Four Thousand Footers Q&A

How many 4000-foot mountains are there in New Hampshire? The answer is: it depends.

The Geographic Names database of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) lists 60.
The book "The Mountains of New Hampshire" by Mary Louise Hancock of the N.H. State Planning and Development Commission (1949) lists 56.
The Four Thousand Footer Committee of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) used to say 46, then 47, now 48.
The Trailwrights issued a list of 72.

Why are there different mountains on these lists?

The USGS and Hancock list only named summits, while the AMC and Trailwrights include summits with unofficial names or no name at all.
The USGS and Hancock include minor spurs if they have names, while the AMC requires a 200 foot rise above a joining col to be included. The Trailwrights obtain a longer list by using only a 100 foot rise and also including named summits regardless of rise.
The USGS used newer maps than Hancock, and they sometimes disagree on whether a minor spur should be considered a summit.
The USGS and Hancock lists each contain a summit with incorrect elevation that shouldn't be listed.

Why are the elevations sometimes different for the same mountain?

The book "The Mountains of New Hampshire" by Mary Louise Hancock of the N.H. State Planning and Development Commission was published in 1949 and uses elevations from the older 15' maps, while the other lists use the newer 7.5' maps.
The USGS and Hancock use a specified elevation where available, while the AMC and the Trailwrights use the highest point even if no elevation is given for it.
For peaks without a given elevation on the map, the Four Thousand Footer Committee list gives an estimated elevation by adding half the contour interval to the highest contour, while the other lists just use the highest contour elevation.
And there are just some map-reading errors.

Why did the AMC change its list?

The original list was based on USGS 15' quadrangles, some from the 1930s. Newer maps showed that an unnamed summit near Galehead Hut deserved to be on the list, and later it was voted to add The Cliffs of Mt. Bond.
The list changed again (but not the number of peaks) when newer USGS maps and a more accurate survey by Brad Washburn both showed that the "D" peak of Wildcat Ridge was higher than the "E" peak. The South peak of Mt. Hancock was retained despite its questionable status.

What about the change in the Trailwrights list?

As of January 2004, the NW peak of Hancock replaces the middle peak of Hancock on their list. Actually, by the criterion of a 100-foot col both peaks belong on the list.
However Mt. Lethe probably should not have been included since Lethe is not an official name according to the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, the peak they call Lethe is probably not the peak allegedly given that name, and with three 20-foot contours it does not meet the 100-foot col rule.

So if I climb these peaks I get a patch?

Not quite. The AMC requires that you climb and descend the peaks under your own power, so you not only aren't allowed to take the cog railway up Mt. Washington, you can't take it down either. Thus your "finishing" party should be held only when you get back to the parking lot, at least it saves lugging all those goodies up the mountain :-)
The Trailwrights allow you to count only one summit per hike, so if you climb several peaks such as Mts. Tom, Field, and Willey together you can count only one from that trip. They also require you to do 72 hours of trail construction or maintenance work to go along with your 72 peaks. Fortunately, they offer a full schedule of work trips and will teach you how to do it.
The State of NH and the USGS don't give 4000-footer awards regardless of which peaks you climb.

Where can I find out which peaks are on which list?

The lists themselves are compared in the Comparative Table of 4000-Footers
For the AMC list in spreadsheet form along with suggestions on how to climb it (and the Trailwrights list in HTML), see the New England Peakbagging web site