- who am I?
- What is high pointing?
- Why do it?
I'm Andreas Enqvist a lone Viking in yankeeland continuing the tradition of those who discovered america in modern times after the initial discovery by what is today often called the native americans. I'm currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a local spot of a different side of America and one I'd like to believe is inevitable as progress and acceptance needs to continue.
Highpointing (from wikipedia):
Highpointing is the sport of visiting (and finding) the point with the highest elevation within some area (the "highpoint"), for example the highest points in each county within a state. It can be considered a form of peak bagging.
Over the years, this pursuit has been taken up by thousands of individuals and expanded to include other quirky geopolitical goals; visiting the highest point in each county in a state; summiting every peak in a region above some round number (such as 2000'); and reaching the highest point on each continent (the now famous "Seven Summits"). No official definition exists, but the broadest view holds that any geopolitical region can be "highpointed."An excerpt from the highpointers clubs webpage (http://highpointers.org/) provides the following answer:
The purpose of the Highpointers Club is to promote climbing to the highest point in each of the fifty (50) states; provide a forum for education about the highpoints; aid in the preservation and conservation of the highpoints and their environs...
The last part could explain some peoples desire to pursue highpointing.
Personally though I started highpointing as a good excuse/reason to visit the different states in USA after having relocated here for work. It's a good excuse to travel which happen to be one of my favourite past-times. Furthermore it offers a very wide range of travel and physical exercise ranging from drive-ups, trains, short strolls, backcountry traverses, moutaineering challenges and multi-day hikes. The latter of which provides a good way to keep in healthy shape as well a motivation for exercising to allow the highest possible success rate when attempting to visit the high points. As an example I could mention that Idaho's Borah Peak was supposed to be my first highpoint together with a friend, but unfortunate detours (lack of planning perhaps) in combination with threatening weather when getting close to the peak meant that aborting a few hundred meters from the top was the best choice and thus leaving Idaho on the to-do-list.
I'll provide some of the events and stories that I encountered on the way to each highpoint which hopefully bring amusement or help to those who happen to stumble across and read it.
See you on the top!
