Online Items from this Newsletter
Chairman’s Column
Inteview with County Highpointer Andy Martin
Comments About Andy Martin
Highpointers.Org Postings Since Sept. 11
Summary of Items from Newsletter
John and Dave had a lot of fun with Issue #56 of the Highpointers Apex to Zenith Newsletter for the first quarter of 2002. It will be one people will talk about for long time with it’s April Fools pranks. I suppose it’s safe to say now:
1. There’s no Jerimoth B&B
2. Boundary really is still the highpoint of Nevada
3. Club Directors salaries have not doubled (although 0 x 2 = ?)
4. Jakk has not taken a computer course to take over the newsletter
5. We’re not having a convention on Denali in February
6. You don’t have the guess the speed of the film of the photos
7. No Nine-year-old has finished all 50 highpoints (or become the youngest to climb Denali)
8. I haven’t exchanged my dogs for highpointin’ cats
The issue did have some nutty pictures that in fact were true — such as the folks who go bare chested on highpoints and those who stand on their heads. Here are highlights:
Here’s a list of what’s in the issue:
1. 48 Completers: Robert Welenofsky at age 62 and J. Norvill at age 72
2. Roger Rowlett Chairman’s Column on several initiatives (including museum and completer book)
3. Chris Covill’s Teen Corner Conversation with 11-year-old Steve Stone
4. Election of Officers to the Board (9 vying for 5 positions) — make sure you submit your vote by May 10! Incumbents Jakk Longacre, Craig Noland, George Vandersluis. New Candidates: Ken Akerman, Bill Deitzer, Ed Fronheiser, Gary Iverson, Chuck Shom, Penn Watson
5. Fifty Flags Over America (submit entries to Jean Trousdale (jt********@*****le.com) Flags pictured included: Terry Fox on West Virginia, Kyle Atkins on Mount Sunflower; Karen Coleman on Taum Sauk and Carl Schwartz on Iowa
6. Klimbin Kollaborator requests for Denali, Granite, Gannett, Colorado Fourteeners and Southwest and Midwest Highpoints
7. Roger Rowlett Interview with County Highpointer Andy Martin
8. Mark Hall’s report on favorite highpoint restaurants (based on Forum postings)
9. List of Useful Books for County Highpointing
10. A description of the difference between county and state highpointing
11. My highpointers.org column on backcountry news events since 9/11
12. David Meltzer describing prominence (including a list of the world’s top 50 peaks based on prominence)
13. Jean Trousdale’s information on the Highpointers Convention – Sept. 19-22 on Black Mesa (along with the registration form).
14. Byron Ward’s announcement that the 50/50 project is postponed (although they might try to climb 48 in 50 days this summer).
15. A lot of cool photos in the Milestones section including Bob Welenofsky perching precariously on Half Dome in Yosemite
16. The winning design by Roger Johnson for the new 25-state pin.
17. Details of the April 27 Highpointers Brunch in New York City
18. Ron Tagliapietra’s new books “Waterfalls of the States”
19. Jim Mick’s new book “High on A Wing”
20. Jack Parsell has new editions of his “America’s Lowest Points” and “Tri State Corners in the United States”
21. Tonya Sykes on progress on the Highpointers Foundation
22. Kimball Chamber of Commerce Nebraska Highpoint T-Shirts
23. Bob Failing reports on his European highpoint visits (Gerlachovsky in Slovakia, Coma Pedrosa in Andorra, Gibralter, Torre in mainland Portugal, Ponta do Pico in the Azores for Portugal.
24. Matt Mueller on Jordan’s highest point Jabal Umm al Dami
25. Bob Packard on Jebel Toubkal, highpoint of Morocco
26. Dead Sea Predicted to Disappear by 2050
Chairman’s Column
It’s been a very exciting quarter for the Club.
I am personally astounded at everything!
Among some of the developments (in no particular order):
- Tonya Sykes has accepted a Board draft to head the initiative to form a 501-c-3 Highpointers Foundation to raise money for a museum, signs and other issues. The 501-c-3 Foundation is the only practical way that the Club can pursue more ambitious goals. However implementing it has proven to be more complex than might be expected. I have great confidence that Tonya, who has 501-c-3 experience in South Carolina, will do a great job.
- Gene and Lillian Elliott have agree to create an index of the “Apex to Zenith” issues starting with Issue #1. This can be a formidable task for more than a thousand pages (is that possible!?!). Many thanks.
- Diane Winger has agreed to be the point person to get a Highpointers Club exhibit at the new American Mountaineering Center Museum opening this year in Golden, Colorado. This museum promises to be a world class effort (it is being backed by National Geographic). An exhibit here would be the first step toward getting the Highpointers Museum in Missouri. This is only in the very preliminary stages and there may not be room for us in the museum.
- Jean Trousdale has agreed to coordinate efforts to put together a posters of U.S. flags above the highpoints to be presented Sept. 11 to New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.
- Richard Birrer and Don Berens have agreed to make a compendium of the write ups of the first 100 50-state completers.
- John Mitchler and Jean Trousdale organized a campaign to establish a 25-state completer pin. In the contest there were 23 designs!
- Don Holmes agreed to head up the effort to coordinate the various award programs (Highpointer cum Laude, Vin Hoeman, and Frank Ashley).
- Jakk Longacre is doing well following his chemotherapy (although our favorite guru may not be quite as hairy).
- Susan Gore has organized a 90th birthday party for Paul Zumwalt in Peroia. It will be held March 30. Paul’s actual birthday is April 4.
- Ken Akerman organized an informal highpointers gathering on Picacho Peak in Arizona. I am planning a brunch in New York City on April 27 which is discussed elsewhere). The best thing about our club is the social aspect and the more gatherings we have the better!
- Dave Covill organized another great visitation day on Jerimoth Hill. 45 people attended. Many thanks to Chuck Bickes for greeting them in the rain.
This is all in addition to the accomplishments of the Club’s thankless jobs — John Mitchler and Dave Covill on the newsletter; Craig Noland for membership; George Vandersluis for making sure we’re in the black; Diane Winger for keeping the best notes ever; and Mother Merc Jean Trousdale for raising her hand for the convention, flags, pins and the Merc.
The only sad news is that Barb Gurtler and Paul Zumwalt have decided to step down from the Board. Both are from Illinois and that will leave a regional hole in addition to other sadness. I have always appreciated Barb’s level headedness and honesty. I could go on for days about what a loss Paul’s leaving will mean.
I think we have a very good list of candidates for the Board. I personally am going to have a hard time having to make the choices.
This column is my fourth as Chairman and thus completes my first year. The Chairman serves on a year to year basis at the will of the Board. The position like all positions in the Club is voluntary. The Club has yet to spring for Chairman Condo in Aspen. In any event it’s been very rewarding and educational year.
If the Board is willing, I would like to serve another year.
An Interview With County Highpointer Andy Martin
What do you do when you run out of state highpoints to climb?
For Andy Martin of Tucson you create other lists that are perhaps always unobtainable — Mexican highpoints, national park highpoints and county highpoints.
Here’s a conversation with the man who coordinated compilation of the lists of 3,000-plus county highpoints and helped start a very active county highpointers email group.
What was your first highpoint?
This really all started with my dad, who got us interested in hiking, camping, mountains and maps. My dad had polio. It is amazing that he remained an active hiker after a serious bout with the disease. It was inspiring to see him plug away and make it to the top.
Right now he’s barely able to walk. He taught me how to bush whack and bush camp. That has come in real handy with state highpoints and county highpoints.
My first state highpoint was Mount Whitney in 1969. I had a sardine breakfast on summit day, a mistake I’ve never repeated. I did Humphreys Peak later that year. There is a big gap in my highpoint career from 1969 to 1987, when my girlfriend Sarah inspired me to visit the New Jersey highpoint when living back East in Piscataway. We climbed Whitney on our honeymoon in 1988.
How did you find out about the Highpointers Club?
Believe it was about 1990, at the Black Mesa, when we ran across Don Holmes’s card. We contacted him, bought his book, and joined the club. No way I would have started on the county highpoint nonsense without joining the state highpointers first, so Don deserves some credit (some would say blame) for getting county highpointing going.
By the way, one of my state highpointing highlights was running into Paul and Lila Zumwalt by happenstance at the Nebraska highpoint. We picked up an autographed copy of his book on the spot.
3. What is your background (where born, school, job, etc.)?
I was born in Pennsylvania and have resided in New Jersey and Illinois for short periods, but lived most of my life in Tucson, and love it out here. I am a recycled mining engineer, currently a computer programmer on UNIX workstations. I attended the University of Arizona at Tucson.
Did you highpoint in Illinois?
I wish I had known more when I was there. I was always interested in geographic features. There weren’t a lot of them in Illinois so I entertained myself by crossing every bridge on the mighty Macoupin river in Macoupin county. I had a mechanically suspect Triumph motorcycle back then.
What ignited your passion for hiking?
I always had two passions, one was hiking and the other was collecting mining relics. Back in New Jersey there are not a lot of opportunities for collecting the mining stuff. So this was a perfect time to rekindle my love for mountains and highpointing.
Back then many of us started with the Rand McNally atlas. I went to the Piscataway Library and pulled out the topo maps and basically started Xeroxing the topos of the state highpoints. This was the early 1990’s or before.
What got you started on county highpointing?
After I had done most of the states (49), I was looking for something else. You could graduate to state tri-points or low points like Jack Parsell, or try something else. First, I created a list of Mexican State highpoints and National Park highpoints. Jack Longacre was very nice to let us run the lists in Apex to Zenith.
What about the National Park and Mexican highpoints?
They came early. The National Park list was inspired by Ken Akerman.
The National Parks have some of the best terrain around. It was a fun list.
The Mexican state highpoints follow directly from the U.S. and Canadian states. The University of Arizona library is a great resource because they have the maps here. The disappointing thing about Mexico is that I don’t think anybody has tried to climb all the peaks.. Or at least I haven’t heard of anybody attempting it. For me it’s more than just doing the list but I also like to have them used by hikers. It’s been a real thrill for me to see some of these lists completed. For example, Idaho just got completed this summer by Ken Jones and Bob Packard, both state highpointers.
I’m not sure if there will ever be a completer of the Mexico state highpoints. My own enthusiasm for climbing them has dropped off quite a bit. It can be pretty dangerous wandering around in the backcountry of Mexico. I tried one in Sonora. There are three points and it got pretty nasty. Bob Packard got interested and we went down. It can be kind of expensive down there for just a weekend. There are a lot of checkpoints. It’s not exactly a highpointing hotbed.
We’ve really got it good in the USA. We’ve got good roads. Most of the highpoints are accessible politically. There are liaisons with the private highpoints. In Mexico you run the risk that some of the highpoints could be on some drug lord’s private realm. You really have to know what’s going on down there before you go.
Specifically what got you going on county highpoints?
Counties are the next level of granularity after states. That was one of the big motivations for me. I wanted to keep highpointing. The main thing for me is the mountain. I’m not that interested in the county history so much or going to the county courthouse as some guys do. I wanted to keep going to the mountains.
My long time friend Guy Cloutier told me about the pioneer of county highpointing, a fellow named “Altimeter” Bob Walko. He was called “Altimeter Bob” because he hiked around with a big aircraft altimeter. Bob identified and climbed the Arizona county highpoints way back in 1977. I gave Bob a call, and he got me hooked on the idea of following in his footsteps in Arizona. For me the state highpoints always came first, but I sort of migrated into county highpoints after fulfilling my dreams in the state arena.
What inspired you to actually write the book?
As I investigated I saw that there were already lists of county highpoints in a few western states. While it was straightforward to find the highpoints of states with mountain ranges, it becames a challenge in flatter areas. I was sure ready to quit after 25 states. The states of real interest to me were the 12 in the West and the 13 in New England. I really didn’t want to tangle with Iowa. But Carl Mills and other folks volunteered to help out on the remaining 25 states. The cohp hobby is fortunate to have hiking guidebooks by John Mitchler and Dave Covill (CO), Gary Suttle (CA), and others for NY, UT and ID.
Do you have any publishing experience?
My previous book on collecting Blasting Cap Tins.
How did you find these people?
I initially met these people through the state Highpointers Club. The Club’s directory is very helpful. In a lot of Clubs its membership is secret but with the directory I could contact people. I don’t think I would have done 50 states if I hadn’t run into other people.
What was the research process?
Basically in my case we have a very good map library at Tucson at the University of Arizona. They basically have every USGS map ever printed. They’re all in one place. They let you check them out in big quantities. Sometimes I would check out 50 maps and take them home. That way I could spread the work out over evenings for two or three weeks.
You start out at the state level. You look for the mountain ranges and you can spot some highpoints right there. Then you work your way down to the 1:100,000 scale and 7.5 minute maps. I would always look at the 7.5 minute maps which are the “bible”. While those maps are not always 100% correct, the cohp listings basically reflect what the USGS shows on these maps.
The secret is not to put the 7.5′ quads in a stack and work from top to bottom. You don’t want to look at every 7.5′ quad. I would filter them on the 1:100,000 scale map. I could look at them and know that this area of the county is too low and can safely be ignored.
I put pennies on the prospects for the highpoints.
I think a lot of it is you like working with the maps. It’s a fun game for some. For the most people it’s not so entertaining.
My guesstimate is that it takes on average about half hour to work up a county high point. The flatter they are the more work is involved. A little relief can really save your bacon in a flat place. That makes its easy to eliminate a lot of terrain.
What were the toughest areas?
Northern Missouri and southern Iowa is one of the toughest areas around. You will be counting 20 or 30 places all tied for the highpoint. Louisiana as a state is one of the toughest. I kept putting it off and finally Roy Schweiker got the ball rolling. It’s flat down there, and infested with all sorts of man made hills. Any time you are close to the Mississippi River bottoms you’re going to have plenty of trouble in the highpointing game.
You kind of learn as you go along. I did start with the easier states out west. Somebody starting from scratch with say Iowa would find it a daunting process. You kind of want to work your way into it. You learn some tricks as you go along.
Luckily for me, Bob Walko and others had already done some of the work before I even started, like David Olson in Colorado, Dinesh Desai in California, Dub Bludworth in Utah, and John Roper in Washington. In addition, working on this project turned into a group effort, with Carl Mills, Fred Lobdell, Roy Schweiker and Mike Kornbau all adopting one or more states. There is no way I could have done all this on my own.
Have there been many corrections to your list?
Literally hundreds. They’ve been reported by so many folks it is hard to list them, but David Olson deserves special mention. He has great “eyes” when it comes to nit-picking topo maps.
Most corrections are not very serious when it comes to actually reaching the cohp. However, there have been a few major goofs found, and there will be more, unfortunately. I estimate perhaps 1 in 50 listings will have serious errors. Hopefully many have been found and fixed.
On the bright side, several states were independently “re listed” with no differences found.
Given the way state high points have “migrated” over the years, and the recent errors in CO and AK low points found in USGS listings, I’d say we have done well by comparison.
Do you hike with your family?
My wife Sarah and Molly age 11 and Jane age 9 hike with me. We’ve taken them to some of the state highpoints and they’ve done all the Arizona county highpoints. We really ran the rascals ragged on the counties. Molly has been up Humphreys twice. First time I carried her up. Jane was 6 or 7 when we hiked up a couple years ago. There are several county highpointers who hike as a family. Ken Jones came down to do the AZ county highpoints with his wife Karen and kids Evan & Colin. We had to keep up with the Joneses. In addition, Ken Oeser, wife Annette and daughter Alexandra have made a family project out of the Tennessee county highpoints.
Do you have a favorite county highpoint?
One in my backyard — Mount Lemon. I’ve put a geocache up there. I’ve done a lot of training hikes there. Anybody growing up in Tucson knows the Catalina Mountains are a great escape from summers heat, and a place to go in winter. If ever you move away from Tucson you will really miss them.
The Rainier summit was the most emotional. I teared up a bit. It culminated my state HP quest, and was my third try on Rainier. Was lucky to enjoy fantastic weather on that third try – three storm free days.
Bunker Hill, the Lander cohp in Nevada was also special, as Guy Cloutier and I jointly completed Nevada there, and enjoyed the hike, views, summit register, etc.
How did you get county email group going?
State highpointers might not realize how few of us there are in the USA. Perhaps only 1 American in 100,000 (think of a single person in a packed Rose Bowl) is a club member. I thought the member roster in the Apex to Zenith newsletter was a great way to let you know about other highpointers in the area, and wanted to do something similar for county highpointers.
Email is very helpful in getting folks in touch, and generating a sense of community. An initial private email group of hardcore county highpointers fanciers has evolved over time into co**@*********ps.com, though we are pretty small (less than 200 active participants) when compared with many groups.
I’ve enjoyed seeing the support the highpointing hobby has received from those knowledgeable about computers. The highpointers.org and your americasroof.com sites are good examples of this, as is the initial work Mike Fedor did for county highpointers, and the current cohp.org site maintained by Adam Helman.
How has the hobby changed since you started?
Well, there are a lot more of us, state and county highpointers both. It is nice to see our hobby grow, but we also have an extra responsibility to treat the land we hike on, and the land owners we come in contact with, with a great deal of respect. There is now a high chance that others will be traveling in our footsteps.
What are some of the hot topics from the group?
Access is a real tough one for us. We have a strong contingent of “purists” that insist on no substitute on getting to the true high point. This makes it difficult when the county highpoint is on a military base or in Jack Nicholson’s backyard. Some states are just not going to get completed to the satisfaction of the purists due to access restrictions. Folks out west have it easier, though the issue is still a tough one, as seen by the Colorado Mountain Club and Culebra peak, one of the 14ers, that lies on private property with highly restricted access.
America is built on private property. I don’t want a bunch of highpointers showing up in my backyard unless they call me first.
If it’s in a guy’s backyard you go up to the door and ask permission. I try to explain the hobby and have a free list handy. Some of them get interested, some don’t. But they’re pretty nice about it. They’re naturally concerned about trespassers or vandals damaging their land. We have a pretty non-threatening hobby. 9 out 10 times there’s no problem with access. On the 10th time you may run into a situation like Culebra Peak where the landowner can be very restrictive.
If your hiking list is limited like the 14ers or the 50 state peaks you can work through those issues over time. Dave Covill has done a great job in Rhode Island. You’ve done a great job in Kentucky.
With the county highponts, when you have 3,000+ points and maybe only 50 or 100 people chasing after them, there’s no way to resolve all the landowner issues 100%. Some places are just going to remain off limits. In addition, as time passes access will change for better or worse as land ownership changes.
What have you learned from the process?
Probably not as much as I should have.
Kidding aside, Arizona hikers generally fall into the snow challenged category, and I’m no exception. Having to chase after Mount Hood and Mount Rainier in quest of my state goals has pushed me quite a bit in this arena, though I will wait for the snow to melt on Denali.
What is the best thing you’ve experienced?
Corresponding with, meeting, and hiking with fellow mountain lovers. At the end of the day, it is not the peaks you’ve climbed, but the relationships you’ve built that counts. Have really enjoyed the state Highpointers conventions I’ve attended, as has my family. I am also privileged to know some of the premier hikers of our times, folks like Bob Packard and Bob Martin (no relation), who have hiked more summits than I could manage in 10 lives.
Is there anything that is not rewarding about the hobby?
Oprah still refuses to feature me in her book club.
Comments About County Highpointer Andy Martin
By Dave Covill
Andy Martin is a guy who has become a good friend of mine, even though we’ve only crossed paths a couple of times. Such is the magic of email… He started the whole county highpointing thing in the early 90’s, and it has become a major phenomenon now. His book, “County High Points’, researched every one of the 3,141 cohps in America, and told all where they lay hidden.
He has been the moderator of an email chat group, which today boasts well over 150 members, about half of whom post a thought at least once a week. Some days there are over 2 dozen posts. It comes out once a day in a digest format to me, and I look forward to getting to work in the morning, with my cohp digest there to greet me and start my day.
Andy has been very active in the real world, too, climbing all the state highpoints except Denali, and over 300 county highpoints. He has done them all in AZ, NM, NV, and UT. Just call him “Mr. Desert Southwest”. All this while working a fulltime job as a mining engineer.
Many of the more prominent county highpointers have an activity named for them. To Lobdellize is to criss-cross a flat contour area, being sure you really got to the highest spot. To Mitchlerize is to lay down on the ground with your handlevel, cacti or not, and be certain that another potential high ground is lower. To Martinize, heh heh, is to drive as close as possible to the highpoint. A perfect Martinization is when one can drag the left foot out of the car and not even get out, claiming the highpoint from the car.
As state highpointers know, this is possible in spots like the Kansas highpoint. Andy is not lazy; au contraire, he’s hiked some very tough mountains in America, but he just likes to make best use of his time. Can’t say as that I blame him. I salute him, for my life would be very different if not for his efforts over the years. Like Jakk, he has started something, and there’s no stopping it now.
Robert Packard
The most astonishing thing about Andy to me is the quality of his research. It is amazing how few significant errors there are in his book of cohp’s. He enjoys getting out on hikes with others, been on a couple with him myself. But he seems to like the research even more. He’s a fountain on information. A real nice guy and family, too. He’s into sharing. Great to be with, too
Scott Surgent
I’ve met Andy just once. We did a few Texas county HPs back in March 2001. I met him in Tucson and we convoyed past El Paso and bush-camped in the desert near Sierra Blanca TX. We, along with Bob Martin (no relation), hit 4 county highpoints in the Permian Basin of Texas. Andy is a very meticulous, well-prepared person. His “County Highpoints” book is quite a feat. The map-work must have been enormous. He has single-handedly (imo) made county highpointing just as viable a hobby as state highpointing. Without his book the hobby would be just the domain of a very few.
I enjoyed our couple days together. He is amiable and funny and definitely a good hiking partner!
Ken Jones
Andy’s “den” at his house in Tucson is an amazing place. It’s loaded with maps and guidebooks (like mine), and with old mining paraphernalia (unique). My wife had trouble getting me out of it when we visited after dragging the kids on a 12-mile hike.
The rest of the family was ready to go, but the hiker/map-hound in me wasn’t anxious to leave. If you go on a road trip with Andy you’ll meet “the cot.” When I camp, I sometimes sleep on a pad under the stars; other times I use a tent. Andy’s different. Andy has a folding cot on which he places his sleeping bag. Not a bad idea, but I’d never seen it done until I spent a week with Mr. Martin.
Andy’s also an extreme driver. I managed to skip many miles of hiking in a week, because when Andy gets behind the wheel we can drive a lot closer to the peak than when I’m driving. County highpointers will always be grateful to Andy for pulling together the County Highpoints book. Where would we be without “the bible?”
David Olson
We have known Andy so long in county highpoint circles that we have attached a verb, “to martinize”, to the sport. It means “to attain a highpoint with the least amount of effort.” The ideal is to drive to the top, open the car door and put one’s foot directly on the benchmark.
I have been with Andy Martin on two of his most notorious Martinizing attempts. The first time, San Miguel co. NM, Elk Mountain, I was driving. I drove to the top, but stopped 50 feet away from the top in order to make Andy exert some effort to attain the summit. The second time, Carbon co. UT, Monument Peak, Andy was driving. He drove all the way to the top, opened the car door and put his foot on the survey marker.
Then careful inspection showed that he had stomped on the Witness Marker. It took five move minutes of serious looking to find the benchmark. I doubt that Andy has yet to ideally-martinize a summit.
I accompanied Andy when he summited Little Costilla Peak in Colfax co. NM, thus completing all the counties in NM. I got to the summit 100 years before Andy, but waited ten feet away so that Andy could get the summit and the state before any- one else. When Andy came up he insisted that we stomp on the summit at the same instant, and so we did.
Roy Schweiker
I really don’t know where to start about Andy Martin and county highpoints. Essentially he has served in roles that took several different people to accomplish for state highpoints:
- Prior to Andy’s appearance there were county highpoint lists available for only a few states, often not entirely correct. Andy collected and updated these and created many more and published 25 lists in book form. Then he organized a group of people from across the country to produce the remaining lists. (Sort of like Frank Ashley’s book got lots of people interested in state highpointing.)
- He created a moderated Internet mailing list of enthusiasts to distribute information, a task which might take nearly an hour per day several days per week. This list has now moved to Yahoo groups. (Sort of like Jack Longacre bringing together state highpointers in a club.)
- While Andy is not the leading county highpointer numerically, he has finished several states and was first to complete a Pacific to Atlantic chain of counties “Martin’s Lane”.
- There are now over 20 states with all or nearly all county highpoints visited. Without Andy’s lists and encouragement, there would only be about 7 states completed, some with inaccurate lists.
And don’t forget Andy’s more recent work on prominent peaks. While this work is in its infancy compared to county highpoints, there are now prominent peak lists available for several states and a few states with the 50 most prominent climbed. It is not clear when the first map-checked prominence list of a state would have appeared without Andy’s encouragement.
Frederick Lobdell
Andy pulled off the ultimate Martinization on one of the county HPs of Utah where he was able to drive to the summit, open the car door, and put his left foot on the bench mark. His conflict between spending money (he’s a bit on the thrifty side) or spending physical effort is alluded to in my Tucker County, WV trip report on the COHP Web site, and Andy also said something similar on one of the Utah cohps when he was agonizing over spending money to ride a chair lift “when suddenly a tractor beam lifted us to the top of the mountain”.
Andy is also an excellent off-road driver, much better than I am. He drove me to the top of Rice Peak, AZ up a stream bed in a Mitsubishi Montero. On more than one occasion Sarah (his wife) asked to be let out, requests which Andy ignored. After we passed each of the rough spots Sarah told their daughters, “Girls, your father is a wonderful driver.”
Andy also collects mining memorabilia. He has several cartons of blasting cap tins and other stuff in his den, and a mining tram car in his back yard. Some time back on the cohp forum I posed the riddle, “Why does Andy Martin have a mining tram car in his back yard?” One of the responses “Because his wife won’t let him bring it in the house.”
News Events on the Highpointers Forum Since September 11
I am a news junkie and as such I spent at least an hour a day posting outdoor news items on the highpointers Forum. The Forum is an amazing community. I don’t think there is anything major in the backcountry that doesn’t get reported.
Further it’s a place where some people first come to share their thoughts on various turning moments in their lifes.
I try to summarize the events each week and send out a newsletter. I also compile them in a database.
Here’s a list of the outdoor oriented headlines and news summaries compiled since Sept. 11. What is on the Forum is much more extensive.
09/11/2001 New York City Highpoint Destroyed
This was the first item that appeared on the Forum. There would be many more on that eventful day.
09/11/2001 – Air Crash Near Mount Davis
The plane destined for either the White House and the Capitol was apparently brought down by passengers in a reclaimed coal strip mine about 25 miles northeast of Mount Davis, Pennsylvania.
09/24/2001 – Police Whisk Away Man Carrying Flag Near Puerto Rico Highpoint
Police in Lares, Puerto Rico, whisked away a man who carried an American flag to a celebration commemorating the Puerto Rico Independence Movement.
09/25/2001 – Afghanistan’s Highest Point
What can be learned from climbing the Nowshaq the highest point in Afghanistan.
09/25/2001 – WTC Collapse Registered as 2.4 Earthquake
Recordings across the Hudson in the Palisades registered the WTC collapse as a 2.4 earthquake.
09/25/2001 – Air Ban Stranded Climbers
The air ban following the WTC collapse stranded hikers all over the U.S. particularly in Alaska.
09/26/2001 – Glissading the WTC and Other Legends
“It was the ultimate glissade story. A security guard rode the collapse of the World Trade Center from the 81st floor and survived with a couple broken legs. Except that it wasn’t true. We examine some of the more sensational rumors about the WTC collapse — ranging from the “last photo from the top” to the “Devil’s Face in the Fire”” to Nostradamus predicting it all.”
10/02/2001 – NYC TV Stations Looking to Geographic Heights
New York may have rewritten geographic rules for locating its t.v. transmitters. But following the World Trade Center attack, some stations are at least temporarily locating their transmitters on the geographic heights — the Palisades bluffs above the Hudson at Alpine, New Jersey.
10/03/2001 -Give Us Bin Laden Or We’ll Send Your Women To College
Thank heavens, topical jokes are returning to the Internet!
10/03/2001 – Flag Removed From Between Eyes of Old Man of the Mountain
New Hampshire authorities have gazed in awe at an American flag placed this week between the eyes of the Old Man of the Mountain. But they say it’s a traffic hazard and have taken it down.
10/09/2001 – 11-Year-Old Boy Climbs El Capitan to Raise WTC Funds
Scott Carey who climbed Yosemite’s El Capitan at age 8 climbed it in one day to raise funds for the WTC.
10/09/2001 – Walking from Indiana to the WTC
Scott Julock walked from Clymer, Indiana, to the WTC.
10/09/2001 -North Carolina Backcountry Anthrax Scare
Before the focus shifted to Florida there was a scare that the victim acquired anthrax in the North Carolina back country after drinking untreated water.
10/09/2001 – Adriondack Mountain Troops Deployed to Uzbekistan
The Army’s main mountain troops — stationed at Fort Drum in the Adirondacks — has been deployed to Uzbekistan.
10/09/2001- Hiking Prohibited in Camp David Perimeter
Hiking Prohibited in Camp David Perimeter
10/23/2001 -Flag Flying Initiative: Guadalupe
The Initiative to collect photos of flags on the highest point of each state continues. This time Alan Ritter has photos from atop Guadalupe Mountain, Texas.
11/05/2001- Virginia Student Charged With Burning Flag & Starting Forest Fire
A university student was charged with burning the U.S. flag in a fire that charred more than two acres of woodland in northern Virginia.
11/19/2001 -Flags Over America
The 50 Flags Over America project continues with more pictures from state summits. We have a series from the Upper Midwest and California. If you have one let us know.
11/27/2001 -Flags Over All Colorado 14’ers
Flags flew over all Colorado 14’ers on Sept. 22.
11/27/2001 -Flag Over the Summits
Our latest photo of an American flag over a state summit comes from Boundary Peak, Nevada.
12/03/2001- Wilderness Response to the World Trade Center
It wasn’t a tragedy just handled by urban departments. Many forest firefighters and caving experts were also called in.
12/10/2001- Peace Climb of G2 in Pakistan
David Keaton, a 50-state completer, will be participating in the Peace Climb of G2.
12/10/2001- December 7th Myth About Japanese Hiding Behind Oahu Highpoint
It may be cool shots for movies of low flying Japanese planes during the Pearl Harbor attack. But the truth is that the planes didn’t hide behind Oahu’s highest point and swarm through Kolekole Pass.
12/10/2001- Climbing Gear for Iranian Women
If you’re a woman headed for climbing in Iran make you have the proper gear and veils.
12/19/2001 -AT Inspires Man to Send Hoax Anthrax Letters
An abortion activist had a “”vision”” on the AT in Pennsylvania. He was hiking there on Sept. 11 and decided that sending hoax anthrax letters would be better than shooting doctors. He was caught when he checked his email at a Kinko’s which also happened to have his wanted poster on the wall.
01/03/2002 – Can India and Pakistan Find Peace at Mount Everest?
The first formal meeting between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan since the latest escalation will be at a resort at the foot of Mount Everest in Nepal.
01/11/2002 – NPS Rangers to Patrol Olympics
Handpicked NPS Rangers will be patrolling the mountains during the Olympics.
01/29/2002 – 93% Decrease in Pakistan Mountaineering Permits
The war has prompted a 93% reduction in climbing applications for Pakistan mountains. The country is now selling them at 50% off.
01/29/2002 – Hiking Permits for NYC Watershed in Catskills
NYC is about to reopen its vast watershed in the Catskills to hiking — but there will be restrictions.
02/21/2002 – Proposed First Hot Air Balloon Over Rainier
Tom Bernard has gotten permission to become the first person fly a hot air balloon over Mount Rainier. Plans were thwarted last year when the airspace was closed following Sept. 11
02/21/2002 – Lake Hollywood Reopens to Hikers
After being closed since Sept. 11, Lake Hollywood has reopened to hikers.
02/27/02 -Danny Pearl’s Days on Greylock
Murder Wall Street Journal reporter got his journalistic start in the shadow of Greylock at the Pittsfield Eagle.