300 foot ranked peak rule

[argothor]

Just out of curiousity, how did the 300 foot rule come about for a peak to be ranked? And why 300' and not something like 250' or 500'? If the break point was only 250', Colorado would only gain two ranked 14ers - North Massive and El Diente. But if the break point was raised to 500', we'd lose seven 14ers - Crestone Needle, Bross, Tabeguache, Challenger Point, Sunlight, Ellingwood Point and Little Bear.

I'm also assuming that rule is not universal. While it is used here in Colorado, I doubt that it applies in places like New York or such a flat area as Florida (which only has 345' of elevation gain in the whole state). Just how universal is this standard? What other standards are there?

[John Kirk]

The 300' rule was the first use of a minimum prominence concept by Bill Graves in 1968, applying to Colorado highest 100 (some claim Washingtonians came up with prominence - but they came to the game about a full decade later on). It was the closest standard to use that matched the template of CO 14ers (with a few exceptions). Washington uses 400' clean prominence, by the way. NY never had its peaks completely listed until it was completed on this site a few weeks ago (actually the same can be said of all states listed at LoJ, other than Washington). From my perspective, since no one else has done the work of actually compiling complete lists, no other standard is in place. It is important to have a consistent measure regardless of locale, and it also happens that 300' is more widely accepted than any other standard. There are other rules out there. The goal of this site is do things consistently.

The most prominent hill in Florida has 249' prominence. I would be really surprised if anyone ever sets out to develop any rules for peakbagging in Florida.

[TWorth]

Best things about the interpolated 300' standard are simplicity, objectivity, and consistency. It's not perfect, since there is always an error margin in the maps, but it's withstood all sorts of alternate schemes through the years, at least in CO.

I see it as more of a classification standard than a hiking standard - there's no law against visiting public 'unranked' points.

[Mike Garratt]

The 300 foot rule was invented in Colorado to address 'what was a 14er'?
It was extened first to CO's 13ers in the late 1970's and ultimately to the whole state.

This web site premise is the criteria is applicable any where in the US.

As you have said why 300 feet?
It could just a well be a variable number set by the web site user for each state.
Other users of this site have suggested that idea previously.