State Highpointers Konvention - Rapid City, SD - July 17th to 20th, 2024

Welcome to my thread!

And no, I’m not just regurgitating info from the internet.

I, Puma concolor, will be the host of the 2024 State Highpointers Konvention to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota from 7/17 to 7/20 of next year.

Fresh back from a super awesome scouting trip to the Black Hills where I not only re-hiked Black Elk Peak (formerly Harney) and met face-to-face with Crazy Horse at the Memorial, but also booked an official Konvention site/venue for our annual club meetings and fun next summer.

From FB:

“Highpointers from all over will gather in the Mount Rushmore State for their annual Highpointers Club Konvention to be held July 17-20, 2024, at the Best Western Ramkota in Rapid City, South Dakota.

Friday, July 19, is being targeted for the annual club hike up the highpoint local to the Konvention. This year, that hike will be up Black Elk Peak, about 55 minutes from the Konvention host site.

This will be a great Konvention for the entire family with so much to do in the area and a great, sprawling resort hotel!

Keep any eye out in A to Z 139, our website and social media for more details!

Mark Styczynski deserves a huge round of applause for putting this together as our Konvention Host!”

So grab your wife (or significant other) and grab your kids (or his/hers) and join us next July in the beautiful Black Hills for what should be an epic Konvention!

Have lined up noted Black Hills author and historian Paul Horsted to be the keynote speaker at our banquet. Pretty stoked about this.

Books by Paul Horsted

Had a chance to talk all things State Highpointing - including the 2024 Konvention - on the latest episode of the Trail Talk Podcast with Lauren Toner. Fun conversation!

Episode 41: Trail Talk Highpointing Podcast

So online registration is now live!

State Highpointers 2024 Konvention

Come on out to Rapid City, South Dakota this coming July to join a group of mountaineers (yes, we’re actual mountaineers) who all aspire to climb to peaks multiple times as big as anything the Northeast has to offer!

Not to even mention traveling to places in America you wouldn’t otherwise go.

As a side note, you should be a Club member if you decide to attend. And why wouldn’t you also want the awesome quarterly, all color, Apex to Zenith magazine?

Highpointers Club Membership

Seeing a surprising number of registrations rolling in from the New England states!

Keep ‘em coming and Keep Klimbin’!

The latest …

Donovin Sprague to lead hike and program on sacred Indian Peak Bear Butte

Also, I’ll be heading back to South Dakota in early April for another round of logistics and planning. Approaching 80 registered attendees with still nearly 5 months to go until the Convention. Gonna be a big one.

Up to 156 folks registered for the SD-24 Konvention, including a healthy representation from New England and a handful of folks from New York.

Second planning trip a few weeks ago went well in spite of missing my connecting flight from Dallas to Rapid City (road trip!). Productive meetings with the folks from Visit Rapid City, Custer State Park and the National Forest Service.

Also found time to make a quick site trip to North Dakota HP White Butte. First time there since 2006, when I hiked it with my Dad.

It was kind of like this …

While I am not a Highpointer, I have been "collecting" the 50 states for the past 50 years and there is only one left...North Dakota. Planning to drive up there early fall. ND offers a certificate if you go there and spend the night. You get a certificate that says something like "North Dakota at Last". I think that I will skip the high point...it looks kinda unimpressive

I would agree that if your objective is to do the most interesting stuff you can find while in North Dakota, White Butte would probably not rank at the very top of the list.

But yeah, major congrats on your pending completion of visiting all 50 states.

Having said that, my summit photo doesn’t really do White Butte justice. It’s a cool little highpoint with some interesting geological features. There is also a new trail that the Highpointers Foundation (of which I’m now an Associate Director) footed the bill for while the Maah Daah Hey Trail Association did the work. Eventually the trail will link up to the main trail and you’ll be able to hike from White Butte to Teddy Roosevelt National Park.

A few more pics without my silly face in it …View attachment 7692

Was that benchmark at ground level when installed?

^^^

Great question.

I bounced this off of a couple senior members of the Highpointers Foundation brain trust and was informed that although there has been some minor erosion to the clay and siltstone up there, the benchmark has always been elevated. Dates to 1962.

I know Rainier and Denali have elevated USGS markers as well, but that’s presumably so they can still be found in deep snow. Not sure what the thought process was in ND.