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!

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

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...

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?

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.

Nice job Gem. Looks much better! Still needs a link to the SP Highpoint page though...!

Thanks! I did put a link in, but it ended up saying (4) instead of the link name and not spelling it out...

Here is another problem I have noticed for us highpointers: the Klub and its website.

I don't mean to criticize, and I don't have a ready solution for what I am about to mention. But the highpointers club website, and the klub in general, does not do the best job in promoting highpointing. Okay, let me be honest, I think it is doing a terrible job.

I have seen the newsletter, and it is okay, but their website is uninviting, uninspiring, not very informative. The only real info they purport to offer is a guide to the summits, and clicking on them leads you straight to the summitpost pages for the respective mountains.

Here is their mission statement: "The purpose of the Highpointers Club is 1 to promote climbing to the highest point in each of the fifty (50) states; 2 provide a forum for education about the highpoints; 3 aid in the preservation and conservation of the highpoints and their environs; 4 provide a vehicle through which persons with this common goal can meet and correspond with one another; 5 maintain positive relationships with owners of highpoints on private property; 6 assist in the care and maintenance of highpoints; 7 and support public and private efforts to maintain the integrity of and access to state highpoints." (numbers added by me)

As far as I can tell, they do a good job on 3, 5,6 and 7. But they seem to do very little to promote highpointing. And the website is an embarrassment. You can't apply for membership online, the link for a mail in membership doesn't tell you what membership costs, no merchandise has been available for the last month (at least), etc.

Since we summitposters seem to have our act more together, does anyone have any insight into this situation? Does anyone have time to help? Expecially their website, which looks like it was designed by 80 year olds in the 1990s. And their whole thing using k's instead of c's is just stupid (yes I know why they do it).

For my part I plan to join the klub ASAP and am willing to take on some position of leadership there to help promote our sport/hobby. I am not out to convert everyone into a highpointer, but highpointing deserves a better platform than this!

Not pretending to understand the intracies of the Highpointers Club, as I just recently joined. My experience with relatively small volunteer organizations is that many of them have the same even smaller core of faithful volunteers performing key roles for a very long period of time because no one else will do it. I'm relatively sure they would gladly accept your offer of help with the website....though I wouldn't recommend you start by criticizing the "k"s.

ps - One thing I think the Highpointers do right is a pretty darn impressive newsletter...lots of detailed information when it does come out. I am sure they consider that a benefit of membership and therefore don't freely distribute on the web.

Tottering Old Folks?! There goes my Denali aspirations.

Top Ten Reasons I thought the Konvention was Kool:
10-Columbia River Gorge hike with entertaining weatherman Charlie Feris.
9- Rock climbing at Smith Rock State Park.
8- Mount St Helens
7- The Mazamas Lodge
6- County Highpointing with climbing legend Bob Bolton.
5- Meeting other Highpointers and trading war stories.
4- Meeting guide book authors Don Holmes and Charlie & Diane Winger.
3- Powell's bookstore in downtown Portland.
2- Banquet at Timberline Lodge and Kenyon Stebbin's presentation about Highpointer A.H. Marshall.
1- Chance to travel to beautiful Oregon and Mount Hood.

I am thinking the Maine Konvention will be just as Kool.

Next year's konvention is in my old home town, Millinocket, Maine. Maybe we can all show up and klimb up Kathahdin's Chimney (see the current discussion in NE Forum) whilst swatting black flies

+1 I too think the klub is kool. Hope to meet more members soon.

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Wish I'd seen what you wrote, Catamount! Hope I didn't sound too critical. Of course I appreciate what volunteers do out of the goodness of their hearts. And I am not sure about "promoting" highpointing to the masses, either. I was mostly frustrated with their website.

Did find out about membership fee (20 bucks per year per person) and sent mine in.

The conventions (konventions?) do sound really cool. How many people show up for those things I wonder?

I live an hour from Ebright Azimuth. Was literally in the neighborhood yesterday and drove over. They have changed things since I was there in 2004. They have a nice bench with the sign. It sits right on the edge of a field- so nice if they could make even a little park around it. In two visits there I still haven't met the highpoint lady people talk about. Guess I'll have to go back!