A private, peer-reviewed survey says the high point of Michigan is Mount Curwood rather than Mount Arvon. The debate over Michigan’s peaks has been going on for decades, with the very first Highpointers convention held to mark the change to Mount Arvon. Here’s some jokes about the debate and followed by a deep dive on the issue.
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A parody post by Casper Planet about a man dressed as a buffalo in Yellowstone National Park chasing tourists has gone viral, with many posts thinking it was real, with Outside Magazine doing a fact check. That doesn’t stop of us from doing jokes.
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Whether saying you visited a highpoint requires touching the exact highest peak depends entirely on your personal goals and the specific community you are engaging with. Within the peakbagging and highpointing communities, opinions vary between strict traditionalists and more casual hikers.
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John Wilson’s viral comedic “rockumentary” The History of Concrete (2026) includes a visit to Campbell Hill while visiting the area around Bellefontaine’s first concrete street in the United States. Wilson’s deadpan humor involves going off on tangents, initially based on a search for the history of something. I will go into a deeper dive after the jokes.
Here’s a viral story out of British Columbia where a 16-year-old used Claude AI to plan a route up Crown Mountain overlooking Vancouver. Relying strictly on the AI instructions (which he may or may not have followed strictly) rather than a map, he wound up starting to climb the sheer face of the Widowmaker Arete wall. He called for a helicopter rescue. Since the helicopter couldn’t get that close to the wall, the rescuers had to drop down to save him. It all ends happily, but most of the media coverage has focused on the fact that he got into trouble for using AI. I will tell the jokes first and give some more background and links.
Kevin Nealon’s web series, Hiking with Kevin, features the comedian hiking through Los Angeles canyons while casually interviewing celebrity guests using selfie sticks.
Bigfoot & Jeff is a popular comedy web series and sketch universe following the unlikely friendship between National Park Ranger Jeff and his best friend, the legendary Sasquatch (Bigfoot)
People who make a dedicated habit of seeking out the highest point in every place they visit (sometimes called “highpointers” in geographer or traveler subcultures) display specific psychological traits across major personality frameworks such as the Big Five and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Recent reports from search-and-rescue organizations worldwide confirm that the “Instagram effect” on TikTok and Instagram is driving a massive surge in risky hiking behavior, overwhelming volunteer rescue teams.
