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I didn't know about the 1,000 foot rule. I live just to the west of Roper Mountain (1168 feet) and a few miles to the east of Paris Mountain (1627 feet), and am surprised they both qualify as mountains. I tend to think of both of them as foothills rather than real mountains (the Appalachians are a little over an hour to the west).
That is because the "rule" is based on prominence, not elevation. Those peaks are over 1,000 feet in elevation above sea level, but they only rise a few hundred feet above the surrounding area.
That is because the "rule" is based on prominence, not elevation. Those peaks are over 1,000 feet in elevation above sea level, but they only rise a few hundred feet above the surrounding area.
Go to a certain pond ("Badwater Basin") in Death Valley, California. Good luck finding a trail in an upward direction. You might climb only a few hundred feet, but it's steep as all get-out. Finally after some hours you get up to a narrow ledge, from which the view is stunning.
At that point you realize you've climbed a mountain. Because there's a sign halfway up the torturous, rocky, blazingly hot incline. Read it, and you'll realize you've finally reached.... Sea Level.
Plot: The film is set in 1917, with World War I in the background, and revolves around two English cartographers, the pompous George Garrad and his junior, Reginald Anson. They arrive at the fictional Welsh village of Ffynnon Garw ([ˈfən.nɔn ˈɡa.ru] "Rough Fountain" or "Rough Spring" in Welsh) to measure its "mountain" – only to cause outrage when they conclude that it is only a hill because it is slightly short of the required height of 1000 feet (305 m).
The villagers, aided and abetted by wily local, Morgan the Goat, and the Reverend Mr Jones who, after initially opposing the scheme, grasps its symbolism in restoring the community's war-damaged self-esteem, conspire to delay the cartographers' departure while they build an earth mound on top of the hill and make it high enough to be considered a mountain.
I've hiked and climbed all over. That said, some "mountains" are relatively easy to summit and some "hills" can be quite taxing. When I think of mountains my mind immediately goes to the Rockies.
Go to a certain pond ("Badwater Basin") in Death Valley, California. Good luck finding a trail in an upward direction. You might climb only a few hundred feet, but it's steep as all get-out. Finally after some hours you get up to a narrow ledge, from which the view is stunning.
At that point you realize you've climbed a mountain. Because there's a sign halfway up the torturous, rocky, blazingly hot incline. Read it, and you'll realize you've finally reached.... Sea Level.
There is rarely a pond at Badwater. The basin is dry except for brief periods after occasional heavy rains in the nearby mountains, which aren't all that common. Anyway, sea level near Badwater is not by any means the summit of a mountain.
The summits of Coffin Peak and Mount Perry are within four miles east of Badwater (yes, it's possible to climb them from Badwater without any special gear or techniques, but one will have to be fit and have stamina) but they are both well over 5000' above sea level. So just because there's a sub-sea level area nearby, those aren't indisputably mountains and would be even if Badwater was at an elevation above sea level.
Coffin Peak with a TP of 330 ft (100 m) is indisputably a hill, not a mountain.
Mount Perry, on the other hand, at a TP of 1276 ft (389 m) fits the definition of most geologists, albeit not by much.
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