Location of Deer Ridge A

[mikeofferman]

I was just reviewing some peaks that do not have photos in RMNP and noticed something about Deer Ridge A. On Gerry R's site, he shows the elevation of Deer Ridge as 9543' which is located at 40.38755 N, 105.62372. This list shows it as 8763' 40.3761°N, 105.5607°W.

When looking at the maps, Deer Ridge is shown on both sides of Deer Mtn. Not sure how we decide which is the right one... Suppose I should also climb 8763' and not worry about it!

Thanks, Mike

[Layne Bracy]

Mike:

This is an interesting topic which I think needs some refining.

First off - a ridge need not be a summit at all, though you can always find a parent summit for any location on a ridge. Pick almost any summit, and it will have one or more ridges leading up to it. Do these ridges have separate highpoints apart from the HP of the mountain? Generally not. Take Kelso Ridge on Torreys, Keyhole Ridge on Longs, etc. etc.

The habit of making a peak name xxx Ridge probably came from cases where there was a separate unnamed peak along a named ridge. In those cases, it seems to fit well. For example, Holy Cross Ridge originally was named for more than the high 100 summit; we peakbaggers have adapted it to our own definition.

However, I think it can be taken to an extreme. For example, calling the small prominence near Mt Meeker "Meeker Ridge" , implying it is a peak of its own, doesn't make much sense, in my opinion.

Check out John Paul Ridge in Utah. I left this off the peak list - it is not a summit, but simply a ridge leading up to Allen Peak. To say that someone has to hike to the 'J' or something to summit JP Ridge would be a little nutty, in my opinion.

In the case of Deer Ridge - to me it is the ridge that runs from west to east over the top of Deer Mountain. So, in my opinion, neither of the sub-summits you mention is the HP of Deer Ridge. Instead, the HP of Deer Ridge is Deer Mountain!

[John Kirk]

Tim and Ryan did the work for Larimer, so ultimately the explanation should come from them. However, I would be in favor of including both instances as Deer Ridge East and Deer Ridge West.

I'm OK with leaving off ridges that have 0 prominence since there is no defined summit, as in your example Layne.

[Layne Bracy]

John, I have been fairly inclusive on my lists except for examples such as the above. I've included some named ridges that are not much more than a spot elevation or closed contour. However, these would be very low on my priority list to actually hike.

So, Mike, I would just suggest that you have to decide for yourself what is worthy of your time to visit. As you can see, we're making up the rules as we go, and it's a little arbitrary. Do whatever you enjoy! I suppose you could extend your list to visiting every named FEATURE(lake, slope, stream, etc etc) in the Park!

BTW, John - any dents in Utah yet? I'm over halfway done with Box Elder County now.

[RyanSchilling]

One of those fun situations created by the great surplus of names in the RMNP region. I don't believe I had noticed what Gerry termed to be the summit of Deer Ridge. That's a tough one. At what point does Trail Ridge become Deer Ridge?

I guess if I were forced to give an opinion, I'd say that the 9543' summit is still a part of Trail Ridge, with Deer Ridge beginning somewhere in the neighborhood of where US-34 and US-36 (which is labeled as CO-66 on the quad -- this section of road was renamed in 1977) intersect. I'd support listing two entries, east and west, but if we went that route my preference would be to bestow the 9012' summit with the Deer Ridge West title.

EDIT - added skipped word 'give'

[TWorth]

When Ryan and I worked on Larimer, I had Deer Ridge at 8763 and hadn't noticed "Deer Ridge West" or that Gerry's list was different. Good eye, Mike.

Generally we've been listing named ridges with at least one close contour. Here, the map has Deer Ridge printed on both sides of Deer Mtn, both with closed contours, so I'm in favor of listing a Deer Ridge East and a Deer Ridge West.

I like 9012 as the elevation of Deer Ridge West. I agree with Ryan that 9543 is better catagorized as a part of Trail Ridge based on the topography.

I agree with Layne that its OK to leave out ridges with P=0. Northeastern Wyoming has a lot of these.

[mikeofferman]

After reading the posts, it does seem that 9543' is part of trail ridge and there is a west and east deer ridge. Thanks for the input! Now I have a few 'new' places to take the kids!

[John Kirk]

Thanks for the comments- I added Deer Ridge West as 9012.

BTW, John - any dents in Utah yet? I'm over halfway done with Box Elder County now.

I was making good progress on San Juan and Washington, but side projects have reared their ugly heads. I've been working on a time-consuming database restructure that is just about done. Should simplify things quite a bit and will utlimately save time when adding more completed states' peaks to the database.

[Layne Bracy]

Take your time. Since I'm not sure that I'll move on to any other states once Utah is done, it might be in your interest to let me do much of it, even at my relatively slow speed.

Can't say I'll miss maps like this, though. (Actually looks worse on TOPO!)

[John Kirk]

There was a good portion of NM like that. I can't imagine what the thought process was

[lukePlumley]

An interesting note on Deer Ridge East. I visited the summit recently and found a register from the 1980's that named the peak "Mt. Washburn".

[John Kirk]

An interesting note on Deer Ridge East. I visited the summit recently and found a register from the 1980's that named the peak "Mt. Washburn".

Thanks for passing this along. This makes things even more interesting/confusing. Guess we'd have a Deer Ridge A again, referring to 9,012'. Any preferences for applying the "soft name" peak name vs. keeping "hard name" ridge name?

[lukePlumley]

Since the name "Washburn" doesn't appear on any map or list elsewhere that I have seen, I would probably prefer to keep the name "Deer Ridge East" for our use.