deaths (on Denali, Rainier, Hood, etc.) makes HPing sound like a hobby for old women.

8 - I would include separate, direct links to the state HP list and County HP list, and then "other" lists.

A lot more could be done but that's a start...

Looks good. I think some further changes have been made since the last post. I would only object to calling the Highpointers Club a "governing body." My climbing is my own and is not subject to review or approval by anyone. I also think the Highpointers Club (of which I've been a member since 2001) would categorize itself more as a social club and keeper of records than as a governing body ... it seeks to control the climbing of no one.

Yes, there really is a lot of work to be done on that page. Since it is how many people first research the pastime, it is unfortunate that 1) the page is basically incoherent 2) it doesn't make highpointing sound like much fun or much of an adventure.

I am game to do it myself, but would love some help to totally redo that page. If you guys want, we could team up and work on it.

And alpinist, #1 on your list is my fault- a typo from me doing the whole revision in just 15 minutes. Also, #2- I was not sure that highpoint was correct and high point was incorrect. And #3- I stuck that in there real quick but it needs a reference, and obviously, many more things you mentioned could/should go in there.

And, really, there should probably be separate pages for state and county highpointing. The state highpoint page on summitpost is great, and our hobby deserves a much better introduction than the present wikipedia page!

I will get started on this this weekend, and will be glad to P.M. anyone who wants to give feedback or add stuff. Would anyone be game to donate some photos to the page?

FWIW, Wikipedia has its own page on every single US State Highpoint as well as the below page that contains a link to each of them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U. ... _elevation

Good information on just the HPs themselves, which was our goal when we wrote the SP page.

Obviously we should include a link to that page on the highpointing page. I am a computer illiterate, so it may take me a while to figure it out...

Geek alert! I have spent much of today rewriting this thing. It definitely needs more work. There are no footnotes and almost nothing on county highpointing. But I like it a lot more than I did yesterday.