For the love of mountains

There’s a tiny concrete monument at Panorama Point, elevation 5,424 feet, the highest spot in Nebraska. It’s on a knoll, like the surrounding knolls only a bit higher.

When Bob Bolton of Salmon Creek got out of his vehicle and stood at Panorama Point in early May, he completed a journey started 47 years earlier: To reach the high point of each of the 48 states.

Check out the The Highpointers Club or the county highpointer site. You may also want to see Bolton’s list of lists.

Bolton, 65, reached the highest elevation of his final 20 states in a two-week blitz during late April and early May, completing what began on California’s 14,495-foot Mount Whitney in the fall of 1965.

He topped Mount Hood and Mount Rainier in 1967. He did most of the highest peaks of the Rocky Mountain states in 1992-94.

Bolton is a “peakbagger.”

Peakbaggers climb with a purpose, which is to complete a list of summits even if it’s a list few have ever hard of and perhaps defined only by the peakbagger.

He has bagged far more than 500 peaks, including all of the Northwest’s major volcanoes and many other glaciated mountains in the West. Bolton and two friends were the first to reach the summits of the 100 most topographically prominent peaks in the contiguous United States.

He had reached the highest points of every county in Oregon by 2003 and Washington by 2004.

With the Highpointers Club holding its annual convention June 8-9 at Timberline Lodge, Bolton decided now was the time to get the 20 state highpoints he lacked. He’ll receive recognition of his 48-state completion at the convention next month.

So, in a 9,000-mile road trip, Bolton topped Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska.

On a single day, he topped West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

In 10 of those states, it was just a car drive, Bolton said. Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Maryland were short hikes. Oklahoma and Virginia each were 8 to 9 miles round trip.

“Probably, the No. 1 surprise is how beautiful and prominent Magazine Mountain is, the high point of Arkansas,” Bolton said. “There was no view from the summit because of the surrounding forest, but the summit is in a state park and the facilities are very congenial.”

Magazine Mountain has a beautiful lodge, where the best views are, he added.

Bolton had topped Clingmans Dome in Tennessee earlier, but had done it in with headlamps in the dark because the seven-mile-long approach road was closed and airline connections were pending.

“It was great to finally see what we had missed,” he said.

Bolton is far from done walking up hills.

He will lead a hike to Sturgeon Rock and Silver Star Mountain as part of the Highpointers convention in June. Sturgeon Rock is Clark County’s high point.

Among his other priorities for climbing:

— Peaks in the lower 48 states with at least 4,000 feet of topographic prominence. (17 of 142 to go)

— Peaks in Washington with at least 2,000 feet of topographic prominence (50 of 144 to go).

— Oregon’s 100 most prominent peaks (18 to go)

Why does he do this?

“A love of mountains — looking at mountains, photographing mountains, hiking-backpacking in the mountains, climbing mountains,” Bolton responded.

“My life slogan has become: “So many mountains, so little time.”