Peaks of Wyoming

[John Kirk]

The state of Wyoming is complete now, with 3067 Ranked Peaks (> 299' Prominence), 4,573 total with named, unranked. Tank a look aorund and update your stats here:

http://listsofjohn.com/PeakStats/stmain.php?s=WY

[Jerry Brekhus]

First, let me say this is an impressive project! A while back, I started on listing the Wyoming 1000' prominence peaks, but soon got bogged down in the northwest corner where I began. I scarcely dared to even dream of a list down to 300'.

It is fun to see obscure low peaks that show up on these lists. Peaks that evoke the question "Why are we climbing this?".

"What is its name?" "It doesn't have one."

"Is it a county high point?" "No."

"Is it one of the Fifty Finest?" "No."

One that comes to mind is 5941. I am still in the process of losing a toenail as a result of the 15-mile hike to bag this one back on April 1. (Despite the date, I am not making this up.) This badland butte is out in a barren expanse inhabited by wild horses and a few mountain lions. We have seen wild horses there, but never a cougar.

Turning to higher peaks, I think a correction may be in order for Beartooth Butte. A landmark along the Beartooth Highway, it appears to have a line parent 1.6 miles to the north which shows a 10,520-foot contour. The Beartooth Butte Quad that I have in hand shows a small 10,520-foot contour on the wilderness boundary. TopoZone shows a 10522 spot elevation. The connecting ridge drops below 10,280. Prominence of 10,514-foot Beartooth Butte then becomes something between 234 and 274 feet. Of course, since I have climbed Beartooth Butte, I would be happy to see it rank, but I am afraid that 10522 will bump it off the ranked list.

Thanks, John, for an amazing tabulation of over 3000 mountains in the state next door. Since I live at Red Lodge, it turns out that everywhere in Wyoming is nearer than the far northwest corner of my own state of Montana.

--Jerry

[John Kirk]

10522 will get the rank - Park County is troubling since most of the maps in my tool of choice, TOPO! (incidentally I think I have from you) are a different version than Topozone. In TOPO!, this county has less spot elevations and includes interfering wilderness boundary shading. It was tedious just to check all the interpolations to be sure there weren't spots. This one is a tough find - thanks for passing this along.