James Stone (Clach Liath)

Mountaineering and the Volcanic Seven Summits

  • Home
  • About me
  • Volcanic Seven Summits
  • Top 50 Ultra Prominent Peaks of the World
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Blog / Ultras of the World

Ultras of the World

22nd December 2018 by James Stone Leave a Comment

Ultras?  A blog on football fans known for ultra-fanatical support?  Often with violent tendencies?  No, this is about ultra-prominent mountains, or “Ultras”.

WHAT IS A MOUNTAIN?

One of the great mountaineering goals is to climb all of the Earth’s 8000m peaks.  There are 14 of them.  Only 40 people have ever, indisputably, climbed all 14.  Everest’s South Summit lies at 8749m metres in elevation.  But the list of 14 does not include it.  This is the case notwithstanding the fact that there is no  higher summit on the Earth’s surface, other than the summit of Everest itself.

Why is this?  The answer is that when descending from Everest’s main summit to return down the Nepalese side of the mountain it is only necessary to re-ascend 11m in order to pass over the South Summit.  In other words this summit is a mere pimple on the side of Everest.

So somewhere along the line a judgement is being made as to what should constitute a separate mountain.  In the case of Everest’s South Summit that judgement is because of its lack of prominence. It has insufficient definition in its own right to be regarded as a separate mountain.

So should these judgements be subjective or objective?  In other words should a fixed physical and measurable criterion be used to determine what constitutes a mountain (and by extension a hill)? If so, what should this be?

Returning to the UK (or more accurately Scotland) for a moment, by the 1930s three hill classifications had been developed.  Each used different criteria to determine whether or not a particular summit merited inclusion in the classification.  The summits included in these classifications became known as the Munros, the Corbetts and the Donalds.

The Munros are a list of summits in excess of 3000 feet, but do not include all such summits.  Indeed the compiler of the list, Sir Hugh Munro, did not leave us with guidance on how he came up with his categorisation beyond the minimum height requirement of 3000 feet and the fact that there had to be “sufficient separation” from neighbouring peaks.  So he split his list into “mountains” and subsidiary tops.  Indeed he stated “the exact number of mountains could not be determined owing to the impossibility of deciding which were the most distinctive peaks”.

The Corbetts are a list of summits of at least 2500 feet in height but less than 3000 feet in height.  However, the compiler, John Rooke Corbett, required his summits also to have a drop all round of at least 500 feet.  This is a prominence criterion to which I return.

The Donalds are defined as elevations in the Scottish Lowlands of at least 2000ft in height with a drop of at least 50ft between each elevation and any higher elevation.  Furthermore, elevations separated from higher elevations by a drop of less than 100ft must, according to the compiler, have “sufficient topographical merit”.  The compiler of this list, Percy Donald, did not define what he meant by that phrase.

So there we have three different ways of categorising mountains or hills.  Only one, the Corbetts, uses wholly objective criteria.  The others are a combination of absolute height, subjective assessment and (in part) drop/prominence.

I return to the question “what is a separate mountain”?  The answer must combine absolute height and some distinguishing feature of the summit one is considering.

Roseberry Topping
Is this a mountain? Roseberry Topping, Yorkshire, England (320m)

In the UK we tend to think of any summit in excess of 2000 feet or 610 metres as being a mountain.  Of course, that elevation would count for nothing in the Alps or the Himalayas.  But the elevation gain from Wasdale to the summit of Scafell Pike is 2½ times that of the Eiger by its easiest route.  Is the Eiger therefore not a mountain?

Elevation must be seen in the context of the surrounding land form.  Absolute height cannot be the sole determining factor as the Everest South Summit example demonstrates.  If subjective criteria are not to determine the categorisation, then there is really only one objective measure that really works.  This is the concept of “prominence”.

It is arguable also that “isolation” is relevant.  In other words how far a particular summit is away from its nearest higher neighbour.  But that cannot be the sole determinant, otherwise a remote island atoll would meet the necessary criterion for a mountain.  Think of an island in the Maldives for example.

PROMINENCE

Prominence is a term that represents the elevation of a summit relative to the surrounding terrain.  It is defined as the elevation of a summit relative to the highest point to which one must descend before re-ascending to a higher summit.

In other words, it is the difference in elevation between a summit and the highest saddle that connects that summit to any higher terrain that gives you the prominence of that summit.

Put yet another way, prominence is the elevation difference between the summit and the lowest contour that encircles it and no higher summit.  It is the minimum height by which one would have to descend from a summit along a ridge in order to re-ascend to a higher peak.

The concept of prominence has gained a large degree of acceptance in the world of peak bagging.  In the UK Alan Dawson published in 1992 “The Relative Hills of Britain: Mountains, Munros and Marilyns”.  Here he listed what in Britain were hills that were relatively high by reference to their surrounding terrain.  There was no absolute height requirement.  All he did was to adopt a prominence criterion of 150 metres (roughly 500 feet).  He called these hills Marilyns as a play on words with Munros.  There are 1557 of them in the British Isles (excluding the Republic of Ireland).

You can read about my journey around the English Marilyns here.

Of course that begs the question as to what the prominence value should be if prominence is the objective measure to be used to determine whether or not one regards a particular summit as a separate mountain or hill.  In UK terms we have a number of listings that use different prominence values – Nuttalls (15 metres of prominence and a minimum height of 610 metres), Hewitts (30 metres and a minimum height of 610 metres), HuMPs (100 metres, no minimum height), TuMPs (30 metres, no minimum height) – in addition to the Marilyns.

A significant piece of work on the concepts of prominence and isolation by Andrew Kirmse and Jonathan de Ferranti is available here.  The paper mentions others whose contributions to research in this area should be noted.

THE ULTRAS

That brings me to the purpose of this blog.  Without determining what I might consider to be the appropriate measure to define what constitutes a mountain (because it is unlikely that there would be agreement on this), I come to the concept of Ultras.

As mentioned above, Ultras are the ultra-prominent peaks of the world.  These are summits that have a prominence of at least 1500 metres (approximately 5000 feet).  In other words, topographically, they are significant summits.  Coincidentally there are around 1500 such summits (a few more in fact).

The table below compares the ten highest mountains in the world (which are all in the Himalayas or Karakorum) with the ten most prominent mountains in the world (which have a much wider geographical spread).  Only Everest is in both lists.

K2, the second highest mountain in the world, is a lowly 22 in the prominence listings.  High points of continents and of islands and volcanoes feature highly in this top 10.

Mount Rainier
Mount Rainier, Washington – the 21st most prominent peak in the world and one with a greater prominence than K2
Rank by absolute heightHeightRank by prominenceProminence
Mount Everest (Nepal/China)8848mMount Everest (Nepal/China)8848m
K2 (Pakistan/China)8614mAconcagua (Argentina)6962m
Kanchenjunga (Nepal/India)8586mDenali (USA)6140m
Lhotse (Nepal/China)8516mKilimanjaro (Tanzania)5885m
Makalu (Nepal/China)8485mCristobal Colon (Colombia)5539m
Cho Oyu (China)8188mMount Logan (Canada)5247m
Dhaulagiri (Nepal)8167mPico de Orizaba (Mexico)4922m
Manaslu (Nepal)8163mMount Vinson (Antarctica)4892m
Nanga Parbat (Pakistan)8125mPuncak Jaya (Indonesia)4884m
Annapurna (Nepal)8091mElbrus (Russia)4741m

There are no Ultras in the British Isles.

Ben Nevis
Ben Nevis – not an Ultra

A whole host of information on the topic of prominence is available at the peaklist.org website.  I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the information there in producing this blog.  Since the Kirmse/de Ferranti paper referenced above, further detailed analysis and the availability of satellite information has led to an update in the Ultras list.

ULTRA BAGGERS

Peak bagging in the UK is a well-known pastime now whether it is the Munros, the Wainwrights in the Lake District, the Marilyns or one of the many other lists.

But does peak bagging extend to bagging Ultras?  Well the answer to this question seems to be yes.  A couple of mega baggers have climbed in excess of 300 Ultras, though there is no complete list of people who have climbed numerous Ultras.

Pico de Orizaba
Pico de Orizaba, Mexico, the 7th most prominent peak in the world. Shot taken from Volcán Malinche

There is, however, an attempt to list those who target the top 50 most prominent mountains in the world.  At the time of writing this blog, the “leaders” (at least according to the research) in this endeavour are:

Matthew Holt (UK/South Africa) with 36.

Jaime Viñals (Guatemala) with 33.

Gerry Roach (USA) with 30.

MJ Kim (South Korea) with 30.

Petter Bjørstad (Norway) with 30.

Geri Winkler (Austria) with 30.

Junko Tabei (Japan) with 28.

Bob Packard (USA) with 27.

Father Morgan Batt (Australia) with 26.

Gerhard Schmatz (Germany) with 25.

Rob Woodall (UK) with 24.

Ken Jones (USA) with 24.

In the list there is just one woman, Junko Tabei (the first woman to climb Everest).  There is a Roman Catholic priest and a South Korean with the rest being European or North American but with a British South African resident leading the pack.

[An up to date list of people who have climbed 10 or more of the top 50 Ultras is now provided in this blog.]

Elbrus
Elbrus, Russia – the 10th most prominent peak in the world

Research on and collation of the lists of those who have climbed significant numbers of Ultras (and other prominence categories) have over recent years largely been undertaken by Andy Martin of Tucson, Arizona with the help of climbers from around the world and other written sources.  Much of the information for the lists comes from a few websites. But it is difficult to obtain information about Asian climbers because of the language and script barriers.  So it is likely that the lists miss certain individuals .

Andy maintains his lists for inspection at his oldadit website.  He is always happy to receive updates and corrections.  This can be done direct or via me if any reader is aware of any person who merits inclusion on any of them.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Ultras

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Links

  • Walkhighlands
  • Peakbagger
  • Relative Hills Society
  • Parkswatchscotland
  • Mark Horrell
  • Ted Fairhurst
  • Cookie policy (UK)
  • Terms & conditions

Tags

Aconcagua Andes Antarctica Australia Ben Nevis Bolivia brumlow top Corbetts Damavand Dan Bull David Hamilton Francois Bernard Giluwe Hewitts Humour Iran Iztaccihuatl Katie Sarah Kilimanjaro Llullaillaco Marilyns Mount Bogong Mount Elbrus Mount Hagen Mount Mukal Mount Rainier Mount Sidley Munros Ojos del Salado P600 Pico de Orizaba Ruapehu satyarup siddhanta Scottish Mountains Seven Summits South America Ted Fairhurst Teide Tochal Toubkal Ultras Volcanic Seven Summits Volcanoes Yorkshire 3 Peaks Zhang Liang

Recent posts

  • Mount Sidley – January 2025 (pt 1)
  • V7S update – December 2024
  • Volcanic Seven Summits – November 2024 update
  • The Irish Furths
  • Beinn Mhor, Thacla and Beinn Corradail, South Uist

Archive

  • January 2025 (2)
  • December 2024 (1)
  • October 2024 (5)
  • September 2024 (1)
  • May 2024 (1)
  • April 2024 (3)
  • March 2024 (4)
  • February 2024 (1)
  • January 2024 (3)
  • December 2023 (1)
  • November 2023 (1)
  • July 2023 (1)
  • June 2023 (1)
  • April 2023 (1)
  • March 2023 (1)
  • February 2023 (1)
  • January 2023 (2)
  • October 2022 (2)
  • September 2022 (1)
  • August 2022 (1)
  • July 2022 (1)
  • January 2022 (1)
  • December 2021 (1)
  • November 2021 (2)
  • July 2021 (2)
  • March 2021 (2)
  • December 2020 (1)
  • November 2020 (2)
  • July 2020 (1)
  • May 2020 (2)
  • April 2020 (1)
  • March 2020 (1)
  • February 2020 (2)
  • January 2020 (6)
  • December 2019 (1)
  • November 2019 (1)
  • October 2019 (1)
  • September 2019 (1)
  • July 2019 (1)
  • January 2019 (2)
  • December 2018 (3)
  • November 2018 (2)
  • October 2018 (1)
  • September 2018 (1)
  • July 2018 (1)
  • June 2018 (3)
  • May 2018 (2)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (1)
  • February 2018 (3)
  • December 2017 (1)
  • October 2017 (4)
  • September 2017 (4)
  • August 2017 (2)
  • June 2017 (2)
  • May 2017 (1)
  • April 2017 (2)
  • February 2017 (1)
  • January 2017 (1)
  • December 2016 (2)
  • November 2016 (4)
  • October 2016 (3)
  • September 2016 (1)
  • August 2016 (1)
  • May 2016 (7)
  • April 2016 (4)
  • March 2016 (3)
  • February 2016 (1)
  • January 2016 (2)
  • December 2015 (3)
  • November 2015 (4)
  • October 2015 (4)
  • September 2015 (2)
  • August 2015 (1)
  • July 2015 (4)
  • June 2015 (1)
  • May 2015 (5)
  • April 2015 (2)
  • March 2015 (4)
  • February 2015 (1)
  • January 2015 (2)
  • December 2014 (2)
  • November 2014 (25)
  • October 2014 (2)
  • August 2014 (1)
  • June 2014 (1)
  • April 2014 (1)
  • March 2014 (1)
  • February 2014 (2)
  • August 2013 (1)
  • July 2013 (7)
  • June 2013 (3)
  • May 2013 (1)
  • April 2013 (1)
  • February 2013 (3)
  • October 2012 (1)
  • June 2012 (3)
  • April 2012 (2)
  • March 2012 (2)
  • February 2012 (3)
  • November 2011 (2)
  • August 2011 (1)
  • July 2011 (2)
  • April 2011 (1)

Copyright © James Stone 2014-2024

Manage Cookie Consent
I use cookies to optimize this website.
Functional cookies Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}