If you are like me, every year January 1st catches me by surprise. That is, Christmas (preparations for which consumed my December) is barely over when I’m asked to make a New Year’s resolution. Could it be that time again? So this year I’m starting to think about it now, mid-December, and hope you do too.
If you need ideas, here’s one for you: You could climb all of the “high points” in every state and join a lively community of folks who are doing just that. Did you know that was a thing? Now you know. It is a thing.
Perhaps, just perhaps, you won’t make it up all of them in one year. My friend Terra and her daughter Gracie have been traveling around the country since 2018, knocking off two or three high points per trip. They have checked off 36 – impressive! – but the remaining states require more preparation and fitness than the ones they have already done. Still, vanquishing them all is a worthy goal. I think they can do it.
In your quest to climb the high points, may I suggest you start with Louisiana? I can confidently attest to it being an achievable aspiration.
As proof of this, I submit to you a guest column written by my husband Don. He wrote this piece in 2004 after our family conquered Mount Driskill, Louisiana’s high point. In honor of the 20th anniversary of this milestone, as a Christmas gift from me to you, my faithful reader, I humbly present the aforementioned.
The Conquest of Driskill Mountain
Don Givler – expedition leader, age 49
other members of expedition:
Amy Givler, age 46
Martha Grace Givler, age 14
Chandler Givler, age 13
John Givler, age 11
The morning of November 27, 2004, dawned windy and gray. There was reason to hope that the thermometer would remain above freezing at noon (good reason, actually, since it was already in the high 50s at 8 AM). It was a perfect day for the Conquest of Driskill Mountain.
We rose late, navigated the circuitous route through Cloud Crossing, and arrived at our base camp in the parking lot of the Mount Zion Presbyterian Church shortly before 11:30 AM. It was an appropriate place for a base camp, since we believed that we were predestined to reach the summit of Driskill.
The nearby Driskill Cemetery paid tribute to those that had gone before us… Hodges, Blaylocks, Bryces, and, of course, Driskills. Noticeably absent were markers for other well-known mountaineers: Alphonse Boudreaux (who disappeared on a summit attempt in 1934); Francois Thibodeaux (who is believed to have reached the summit on February 2, 1987, but became disoriented during his descent via the treacherous “East Saddle” and was last seen selling depression glass at the Bonnie and Clyde Trade Days and RV Park in nearby Arcadia); and Reinhold Messner (who had enough sense not to attempt Driskill in the first place). Also absent were the sherpas and yaks commonly found at base camps surrounding the world’s significant peaks.
Fortunately, our living in Monroe, Louisiana, (at 82 feet above sea level) had provided us with the opportunity to adjust to the elevation of the Driskill summit (535 feet) without the usual days or even weeks required to acclimatize to such low elevations. It also made it possible for us to make the climb without the supplemental carbon dioxide that is often necessary to combat the high concentrations of oxygen found on Driskill.
The details of our trip will be published in Amy’s upcoming chronicle, “Into Thick Air — Hope In the Face of Driskill”. For the present it is enough to say that, led by our faithful guide dog Annie, we scrambled up slopes of harsh, unforgiving leaves, took one arduous step after another on the wide gravel trail, gasped to take in the oxygen-rich air, swatted mosquitoes the size of small birds, and risked hyperthermia.
Signs saying things like, “NO, NO, NO”, and, “Driskill Mtn thatta way”, helped us to avoid the dreaded False (South) Summit. We paused for a brief moment of silence at the remnants of a campsite probably used by Boudreaux during his ill-fated ascent.
Finally, after what seemed like an hour, we came into view of the rock cairn marking the True Summit. It was at that point that our mettle was truly tested as we walked the final yards among the bushes and trees which provide formidable obstacles at such low elevation and latitude.
We reached the summit at 12:24 pm. As we stood at the summit and gazed with wonder around us we recalled the immortal words of expedition leader John Crochet at the conclusion of their First-Ever Winter Ascent of Driskill Mountain’s North Face on January 1, 2000: “Why K2 when you can climb Driskill?” To which we would respond, “Why, indeed?”