Highpointing - History and First Ascents

History and First Ascents

Starting in the early 1900s, a few pioneers of highpointing began visiting the highest geographic point in each of the 50 states of the United 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 A.H. Marshall, who completed the task in July, 1936, when there were only 48 states. 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 states was Vin Hoeman in 1966. Since then, about 250 people have successfully climbed to the top of each U.S. state. Mt. 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.

Participation in county highpointing in the U.S. varies widely among states, with few states being climbed by more than a few dozen individuals. See County Highpointers Club for more information.

The Seven Summits were 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 Kosciusko, the highest point on the Australian mainland; others climb the more demanding Puncak Jaya, highest point of the Australian continental shelf. Click the Seven Summits link for more information.

The first person to climb all of Europe's highpoints was Ginge Fullen in 1999. Mr. 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.

Climbs to the tops of each state/province in Canada, Australia, and other countries have also been recorded.

To date, no person is known to have reached the highest point in every country in the world.