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So if I walk within say 15 feet of a summit on level ground with no benchmark is it safe to say I reached the summit?

http://www.listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/Cl ... p?Id=14468

This is what I'm referring too. I know I was very very close to that location...but I probably didn't stand on the exact spot. I was looking for some sort of summit marker (and I checked about 6 different sub-summits along the rim).

-Swithich

Neither a benchmark, a cairn, a register, or the LOJ coordinates are enough to guarantee you're on the "summit." I think here people generally make an effort to go to any area that appears that it may be the highest ground. When there are two separate areas and you can see between them, some people sight-level. When it's all in the trees and you can't see, I usually go to any spot elevation on the map and to any equal closed contours, and wander around on big flat areas. Many times I've claimed a summit after trying to cover all the bases, without ever having figured out exactly where it actually was in the process.

If you checked 6 subsummits its probably inevitable you hit the true summit, whether you knew it or not.

Another point worth making - it's not uncommon for the maps to be wrong. There are notes on a number of pages for CO peaks saying that someone's found higher ground than where the map shows the summit, sometimes so much higher that the map is probably missing a contour.

I submitted a trip report for future summit seekers.

Hopefully that helps.

-Swithich