Why settle for an ordinary hike? In 2 short days, you could conquer the most breathtaking summit in North America.

You've seen the postcard.  Now climb the mountain. Yeah, you.  Even if your only previous experience on the rocks comes ordering scotch. All it takes is 2 exhilarating days pulling your way up cliff faces so steep that you have to bend your neck to see the top. And a couple of dry runs (how's your bladder control?) backing off of a 120-foot precipice into the upper atmosphere. This sets you up for the final goal: to touch a U.S....

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As featured in US Airways in-flight magazine
August 2007

These tokens will have you seeking a change in altitude. After you summit a mountain you've always longed to climb, why not commemorate your success with something more momentous than a snapshot or a journal entry? MountainClimb's Geo-Situ Summit Bench Marks are replicas of those shiny metal U.S. Geological Survey markers found atop most mountain peaks. Each 3.25-inch pewter disk is inscribed with the name and elevation of the mountain peak of your choice; over 100 U.S. summits are available, as well as the 7 continental high points. These exact...

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by Marlis Schmidt
Caching Now 
8/13/2008

Inside an old General Mills research complex in Minneapolis, you won’t find Betty Crocker, but you will find Betty Green Risser, a quiet, unassuming woman sitting at her computer, most likely also on the phone. In front of her is a large panoramic photograph taken by her friend Stuart Klipper, whose work hangs in museums around the world. This one is relatively simple, yet provocative: a gravel road with farmland on each side going towards an infinite horizon. Betty says it’s the road that takes you away from the farm she grew up on.

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Mountain highs are remembered with bench mark gifts.
Press Release
12/14/2006

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. An enterprising grandmother from the prairies of Minnesota is taking climbers back into thin air-not through a guiding service but through commemorative gifts. Since Betty Risser of Minneapolis started her hobby business in 1994, she has developed over 100 bench mark gifts commemorating summit experiences from Mount Everest to Pikes Peak.

Along trails, overlooks and on mountain summits, bronze or aluminum USGS elevation bench marks are anchored in rock, warning ‘$250 FINE OR IMPRISONMENT TO DISTURB THIS MARK.' Stand by it. Put your foot in...

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Press Release
11/30/2001

Minneapolis, Minnesota--Until recently, climbers summiting Everest, Whitney, Rainier, and other legendary highpoints had only their photos and memories to remind them of feeling on top of the world. Thanks to one Minnesota company, climbers can now take home a piece of the peak.

Survey benchmarks, noting a summit's elevation, are replicated as pewter gifts by Geographic Locations International, Minneapolis. The fine pewter lapel pins, zipper pulls and paperweights can be found in shops at the mountains as well as on GLI's redesigned website, www.mountainclimb.com.

"Climbers are at the top for the view--360 degrees of view," said...

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by Jerry Zgoda
Minneapolis Star Tribune
12/3/1999

Inspired by a hole in her kitchen floor that she needed to fill, a Minneapolis woman is making a business out of making replicas of geological survey markers that designate the nation's (and the world's) most famous peaks. 
Betty Risser, a longtime employee in Dayton's alterations department takes climbers' photographs, brass rubbings and other submissions and turns images of the survey markers into commemorative paperweights, pins and zipper pulls. Among the product line for her Geographic Locations International company: survey markers for the summits of Grand Teton in Wyoming,...

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Souvenir markers make unique gifts
By Jerry Zgoda 
Star Tribune Staff Writer
Minneapolis Star Tribune
July 2000

Sometimes inspiration can be summoned from the strangest places. From a 3-inch hole in her kitchen floor, a Minneapolis woman has created a growing business selling recreations of geographical markers you would find if you reached the summit of Mount McKinley or ventured to the South Pole.


Betty Risser, a Dayton's alterations fitter for the past 23 years, got the idea while remodeling her Northeast Minneapolis home six years ago. A friend, Minneapolis artist Stuart Klipper, was...

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Betty Green Risser has made it her business to replicate benchmarks that commemorate your accomplishments.

BY RICHARD CHIN
Pioneer Press
05/11/2007

Everyone who slogs to the finish line of a marathon can pretty much count on getting a nice completion medal. But trudge for hours through thin air to reach a mountain summit, and all you're likely to get at the top is out of breath and a nice view.

Then, Betty Green Risser came along.

The Minneapolis woman is the creator of a company that allows you to award yourself (or someone else) with...

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