swifter78261 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 31, 2022 3:59 pm
Good afternoon good folks,
I've been following the LiDAR developments for quite a time with some interest. Thank you to all who have put so much work into this. I have a quick question that I haven't seen comprehensively answered and wanted your input as I imagine I'm not alone in my curiosity.
I have a goal of wrapping up the Centennials on or before my 35th birthday this coming July. I'm trying to strategically plan my holidays and vacations to knock off the last 12 or so mountains that I have left. With a limited amount of time left to finish this goal, I want to make sure I'm climbing the correct mountains so I don't waste the precious few days I get to climb. A few of those peaks that I had left to complete have been affected by the LiDAR findings (Dallas, for instance). To that end, I have a few questions:
1.) Do we expect "official" lists to reflect these LiDAR findings soon or ever? I'm thinking of USG, ListofJohn or even 14ers.com, which has yet to "ratify" the findings of the community here in its own Centennials list.
2.) Given the above, what list should one refer to if wanting to complete the Centennials?
Yes, I enjoy climbing mountains and one day will climb all those peaks that are even in contention, but for the purposes of this small goal - one that I've been at work on for a few years now - I would like to focus on the list that will be the most permanent.
Thank you ahead of time for your help!
Hi swifter,
As others have mentioned, I doubt the USGS will update their maps to match these findings. The most they might do is provide digital maps (i.e. DEMs) which are derived from the class 2 lidar returns. ListsofJohn will definitely be updated to match the findings. John's been waiting til entire elevation groups have been analyzed to update the official peak pages, but as you probably know, you can see what's been analyzed so far here:
https://listsofjohn.com/lidar/lidar.php. Bill said he'd update 14ers.com to match LoJ at some point. I'm not sure if this includes the elevations or just the ranked peaks, or both. I'm not sure when that will occur, either.
All of the 14ers have been analyzed except Pikes Peak - I've been waiting for a drier week to check out a couple high point candidates before I submit that result to John. All the Centennial 13ers have been analyzed. Some, but not all of these results have been compared with summit pictures/videos to omit summit cairns/wind break rock walls. If someone (I'm wanting to do this eventually, but others can do this as well) finds/excludes cairns for the rest of these, their elevations might be tweaked slightly, though probably only by a couple feet at most. The lowest Centennials in the lidar list have been looked at carefully, and their rankings should not change.
There's some 13ers that won't be available for analysis til northern/northwestern Colorado is covered by downloadable lidar. This won't be til late summer/fall, according to a USGS representative. So it's a possibility that the LoJ 13er peak pages won't be updated til at least that time (and also assuming that all 500+ Colorado 13ers have been analyzed at that time, which is also uncertain). John might choose to update the Centennial 13er peak pages before then.
It would depend on if you're wanting to complete the "interpolated prominence" Centennial list, or the "lidar list." As you probably know, the former is based off older USGS maps and their associated spot elevations/contours. The latter is based off cutting-edge (though not perfect) data now available to the public. If I was trying to complete the Centennials, I'd go with the lidar findings since I prefer ranked-status lists based off more accurate (albeit not perfect) data.
Again, the lidar results are what they are regardless of where they are posted or where they are circulated. I don't know exactly how widely/quickly they will circulate (though I have high hopes), so if you want to go off a "well-known" list, you might go after the traditional Centennials list. If you prefer more accurate rankings based off lidar as opposed to USGS quad interpolation, that I'd go after the lidar list.
https://listsofjohn.com/peak/58656
