Highpointing

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 offers a range of benefits. There is the obvious – physical exercise. But there are many other aspects such as educational, spiritual, social among others. Summitpost has a nice article about these aspects as well as highpointing in general.

Part of the Highpointers Club’s mission is to promote climbing to the highest point in each of the fifty (50) states. The club doesn’t have a definitive online guide. There are plenty of books available at the Highpointers Merc including guidebooks by HPC members: Holmes, Wingers, and Zumwalt. Sources with current information are two interactive sites: summitpost.org and wikipedia.org. Summitpost is the definitive choice among climbers, although wikipedia has some amazing information on the mountains.

The club offers its “US State Guide” with an interactive map and sortable table of the state highpoints. We also provide the latest information on “access restrictions” (red tape) to certain highpoints. As “add-ons” we have several other guides such as “US Lowpoint Guide” describing the lowest points in each state as well as an introduction to “The 750 Club” for those who want to pursue both the “50 states” and “7 summits”.

Highpointing can be a dangerous and strenuous activity. Be sure to prepare yourself for each highpointing trip. Whether it be physical conditioning and training for the technical climbs or a tune up and an oil change for your car. The club offers some safety tips and selected “S.afety O.n S.ummits” articles from our quarterly, club member only newsletter “Apex to Zenith“.

For club members, the club recognizes several specific achievements in highpointing such as climbing any 25 highpoints. We give special recognition to “48 Finishers” and “50 Completers“. We have certain “completer stories” online as examples of what is published in the club member only newsletter. Unofficial highpointing records can be found here, although recent records are a club member-only benefit.

The club sponsors several forums such as “Highpoint Discussions” for each state highpoint and “Looking for a Partner“. All our forums can be found under the “Forums” menu above. Please look at the “Contact Us” section or the “Subscribe” sidebar for other online forums and social communities .

Finally, the club has no official relationship with county highpointing which is hosted at http://cohp.org/