About MountainPeak

Last updated: 18 September 2026 · 9 route surveys published

Every survey on this site is produced and signed by The Summit Desk, the MountainPeak editorial desk that walks each route, records it in the field and publishes the plate. The desk is the site's only byline.

Why this exists

Most trail information on the internet is copied from somewhere else. Distances get rounded, elevation gains get inflated, a water source that was reliable in 2014 is still described as reliable, and a route that was re-routed after a landslide is still described by its old line. MountainPeak exists to publish the opposite: a small number of routes, each one walked, measured and described by the person who walked it, with the survey date printed on the plate.

How a survey is made

1. The route is walked in full. We walk the whole line in one go, at ordinary walking pace, carrying what an ordinary walker would carry. No support, no shortcuts, no drone footage standing in for ground truth.
2. Track and elevation are recorded continuously. A GPS track gives the distance and the elevation profile on the plate. Both are smoothed slightly so the line stays readable, and the gain figure is the cumulative ascent, not the difference between the lowest and highest point.
3. Water and waypoints are logged in the field. Every fill point gets a distance and a note about whether it is potable, seasonal, or a treatment-required source. Every junction, landmark and decision point becomes a waypoint on the elevation plate.
4. Permits and access are checked with the managing agency. Not with a blog post, and not with a forum thread from three years ago. If a permit is required, the survey says so and says what happens if you do not have one.
5. The safety section is written last and written plainly. It names the specific hazards on that route — the wet slab, the flash-flood chute, the exposed arête, the heat trap — rather than repeating generic advice that could apply anywhere.

What the numbers mean

Distance is round trip unless the route description explicitly says one way, and it includes the walk back to the trailhead. Elevation gain is cumulative ascent in metres. Time is moving time at a steady pace with short stops, rounded to the half hour — it does not include a long lunch, a swim, or the hour you will spend photographing the summit. Grade is a three-step scale: easy means the route is short and the footing is secure, moderate means real climbing or real exposure but nothing technical, and hard means the day is long, the ground is serious, or the hazards are ones that can hurt you. The grade describes the route in good conditions; rain, snow, wind and heat each move a route up a grade on their own.

What we do not do

We do not publish routes we have not walked. We do not accept payment for a favourable write-up, and we do not run affiliate links on gear. We do not provide guiding, instruction or personalised trip planning — if you need those, hire a qualified guide in the area, and the local land manager or national park authority will always be a better source than we are for current closures.

Corrections

Route information goes stale, and the fastest way for us to find out is for a reader to tell us. If a water source was dry, a bridge was out, a permit rule changed, a distance was wrong, or a hazard section missed something you ran into, please write to [email protected] with the route name and, if you have it, the date you were there. Corrections are folded into the survey and the page is updated; we do not silently edit a survey without changing its survey date.

Independence and funding

MountainPeak is independent and funded by display advertising. Advertisers have no input into which routes are surveyed or what the surveys say.

Contact

[email protected] reaches us for corrections, questions and licensing requests.