Alone at the top

Frontiersman

The quest to scale the highest points in all 50 states has led the Johnston family to every corner of the country, and on top of several high-point lists.

Dave, a retired park ranger in Denali State Park, is the first and only climber to have done all 50 high points in the winter; son Galen, 16, is the youngest to have ever done all 50 points; and the family, including Cari Sayer-Johnston, is the only to have done all 50 together.

&#8220There are lots of good memories about doing it,” Dave said from his Talkeetna home, which sits a mile off any established road and has a breathtaking view of the Alaska Range, including Denali. &#8220For me, the best part is the journey, not the summit, especially in the Southwest. It's boring and nothing to marvel at, but getting there together as a family is what was the most memorable.”

The fascination with high-pointing began for Dave as a college student in 1964. He and a college buddy sauntered into a Rhode Island bar and asked about the highest point in the state. They scaled Jerimoth Hill` on Dec. 30, starting a 41-year-journey.

While some of the high points you can drive right up to - Florida's Britton Hill is just a few feet higher in elevation than Talkeetna - others are imposing, such as Denali and Mount Rainier.

The Johnstons have always had an affinity for the mountains, and Galen was 3 when the family first started climbing together. One of his most vivid climbing memories involves scaling Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico, as a boy.

&#8220I weighed less in pounds than the wind was blowing in miles per hour,” Galen said.

&#8220We were using a ski pole for balance and I was hanging on to Galen for dear life,” Cari said. &#8220We ended up crawling to the summit.”

In 2001, the family climbed Denali together, and Galen became the youngest climber ever to reach the summit at age 11. While it was a landmark moment for the family, it turned out to only be a start in the high-point quest.

&#8220After Denali, we figured out that Galen and I had done 29 of the high points, and we decided to go for it,” Cari said.

So, in 2002, the family loaded up their trusty Subaru and brought Lucky, their &#8220mutt, black lab mix” on a cross-country journey. They ended up putting 17,500 miles on the Subaru, most of them across the Southwest.

&#8220It was 110 and we didn't have air conditioning,” Galen recalls.

In October 2002, the family climbed Mount Katahdin in Maine to become the only family ever to finish the high point list, when Galen was just 12. But Dave wasn't done just yet - his winter ascents would continue through the next several years until there was only one, Mount Rainier in Washington, which had eluded him for years.

&#8220It was bad karma, that mountain,” said Dave, who was part of the first winter ascent of Denali. &#8220Every time I tried, it seemed like something went wrong.”

Rainier is far from an easy climb - Cari said she thought her summer climb of Rainier was harder than that of Denali - but odd things kept Dave from doing it. On one attempt, a rescue was required for two climbers who had gone missing. While searching, Dave broke his ribs and was unable to continue - and the allegedly missing climbers had actually shacked up with some female counterparts and were doing quite well for themselves, much to their wives' chagrin. Another time, the equinox was on March 19 and not March 21, which meant the summit was considered in the spring and not the winter. Finally, in March 2005, he accomplished the feat.

&#8220They had 15 percent the normal snowfall, and the crevasses were wide open,” Dave said. &#8220It was a really good climb.”

Approximately 135 people have scaled all 50 high points, making the Johnstons' feat all the more amazing. Dave said some of the high-pointers are looking for new challenges, like climbing the high points of all national parks, U.S. territories or Canadian provinces.

&#8220Some of them are pretty nuts. They make me look normal,” he said with a laugh.

Dave is presenting a slide show and lecture about his family's quest to high-point all 50 states at the Wilda Marston Theater in the Loussac Library in Anchorage on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. The event is a fund-raiser for the Alaska Huts Association. The event is free, but a $10 donation is suggested.