
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in
elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The
topographic
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...
terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and
zenith are
synonymous
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...
.
The term (mountain top) is generally used only for a
mountain peak that is located at some distance from the nearest point of higher elevation. For example, a big, massive rock next to the main summit of a mountain is not considered a summit. Summits near a higher peak, with some prominence or isolation, but not reaching a certain cutoff value for the quantities, are often considered ''subsummits'' (or ''subpeaks'') of the higher peak, and are considered part of the same mountain. A
pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice
erosion of a mountain top. Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route.
The highest summit in the world is
Mount Everest with a height of above
sea level. The first official ascent was made by
Tenzing Norgay and
Sir Edmund Hillary. They reached the mountain's peak in 1953.
Whether a highest point is classified as a summit, a sub peak or a separate mountain is subjective. The
International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation's definition of a peak is that it has a prominence of or more; it is a mountain summit if it has a prominence of at least .
Otherwise, it's a subpeak.

In many parts of the
Western United States, the term ''summit'' can also be used for the highest point along a road, highway, or railroad, more commonly referred to as a ''
pass
Pass, PASS, The Pass or Passed may refer to:
Places
*Pass, County Meath, a townland in Ireland
* Pass, Poland, a village in Poland
*Pass, an alternate term for a number of straits: see List of straits
*Mountain pass, a lower place in a mountai ...
''. For example, the highest point along
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...
in
California is referred to as
Donner Summit and the highest point on
Interstate 5 is
Siskiyou Mountain Summit. This can lead to confusion as to whether a labeled "summit" is a pass or a peak.
Gallery
See also
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Peak finderSummit Climbing Gear List peakbagger.comInformation and statistics about the mountain peaks and mountain ranges of the world
peakbucket.comThe activity tracking website for peakbaggers worldwide
peakery.comWorldwide peakbagging community with over 300,000 peak summit logs and peak lists
peakbook.orgInternational peakbagging community with worldwide peak lists
peakhunter.orgGlobal summit log project with crowd sourced peak data
hill-bagging.co.ukDatabase and logging of British and Irish hills
{{Authority control
Geodesy
Cartography
Physical geography
Slope landforms
Surveying
Topography
Oronyms