Prominence Websites, Personal Web Pages, and their Lists
The most comprehensive location for prominence information on the World Wide Web
developed and maintained by Aaron Maizlish.
Many of the prominence lists at peaklist.org were generated as part of the Ultra Project
that catalogues all 1,500+ meter prominences worldwide. Jonathan Ferranti and Aaron M.
are largely responsible for that project's success.
Additional websites and web pages containing valuable prominence information are listed here.
Original list researchers and compilers are credited within the various web pages cited. 4,5
- peakbagger.com - Run by Greg Slayden
from Washington state, this website contains an enormous number
and variety of peak lists;
with prominence but one of several organizing themes.
- ii.uib.no/~petter -
The web pages of Petter Bjørstad from Bergen, Norway.
Norwegian and Scandinavian prominence lists, maps, and Petter's personal
- bubl.ac.uk -
The Relative Hills of Britain by Alan Dawson, in web format. All Marilyns (500+ foot prominences)
in Great Britain are listed - unfortunately ranked by elevation rather than prominence.
- howbert.netherweb.com -
These Washington and Oregon lists are made available by Jeff Howbert.
- peakbagging.com -
From the personal website of Richard Carey in San Diego, California.
- Rhinoclimbs.com -
From the personal website of John Roper in Washington state.
- ryananderin.org -
This site contains peak lists for Colorado based on elevation (what's THAT?) and prominence.
- bivouac.com -
A Canadian mountain website with an interesting discussion of prominence cells.
- listsofjohn.com -
Run by John Kirk in Colorado, this web page lists all
2,000+ foot prominences in the contiguous, 48 United States.
- home.earthlink.net/~ellozy -
The New England Fifty Finest list (Andy Martin and Roy Schweiker)
hosted at Mohamed Ellozy's web pages.
- home.earthlink.net/~esquared -
From the personal web pages of Edward Earl,
one finds lists of county prominences for
the majority of states.
- cohp.org/prominence/ - The prominence section of this (county highpoints) website.
The most comprehensive prominence peak lists are located at
An overview of available lists at that website follows.
The following lists are uniquely found at other websites - including cohp.org .
In many cases the listed websites duplicate information found at peaklist.org.
The corresponding prominence peaklists are not recorded here,
i.e. only nonduplicated peaklist information is provided below.
Prominence Climbing Records
- Greg Slayden's prominence lists
(world 4,000 meter list; North America 2,000 meter and 7,000 foot lists;
Canadian lists: all-Canada, British Columbia, eastern Canada, Labrador;
50 state largest prominences)
- worldwide Top 100 list
(by David Metzler and Eberhard Jurgalski)
Earth octant and latitudinal prominences
- Petter Bjørstad's prominence lists
(specializing in Europe, Scandinavia, Norway, and Sweden)
- Alan Dawson's Marilyn lists
(specializing in the hills of Great Britain)
- state prominences
(largest in state and state highpoint's prominence - by Edward Earl)
- Andy Martin's prominence lists
- Sonora, Mexico 2,000 foot prominences
- Jeff Howbert's lists
(specializing in the peaks of Oregon and Washington)
- Alaska Ultra (5,000+ foot) prominences
- Arizona 1,000 foot prominences
(by Scott Surgent)
- California top 201 prominences
(1,850 foot cutoff value)
- Colorado 1,000 foot prominences
- Colorado 1,000 foot prominences
- Washington 3,000 foot prominences
- Washington prominences at multiple cutoff levels
(hosted by John Roper)
- all 2,000+ foot prominence county highpoints
(Save this Excel spreadsheet to your hard drive and open with Microsoft Excel.)
- Fifty Finest Eastern county highpoints
The most comprehensive listings are available at this website as
Additional information is found as the
Lists of John maintained by John Kirk.
the Front Runner Lists (FRL) maintained by Andy Martin.
A partial listing of the FRL categories is provided by these hyperlinks.
There, both 2,000 and 5,000 foot lists for the contiguous, 48 United States
are maintained in an automated database.
Adam Helman has studied the distribution of values
in certain climber record lists.
Prominence List Cutoff Definitions
One issue that has not been adequately addressed are the inconsistencies that arise from some
prominence lists using a clean prominence cutoff; while others use a
mean ("interpolated") prominence cutoff value. The cutoff criterion choice
also determines the peak ranking within each list.
Please read this web page prior to interpreting
the content of any
prominence peaklist, prominence map, or set of prominence-oriented
Until all prominence peaklists and climbing records are converted to mean prominence,
it is recommended that all list authors indicate which cutoff definition they employ.
In the future when all lists consistently use mean prominence it can then be assumed as a given
An elaborate description comparing and contrasting prominence definitions is
available with detailed derivations,
examples and discussion.
World, Continental, Regional, and Statewide Maps
Prominence maps of international scope are available via hyperlinks from
Aaron Maizlish's main prominence lists web page.
In the following maps, summits are shown with at least 2,000 feet of prominence except where indicated.
Prominence cutoff values in various states for distinguishing peaks from subpeaks (Jerry Brekhus).
Prominence Cell Maps
Prominence Cell-Based Completion Maps
County-Based Completion Maps
Color-Coded Elevation Maps
Aconcagua is the highest and most prominent mountain outside of Asia (22,841 feet = 6,962 meters).
The following three maps were produced by Adam Helman using Winprom prominence software,
and display Aconcagua and vicinity at different scales.
Aconcagua's elevation and prominence are both 22,841 feet (6,962 meters).
Raised Relief Maps
Kansas and Saskatchewan compete for being "flatter" by some definition of the latter.
The following two maps were produced by Edward Earl and provide insight into the matter.
A description is available.
Prominence Parent Hierarchies and Distance Ladders
Peaks ordered by ascending prominence from
local hills to the planetary highpoint.
Prominence is the elevation of a summit relative to the highest point
to which one must descend before reascending to a higher summit.
- Aaron Maizlish has an elaborate
section on prominence theory
at his prominence website.
- Edward Earl
described prominence several years ago as THE main, on-line prominence reference
prior to the advent of Aaron's website. Click here to view this discussion.
- Adam Helman has described in detail
the various "flavors" of prominence, comparing them insofar as gray-zone peak
list placement issues and error distribution.
A new measure intimately related to prominence is defined and discussed.
Prominence List Creation Resources
- Topozone.com - Provides United States coverage. An excellent resource.
- Maptech.com - United States coverage for
aeronautical, nautical, topographic charts and photographs.
- Terraserver.com - Worldwide satellite image database
with 15 meters maximum resolution.
E-mail Edward Earl
to obtain the latest version Winprom software.
- SRTM - The SRTM digitized database.
Coverage is global except for poleward of both 60° parallels.
The SRTM3 and SRTM30 subdirectories contain the Winprom-compatible data at respectively 3" and 30" resolution.
- GTOPO30 -
Worldwide digital maps at 30 arcsecond resolution.
- GLOBE -
The Global Land One-km Base Elevation Project,
a 30" (1-km) gridded, quality-controlled global Digital Elevation Model (DEM).
- 1:250,000 scale USGS DEM maps -
The downloadable files are listed alphabetically instead of by geographic coordinates.
The Finest Peaks -
Researched and written by Adam Helman,
this is a comprehensive description of prominence, with nine chapters, seven appendices,
and 48 pages of illustrations.
Alternative mountain metrics are discussed, such as isolation measure and spire measure.
contributed significantly to the content; and the stories plus lists for dozens of prominence
researchers and peakbaggers are included.
This book is available as a softcover, black and white edition for $25; and as a beautiful,
hardcover, color edition for $55 plus shipping charges (241 pgs, ISBN 1-4120-5995-x).
VIEW THE COLOR ILLUSTRATIONS
County High Points by Andy Martin
lists the 3,140+ county highpoints for all 50 states.
Lists are also given for high prominence peaks and National Park highpoints.
A short description of prominence is included.
Book details and ordering information.
Other Objective Mountain Measures
Dominance is a peak's prominence divided by the summit elevation.
Isolation measure has several alternative definitions, including, most commonly,
the distance to the nearest higher summit from a given peak.
Spire measure is a height-steepness combination measure that rewards peaks
with large, local vertical relief and/or high angle slopes all-about.
Steepness of the terrain surrounding summits for fixed horizontal distances.
Multiplication of prominence by isolation distance is one example of a combination measure.
- Tim Worth discusses steepness
and provides steepness lists on a state-by-state basis, e.g.
Steepnesses for all angles about peaks are calculated, with the maximum,
minimum and mean values reported.
NED (National Elevation Database) is the input dataset.
- Adam Helman provides a detailed discussion
with several graphs
and several tables
of prominence/isolation taken in combination.
- John Roper,
and Steve Fry - Determined the prominences of 2,000 peaks in Washington and Oregon.
- Andy Martin - Prepared "Fifty Finest" lists
(the most prominent fifty mountains) for the states of Arizona and Nevada; and prepared a
Twenty Finest list for Hawaii. He also determined the most prominent peak in each county
of Arizona and Nevada.
- Edward Earl - Developed a computer
program to find the prominence of all peaks in a given area using digital elevation data.
The results have been used by other prominence pioneers to assist in their work.
- Roy Schweiker - Prepared a list of the most
prominent mountains in New Hampshire.
- Ron Tagliapietra - Prepared a list of the western United States 4,000+ foot prominence peaks,
and the eastern United States 2,000+ foot prominence peaks.
- Andy Martin,
Ron Tagliapietra, David Olson, Edward Earl,
and Carl Mills - Determined the most prominent peak
in each of the fifty United States.
- Adam Helman - Wrote the first book devoted
specifically to prominence. See this section for details.
Ultra Peak Climbing Descriptions
- In Celebration of California's 50th Highest Prominence
- The California Fifty Finest list was first completed
on Sunday May 19, 2002 by Gordon McLeod and Barbara Lilly in the presence of interested hikers.
Gordon's account of the experience is provided here.
- Baja California
- A prominence-oriented expedition to Baja California in March 2004
with Bob Packard, Andy Martin, and Adam Helman.
- California Fifty Finest Completion Weekend
- The California Fifty Finest list was completed in early October 2005
by Gail Hanna, Richard Carey, and Edward Earl in the presence of interested hikers.
Adam Helman's account of the experience is provided here.
- New Mexico November 2005
- A week of prominence-oriented peakbagging with Bob Packard and Adam Helman.
The highlights include Florida Peak (NM) and Dos Cabezas Peak (AZ) with the
additional participants John Hamann, Richard Carey, and Edward Earl.
- southeast Asia 2007
- Five weeks of climbing large prominence mountains in Malaysia and Indonesia.
These include four of Earth's Fifty Finest, seven of the World Top 100,
five island highpoints, and the Malaysia highpoint.
Robert Woodall, Bob Packard, and Adam Helman participated.
- A marshy, mosquito-infested account from June 2008 on reaching the provincial
prominent point in the Pasquia Hills by Adam Helman (with Bob Packard).
- Boulder Peak - By Richard Carey. Gail Hanna inspects
the weathered benchmark and leaves a new register on the summit - a prominent peak and highpoint
of the Marble Mountains Wilderness in northern California. The day saw rain yet overall the
hike was nice. Richard and Gail both live in San Diego.
1 Written by Adam Helman.
2 All prominence list and map cutoff definitions use
mean prominence unless indicated otherwise.
3 Remove ".county" for the E-mail addresses to function.
4 All responsible web authors will create hyperlinks to THIS web page
as it links to most on-line prominence content.
5 I want to learn about any completely new prominence content
for possible listing here.
E-mail me at your convenience.
-- -- -- -- next tour link (of the county highpoints website) -- -- -- --