Four-thousand footers

Four-thousand footers (sometimes abbreviated "4ks") is a term referring to a group of forty-eight mountains in New Hampshire at least 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) above sea level. To qualify for inclusion a peak must also meet the more technical criterion of topographic prominence important in the mountaineering sport of "peak-bagging".

Most often, the term refers to the White Mountains Four Thousand Footers List established (and revised from time to time) by the Appalachian Mountain Club. The AMC calls it the White Mountains List, but others call it the New Hampshire List because it does not include Old Speck Mountain (4,170 ft), located in Maine (and outside the White Mountain National Forest) but within the White Mountains.

The AMC also maintains a list of New England 4000 Footers, all falling within Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Other lists of 4000-footers not maintained by the AMC include the original set of 4,000-foot mountains for peak-bagging: the 46 High Peaks in the Adirondacks.

The AMC has revised its 4000-footer lists as surveying became more accurate or the selection criteria were adjusted, with the White Mountains list growing from 46 peaks in the 1950s to 48 in 1982. The proper inclusion or exclusion of several peaks is still a matter of some dispute.

The 48 lie in the White Mountain National Forest and within two of the northernmost counties of New Hampshire, Coos and Grafton. All peaks except those of Mount Washington, Mount Moosilauke and Cannon Mountain are on land owned by the Forest Service, and even these three are almost completely surrounded by it.

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