Joe Whittington's State Highpoint Story

The very first mountain I climbed was a state highpoint.  When I left active duty from the Navy in 1977, our family moved back to Portland, Oregon, my birthplace.  (As family legend has it, my playpen was positioned so that I had a view of Mt. Hood and my first words, after “Mama”, were “Mt. Hood” and “ice cream”.)  As soon as I could, I signed-up for the 1978 Mazama Mountaineering Club’s Basic School.  The graduation exercise was a summit climb of Mt. Hood.  We summited on April 30, 1978, in a whiteout.  I had thought that I was in reasonably good shape, but discovered that climbing is much more challenging than a daily one-hour workout.  That first year, I also climbed Mt. St. Helens, in Washington, and Middle and South Sister in Oregon.

Determined to have a 360˚ view from the summit of Mt. Hood, I signed-up for another Mazama Mt. Hood climb in 1980.  Summit day was clear with perfect weather.  However, since May 18, 1980, was also the same day Mt. St Helens erupted; there wasn’t a completely clear view from the summit.

My next state highpoint was Mt. Rainier in Washington in July 1984.  I was suffering from plantar fasciitis at the time and every step felt like a big nail was being shoved up my right heel.  As a consequence, I was out of shape and moving slow, but my rope team did summit.  (Rigid orthoditics cured the plantar fasciitis and I was able to continue to climb pain free.)

About this time I came across the book, Fifty State Summits, by Paul Zumwalt, published by fellow Mazama, Jack Grauer.  This was my first introduction to the concept that someone actually knew where all the state highpoints were, and that it was possible to climb them all.

A coworker at Tektronix, Bill Becker, was also a Mazama member and we had done several climbs together.  He invited two of his friends, Howard Hansen and Mac Cook and we formed a climbing group called the “North Ridge Four,” in commemoration of our first successful summit together on Mt. Adams in Washington.

My first specific trip to accomplish state highpoints - Boundary Peak in Nevada and Mt. Whitney in California in June 1992 – was as a member of The North Ridge Four.  (Our last outing was in 1994, due to different rates of aging and personal circumstances.)

My next two highpoints, Charles Mound in Illinois and Timm Hill in Wisconsin in July 1992, established a standard mode of operations, abetted by Tektronix, where I worked for 20 years as a marketing manager.  With a clear conscience, I can state that I never went on a business trip solely for the purpose of attaining a state highpoint; and most business trips did not involve reaching a highpoint.  However, business trips were always viewed with the possibility of including a highpoint attempt.  Given that we were encouraged to stay over for a weekend, since the air tickets were significantly cheaper, it was a fair arrangement.  I wish to state my total appreciation to Tektronix for all of those trips.  In this example, a company located in Madison, WI was developing products for my group to market under the Tektronix label and we needed to visit the plant and finalize the agreement.  So I flew in a day early.  Our corporate agreement with Avis Car Rental included unlimited mileage which was a very good thing.  I drove to Charles Mound in Illinois directly from the airport and returned to Madison that night.  The next day we met with the business contact.  The following morning, I got up at 4 AM, drove to Timm Hill, and returned to Madison to catch the 1 PM flight back to Portland.  I put over a 1,000 miles on the rental car.

 The next batch was reached in October 1992.  Another supplier was based in Boston and I committed to give seminar presentations in Burlington, VT and Hartford, CN.  My wife, Phyllis, flew out to Boston with me and we were able to tour Boston and drove up to Mt Washington in Vermont.   We walked over to the summit from the parking lot.  It was my seventh highpoint and the first for Phyllis.   Phyllis flew back to Portland, and I drove to Burlington, stopping at Mt. Graylock, Massachusetts and Mt. Mansfield, Vermont on the way.   Following the seminar, I drove to Hartford, stopping to hike up Mt. Frissell in Connecticut.  One of my Tektronix coworkers was travelling with me, and I am reasonably certain that was his only state highpoint.  On my way back to the Boston airport from Hartford, I snuck through rainy, foggy woods to reach the Jerimoth Hill marker in Rhode Island.  A total of nine highpoints for 1992.

In February 1993, I took a few extra days from seminars in Dallas and Houston, Texas to visit my sister in Tyler, Texas.  She and I drove to Driskell Mt. in Louisiana.  She waited in the car at the church parking area while I thrashed around on the hill looking for the summit.  It’s likely that was her closest proximity to a state highpoint.

In the summer of 1993, my youngest son, Jason (21 at the time), and I headed out on a highpoint adventure.  Our first stop was Borah Peak in Idaho.  Enroute to the trailhead, Jason set what I am sure is the land speed record as we crossed the great rift depression.  Fortunately, the Explorer still functioned afterward.  About 300 feet below the summit as we descended in a whiteout, a bolt of lightning hit about 10 feet from us.  The charge stunned Jason and knocked him down.  I felt the current run up my body and knock my hat off.   After what was probably just a few seconds, but felt like forever, Jason got back up.  (I had standing instructions from his Mother, to the effect that I should not even consider returning home if I didn’t have him with me.)  Another lightning bolt exploded very close, then it started snowing, and the wind cranked up.  We continued our descent as quickly as possible and in thirty minutes were off the face.  As we took a break, the clouds went away and the sun appeared.  Considering the odds of the lightning strike, we really would have rather won the Lottery.  This was Jason’s second highpoint, having climbed Mt. Hood already.

The adventure continued as we met our friends in Red Lodge, MT to prepare for an attempt on Granite Peak.  My friends, Guido and Fletcher, from Massachusetts and New York City respectively, had hired Andy Carson, who ran Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, to guide us.  However, he had injured his leg in the Himalayas, and instead, one of his other guides was assigned the trip.  The guide, who was a well-known Yosemite rock jock,   had not climbed the route before and was assisted by two or three teenagers.  We went the Strawberry Creek/Avalanche Lake route.  We camped on the near side of Avalanche Lake, and after a late start, had only reached the snow bridge at noon.  Huge black clouds were flying in and, especially in light of Jason’s and my recent episode on Borah a few days before, retreat seemed to be the rational decision.  We made it back to our tents just as the storm hit and we spent the next hour perched on our sleeping pads pushing the tent back-up as the wind gusts flattened it.   The greatest benefit from this trip was obtaining a set of principles based on THINGS TO NEVER EVER DO WITH CLIENTS, which I implemented when I established my own guide service (Oregon Peak Adventures).  Granite Peak took two more trips, via the Froze-to-Death Plateau route, finally summiting in August 2006.

My next trip, sponsored by Tektronix, was in August 1993.  In conjunction with a seminar and customer visits in the Indianapolis, IN area, I hit Campbell Hill in Ohio and Hoosier Hill in Indiana.  Again, thank you Avis for your no mileage limit!  Another Seminar in Newark, NJ in December, provided the opportunity to do the New Jersey highpoint.

In May 1994, I made my first attempt on Denali in Alaska.  It was my first big mountain and a definite learning experience.  One large group of Mazamas destined for Denali, became two groups due to date conflicts.  My group of four became three when one of the members dropped out.   We trained hard, including winter climbs of Mt. Hood and South Sister.  Team member Mark was super strong, but Randy had several physical ailments, resulting in us backing off after a carry attempt to 16,000’.  (The other Mazama group did not summit either.)  In 1996, I make another attempt with the Mountain Trips guide service.  Unfortunately, one of their guides became ill and had to turn around at 11,000’. So when two of the people on my rope gave out on summit day just above 19,000’, I had no other option but to descend with them.  Thus my quest was destined to finish at 49 and 19/20s.  I do not plan to attempt Denali again.

Geography often results in the highpoints being clustered near together, especially if several of the state borders come together in the high elevation region.  So it is relatively easy to knock off several of them in a weekend.   A July 1994, Tektronix trip to visit customers with my manager started in Philadelphia, PA.  Since I was driving, we took a small detour and stopped at Tower Hill in Delaware.  I am certain it was my manager’s only highpoint.  Our business trip ended in Raleigh, NC and I took a flight to Knoxville, TN on Friday afternoon.   An early start on Saturday got me to Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina; Sassafras Mountain in South Carolina, and Brasstown Bald in Georgia.  After a quick stop at Clingman’s Dome in Tennessee Sunday morning, it was back to Knoxville and the flight back to Portland.

In August 1994, Fletcher, Jason, two additional people and I headed out to do Gannett Peak in Wyoming by the Gooseneck Pinnacle route.  After we reached the summit, rather than return through a major crevasse field with weak snow bridges, we descended a steep couloir.  It took a long time to protect everyone and we reached the top of Dinwoody Pass in the dark in pouring rain.  Rather than descend the icy route down the other side of the Pass in the dark, we bivouacked until first light.  The skies cleared, and the temperature dropped.  I cranked-up my stove and periodically passed around hot water to keep our climbers going. Upon return to camp in the morning, the rest of our party packed up and headed out to the trailhead.  Jason and I opted to rest the remainder of the day and did the 20 mile hike out the next day. Highpoint Total: Joe - 22, Jason – three.

In August 1995, Tektronix seminars in Salt Lake City, Denver, and Albuquerque enabled a summit of King’s Peak in Utah, the weekend before, and Wheeler Peak in New Mexico the weekend after.  Then in September 1995, Tektronix seminars in Pittsburg and Cincinnati led to summiting Mt. Davis in Pennsylvania, Backbone Mountain in Maryland, and Spruce Knob in West Virginia.

To round out 1995, Phyllis and I celebrated our 25^th Wedding Anniversary by going to Hawaii.  We had a really great time, which included walking to the top of Mauna Kea.  Highpoint total: Phyllis - two, Joe - 28.

The years 1996 to 2001 involved many life changes, especially retiring from Tektronix and starting Oregon Peak Adventures in 1998.  There was a lot of climbing in the Cascades, Japan, Africa, and Borneo.  My second Denali attempt was in 1997, and a 1998 trip to visit my sister in Texas to use airline miles, extended to do the Hot Springs and walk up Magazine Mountain in Arkansas.

On September 11, 2001, I was guiding two girls from Scotland on Mt. St. Helens.  It seemed the patriotic thing to do was to buy plane tickets, so I did.  In April 2002, Phyllis and I took a trip through the Southwest which included a climb of Humphrey’s Peak in Arizonia. 

In May 2002, using my patriotic tickets, I flew to El Paso, rented a car and drove to Guadalupe Peak, Texas.  After a windy night in a dry camp below the summit, I completed the climb, and drove back to El Paso.  Flying back to Dallas, I rented a car and made it to somewhere in Arkansas to spend the night.  Over the next two days, I reached Woodall Mountain in Mississippi, Cheaha Mountain in Alabama, and Britton Hill in Florida.   From there I made my way to Tyler, TX to visit my Sister; and returned to Portland.

2003 included lots of Cascades Peaks guiding, plus trips to Africa and Nepal, but no new highpoints.

In 2004, Phyllis and I took the first of our two major highpoint road trips.  Starting in Portland we drove to North Dakota and hiked White Butte.  Then we knocked-off Harney Peak in South Dakota, Panorama Point in Nebraska, Mt. Sunflower in Kansas (one of our favorites) and Mt. Elbert in Colorado. Phyllis passed on Elbert, but did the rest.  Highpoint total : Phyllis - six, Joe - 39.

For 2005, Phyllis and I drove to Alaska and took the ferry back to Washington.  Jason and I also made our second attempt on Granite Peak, turning around after a very stormy night on the Froze-to-Death Plateau. 

Jason was up to four highpoints at this time, having summited Mt. Rainier with his sister, Cassandra, on a Mazama climb I led in 1997.  Oldest son Richard, has one high point – Mt. Hood, and Cassandra has two, including Hood.

The second major highpoint road trip (AKA “The Road Trip from Hell” from Phyllis’ perspective) occurred in May 2006.  Starting in Portland, we drove to Ashland, OR and saw a play.  Then to LeMoore, CA where we hiked in Sequoia/ King’s Canyon Parks and had dinner with an old girl friend.  Next we drove to Los Angeles and dinner with my Cousin on “Cinco de Mayo”.  San Diego was next, where we stayed with Phyllis’ Nephew and his family. Now we get to do a highpoint – Black Mesa in Oklahoma, then to Tyler, Texas to visit my sister.  Then - Taum Salk in Missouri, Hawkeye Point in Iowa, Mt. Arvon in Michigan, and Eagle Mountain in Minnesota.  Since we were almost to Canada, we drove north to Ontario and headed west on Canada Highway 1, includng a stop in Banff and Lake Louise on our way back to Portland.  Total driving distance was about 8,000 miles

In August, I finally got to the top of Granite Peak in Montana; and in October 2006, I flew out and did Mt. Rogers in Virginia, and Black Mountain in Kentucky.  Highpoint total: Phyllis - nine, Joe - 47

2007 included much guiding, and trips to South America and Nepal; but no new highpoints.

The final trip in September 2008 started with a flight to New York City where Phyllis and I stayed with my nephew for five days.  Then we flew to Portland, ME and drove to Millinocket, ME.  I hiked up Mt. Katahdin in perfect weather and we drove to Lake Placid, NY.  A cold, clear morning began my hike up Mt. Marcy on another lovely day.  We drove back to Portland, ME and spent a week in Williamsburg, VA before returning to Portland, OR. Thus was the highpoint quest completed.  Highpoint total: Phyllis - nine, Joe – 49 19/20ths.