List of New England Fifty Finest explained

The New England Fifty Finest is a list of mountains in New England, United States, used in the mountaineering sport of peak bagging. The list comprises the 50 summits with the highest topographic prominence — a peak's height above the lowest contour which encloses that peak and no higher peak. The list includes 20 peaks in Maine, 15 in Vermont, 14 in New Hampshire, and one in Massachusetts.

This list differs substantially from lists of peaks by elevation, such as the New England 4000 Footers. For instance, only one peak in the Presidential Range is on this list because the others do not have a major prominence, being connected to Mount Washington by ridgelines that are nowhere below 4900-1NaN-1. Mount Washington has an elevation above sea level of 62880NaN0 but has a prominence of about 61500NaN0 because it stands that high above its key col — the lowest ground on the ridge line connecting Washington to the higher peaks of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Washington's key col is at the Champlain Canal in New York, the lowest ground on the water divide between the watersheds of the Hudson and Saint Lawrence Rivers.

Of the 48 New Hampshire Four-thousand Footers, only eight are also on this list, including Mount Lafayette and Carter Dome, which are the high points of the Franconia Range and the Carter-Moriah Range, respectively. The list includes several monadnocks, including the eponymous Mount Monadnock, and the high points of several small mountain ranges which have high prominence by virtue of their isolation from higher peaks by surrounding low ground.

List

Rank	Peak	State	Prominence [1]	Elevation
1		New Hampshire	6,150 ft	1,875 m	6,288 ft	1,917 m
2			4,290 ft	1,310 m	5,268 ft	1,606 m
3			3,640 ft	1,110 m	4,393 ft	1,339 m
4		New Hampshire	3,360 ft	1,025 m	5,249 ft	1,600 m
5		Vermont	3,320 ft	1,010 m	4,241 ft	1,291 m
6		Maine	3,180 ft	970 m	4,250 ft	1,295 m
7		Vermont	3,060 ft	935 m	3,850 ft	1,175 m
8		Vermont	2,975 ft	906 m	3,858 ft	1,176 m
9		New Hampshire	2,932 ft	894 m	4,802 ft	1,464 m
10		Maine	2,855 ft	870 m	4,145 ft	1,263 m
11		Vermont	2,840 ft	865 m	3,770 ft	1,150 m
12		New Hampshire	2,821 ft	860 m	4,832 ft	1,473 m
13		Maine	2,720 ft	830 m	4,170 ft	1,270 m
14		New Hampshire	2,670 ft	815 m	4,170 ft	1,270 m
15		Maine	2,610 ft	795 m	3,654 ft	1,114 m
16		Maine	2,510 ft	765 m	3,717 ft	1,133 m
17		Massachusetts	2,470 ft	755 m	3,487 ft	1,063 m
18		Vermont	2,470 ft	755 m	3,642 ft	1,110 m
19		Maine	2,446 ft	746 m	4,120 ft	1,256 m
20		New Hampshire	2,420 ft	740 m	4,358 ft	1,328 m
21		Vermont	2,410 ft	735 m	3,940 ft	1,201 m
22		Maine	2,340 ft	715 m	3,541 ft	1,079 m
23		New Hampshire	2,340 ft	715 m	2,990 ft	911 m
24		Maine	2,330 ft	710 m	3,960 ft	1,207 m
25		Vermont	2,290 ft	700 m	3,140 ft	955 m
26 [2]	Kibby Mountain or	Maine	2,260 ft	690 m	3,654 ft	1,114 m
					3,650±10 ft	1,112±3 m
27		New Hampshire	2,240 ft	685 m	4,700 ft	1,435 m
28		Maine	2,240 ft	685 m	3,790 ft	1,155 m
29		Vermont	2,230 ft	680 m	3,439 ft	1,048 m
30		Vermont	2,200 ft	670 m	3,109 ft	948 m
31		Maine	2,190 ft	670 m	3,520 ft	1,073 m
32		New Hampshire	2,190 ft	670 m	3,238 ft	987 m
33		New Hampshire	2,160 ft	660 m	3,165 ft	965 m
34	Cold Hollow Mountains High Point[3]	Vermont	2,146 ft	654 m	3,327+ ft	1,014+ m
35		Vermont	2,140 ft	650 m	3,370 ft	1,025 m
36		Vermont	2,132 ft	650 m	4,083 ft	1,244 m
37		Maine	2,130 ft	650 m	3,196 ft	974 m
38		New Hampshire	2,100 ft	640 m	2,937 ft	895 m
39		Maine	2,080 ft	635 m	3,489 ft	1,063 m
40		Maine	2,060 ft	630 m	3,772 ft	1,150 m
41		New Hampshire	2,040 ft	620 m	4,340 ft	1,325 m
42		Maine	2,010 ft	615 m	3,638 ft	1,109 m
43		Vermont	1,982 ft	604 m	3,332 ft	1,016 m
44		New Hampshire	1,922 ft	586 m	3,155 ft	962 m
45		Maine	1,920 ft	585 m	3,206 ft	977 m
46		Vermont	1,880 ft	575 m	4,083 ft	1,244 m
47		New Hampshire	1,850 ft	565 m	2,382 ft	726 m
48		Maine	1,850 ft	565 m	2,998 ft	915 m
49		Maine	1,840 ft	560 m	3,190 ft	970 m
50		Maine	1,820 ft	555 m	2,930 ft	895 m

See also

• Adirondack High Peaks (the Forty-sixers)
• Four-thousand footers of New Hampshire
• List of New England Hundred Highest
• List of Quebec 1000 meter peaks
• Northeast 111, all 4000-footers of the Northeastern United States

External links

• Most Prominent Peaks in New England, compiled by Roy Schweiker and Andy Martin
• PeakBagger.com: New England Top 50 by Prominence
• Map: "Northeastern US Mountains (New York and New England) Showing Peaks with 2,000 Feet of Prominence" by Aaron Maizlish, (2003).

Notes and References

1. Measurements of prominence generally have less precision than those of elevation, since the elevations of the key cols are seldom surveyed, and must be estimated from the contour lines above and below on topographic maps. The values in this table are intermediate between the maximum possible ("optimistic") and minimum possible ("clean") prominences. The values are rounded off to the nearest 10 ft or 5 m unless known more precisely. The determination of precise values would require only minor alterations in the order of the list — with one exception.
2. [Caribou Mountain (Franklin County, Maine)|Caribou Mountain's]
3. 16377 . Cold Hollow Mountains High Point, Vermont . 2021-06-11.