The Mountain Challenge
26 Jan 2018 06:18 #72705
by AndrewP
The Mountain Challenge was created by AndrewP
The idea for this originated with Murch’s Khulu list, which lists “3000m peaks in South Africa”. It expands the list to include Lesotho as well for the simple reason that the mountains do that for us. And, to avoid having a list of 1000+ bumps, toughens the definition somewhat to bring down the list to a "managable" number.
The definition of a mountain is not consistent around the world, so for the purpose of this challenge, I will use a suggestion of 7% topographic prominence (thus over 210m prominence). It is then roughly in line with lists for the Andes and the 8000m peaks.
This of course needs an accurate height reading of not only the summit, but also the key saddle for each peak. Maps tend to disagree on peak heights and hardly ever show the exact height of a saddle. I thus concede that this list is not 100% accurate and will happily accept any corrections or refinements to the list. The list retains a cut-off of 3000m and covers not only South Africa, but Lesotho as well.
I have used SRTM-1 data for the analysis, and have backed it up with sanity checks against the contours and/or (very limited) spot heights on maps and my own GPS readings where available. Many of the peaks are not named on the maps, so the names I have provided are a combination of names extracted from South African maps, Lesotho 1:50000 maps, and where no name presented itself, I made one up based on its location relative to a named peak. I hope that one day someone can assist with proper naming of the peaks.
It turns out that there are 50 mountains with a height > 3000m and 7% prominence within the Drakensberg / Maluti range. These are the "giants" of the range.
The challenge is to summit each of these.
Please note that in a few cases, I have listed 2 or more co-ordinates for the mountain, which is a roundabout way to account for known data discrepancies. In each case, summit each of the listed points to claim the mountain:
- Hodgeson’s Peaks. SRTM puts the North peak as higher but my GPS puts the South peak as higher.
- Pelá-Tsoeu. There are 2 summits within a short distance of each other at the same height.
- Icidi Back Ridge and Icidi Buttress are of almost identical height.
- Cathedral Peak is listed by SRTM height as 2997m, but it is generally considered to be 3004m hence its inclusion.
The list is here:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/downloads/download/6-drakensberg-peaks/205-3000m-mountain-list.html
For info, 15 of these mountains are in (or on the border with) South Africa. They are marked with an *
The challenge is open to anyone, and the peak may be summitted at any time. An honesty system will be used, but please record GPS waypoints of all summits so that we can gather further data for the mountain heights in an attempt to generate a more accurate list.
Background reading for anyone interested:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_lists
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Radar_Topography_Mission
www.vertical-endeavour.com/downloads/download/6-drakensberg-peaks/185-murch-list-of-khulus.html
The definition of a mountain is not consistent around the world, so for the purpose of this challenge, I will use a suggestion of 7% topographic prominence (thus over 210m prominence). It is then roughly in line with lists for the Andes and the 8000m peaks.
This of course needs an accurate height reading of not only the summit, but also the key saddle for each peak. Maps tend to disagree on peak heights and hardly ever show the exact height of a saddle. I thus concede that this list is not 100% accurate and will happily accept any corrections or refinements to the list. The list retains a cut-off of 3000m and covers not only South Africa, but Lesotho as well.
I have used SRTM-1 data for the analysis, and have backed it up with sanity checks against the contours and/or (very limited) spot heights on maps and my own GPS readings where available. Many of the peaks are not named on the maps, so the names I have provided are a combination of names extracted from South African maps, Lesotho 1:50000 maps, and where no name presented itself, I made one up based on its location relative to a named peak. I hope that one day someone can assist with proper naming of the peaks.
It turns out that there are 50 mountains with a height > 3000m and 7% prominence within the Drakensberg / Maluti range. These are the "giants" of the range.
The challenge is to summit each of these.
Please note that in a few cases, I have listed 2 or more co-ordinates for the mountain, which is a roundabout way to account for known data discrepancies. In each case, summit each of the listed points to claim the mountain:
- Hodgeson’s Peaks. SRTM puts the North peak as higher but my GPS puts the South peak as higher.
- Pelá-Tsoeu. There are 2 summits within a short distance of each other at the same height.
- Icidi Back Ridge and Icidi Buttress are of almost identical height.
- Cathedral Peak is listed by SRTM height as 2997m, but it is generally considered to be 3004m hence its inclusion.
The list is here:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/downloads/download/6-drakensberg-peaks/205-3000m-mountain-list.html
For info, 15 of these mountains are in (or on the border with) South Africa. They are marked with an *
The challenge is open to anyone, and the peak may be summitted at any time. An honesty system will be used, but please record GPS waypoints of all summits so that we can gather further data for the mountain heights in an attempt to generate a more accurate list.
Background reading for anyone interested:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topographic_prominence
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_lists
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Radar_Topography_Mission
www.vertical-endeavour.com/downloads/download/6-drakensberg-peaks/185-murch-list-of-khulus.html
The following user(s) said Thank You: jamcligeo, ghaznavid, tonymarshall, Viking, Biomech, Christinejvr
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26 Jan 2018 12:22 #72708
by ghaznavid
Replied by ghaznavid on topic The Mountain Challenge
There are some funnies on there - but with fieldwork, we can refine it into a more definite list. Thanks for all the work, looking forward to bagging these!
I've got 19 of those so far - all 15 in SA, plus Thabana Ntlenyana, Tsepeng, Mqatsheni and Thaba Ntso. I have set out to do Morake a few times, but always get distracted by something else, most recently myself and Hobbit built a snowman instead of climbing it on a day hike (July 2016). 31 to go...
I've got 19 of those so far - all 15 in SA, plus Thabana Ntlenyana, Tsepeng, Mqatsheni and Thaba Ntso. I have set out to do Morake a few times, but always get distracted by something else, most recently myself and Hobbit built a snowman instead of climbing it on a day hike (July 2016). 31 to go...
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