European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 16, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Agazine Donald Berens prepares Lor a hike in the High peaks of the Adirondack mountains in upstate new York. Mountain Man bagging the highest peaks in All 50 states by Mary Esch associated press Onald Berens has seen All the High Points of America from the snowy Summit of mount Mckinley to the cattle trough behind Merrill Storler s barn. Berens is a Peak Bagger one of those restless souls in Ibram soles who Are always looking for a new crag to scramble up and Jot Down in their log books. It s sort of a Hobby like stamp collecting. Last Spring Berens a 38-year-old lawyer who lives with his wife and two kids in suburban Albany . Joined an elite group of mountaineers who can boast of having bagged the highest Peak in each of the 50 United states As far As those who keep track of such things can determine he s Iho seventh person to do it Jack Longacre. A 50 year old trailer Park proprietor in Mountain Homo. Ark. Claims to be the sixth person to. Climb the High Points he says he knows of about  dozen others who Are working on it it s an arduous task with Many obstacles to overcome in Alaska there Are blizzards crevasses pulmonary edema in Delaware there Are speeding cars. In Indiana the High Point is obscured by Cornstalk it look Berens 21 years but he bagged them All me jolted the last one in his log Book on May 27. 1987 when he trudged through thigh deep Snow to reach the supposedly desert Summit of 13,143 foot , Peak in Nevada when we got to Itie lop we celebrated with Champagne and Fruitcake and just con Cpl it d i or situation he says. Berens who works Lor the state attorney general s office traces his Zeal for hiking Back to when he joined the boy scouts in suburban Rochester. I got my first state High Point when i was a senior at Pittsford High school he says that was new York s 5,344-foot mount Marcy. Berens got his second High Point. Mount Greylock in Massachusetts when he was a student at nearby Williams College. He climbed Vermont s High Point. Mount Mansfield while visiting an Uncle in Burlington. At that Point i had  he says and i realized i Only had 47 logo " somehow it just snowballed from i a. The major obstacle to climbing All the High Points. Besides having the time and Money to travel All Over i country is thai some require technical Rock and ice climbing skills. Realizing that Berens enrolled in a urse at Rainier mountaineering inc in Seattle in 1975. To climbed Washington s High Point 14,410 foot mount Rainier under the guidance of two Premier mountaineers Phil Ershler. Who in 1984 became the first american to reach the Summit of mount Everest via the North face and Marty Hooy a Young woman  died on Everest s North lace in 1982 the most challenging of the High Points was Alaska s 20.320 fool mount Mckinley the highest Summit in North America it took a 17-Day expedition to get to that Summit. Berens says we had to wait out a two Day snowstorm at 14 000  he says because of the thin air. One woman in the group developed pulmonary edema a flooding us the lungs with fluid but Berens acc air the per Nence fondly he Sas Mckinley was one of his favorite climbs because of Iho Fellowship among Trio climbers the sense of accomplishment and the starkly Beau till scenery each Region is Beautiful in its own Way Berens says. Kings Peak in Utah has Beautiful Meadows and forests which Mckinley does i have Granite Peak in Montana has sharply defined Tilhou Eilus. Cleanly fractured Granite with lots of  the ugliest High Point he says was Clingman s dome in the great Smoky mountains in Tennessee there s an Asphall sidewalk All the Way to Iho  he says. It s so crowded you Don t get any sense of isolation or  the most dangerous High Point to stand on. He says is the one near Wilmington Del that s because the High Point of Delaware happens Lobo the double yellow line of a Road thai Yuebo Over a  the lowest High Point is an unnamed Hump in the Florida Panhandle. 345 feel above sea level. It s a scrubby Little Hill covered with Short Pine  Berens says. It s kind of hard to Tell which Point is Iho highest so i just wandered around until i was convinced that i d stood on every Little  Berens says finding some of the High Points would be nearly impossible without the help of a Little Guidebook written in 1970 by Frank Ashley and published by la siesta press in California but the Book itself is hard to find. It s been out of print for 10 years Ashley said in a Telephone interview. There s not much interest in doing the High Points. It takes a lot of time and  but Longacre says he thinks interest is growing during the Lour years it took him to do the High polls he says his curiosity was piqued by notations in the sign in books on some of the summits. I read it again and again this is my sixth my twentieth he says. I was curious to find just How Many people were doing this " so he put an and in the Back of a mountaineering Magazine with his address asking people who were doing the 50 to write to him. I d like to get some kind of an organization going he says. He corresponds with about 20 people who share his interest and occasionally puts together a newsletter. Longacre also keeps track of new surveys which have changed some of the official High Points since Ashley wrote his Book. Berens discovered after he climbed 1,979-foot mount Curwood in the upper Peninsula of Michigan that the . Geological Survey had determined another Hill a few Miles away was a fool higher. Last Spring he got together with some of her people who were aspiring to do the 50 and climbed the new High Point mount Arvon. He discovered another new Survey when he happened across a National geographic article that said Iowa s High Point was no longer 1,631-foot Ocheyedan Mound in the Northwest Corner of the slate but a slightly higher spot on the farm of Merrill Lerler near Sibley. Last Spring. Berens Lound Iho general area on a topographical map and Ihnn drove around until he saw a Mailbox with the name Sterler. The a Leglers were very kind and gracious he says they gave me permission logo on their land and even gave me a postcard showing their High Point " we get quite a few people coming out Here to see it Donna Lerler said in a Telephone interview there were about 10 or 12 this  the High Point is out in Backol the barn she says near an old Cement cattle trough the Sterler boast of the distinction bestowed upon their farm with a License plate on their pickup truck Reading High  Berens actually spent less Lime hiking than driving sometimes Lor thousands of Miles in a Peak bagging swing through the great Plains the Dakotas. Or the South. One thing that i be Learned from this experience he says is an appreciation Lor the geography and the people All Over the United slates. There Are some places that i know i d never have visited in not Lor Iho fact that there was a High Point  Berens and Longacre say they Welcome correspondence from people interested in climbing the High Points Here Are their addresses Donald Berens 15 Ashley drive. Latham. N 12110 Jack Longacre route 2 Llo 71. Mountain Home Ark. 7265j the stars and stripes Page 13