Highpointing is the sport of ascending to the point with the highest elevation within a given area (the "highpoint"). Examples include climbing the highest point of each U.S. state, reaching the highest point of each county within a specific state, and ascending the highest mountain on each continent (the "Seven Summits").
Highpointing takes its adherents to the apex of dangerous and spectacular mountains, but it also leads people to climb much less notable hilltops in pursuit of their goal. An example of this can be found in those who climb the highest point of each U.S. state. This requires ascents not only of Denali and Mount Rainier, two of North America's most impressive peaks, but also to the tops of such states as Delaware (Ebright Azimuth) and Rhode Island (Jerimoth Hill), where most people would contend there are no actual mountains to climb. The heterogeneous nature of these summits is usually considered part of the appeal, as the travel and cultural experiences en route to the climbs are often valued as highly as the climbs themselves.
This activity is practiced all around the world, though it seems the most popular in the United States. 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 in each county within a specific U.S. state. These activities are called "state" and "county" highpointing, respectively.
Other notable highpointing pursuits include climbing the Seven Summits, ascending to the highest mountain in each country in Europe, and reaching the top of each state or province in one's home country.
Highpointing is related to, but different than peakbagging. Peakbaggers usually climb every peak above a certain height in a specific region (like the Munros, the Colorado Fourteeners, or New Hampshire's 48 four-thousand footers), whereas highpointers would climb just one summit in each region of a larger geographical area.
The goal of many highpointers is to ascend to every highpoint on their list; however, many others undertake highpointing for the experience of climbing as many highpoints as they find enjoyable, with no expectation of doing them all.
History and first ascents
Starting in the early 20th century, a few pioneers of highpointing began visiting the highest geographic point in each of the 50 U.S. states. In the early days, this endeavor involved dispute and original research, as the tools to precisely map every square inch of the country were just beginning to find widespread use — and this was part of the charm.
The first person to successfully climb each U.S. state highpoint was Arthur H. Marshall, who completed the task in July 1936, when there were only 48 states. Marshall's 48th highpoint to complete the task was Indiana's modest Hoosier Hill.[1] Only four individuals are known to have completed all 48 states before the addition of Alaska and Hawaii in 1959.
The first person to climb to the top of all 50 U.S. states was Mitch Michaud in 1970. Since then, about 250 people have successfully climbed to the top of each U.S. state.[citation needed][note 1]Mount Everest, by comparison, has seen over 5,000 ascents by more than 3,000 individuals.
In 1986, Jack Longacre placed an ad in Outside magazine which led the next year to the formation of the Highpointers Club, which is devoted to climbs of U.S. state highpoints.
The Seven Summits including Mount Kosciuszko was first completed in 1985 by Dick Bass. At least 350 people have climbed all seven since then. There is some dispute over what constitutes Australia's summit: some people climb Mount Kosciuszko, the highest point on the Australian mainland, others climb the more demanding Puncak Jaya, highest point of the Australian continental shelf. In 1986, Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first to complete the Seven Summits with Puncak Jaya. In 1996, Californian David D. Keaton became the first person to complete both versions of the Seven Summits and the 50 U.S. state highpoints.
The first person to climb all of Europe's highpoints was Ginge Fullen in 1999. There were a few revisions of the high points in Europe e.g. Kosovo - Morgan Batt is the first to summit the revised list 2017. Fullen also appears to be the first person to climb the highpoint of every nation in Africa. Since then, a few dozen people have also completed the European highpoints. European highpoint climbers have their task complicated by 1) various definitions of what constitutes the European continent 2) emergence of new nations 3) debate over whether to count the highest points on the mainland of a nation, or the highpoints of islands belonging to it.
Eric and Matthew Gilbertson became the first two people to reach the highest point in all 23 countries of North America, finishing in June 2015, on Pico Turquino, Cuba.[2]
A 1902 photo of K2, Pakistan's highest point and the world's second highest mountain.
Rules for this pursuit are few, and ascents are generally defined by the individuals themselves. Highpointing has no formal governing body. The organizational body for state highpointing in the U.S. is the Highpointers Club. However, many Highpoint Guides and Books hold to these general principles:
Any route to the top - walking, climbing, driving an automobile, etc. - is considered a valid means of attaining the high point. Each individual must decide what constitutes good sport. Many will prefer reaching the high point under their own locomotion, or to climb a certain number of vertical feet en route, but the means of ascent is a personal choice.
The goal is to attain the highest "natural point." In other words, regardless of what human-made structures have been placed on top, the goal is to stand atop the highest "natural point."
If the natural high point is covered with a structure and that structure is accessible, even on a limited basis, entering the structure and standing over the presumed high point is the goal. If the structure is completely and permanently inaccessible—e.g. a military base or private telecommunications tower - the goal is to reach the highest accessible natural point.
Some highpoints are open on certain dates only and the Club expects all members to abide by these dates.
If the highest point in a state, county, etc. is located along a boundary, they must be visited. The highest summit within an area, being lower, does not count under such circumstances. The most prominent example of this is found in the state of Connecticut, where the highest point is on the slope of a mountain whose summit is actually in Massachusetts.
To date, no person is known to have reached the highest point in every country in the world.
However, several individuals are making a concerted effort. Aforementioned Ginge Fullen has supposedly climbed 170 country highpoints.[4]
As of 2023, according to the summit logbook website Peakbagger, Morgan Batt has climbed 149 country highpoints, Eric Gilbertson has climbed 139 country highpoints, Serge Massad has climbed 109 country highpoints, and Geri Winkler has climbed 106 country highpoints.[5]
Francis Tapon has also climbed at least 50 of the African country highpoints.[6]
Another obstacle in the completion of this list is disputed definitions of what a country is, and what territory said country governs. Country highpointer Eric Gilbertson considers his list to be the UN Member & Observer State Highpoints, plus Antarctica, for 196 individual countries in total. Gilbertson defines the highpoint as the highest point on any land owned by the country on the day that it is visited, excluding foreign embassies.[7]
Among the biggest obstacles in the completion of this list is summiting the highest point of Bhutan, Gangkhar Puensum. This mountain is closed to the public, and is probably the world's highest unclimbed peak.[8]
However, not all country highpointers would necessarily attempt to complete the entire list. For example, a highpointer may choose instead to climb the highest point in every country of a certain continent or certain region, such as Europe or North America.
The Country Highpointers' Century Club
The country highpointers' century club is a group of highpointers who have climbed 100 or more country highpoints.[9]
Denali, highest point of Alaska and the United States
The two most prolific highpointing organizations are the Highpointers Club, whose members aspire to reaching all of the U.S. state highpoints, and the County Highpointers Club, whose members are collectively attempting to reach the highest point in the 3,142 U.S. counties located in the 50 states and District of Columbia. (The County Highpointers Club is not attempting to reach the highest points of the 100 county-equivalents in the U.S. territories).[note 2]
In addition to reaching the highest point in each of the 50 U.S. states, some highpointers also ascend Fort Reno Park, the highest point in the District of Columbia, and/or Cerro de Punta, the highest mountain in Puerto Rico. Some also climb the highpoints of other U.S. territories like Mount Lamlam in Guam and Lata Mountain in American Samoa.
Difficulty of ascent varies considerably from state to state (or territory). About 20 of the states can be ascended by automobile. Many of the rest can be reached via an easy hike. Only 10 to 20 require serious effort, depending on an individual's fitness and skills. Denali is by far the most difficult, requiring serious training, thousands of dollars, about three weeks, and favorable weather conditions to summit.
While most highpointers view highpointing as a hobby, it is also recognized by many in the mountaineering community. In 1991 a team consisting of Pete Allard, Jim Grace, Shaun Lacher, David Sandway and Dennis Stewart, who called themselves "The Highpoint Hoppers," set the first recognized record for climbing the highest point in each of the lower contiguous states in the fastest time. The team began on the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington at midnight on July 1 and finished on the summit of Gannett Peak in Wyoming on July 31 thus completing their goal of ascending all 48 state highpoints in one calendar month. Their time was 30 days, 10 hours and 52 minutes. For their effort, the Highpoint Hoppers got recognition in the Guinness Book of Records.[19] Fifteen years later, British climber Jake Meyer broke the speed record for climbing the lower 48 highpoints in 23 days, 19 hours and 31 minutes in 2006. The record stood until American siblings Josh and Lindsay Sanders broke the record in 19 days, 7 hours and 37 minutes in 2015.[20]
Subnational highpoints of other countries (states, territories, provinces, governates)
Climbs to the tops of each state/province in Canada, Australia, Germany and other countries have also been recorded. In Germany, highpointing is known as "16 gipfel" (referring to the highest points of each of the German states).[21]
County highpointing, unlike state highpointing, is most popular in the UK and Ireland. There are several guides covering ascents of the counties of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
Within Great Britain, there are 48 counties in England, 33 in Scotland and 22 in Wales. Most of these "county tops" are non-technical walk-ups. Ireland has 32 counties, however, 10 counties share a highpoint, so there are only 27 unique "county tops". Each nation has seen dozens of people complete their lists. Climbers have been confused in recent years by status changes in the various counties, both adding and subtracting highpoints, depending upon the criteria used.
By contrast, in the United States, there are 3,243 counties,[note 3] and no one has yet approached climbing all of them. Bob Schwab is currently listed as the person with the most county highpoints completed, having ascended to the tops of 2,384 out of the 3,143 counties recognized by the County Highpointers Association. [22] Because of the large number of counties in the U.S., most county highpointers narrow the list by aspiring to climb only a certain subset of county highpoints. For instance, many county highpointers only ascend the highpoints of single (or perhaps maybe a few) states. Others may climb only the highest, most prominent, or most difficult county high points.[citation needed]
Rhode Island, a low state with a handful of counties, has seen the most people climb all its counties, with 40 people listed. Several U.S. states and territories have not yet seen ascents of all their counties.[citation needed]
The U.S. county highpointers' club rules are slightly stricter than state highpoint rules.[23]
Many counties, especially flat and low-lying ones, have not been fully surveyed and thus have no single defined highest point, just multiple areas with the same highest contour line. In order to claim to have successfully climbed the county's highest point, then, it is necessary to visit all those areas, unless one can clearly be ruled out by line of sight from another one or by virtue of having been graded or excavated. Even if one area has an elevation indicated on the USGS map, the county highpointer must visit other areas within the same contour until and unless the maximum elevations are resolved by an official survey.
For flat counties with multiple points, county highpointing is more akin to geocaching than peak bagging, since logically only one of the points is the highpoint, and the rest are not. In this case the number of virtual 'caches' is largely an artifact of the size of the contour interval (for a given area, the larger the contour interval, the more 'possible' highpoints there will be). For instance suppose the two highest points in a county are 101 feet and 106 feet above sea level, and that neither has a spot elevation on the map. If the region is mapped with 5-foot contours, there will be only 1 "highpoint". However, if the region is mapped with 10-foot contours, there will be two "highpoints", and county highpointers will be required to visit both points to claim the county.
Other Types of Highpointing
Given its definition, highpointing is an activity that can be applied to any location, subdivision, or region on Earth, beyond political entities. Other examples of highpointing can include, but are not limited to:
City highpointing (highest natural point)
Highpointing of historical regions no longer in existence
Mountain range highpointing
Island highpointing
National park highpointing
Watershed highpointing
Latitudinal highpointing (i.e: tropics, arctic, north vs. south hemisphere)
Longitudinal highpointing (i.e: east vs west hemisphere)Olympus Mons, the highest point on Mars.
Planetary highpointing (definitions of highpointing beyond sea level, i.e: Chimborazo)
Astropointing (highest point on other celestial bodies - currently in the realm of science fiction)
Activities Related to Highpointing
Besides geocaching or peakbagging, other activities which share similarities to highpointing, centered around exploring extreme geographical points, can include, but are not limited to...
“Northpointing” (northernmost point of a given area)
"Southpointing” (southernmost point of a given area)
“Eastpointing” (easternmost point of a given area)
“Westpointing” (westernmost point of a given area)
“Remotepointing” (furthest point from civilization or human influence in an area)
“Lowpointing” (lowest natural point of elevation in area)
“Tripointing” (where the borders of three different areas meet)
“Quadripointing” (where the borders of four different areas meet)
“Heatpointing” (hottest point of a given area)
“Coldpointing” (coldest point of a given area)
"Rainpointing" (rainiest region of a given area)
"Windpointing" (windiest region of a given area)
"Snowpointing" (snowiest region of a given area)
Notes
↑ It is not known how many people have climbed all 56 U.S. states and state-equivalents, i.e. the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five major U.S. territories.
↑ Including the U.S. territories, there are 3,242 counties in the United States.
↑ There are 3,143 counties and county-equivalents in the 50 states and District of Columbia, and 100 county-equivalents in the U.S. territories.
Mount Elbert is the highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America. With an elevation of 14,440 feet (4401.2 m), it is also the highest point in the U.S. state of Colorado and the second-highest summit in the contiguous United States after Mount Whitney, which is slightly taller. The ultra-prominent fourteener is the highest peak in the Sawatch Range, as well as the highest point in the entire Mississippi River drainage basin. Mount Elbert is located in San Isabel National Forest, 12.1 miles (19.4 km) southwest of the city of Leadville in Lake County, Colorado.
Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world, with lists such as 100 Peaks of Taiwan, four-thousand footers, 100 Famous Japanese Mountains, the Sacred Mountains of China, the Seven Summits, the Fourteeners of Colorado, and the eight-thousanders becoming the subject of mass public interest.
Hawkeye Point is the highest natural point in Iowa at 1,670 feet (510 m). It is approximately 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north of Sibley on the eastern side of SR 60 and approximately 3.5 miles (5.6 km) south of the Iowa-Minnesota state border. The high ground lies 100 feet (30 m) due south of an old silo.
Jerimoth Hill is the highest point in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. It is the lowest state highpoint in New England. Located in the town of Foster in the northwest of the state, the site is used as an observatory. It is also a popular destination for highpointers, and prior to 2005 was known for being difficult to access due to a local landowner who prohibited entry.
Granite Peak, at an elevation of 12,807 feet (3,904 m) above sea level, is the highest natural point in the U.S. state of Montana, and the tenth-highest state high point in the nation. It lies within the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness in Park County, very near the borders of Stillwater County and Carbon County. Granite Peak is 10 miles (16 km) north of the Wyoming border and 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Columbus, Montana.
Campbell Hill is, at 1,549.09 feet (472.16 m), the highest point in elevation in the U.S. state of Ohio. Campbell Hill is located within the city of Bellefontaine, 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of downtown.
Eagle Mountain is the highest natural point in Minnesota, United States, at 2,301 feet (701 m). It is in northern Cook County in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Superior National Forest in the Misquah Hills, northwest of Grand Marais. It is a Minnesota State Historic Site.
Crestone Peak is the seventh-highest summit of the Rocky Mountains of North America and the U.S. state of Colorado. The prominent 14,300-foot (4,359 m) fourteener is the highest summit of the Crestones and the second-highest summit in the Sangre de Cristo Range after Blanca Peak. The summit is located in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness of Rio Grande National Forest, 5.0 miles (8.1 km) east by south of the Town of Crestone in Saguache County, Colorado, United States.
Mount Davis is the highest point in Pennsylvania. Located in Forbes State Forest near the hamlet of Markleton in Elk Lick Township, Somerset County, it lies on a gentle crest of a 30-mile (50 km) ridge extending from central Somerset County southward into Garrett County, Maryland, where it is known as Negro Mountain.
Mount Lyell is the highest point in Yosemite National Park, at 13,114 feet (3,997 m). It is located at the southeast end of the Cathedral Range, 1+1⁄4 miles northwest of Rodgers Peak. The peak as well as nearby Lyell Canyon is named after Charles Lyell, a well-known 19th century geologist. The peak had one of the last remaining glaciers in Yosemite, Lyell Glacier. The Lyell Glacier is currently considered to be a permanent ice field, not a living glacier. Mount Lyell divides the Tuolumne River watershed to the north, the Merced to the west, and the Rush Creek drainage in the Mono Lake Basin to the southeast.
Mount Frissell, 2,454 feet (748 m), which straddles the border of southwest Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut, is part of the Taconic Range. Frissell's south slopes include the highest point in Connecticut, a popular destination for highpointers.
A list of highest points typically contains the name, elevation, and location of the highest point in each of a set of geographical regions. Such a list is important in the sport of highpointing. A partial list of highpoint lists is below:
Saltoro Kangri, previously known as Peak 36, stands as the highest peak within the Saltoro Mountains subrange, which is part of the larger Karakoram range. This subrange is also referred to as the Saltoro Range and is situated within the Karakoram region. The term "Saltoro Kangri" typically encompasses both of its twin peaks, Saltoro Kangri I and Saltoro Kangri II, which are connected by a saddle. When comparing heights, the generic term "Saltoro Kangri" is used for the taller of the two peaks, Saltoro Kangri I. This peak ranks as the 31st highest mountain globally and is located in the remote reaches of the Karakoram. It lies on the Actual Ground Position Line, dividing Indian-controlled territory in the Siachen region from Pakistani-controlled territory to the west of the Saltoro Range.
Brace Mountain is the peak of a ridge in the southern Taconic Mountains, near the tripoint of the U.S. states of New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Its 2,311-foot (704 m) main summit is located in New York; it is the highest point in that state's Dutchess County.
Khazret Sultan is a mountain formerly considered to be the highest point of Uzbekistan, with an elevation of 4,643 metres (15,233 ft).
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