[00:00] Lila Grant: From Neural Newscast, I'm Lila Grant.
[00:03] Lila Grant: And I'm Marcus Shaw.
[00:04] Lila Grant: Today, we're looking at a travel obsession that is part hiking challenge, part map-collecting joy.
[00:11] Lila Grant: It's called high-pointing.
[00:13] Lila Grant: It means visiting every state's highest point.
[00:16] Marcus Shaw: We'll break down why some high points are brutal climbs while others are drivable.
[00:21] Marcus Shaw: And in some cases, the real challenge is simply getting access at the time.
[00:26] Lila Grant: Turning now to high-pointing itself, the big idea is simple.
[00:31] Lila Grant: People aim to stand on the highest point in all 50 states.
[00:35] Marcus Shaw: CBS News reports about 180 people recently gathered in Bishop, California, near Mount Whitney.
[00:42] Marcus Shaw: It is the tallest peak in the contiguous U.S. at 14,505 feet.
[00:48] Lila Grant: What's striking is that for high-pointers, Mount Whitney counts the same as Florida's Britain Hill.
[00:55] Lila Grant: Britain Hill is basically a parking lot stop at 345 feet.
[01:00] Marcus Shaw: Shannon Broomand, the High Pointers Club president, says some peaks are truly difficult.
[01:05] Marcus Shaw: She points to Denali, Rainier, and Hood.
[01:09] Marcus Shaw: But she also says many high points are easy.
[01:11] Marcus Shaw: Family-friendly trips.
[01:13] Lila Grant: Next, the story shows the challenge is not always altitude.
[01:18] Lila Grant: Sometimes it is logistics.
[01:20] Lila Grant: Illinois' high point, Charles Mound, sits on a private farm with limited access.
[01:26] Marcus Shaw: Landowners allow entry only four weekends a year, and a Florida hiker named Rick Wise told CBS News that timing it can make it feel like the hardest high point.
[01:38] Lila Grant: That is also where you see the culture around this.
[01:42] Lila Grant: Carol and Greg Wyland travel with the tradition of photographing their shoes on each survey marker.
[01:49] Marcus Shaw: Members come from far away, too.
[01:52] Marcus Shaw: The reporting includes siblings, Liddy and Schock van Shee from the Netherlands.
[01:57] Marcus Shaw: They say the appeal is getting to places they would never pick otherwise.
[02:02] Lila Grant: Still, finishing all 50 is usually a lifetime goal.
[02:07] Lila Grant: Lucy Westlake did it young. She became the youngest woman to visit every state high point in 2021 at 17.
[02:16] Marcus Shaw: She now writes for the club's Apex to Zenith newsletter, and the reporting makes a bigger point.
[02:22] Marcus Shaw: A quirky goal can pull people into community and across the country.
[02:27] Lila Grant: I'm Leela Grant.
[02:28] Marcus Shaw: And I'm Marcus Shaw.
[02:31] Marcus Shaw: NeuroNewscast is AI-assisted, human-reviewed.
[02:34] Marcus Shaw: View our AI transparency policy at NeuroNewscast.com.