What angle are you coming at from? As a viewer of mountains? As a hiker? As a Rock climber? Like, what criteria are we viewing this comparison through?
Mountain-ness. Despite not even being 2 km, Mt Washington's prominence, weather, view, etc all make it more like a mountain, while "mt" Marcy, you can hike in like 3 hours and it's mostly gradual forest trail.
Washington fills the social role of a mountain, it's something you prepare to hike, bring a bag with food and water and a heavy jacket, maybe even microspikes, you check the weather to make sure you're not going to get swept away by 200+ mph gusts, you leave at daybreak so you don't get caught by night during descent, you get to the top and say "This is definitely a mountain", any Adirondack, you walk up casually with zero preparation , not even water and that's it. Maybe you check for avalanche warnings if it's winter.
When I lived in Colorado I had to go do a field visit to a site in northern Georgia, and I was talking to my colleague to get directions to the site. He kept saying stuff like, "Are you sure you can drive here? There's a huge mountain in between here and Atlanta." I told him I drive in the mountains all the time and I was confident I would be just fine. "OK, if you're sure. Be careful, it's really a huge mountain." He really went on about how treacherous the drive would be. Well, I made it to the site. Never did see any mountain. 😝
And yet Mt Washington in New York Hampshire is the 10th deadliest mountain in the be world because of freak extreme weather shifts and a wild combination of air currents meeting.
You can drive to the top and yet people die VERY often, not from driving.
The Rockies are baby mountains. Super young and nothing interesting going on. Appalachia is ooooold. So old that there are unspeakable cosmological horrors in them hills.
The Appalachian Mountains have existed 2-3x longer than trees. They were around 600 million years before complex life formed in the ocean. They're way older than Saturn's rings.
My sister has lived in Colorado for the last twenty years, and I took her and my kids on a hike in South Carolina and yes she did call the mountains here “cute”
I grew up on the West coast. My wife and I moved to Pennsylvania and we were talking to some new neighbors asking where þe closest place was to get groceries and one said, "þere's a market over the mountain." I was very confused until I realized þe "mountain" þey were talking about was a little hill about a couple of miles away.
East coasters have a totally different perspective.
29 Comments
underscores@lemmy.zip · 36 pts · 21d
my tribe's homeland is more significant than your tribe's !
we really doing this in 2026?
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 13 pts · 21d
we'll do this till the end of days
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 8 pts · 21d
I'm reminded of some of the XKCD Umwelts, where they point out this shit can go both ways at once.
It's cute when people on the west coast talk about... uhhh... history. Or really old geology, if you include Canada.
reader@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 20d
don't be jelly because of your tiny mountains
size doesn't matter
harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 24 pts · 21d
As someone who has lived near both sets of mountains, I'll take the Appalachians and Adirondacks over the Rockies.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 6 pts · 21d
I love the Adirondacks, but they're not mountains.
They were when life first started, but not anymore.
Mt Washington is a mountain tho.
JayDee@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 21d
What angle are you coming at from? As a viewer of mountains? As a hiker? As a Rock climber? Like, what criteria are we viewing this comparison through?
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz · 9 pts · 21d
Mountain-ness. Despite not even being 2 km, Mt Washington's prominence, weather, view, etc all make it more like a mountain, while "mt" Marcy, you can hike in like 3 hours and it's mostly gradual forest trail.
Washington fills the social role of a mountain, it's something you prepare to hike, bring a bag with food and water and a heavy jacket, maybe even microspikes, you check the weather to make sure you're not going to get swept away by 200+ mph gusts, you leave at daybreak so you don't get caught by night during descent, you get to the top and say "This is definitely a mountain", any Adirondack, you walk up casually with zero preparation , not even water and that's it. Maybe you check for avalanche warnings if it's winter.
Octavio@piefed.social · 20 pts · 21d
When I lived in Colorado I had to go do a field visit to a site in northern Georgia, and I was talking to my colleague to get directions to the site. He kept saying stuff like, "Are you sure you can drive here? There's a huge mountain in between here and Atlanta." I told him I drive in the mountains all the time and I was confident I would be just fine. "OK, if you're sure. Be careful, it's really a huge mountain." He really went on about how treacherous the drive would be. Well, I made it to the site. Never did see any mountain. 😝
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 21d
And yet Mt Washington in New
YorkHampshire is the 10th deadliest mountain in the be world because of freak extreme weather shifts and a wild combination of air currents meeting.You can drive to the top and yet people die VERY often, not from driving.
eaterofclowns@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 21d
Just like New York, taking New Hampshire's mountain.
HasturInYellow@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 20d
Fuck. You're right lol
marighost@piefed.social · 14 pts · 20d
The Rockies are baby mountains. Super young and nothing interesting going on. Appalachia is ooooold. So old that there are unspeakable cosmological horrors in them hills.
Rockies ain't got shit on Appalachia.
t. I live at the foot of those hills.
ivanafterall@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 20d
The Appalachian Mountains have existed 2-3x longer than trees. They were around 600 million years before complex life formed in the ocean. They're way older than Saturn's rings.
Pat_Riot@lemmy.today · 12 pts · 20d
Our mountains are older than yours.
MajorMajormajormajor@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 20d
"Get off my sediment layer!"
Malyca@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 20d
They're older than the continent they sit on
Sibbo@sopuli.xyz · 10 pts · 21d
What people from the USA think the world looks like.
ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 20d
If anything, the Rockies are proof Chile should go all the way up
VinegarChunks@lemmus.org · 6 pts · 21d
My sister has lived in Colorado for the last twenty years, and I took her and my kids on a hike in South Carolina and yes she did call the mountains here “cute”
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 21d
I suppose we can just jump right to the chase:
SailorFuzz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21d
My man
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 4 pts · 21d
these are mountains too ? man the USA is weird
ZMonster@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 21d
Alaska thinks anyone on the planet talking about mountains is adorable.Laughs in Denali
CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 21d
... You know the Himalayas are a thing, right? And several, including Everest, are taller.
If you go by prominence instead, it's a candidate, but Kilimanjaro, for example, is also in the running.
ZMonster@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 20d
FTFY
Sxan@piefed.zip · -1 pts · 20d
Unkle Ŝan's Story Time!
I grew up on the West coast. My wife and I moved to Pennsylvania and we were talking to some new neighbors asking where þe closest place was to get groceries and one said, "þere's a market over the mountain." I was very confused until I realized þe "mountain" þey were talking about was a little hill about a couple of miles away.
East coasters have a totally different perspective.
ddplf@szmer.info · 5 pts · 20d
Oooh, our special boy thorny has come up with another funny sign, how quirky. Running low on attention, aren't we?
Sxan@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 20d
I've always been. Sxan is just a romanization of Ŝan, which is a name in Esperanto. Piefed doesn't let you create user handles in full UTF-8.