Short History of Orometrical Prominence
In 1938 Kenneth Mason published his "Karakoram Nomenclature", a compilation of mountains and peaks which was doubtless excellent back then. But beyond several errors its major deficiency was the almost complete lack of distinction between major and minor peaks resulting from the neglect of notch depth as a criterion. Until the 1960s Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth was the only one to mention and apply this criterion to high mountain regions. In cooperation with Anders Bolinder, who would later become his co-worker, he published in the volumes "Berge der Welt" (“Mountain World” published by the "Swiss Foundation of Alpine Research"), decidedly the best lists of seven-thousanders at that time. Anders Bolinder kept at the method after Dyhrenfurth had passed away. Jerzy Wala, a Polish geographer, also compiled 7000er lists of the Karakoram and 6000er lists of the Hindukush with some distinction between Main- and subsidiary peaks in addition to his detailed orographical sketch maps. In contrast, H. Adams Carter's "Classification of the Himalayas" (1985, AAJ Vol. 27/Issue 59, pages 109-141) did not distinguish between mountains and ridge points.
In fact, the only ones who advanced the idea of using notch depths as a criterion were the "peakbaggers" in England, Scotland and Wales. Alan Dawson compiled the most acknowledged lists of serial ascents in Great Britain, including all mountains with a drop of 150 m and more ("Marilyns") and also all peaks with more than 610 m (2000 ft) altitude with a drop of 30 m and more in England and Wales ("Hewitts"). Later even every peak with more than 610 m altitude in England and Wales with a notch depth above 15 m was listed ("Nuttalls").
For several years now prominence lists have been created in the US. Quite a number of mountaineers are now more interested in climbing the most prominent mountains of a certain area and working these lists than in simply climbing every point above a certain “magical” decimal based altitude. Apart from Steve Fry, the persons who pioneered in finding prominences in the US were Steve Gruhn, Jeff Howbert, Aaron Maizlish, Andy Martin, David Metzler, Carl Mills, David Olson, John Roper, Roy Schweiker, Greg Slayden, and Ron Tagliapietra. An outstanding contribution has been made by Edward Earl who was the first who developed a computer program to calculate the prominences from digital data. In addition he created one of the first websites about prominence and in August 2000 he founded an E-group which discusses the subject “prominence” seriously and extensively. The members also share newly identified prominences and discuss other possible criteria, such as steepness and impressiveness. These criteria can also be calculated and evaluated. Also an important pioneer in the prominence history is Adam Helman, who wrote the first book about prominence in the US.
In 2001 the author contacted John Biggar (SCO), who has identified the prominences of many South American mountains. His mountain lists are shown at www.andes.org.uk !
Some years ago Jonathan de Ferranti (SCO) developed a program which is able to calculate automatically the prominence of a mountain within an accuracy of a few metres by using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) data and topographic maps.