THE WORLD ULTRAS HOMEPAGE

A major project to precisely catalog every mountain in the world with 1,500 meters (4,921') of prominence.



About the Ultras Project

In 2004-2006, the authors of the Ultras Project researched and mapped every summit on earth believed to have 1,500 meters (4,921') or more of prominence. In total, we have calculated 1,524 such peaks (as of June 10, 2007). The research has been done through a combination of checking published maps and resources with detailed analysis of the SRTM data.

Based on the principles explained in the theory of prominence, we now have a robust calculation of the number of mountains on earth.

Prominence is instrumental to our understanding of what constitutes a unique mountain. For example, many hikers recognize 300' (or some local variant) as a minimum criterion for inclusion of summits on a list; the separation of peaks from sub-peaks. Mountains above any prominence cutoff share certain characteristics, and as a result there are several conventions as to standard prominence threshholds. Four values in particular are widely applied to prominence listings on peaklist.org. The highest cutoff is the 1,500 meter cutoff for Ultra-Prominences - a de facto standard for "really-big" or "world-class" summits. Other conventions are 600m (or 2,000') for major mountains, 150m (or 500') for all minor mountains, and 100m (or 300') for all summits. By popular convention in the U.S., hills with less than 300' prominence are considered sub-summits.

With the google earth Ultras kml, you will see that the Ultras are well distributed all over the world. The dataset includes famous summits of course; highpoints of continents and major cordilleras including 13 of the 14 8,000 meter Himalayan peaks. Other ultras are singular islands and volcanoes. Large numbers of ultras languish in relative obscurity; minor range highpoints in the AmericanPiz Bernina West or Central Asia, rocky peaks extending above the Antarctic icecap, isolated foothills in the Italian Alps, and unnamed summits in the B.C. Coast Ranges.

Cataloging the ultras has been a major undertaking, and there is still some work to be done. Topographic map coverage worldwide is both spotty and inconsistent. Certain countries with accurate and publicly available surveys, such as the US were fairly straight-forward to map. Other regions of the world were not possible to compute until the release of shuttle (SRTM) data. The SRTM DEM has allowed us to apply a consistent methodology for identifying ultras, and enabled us to generate accurate lists for Asia, South America, and Africa. Through this analysis, we have been able to correct numerous major and consistent errors in published summit elevations, and to assign prominence values (outside the polar regions) to a much higher degree of certainty than would be possible with only paper maps. In the long term though, determination of summit elevations and prominence beyond approximately ±15 meters (±50 feet) for much of the world will be dependent on accurate ground surveys, or new more detailed DEMs.

What kind of mountains make ultra-prominences?

The countries with the greatest numbers of Ultras are 1) China, 2) Canada, and 3) USA. More than half of the US ultras are in Alaska. Slightly more than half of the Ultras are in Eurasia.

There are about 165 island highpoints (11% of the total ultras) in the list. There are also a substantial number of other ultras on islands that are not the highest point of the island; notably on Greenland, New Guinea, Sumatera, Java, Honshu, and Vancouver Island.

Well over 200 volcanoes make the list; Kamchatka and the Aleutian Islands alone account for about 50. Prominence tends to favor high volcanoes; which often tower over their local surroundings for 360˚.

Some of the most famous high ranges in the world have few ultras. For example California's Sierra Nevada counts only Mt. Whitney, its highest point. The Pyrenees contribute its highpoint, Monte Aneto. Major ranges with famously high passes, those that appear to form solid walls of alpine terrain, lack a high number of ultras along their central spine. The Alps have more ultras in their foothills than along the central spine. The Caucasus merits only seven ultras. Bhutan only four.

High elevation is not necessarily a great indicator of frequency either. High plateaux, such as the Bolivian Altiplano and the Tibetan Plateau have infrequent ultras. The Karakoram on the other hand has the world's highest density of Ultras, given its high jagged peaks and low cols.

Glaciation is a great indicator of prominence. Prominences are frequent where glaciated valleys create low saddles and summits are high. In some heavily glaciated foothills, glacier carved valleys adjoin in the back, creating mountain "foothill" islands with high prominences. We see this in British Columbia and the Southern Andes as well as in Northern Italy. British Columbia alone has almost 100 ultras, about 7% of the world's total.

Ultras on Google Earth

Download the complete set of Ultras in KML for use with Google Earth: Ultras-KMZ-file (does not automatically download with all browsers)

Important: All of the contents of the Ultras file are ©2004-2007 by peaklist.org. Permission is granted for single-site, non-commercial use. By downloading this file you agree not to use or reproduce this file nor any data contained therein for any purpose, including but not limited to reposting of any portion of the contents on the internet, publication by electronic, written or other media, and excerpting summary data. Citations of the source must reference the copyright holder and the authors of the Ultras database, as contained on this website. The authors wish to thank Kai Pieper of Atlogis for compiling the kmz file.

The lists of the Worlds Ultras

The world is presented below in 43 lists by political-geographical region. Each list includes some footnotes describing controversies in summit elevations and prominence values. If you have more precise data that you believe is based on newer, technical surveys, we would like to hear from you.

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* Note that the current total is 1,524. This will be corrected as lists are updated.

Key to Data Quality:

Note: Although we say with confidence that there are 1,524 Ultras, there is an error range inherent in our sources of data: Summit elevation values vary greatly in quality from nation to nation. Saddles are mostly based on SRTM data. Saddles tend to be easier to interpolate from DEMs than summits as they are often in broad flat areas or at least in wide passes. We believe that SRTM derived saddle elevations are probably accurate 95% of the time within 15 meters (i.e. there is a 30 meter range). Saddle elevations are more accurate where we have had the benefit of detailed national surveys such as the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. Thus we believe a likely range for the true number of ultras is ±10.

How about the largest ones?

Following is the superior list of the World's Top 50 mountains by prominence. This list has been a collaborative effort by David Metzler, Eberhard Jurgalski, and Jonathan de Ferranti. The Top 10, not surprisingly, includes all seven of the fabled seven summits (Carstenz rule). Prominence after all does favor the highest points of things. The other 3 in the top 10 are all in the Americas.

Take me to the complete list of the World's Top 50


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