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55-507: On 2 June 1797, Charles Brodhead and his survey party made the first recorded ascent of Giant Mountain while surveying the boundaries of the Old Military Tract. Broadhead's was the first recorded ascent of any of the 46 Adirondack High Peaks . The name "Giant of the Valley" was in use as early as 1813, but was initially used to refer to a different nearby peak. By 1859, the name had shifted to

110-452: A topographic map . However, when the key col is far away, or when one wants to calculate the prominence of many peaks at once, software can apply surface network modeling to a digital elevation model to find exact or approximate key cols. Since topographic maps typically show elevation using contour lines , the exact elevation is typically bounded by an upper and lower contour, and not specified exactly. Prominence calculations may use

165-420: A "closer" peak than the encirclement parent (if there is one), which is still "better" than the peak in question. The differences lie in what criteria are used to define "closer" and "better." The (prominence) parent peak of peak A can be found by dividing the island or region in question into territories, by tracing the two hydrographic runoffs, one in each direction, downwards from the key col of every peak that

220-489: A "hierarchy" of peaks going back to the highest point on the island. One such chain in Britain would read: Billinge Hill → Winter Hill → Hail Storm Hill → Boulsworth Hill → Kinder Scout → Cross Fell → Helvellyn → Scafell Pike → Snowdon → Ben Nevis . At each stage in the chain, both height and prominence increase. Line parentage, also called height parentage, is similar to prominence parentage, but it requires

275-514: A distance of 360 m (1200 feet). The key col may also be close to the subject peak or far from it. The key col for Aconcagua, if sea level is disregarded, is the Bering Strait at a distance of 13,655 km (8,485 miles). The key col for the South Summit of Mount Everest is about 100 m (330 feet) distant. A way to visualize prominence is to imagine raising sea level so

330-492: A given peak in the following manner: for every path connecting the peak to higher terrain, find the lowest point on the path; the key col (or highest saddle , or linking col , or link ) is defined as the highest of these points, along all connecting paths; the prominence is the difference between the elevation of the peak and the elevation of its key col. On a given landmass, the highest peak's prominence will be identical to its elevation. An alternative equivalent definition

385-408: A great deal of information about the peak's position. In general, the analysis of parents and lineages is intimately linked to studying the topology of watersheds . Alteration of the landscape by humans and presence of water features can give rise to issues in the choice of location and height of a summit or col. In Britain, extensive discussion has resulted in a protocol that has been adopted by

440-479: A hierarchy which defines some peaks as subpeaks of others. For example, in Figure ;1, the middle peak is a subpeak of the right peak, which is a subpeak of the left peak, which is the highest point on its landmass. In that example, there is no controversy about the hierarchy; in practice, there are different definitions of parent. These different definitions follow. Also known as prominence island parentage , this

495-418: A highest submerged col of about 40 m, or only 8888 m below the peak of Everest. As a result, Mauna Kea's prominence might be subjectively more impressive than Everest's, and some authorities have called it the tallest mountain from peak to underwater base. Dry prominence is also useful for measuring submerged seamounts . Seamounts have a dry topographic prominence, a topographic isolation , and

550-476: A parking lot on U.S. Route 9 near New Russia. This route passes through the areas burned by the 1913 wildfire, much of which are still open land today, offering views of the surrounding valleys. The route passes over the shorter Bald Peak and then begins an ascent of Rocky Peak Ridge. After summiting Rocky Peak Ridge, the trail descends a small col before merging with the Roaring Brook Trail and ascending to

605-409: A prominence cutoff criterion. The height parent is the closest peak to peak A (along all ridges connected to A) that has a greater height than A, and satisfies some prominence criteria. The disadvantage of this concept is that it goes against the intuition that a parent peak should always be more significant than its child. However it can be used to build an entire lineage for a peak which contains

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660-437: A prominence-ranked list is that it needs no cutoff since a peak with high prominence is automatically an independent peak. It is common to define a peak's parent as a particular peak in the higher terrain connected to the peak by the key col. If there are many higher peaks there are various ways of defining which one is the parent, not necessarily based on geological or geomorphological factors. The "parent" relationship defines

715-479: Is Aconcagua (6,960 m), in Argentina , and its prominence is 6,138 m. (To further illustrate the rising-sea model of prominence, if sea level rose 56 m, North and South America would be separate continents and Denali would be 6138 m, its current prominence, above sea level. At a slightly lower level, the continents would still be connected and the high point of the combined landmass would be Aconcagua,

770-452: Is a sub-summit of the main summit (which has a height and prominence of 8,848 m). Many lists of mountains use topographic prominence as a criterion for inclusion in the list, or cutoff . John and Anne Nuttall's The Mountains of England and Wales uses a cutoff of 15 m (about 50 ft), and Alan Dawson's list of Marilyns uses 150 m (about 500 ft). (Dawson's list and the term "Marilyn" are limited to Britain and Ireland). In

825-443: Is becoming preferred. There are two varieties of topographic prominence: wet prominence and dry prominence. Wet prominence is the standard topographic prominence discussed in this article. Wet prominence assumes that the surface of the earth includes all permanent water, snow, and ice features. Thus, the wet prominence of the highest summit of an ocean island or landmass is always equal to the summit's elevation. Dry prominence, on

880-406: Is defined as follows. In Figure 2 the key col of peak A is at the meeting place of two closed contours, one encircling A (and no higher peaks) and the other containing at least one higher peak. The encirclement parent of A is the highest peak that is inside this other contour. In terms of the falling-sea model, the two contours together bound an "island", with two pieces connected by an isthmus at

935-404: Is equal to its wet prominence (4205 m) plus the depth of its highest submerged col (about 5125 m). Totaling 9330 m, this is greater than any mountain apart from Everest. The dry prominence of Aconcagua is equal to its wet prominence (6960 m) plus the depth of the highest submerged col of the Bering Strait (about 40 m), or about 7000 m. It is worth noting Mauna Kea

990-553: Is equal to its wet prominence plus the depth of its highest submerged col. Because Earth has no higher summit than Mount Everest , Everest's prominence is either undefined or its height from the lowest contour line. In a dry Earth, the lowest contour line would be the deepest hydrologic feature, the Challenger Deep , at 10,924 m depth. Everest's dry prominence would be this depth plus Everest's wet prominence of 8848 m, totaling 19,772 m. The dry prominence of Mauna Kea

1045-406: Is more prominent than peak A. The parent is the peak whose territory peak A is in. For hills with low prominence in Britain, a definition of "parent Marilyn " is sometimes used to classify low hills ("Marilyn" being a British term for a hill with a prominence of at least 150 m). This is found by dividing the region of Britain in question into territories, one for each Marilyn . The parent Marilyn

1100-457: Is not used because there is no obvious choice of cutoff. This choice of method might at first seem arbitrary, but it provides every hill with a clear and unambiguous parent peak that is taller and more prominent than the hill itself, while also being connected to it (via ridge lines). The parent of a low hill will also usually be nearby; this becomes less likely as the hill's height and prominence increase. Using prominence parentage, one may produce

1155-572: Is relatively close to its submerged key col in the Pacific Ocean, and the corresponding contour line that surrounds Mauna Kea is a relatively compact area of the ocean floor. Whereas a contour line around Everest that is lower than 9330m from Everest's peak would surround most of the major continents of the Earth. Even just surrounding Afro-Eurasia would run a contour line through the Bering Straight, with

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1210-535: Is that the prominence is the height of the peak's summit above the lowest contour line encircling it, but containing no higher summit within it; see Figure 1. The parent peak may be either close or far from the subject peak. The summit of Mount Everest is the parent peak of Aconcagua in Argentina at a distance of 17,755 km (11,032 miles), as well as the parent of the South Summit of Mount Everest at

1265-677: Is the Marilyn whose territory the hill's summit is in. If the hill is on an island (in Britain) whose highest point is less than 150 m, it has no parent Marilyn. Prominence parentage is the only definition used in the British Isles because encirclement parentage breaks down when the key col approaches sea level. Using the encirclement definition, the parent of almost any small hill in a low-lying coastal area would be Ben Nevis , an unhelpful and confusing outcome. Meanwhile, "height" parentage (see below)

1320-546: Is the most regulated area. Fires are not permitted; dogs must be leashed; overnight groups are limited to eight people and day groups to 15; and bear-resistant food canisters are required from April through November. Camping is prohibited above any elevation greater than 4,000 feet on any of the Adirondack High Peaks. Of the two highest peaks, Algonquin Peak is regarded as a more challenging hike than Mount Marcy . Twenty of

1375-468: The Giant Mountain summit, for a total distance of 8 miles (13 km) and 5,300 feet (1,600 m) of total ascent. Giant Mountain can also be climbed from several rock slides on its slopes. The Eagle and Bottle slides, located on the western face of the mountain, are among the most popular. The slides on Giant were enlarged by a major storm in the summer of 1963. 39 major peaks can be viewed from

1430-741: The Ridge Trail. Adirondack High Peaks The Adirondack High Peaks are a set of 46 mountain peaks in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state. They have been popular hiking destinations since the late 1920s, when the list of peaks was published in Russell Carson's book Peaks and Peoples of the Adirondacks . Those who have climbed all 46 High Peaks are eligible to join the Adirondack Forty-Sixers club. The list of peaks

1485-408: The child peak. For example, one common use of the concept of parent is to make clear the location of a peak. If we say that Peak A has Mont Blanc for a parent, we would expect to find Peak A somewhere close to Mont Blanc. This is not always the case for the various concepts of parent, and is least likely to be the case for encirclement parentage. Figure 3 shows a schematic range of peaks with

1540-467: The climate from year to year, and has been estimated by different methods to only cover between 65–85 acres (26–34 ha). The alpine ecosystem is considered extremely fragile to damage from hikers, and the Adirondack Mountain Club launched an education campaign to avoid further damage in the 1970s, since which some peaks have seen documented recovery. The Eastern High Peaks Wilderness area

1595-410: The color underlying the minor peaks indicating the encirclement parent. In this case the encirclement parent of M is H whereas an intuitive view might be that L was the parent. Indeed, if col "k" were slightly lower, L would be the true encirclement parent. The encirclement parent is the highest possible parent for a peak; all other definitions indicate a (possibly different) peak on the combined island,

1650-400: The contiguous United States, the famous list of " fourteeners " (14,000 foot / 4268 m peaks) uses a cutoff of 300 ft / 91 m (with some exceptions). Also in the U.S., 2000 ft (610 m) of prominence has become an informal threshold that signifies that a peak has major stature. Lists with a high topographic prominence cutoff tend to favor isolated peaks or those that are

1705-426: The course of 3.2 miles (5.1 km). It passes by a large pond known as Giants Washbowl 0.8 miles (1.3 km) from the trailhead. Alternatively, the Roaring Brook Trail ascends 3,375 feet (1,029 m) to the summit over 3.6 miles (5.8 km). There is a junction 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the trailhead of Roaring Brook Trail for a side trail to Roaring Brook Falls. Two other trails approach Giant Mountain from

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1760-445: The current Giant Mountain. The first hiking trail to the summit was cut by mountain guide Orson Schofield Phelps and his son Ed Phelps in 1866. A large portion of the forest on Giant and nearby Rocky Peak Ridge was destroyed by a wildfire in 1903. Five trails ascend Giant Mountain. The two western approaches are the most popular and begin on trailheads along New York State Route 73 , one near St. Huberts ("Roaring Brook Trail") and

1815-482: The disadvantage in using the encirclement parent. A hill in a low-lying area like the Netherlands will often be a direct child of Mount Everest , with its prominence about the same as its height and its key col placed at or near the foot of the hill, well below, for instance, the 113-meter-high key col of Mont Blanc . When the key col for a peak is close to the peak itself, prominence is easily computed by hand using

1870-475: The encirclement parent.) While it is natural for Aconcagua to be the parent of Denali, since Denali is a major peak, consider the following situation: Peak A is a small hill on the coast of Alaska, with elevation 100 m and key col 50 m. Then the encirclement parent of Peak A is also Aconcagua, even though there will be many peaks closer to Peak A which are much higher and more prominent than Peak A (for example, Denali). This illustrates

1925-409: The forty-six High Peaks: Lower Wolfjaw , Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong , Gothics , Saddleback , Basin , and Haystack . The Seward Range includes four out of the forty-six High Peaks: Seward , Donaldson , Emmons , and Seymour Mountain . The MacIntyre Range includes four out of the forty-six High Peaks: Mount Marshall , Wright, Algonquin and Iroquois . The Santanoni Range includes three out of

1980-415: The forty-six High Peaks: Santanoni , Panther , and Couchsachraga. The region contains many alpine lakes and meadows, wetlands, streams, and forests. Atop the highest peaks, above the tree line , lies a small alpine ecosystem , a remnant of a larger lowland tundra that retreated uphill following the most recent period of glaciation . The amount of this ecosystem is constantly changing due to variation in

2035-489: The high contour (giving in a pessimistic estimate ), the low contour (giving an optimistic estimate), their mean (giving a "midrange" or "rise" prominence ) or an interpolated value (customary in Britain). The choice of method depends largely on the preference of the author and historical precedent. Pessimistic prominence, (and sometimes optimistic prominence) were for many years used in USA and international lists, but mean prominence

2090-662: The highest point of their massif ; a low value, such as the Nuttalls', results in a list with many summits that may be viewed by some as insignificant. While the use of prominence as a cutoff to form a list of peaks ranked by elevation is standard and is the most common use of the concept, it is also possible to use prominence as a mountain measure in itself. This generates lists of peaks ranked by prominence , which are qualitatively different from lists ranked by elevation. Such lists tend to emphasize isolated high peaks, such as range or island high points and stratovolcanoes . One advantage of

2145-424: The highest points around and are likely to have extraordinary views. Only summits with a sufficient degree of prominence are regarded as independent mountains. For example, the world's second-highest mountain is K2 (height 8,611 m, prominence 4,017 m). While Mount Everest 's South Summit (height 8,749 m, prominence 11 m ) is taller than K2, it is not considered an independent mountain because it

2200-495: The key col. The encirclement parent is the highest point on this entire island. For example, the encirclement parent of Mont Blanc , the highest peak in the Alps , is Mount Everest . Mont Blanc's key col is a piece of low ground near Lake Onega in northwestern Russia (at 113 m (371 ft) elevation), on the divide between lands draining into the Baltic and Caspian Seas . This is

2255-447: The lowest contour line encircling it but containing no higher summit within it. It is a measure of the independence of a summit . The key col ("saddle") around the peak is a unique point on this contour line and the parent peak is some higher mountain, selected according to various criteria. The prominence of a peak is the least drop in height necessary in order to get from the summit to any higher terrain. This can be calculated for

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2310-435: The main sources of prominence data in Britain and Ireland. Other sources of data commonly ignore human-made alterations, but this convention is not universally agreed upon; for example, some authors discount modern structures but allow ancient ones. Another disagreement concerns mountaintop removal , though for high-prominence peaks (and for low-prominence subpeaks with intact summits), the difference in prominence values for

2365-420: The meeting place of two 113 m (371 ft) contours, one of them encircling Mont Blanc; the other contour encircles Mount Everest. This example demonstrates that the encirclement parent can be very far away from the peak in question when the key col is low. This means that, while simple to define, the encirclement parent often does not satisfy the intuitive requirement that the parent peak should be close to

2420-520: The mid-20th century placed MacNaughton Mountain at 4,000 feet (1,219 m), a more recent survey listed the mountain at 3,983 feet (1,214 m). Topographic prominence In topography , prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height , and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to

2475-508: The north. The North Trail to Giant begins from a parking lot on New York State Route 9N and proceeds 7.6 miles (12.2 km) to the summit with an ascent of 3,327 feet (1,014 m). Another trail proceeds 1.7 miles (2.7 km) from the summit of Hopkins Mountain and merges with the North Trail before continuing another 1.5 miles (2.4 km) to the summit of Giant, for a total distance of 3.2 miles (5.1 km). The East Trail begins from

2530-402: The other hand, ignores water, snow, and ice features and assumes that the surface of the earth is defined by the solid bottom of those features. The dry prominence of a summit is equal to its wet prominence unless the summit is the highest point of a landmass or island, or its key col is covered by snow or ice. If its highest surface col is on water, snow, or ice, the dry prominence of that summit

2585-435: The other near Chapel Pond ("Ridge Trail"). Due to their popularity with hikers and the number of cars exceeding available space in the summer months, parking on the shoulder of Route 73 was banned in 2019. The two trails climb the southern ridge of the mountain, merging 0.8 miles (1.3 km) south of the summit . The Ridge Trail is slightly shorter than the Roaring Brook Trail but steeper, ascending 3,050 feet (930 m) over

2640-569: The parent peak and subject peak are two separate islands. Then lower it until a tiny land bridge forms between the two islands. This land bridge is the key col of the subject peak, and the peak's prominence is its elevation from that key col. Prominence is interesting to many mountaineers because it is an objective measurement that is strongly correlated with the subjective significance of a summit. Peaks with low prominence are either subsidiary tops of some higher summit or relatively insignificant independent summits. Peaks with high prominence tend to be

2695-479: The peaks have no official trail to the top, although rough informal routes, commonly referred to as "herd paths," have developed over the years. No true bushwhacking is required on any of the peaks, although some trails are still quite primitive. The summit of Whiteface Mountain can alternatively be reached by motor vehicle on the Whiteface Mountain Veterans' Memorial Highway . Although a survey in

2750-479: The prominence or distance rule, while Little Marcy, Yard Mountain , and two then-unnamed peaks were excluded. Later surveys revealed that Blake Peak , Cliff Mountain , Couchsachraga Peak , and Nye Mountain are under 4,000 feet in elevation, but no mountains have been removed or added to the list due to tradition. All but three of the peaks are located in central and northern Essex County , primarily south of Lake Placid and Keene Valley . The others are just to

2805-516: The summit of Giant Mountain. The Dix Range can be seen to the south, the Ausable Club and Great Range to the west, Whiteface Mountain to the north, and Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont to the east. Additional views are offered from Giants Nubble, a rocky knob on the southwest ridge of Giant, which can be accessed on side trails branching off of the Roaring Brook Trail or

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2860-497: The two conventions is typically relatively small. The key col and parent peak are often close to the sub-peak but this is not always the case, especially when the key col is relatively low. It is only with the advent of computer programs and geographical databases that thorough analysis has become possible . For example, the key col of Denali in Alaska (6,194 m) is a 56 m col near Lake Nicaragua . Denali's encirclement parent

2915-598: The west in Franklin County . All of the summits are on land owned by New York State as part of its Forest Preserve . 42 are in a vast tract of nearly 300,000 acres (1,200 km ) known as the High Peaks Wilderness Area , subdivided into central (26 peaks) and outer (16 peaks) zones. Nine of the peaks in the outer zone are in an area formerly known as the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area , which

2970-706: Was added to the High Peaks Wilderness in 2018. Giant Mountain and Rocky Peak Ridge are in the adjacent Giant Mountain Wilderness Area . Whiteface Mountain and Esther Mountain are north of Lake Placid in the Wilmington Wild Forest. There are many Mountain ranges within the High Peaks. The Dix Range includes five out of the forty-six High Peaks: Macomb , Grace Peak , South Dix, Hough , and Dix Mountain . The Great Range includes seven out of

3025-704: Was originally compiled by the mountaineers Herbert Clark, Bob Marshall , and George Marshall , with input from Russell Carson. The Marshall brothers wished to climb every notable peak in the Adirondacks, which they accomplished with Clark between 1918 and 1925. The criteria used were that all peaks should be at least 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in elevation and either have 300 feet (91 m) of prominence or 0.75 miles (1.21 km) of distance from another peak. Several exceptions to these rules were made to include or exclude peaks based on their preferences; Gray Peak , Wright Peak , Armstrong Mountain , Upper Wolfjaw Mountain , and South Dix were included but did not meet either

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