HIGHPOINTS OF THE UNITED STATES; by Don W. Holmes; University of Utah Press; 281 pages; $14.95.
"Peak bagging" -- climbing a particular peak because of its height or significance -- is a popular activity among many hikers these days, and if reaching the highest point in all 50 states or just the Intermountain area is your goal, then this book is for you.Holmes has revised and updated 50 of the high-point treks in the nation. Although the cover photograph is of the final ascent to Mount McKinley, Alaska, 16 of the summits in various states are simply "drive-ups" in a car.
A strong point of the book is its thorough directions. Detailed maps provide little chance of not finding a peak or a trailhead.
Holmes, who is a Colorado resident, has also devised one of the best -- though simple -- methods of classifying the difficulty in these 50 hikes. Besides the "drive-ups," he used just four classes: Class 1 is a walk, where the use of hands is not needed; Class 2 includes some boulder hopping and the use of hands for balance; Class 3 involves some handholds and possible use of ropes; Class 4 is travel on glaciers or snowfields, and ropes are required.
Thus, Mount Whitney, though it is a 10.7-mile one-way hike to 14,494 foot summit, is just a Class 1 trek because no scrambling is required. Kings Peak is a Class 2, and Idaho's Borah Peak is the lone Class 3 climb. McKinley, Rainier, Granite, Hood and Gannett are all Class 4 climbs.
The book lists other reference books that may be useful for getting more detailed information on specific climbs, and it promotes another great resource -- the Highpointers Club and its Web site at americasroof.com.
Most readers will never actually reach most or all of the 50 climbs in the book, but even armchair hikers will enjoy reading this book.
The only drawbacks are a lack of photographs. It lacks photos of the summit of Mount Rainier and Mount Hood, for example, as well as a half dozen or so photos of hikes in some eastern states. That shortcoming could easily be fixed in a third edition.
It would also be nice to have a little more trail detail on the 13 climbs in the West (Utah, Hawaii, Colorado, California, etc.) because all the hikes are over 11,000 feet, and extra detail on what to expect would be useful.
The purchase price is reasonable, and the A-Z organization makes it easy to find any state.
All-in-all, this new book is a great effort on a subject whose borders span such a great distance.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com