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Suppose you wanted to know which mountains stand well above their surroundings rather than just have a high summit elevation with little rise above their base. One method is to calculate the rise from the lowest col on the highest possible route to a higher point, then order them from greatest to least rise irrespective of summit elevation.
Preliminary manual attempts to produce such a list with 2000 feet of drop for the Northeastern U.S. by Ron Tagliapietra were aided immeasurably by Edward Earl who used a computer algorithm on digital elevation data to produce a tentative list of New England peaks with over 1000 feet of "prominence," which is the term he gave to this calculated rise. Unfortunately the digital elevations are taken on a grid that may not hit the actual high and low points, so Roy Schweiker and Andy Martin adjusted the results manually using paper topographic maps. The following is an updated list of New Hampshire peaks with over 2000 feet of prominence, a cutoff that yields something over 50 peaks in the Northeast. Note that most of these are well known as highest in their range or area even if they are not among the highest in the state.
| Rise | Peak | Peak Elev | Col Elev | Col Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6150 | Washington, Mt | 6288 | 138 | Champlain Canal, NY |
| 3360 | Lafayette, Mt | 5260 | 1900 | Crawford Notch |
| 2932 | Moosilauke, Mt | 4802 | 1870 | Kinsman Notch |
| 2814 | Carter Dome | 4832 | 2018 | Pinkham Notch |
| 2664 | Cabot, Mt | 4170 | 1506 | Rte.2, Randolph |
| 2418 | Kinsman, S Pk | 4358 | 1940 | Franconia Notch |
| 2340 | Shaw, Mt | 2990 | 650 | Red Hill Pd, Sandwich |
| 2240 | Carrigain, Mt | 4700 | 2460 | Zealand Notch |
| 2188 | Smarts Mtn | 3238 | 1050 | Rte.25, Glencliff |
| 2169 | Monadnock Mtn | 3159 | 990 | Rte.4, Orange |
| 2100 | Kearsarge, Mt | 2930 | 830 | col SW, N Sutton |
| 2040 | Osceola, Mt | 4340 | 2300 | Mad River Notch |
Notes: Click on a peak name to see a description of that peak or a trail to it.
Click on a feature elevation to see where it is located on a topozone.com map. Where an exact elevation is not given on the map, it is calculated as the average of the contours above and below.
Col elevations are taken from USGS 7.5' maps which show altered terrain such as road and canal cuts, so the natural prominence of some peaks may be slightly lower.
While 12 doesn't sound like many peaks, neighboring Vermont has only 13 and much-larger Maine has 15 and New York 13. All of these are a lot compared to southeastern states, where Virginia has 8, North Carolina 9.5, and Tenessee 4.5.
There are 8 within the traditional boundaries of the White Mountain National Forest, surpassing Rocky Mountain National Park (4), Yellowstone National Park (4), Mount Rainier National Park (4), Yosemite National Park (5), and Olympic National Park (7), but lagging far behind Glacier National Park (24).
For a discussion of prominent mountains worldwide, join the "prominence" group at yahoo.com (Public Archive) or see more lists at peaklist.org.
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