Not surprisingly the DM summits thread has stirred emotion from various parties but in order to close it constructively, please read and consider the following points regarding past, present and future actions:
Last year there was a heated debate amongst SOTA participants about the fact that SOME German summits did not appear to conform to P150 as defined in the general rules.
The MT were heavily criticised for not checking the summit lists thoroughly before they were accepted.
It was agreed that summits would be reviewed and new lists implemented from 1/1/09 including a special allowance to use P100 to mitigate the loss of summits.
If anyone is still unsure about what the term prominence means, please take look at the following link:
http://peaklist.org/theory/orometry/article/Orometry_1.html
Draft DM summits lists were supplied to the MT on 4/12/08
Not surprisingly (bearing in mind the point above and despite the short time available before 1/1/09) the MT checked all summits in these DM lists using peak analysis software and readily available 3 arc sec, void filled SRTM data.
Checked DM lists were supplied back to the AM on 18/12/08
Many summits were indeed deemed to be P100 compliant whereas some comparison was not consistent between the proposed ARM and the checked lists. This may be due to differences in survey data, rather than deficiencies in any analysis.
In order to publish something on 1/1/09, the DM AM very constructively proposed that the summits that checked out OK would be posted and the others would be placed “under review” and posted later provided a consensus could be reached (and maybe more P100 summits not currently listed). Nothing was “imposed” by the MT.
(For information, but not directly relevant to this DM thread, the DL lists were checked against 1 arc sec DEM data derived from 25k and 50k map surveys NOT SRTM)
Also in the “DM Summits” thread, the activity of the RM’s and AM was described as “sloppy work”. This is not the case; the DM team have worked very hard to complete their lists and deserve praise from the MT and all SOTA participants.
In fact, in a few DM regions, the RM’s followed a very rigorous process where SRTM data was analysed with prominence analysis software to create a P100 summit short-list that was then reviewed against TOP50 data. This resulted in some of the most complete lists seen so far.
There may be summits not listed right now that are still subject to review. If you have concerns about any summits, rather than pointing them out individually on the reflector, please report them (with supporting information) to the AM in the first instance. These may be part of the list subject to further discussion anyway.
The above is also true for any new P100 summits that you think have been missed.
It was, is and will be the responsibility of the AM (and the RM’s) to propose new summits using whatever maps or survey data they feel to be appropriate.
In the event of any review being required, the decision as to which summits are finally included should be as a result of discussions and consensus being reached between the AM and MT (Although the MT officially has the final say, this really should be the “last resort”)
Despite accusations to the contrary, the work of rigorously checking whether summits are compliant is not only happening in DM/DL. There are other Associations quietly and diligently working on their lists right now, without prompting from the MT. Their updates will follow in due course as and when they are ready to report their work.
SOTA Management Team