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Making molehills out of mountains

Maister

Maister

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For the record, this is what actual mountains look like:

images



The Green Mountains of Vermont or the Iron Mountains of Michigan are actually big hills.

images


Moderator note:

split from RTDNTOTO
 
Maister said:
For the record, this is what actual mountains look like:

images



The Green Mountains of Vermont or the Iron Mountains of Michigan are actually big hills.

images
Click to expand...

you know, there's a better way to get me posting in here again :h:

lol

whatever you say, btw, on the mountains - New England Mountains are majestic and on a human scale - the mountains to the west are breathtaking and out of scale cool - can't compare

:science::m::unitedstates::canada::c::balloon::redstar:
 
Consider this article about the Wellsville Mountains in Utah -

Question: I've heard that the Wellsville Mountains are the steepest range in the world. Is this true?

Answer: It's possible, but it's better to say that they are among the steepest mountain ranges of the world.
Click to expand...
http://news.hjnews.com/news/what-s-...cle_1bbaccc0-d5ae-11e4-a861-036ee2ef327f.html

If you ever been to Logan Utah (Utah State University) - from Old Main Hill you can look to the west to Wellsville's and from the quad or football stadium you can look to Logan Peak
http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net...es/7/7f/Romney_Stadium_-_October_20,_2012.jpg
http://img.ksl.com/slc/2567/256723/25672378.jpg

Not that I am bragging.
 
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For a while, the recognizable threshold was 1000 feet by many geographers. But the USGS does not have an official measurement today.

merriam-webster.com said:
Full Definition of MOUNTAIN

1
a : a landmass that projects conspicuously above its surroundings and is higher than a hill
b : an elongated ridge
2
a : a great mass
b : a vast number or quantity
Click to expand...

merriam-webster.com said:
Full Definition of HILL

1: a usually rounded natural elevation of land lower than a mountain
2: an artificial heap or mound (as of earth)
3: several seeds or plants planted in a group rather than a row
4: slope, incline
Click to expand...
 
I see this every day from my seat on the light rail. I lived in the Pampas of Argentina. I find flat land very disorienting and it makes me feel panicky.

westminster-framed-by-the-wasatch.jpg
 
I've always looked at Arizona going from big hills to mountains.

Camelback Mountain in Phoenix might meet the technical definitions of a mountain and compared to my life in Kansas it's freaking Everest, but it's a big hill to me. Granted a 1 1/2 mile hike to the top, but still a big hill.
Camelback-Mountain.jpg


San Francisco Peak is a full on mountain with sky resorts and everything needed to be called one.
the-san-francisco-peaks-of-flagstaff-freshly.jpg
 
ursus said:
I see this every day from my seat on the light rail. I lived in the Pampas of Argentina. I find flat land very disorienting and it makes me feel panicky.
Click to expand...

Don't come to Kansas! It's not entirely flat like rumors say, but rolling hills is flat enough and I can't even really call them hills when the grain mill is taller than most of them. It's enough to hide a cop on the other side though.
 
In a similar vein, I get a chuckle out of folks in various parts of the country who speak of their "lakes."

I'm sorry, sir, but that is what we here in Michigan commonly refer to as a pond.

images


I'm familiar with what an actual lake looks like.

images
images
 
Again, Arizona can compete in the lake game. Granted they aren't Great Lakes, but at least they're big enough for things like house boats, getting lost, and losing sight of the shore. Although there are some large ponds that are perfect for fishing and avoiding annoying people from Michigan talking about how big their lakes are.

Just for Ursus, Camelback happens to be a jived up dirty mountain. You'll be jived up with all the women hiking it (some in full makeup), but then you get to the top and see the dirty smog cloud that covers Phoenix.
 
ursus said:
I see this every day from my seat on the light rail. I lived in the Pampas of Argentina. I find flat land very disorienting and it makes me feel panicky.

westminster-framed-by-the-wasatch.jpg
Click to expand...

don't mind me, I am just making a mental note you lived in Argentina
 
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

Missionary. :) Speaking of which, my nephew is currently freezing his arse off with you in Maine, "doing his time" as it were. My brother just told me he's working in a little town in Maine somewhere right now, but he couldn't remember the name. If you see a fairly short mormon kid with spiky blonde hair riding a bike and looking like he wants to cry - that's my nephew, Travis. Tell him I said hey, and I hope he's having a jived up dirty time on his mission.

:)
 
JNA said:
Hey ursus - did you like my shout out for the Wellsvilles ?
Click to expand...

Beautiful. You need to come back out and see them again, you know. Speaking of the Wellsvilles, I think my family is going to spend Christmas at the Bear Lake cabin. I'm going to drive up Logan Canyon with the Wellsvilles behind me December 23rd and it's going to feel like I live in a Christmas card. Ho ho ho. :)
 
Regarding Camelback Mountain - While I've seen/been to some noteworthy mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Katahdin, and various places in the Alps in Slovenia, Spain, and Austria, the Apennine in Italy, the Balkans...) Camelback is the only mountain I can think of that I've been to the top of.

Maister said:
In a similar vein, I get a chuckle out of folks in various parts of the country who speak of their "lakes."

I'm sorry, sir, but that is what we here in Michigan commonly refer to as a pond...
Click to expand...

dvdneal said:
Again, Arizona can compete in the lake game. Granted they aren't Great Lakes, but at least they're big enough for things like house boats, getting lost, and losing sight of the shore. Although there are some large ponds that are perfect for fishing and avoiding annoying people from Michigan talking about how big their lakes are.
Click to expand...

No. No it can't compete. Those "big" "lakes" (both terms deserve their own individual set of air quotes here) in Arizona are neither big nor lakes! If they're man made, I don't think they should count. Besides, people who haven't spent much time around the Great Lakes typically underestimate how big they are.

"Lake" Mead is the biggest in Arizona at 247 square miles of surface area.
Lake St. Clair, which is in between Lakes Erie and Huron is 430 square miles... nearly double that of "Lake" Mead and isn't even a great lake.
Lake Erie, the smallest Great Lake is nearly 10,000 square miles and 40x bigger than Mead.
Lake Superior is nearly 130x bigger than Mead.

I will however say that the lakes out in Arizona are absolutely gorgeous. There's just something I find so strikingly beautiful about the lakes in such an otherwise so arid climate.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Regarding Camelback Mountain - While I've seen/been to some noteworthy mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Katahdin, and various places in the Alps in Slovenia, Spain, and Austria, the Apennine in Italy, the Balkans...) Camelback is the only mountain I can think of that I've been to the top of.





No. No it can't compete. Those "big" "lakes" (both terms deserve their own individual set of air quotes here) in Arizona are neither big nor lakes! If they're man made, I don't think they should count. Besides, people who haven't spent much time around the Great Lakes typically underestimate how big they are.

"Lake" Mead is the biggest in Arizona at 247 square miles of surface area.
Lake St. Clair, which is in between Lakes Erie and Huron is 430 square miles... nearly double that of "Lake" Mead and isn't even a great lake.
Lake Erie, the smallest Great Lake is nearly 10,000 square miles and 40x bigger than Mead.
Lake Superior is nearly 130x bigger than Mead.

I will however say that the lakes out in Arizona are absolutely gorgeous. There's just something I find so strikingly beautiful about the lakes in such an otherwise so arid climate.
Click to expand...

1st, Camelback is a great hike isn't it? Good view of the city and the ladies (or men).

Personally, I'm well aware of how big the Great Lakes are, maybe not as much as other from Michigan, but I've seen 'em. If you have ships (ships, not boats) and tides I think you might have to reclassify yourself. You've gone beyond lake. You're a sea or some other body of water. St. Clair might be a big as lake, but the rest are trying to be big fish in a small pond. They need to step up to their own weight class.
 
luckless pedestrian said:
you know, there's a better way to get me posting in here again :h:

lol

whatever you say, btw, on the mountains - New England Mountains are majestic and on a human scale - the mountains to the west are breathtaking and out of scale cool - can't compare

:science::m::unitedstates::canada::c::balloon::redstar:
Click to expand...

Because everything is bigger and better in New England.:r::r::r:
 
There are special clubs for "peak bagging" or summiting specific mountains -

The Colorado 14ers (above 14,000 feet) - there are 54 of them
Adirondack Forty-Sixers (above 4,000 feet)
Seven Summits - highest mountains of each of the seven continents
 
ٹرینگو آپ سب خود ہے ۔

عزیز امریکی: پاکستان کے عوام اپنے ننھے بحث
پہاڑیوں بمقابلہ پہاڑوں کی پر ہنستے ہیں ۔

بلتستان، پاکستان

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trango_Towers
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Regarding Camelback Mountain - While I've seen/been to some noteworthy mountains (Mt. Fuji, Mt. Ranier, Mt. Katahdin, and various places in the Alps in Slovenia, Spain, and Austria, the Apennine in Italy, the Balkans...) Camelback is the only mountain I can think of that I've been to the top of.





No. No it can't compete. Those "big" "lakes" (both terms deserve their own individual set of air quotes here) in Arizona are neither big nor lakes! If they're man made, I don't think they should count. Besides, people who haven't spent much time around the Great Lakes typically underestimate how big they are.

"Lake" Mead is the biggest in Arizona at 247 square miles of surface area.
Lake St. Clair, which is in between Lakes Erie and Huron is 430 square miles... nearly double that of "Lake" Mead and isn't even a great lake.
Lake Erie, the smallest Great Lake is nearly 10,000 square miles and 40x bigger than Mead.
Lake Superior is nearly 130x bigger than Mead.

I will however say that the lakes out in Arizona are absolutely gorgeous. There's just something I find so strikingly beautiful about the lakes in such an otherwise so arid climate.
Click to expand...

If the lake hasn't swallowed one of these, its not much more than a small lake.
AP99071701611.jpg
 
luckless pedestrian said:
a stellar response - you win without question

but yeah, everything is better in New England - our "pond" leads to the British Isles after all...:h:
Click to expand...

Everything but the footballs, they are oddly smaller by a couple psi.

I still say the great lakes are playing below their weight class. Mountains don't have a name for a bigger land mass. Everest is still a mountain and the rest of us have to deal with it. There are bodies of water that are larger than lakes like seas, oceans, gulfs, whatever. The Great Lakes have tides, swallow giant ships, it's playing under it's class. New England is playing WAY under it's class calling it a pond. I guess the Pacific must have something on them.
 
NJ has things that are named "mountains" but they are hills. But I grew up in the presence of the stunningly beautiful Mt. Hood in Oregon.

Close view.
20101029005426__mg_4262_10-29-10.jpg


View looking east from the top of the West Hills in Portland.

images2.jpg
 
For awhile when I was living in Breckenridge, Colorado the apartment I had was above 10,000 ft which put it 400 ft above town. ;)
 
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luckless pedestrian said:
a stellar response - you win without question

but yeah, everything is better in New England - our "pond" leads to the British Isles after all...:h:
Click to expand...

Yeah, right, including the attitudes and elitism. See the idea of fly over county.:r: I've been to New England and wasn't impressed. I've seen better everything in other parts of the county.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
Bald Mountain just north of Detroit, MI

vxhutx.jpg


:-$
Click to expand...

wiki said:
Bald Mountain Recreation Area is a 4,637-acre (1,877 ha) state park located near Lake Orion, Michigan off M-24. It consists of some of the most rugged terrain in southeastern Michigan.
Click to expand...
Some of the topography varies by tens of feet! Worthy of its name, to be sure.
 
Habanero said:
That's not a lake, that's an evil body of water. Jeebus, I don't want to swim in a lake that takes barges under.
Click to expand...

I've heard storms on the Great Lakes can be worse in their own way than storms on the oceans. Maybe not the huge rolling swells one sees in the ocean, but large short-spaced waves that threaten to snap long ore barges in two.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8FaotwbMdw

Plus, apparently there's such a thing the media calls 'ice tsunamis' too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqptbtwXUCs
 
Maister said:
Plus, apparently there's such a thing the media calls 'ice tsunamis' too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqptbtwXUCs
Click to expand...

My in-laws live on Lake Huron and while they've never experienced an "ice tsunami" they do get winters where the ice just slowly creeps up the beach, over the 3' seawall, across the yard, and towards the patio. I guess there were a couple of winters about 25 years ago where the ice came right up to the exterior wall of the house but thankfully did no damage. The past two winters were extremely snowy and extremely cold but thankfully the water level was down so much that even with the horrible weather, the ice didn't make it too close. It is still an eerie looking scene.
 
Habanero said:
That's not a lake, that's an evil body of water. Jeebus, I don't want to swim in a lake that takes barges under.
Click to expand...
"Barge"? Umm...you're under estimating that just a bit. ;)

WSU MUP Student said:
My in-laws live on Lake Huron and while they've never experienced an "ice tsunami" they do get winters where the ice just slowly creeps up the beach, over the 3' seawall, across the yard, and towards the patio. I guess there were a couple of winters about 25 years ago where the ice came right up to the exterior wall of the house but thankfully did no damage. The past two winters were extremely snowy and extremely cold but thankfully the water level was down so much that even with the horrible weather, the ice didn't make it too close. It is still an eerie looking scene.
Click to expand...
Having grownup in a City on Lake Huron in northern Michigan (and actually living at a Huron lakefront home from 1989-1991), I never remember anything that an ice tusnami, but for the two winters we lived on the Lake, we would get 2-3 tall mounds of ice on the edge of the frozen portion of the water. Likely from the winds pushing the thin surface ice onto the thicker ice adjacent to shore.

But possibilities and effects of Lake ice were likely reduced since my hometown and the house we lived at is on the furthest inside of a large bay. When you're on the 'open' Lake dynamics are much different.

Also...god...I love the Great Lakes. What an amazing area of world geography. :)
 
The breathtaking peaks of Kansas!

Gaze at the awesome sight of the majestic Mount Sunflower, which towers 4,039 feet (or 1,231 Eurofeet) above the landscape.

sBWREcx.jpg
 
Whose Yur Planner said:
Yeah, right, including the attitudes and elitism. See the idea of fly over county.:r: I've been to New England and wasn't impressed. I've seen better everything in other parts of the county.
Click to expand...

Your disparagement, it burns! Feel free to stay away from New England, we're asses to elbows here anyway.
 
ursus said:
kjel that picture of Mt. Hood....Holy Cow. Stunning.
Click to expand...

It's beautiful. I used to work an early shift around 7am and drove due east with a dead on view of Mt. Hood. Spectacular at sunrise. Google "mt hood sunrise" or "mt hood moonrise" and click the Images link.
 
Have you consider joining these two groups


The purpose of the Highpointers Club is to promote climbing to the highest point in each of the fifty (50) states: http://highpointers.org/

County Highpointers whose members are collectively attempting to reach the highest point in all 3,142 U.S. counties: http://www.cohp.org/
 
Montana has lots of real mountains. Granite Peak is 12, 808 feet above sea level and our highest elevation. But in central Montana, we have the Judith Mountains, which tower a mere 3,963 feet. And Big Sheep Mountain (3,625 feet) and Little Sheep Mountain (3,546 feet) are in eastern Montana. Square Butte is over 5,000 feet, so it is higher than some of our eastern "peaks". And the Sweetgrass Hills have peaks that are nearly 7,000 feet.

No rhyme or reason to it, eh?
 
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