A peak is the top of a mountain. A summit is the date on which a peak was reached. A peak can be summited multiple times (e.g. Peter Athans has summited Everest seven times). When you add an activity on PeakBucket, we keep track of your peaks, summits and more.
Elevation and prominence are two measurements of height for peaks. Elevation is simply the vertical distance between a peak's summit and sea level. Prominence is a bit more complicated—it's the vertical distance between a peak's summit and the lowest contour line for that peak that is still above the next-highest peak's summit (additional reading here). While there are a few different ways to measure a peak's prominence (we use clean prominence on PeakBucket), prominence is important because it is often one of the key criteria for lists.
Lists are comprised of a group of peaks with some shared attribute (e.g., geography, prominence or feature) and are the foundation of peakbagging. Peakbaggers often work on several lists simultaneously, sometimes completing the same list multiple times. PeakBucket uses completion styles to track your list progress.
Visit the lists page to see our current selection of lists. We're continually adding new lists to the site; if there's a list you'd like us to add, then please contact us.
Completion styles are the different ways in which your progress against a list can be tracked, ranging from one summit to 12 summits per peak. PeakBucket has four completion styles:
| Icon | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| All Season | Summiting each peak on a list once. | |
| Winter | Summiting each peak on a list once during the winter season. | |
| Four Season | Summiting each peak on a list once in each of the four seasons for a total of four summits per peak. | |
| Grid | Summiting each peak on a list once in each month of the calendar year for a total of 12 summits per peak. |
To manage your list progress, go to the lists page while logged in and add completion styles for the lists you're working on using the icons:
When you add a completion style for a list, PeakBucket will automatically track your progress based off of your past and future activities. You can review your list progress for all of the completion styles you've added on your list progress page:
On your list progress page, you can see your current percent complete for each completion style you've added by list. Press a row to see progress details for a particular list:
The list progress detail page will display the date-level details by completion style for the list you pressed. Use the icons to toggle completion style views:
An activity is a record containing data about a day spent in the mountains. Activities are comprised of the peak(s) you summited along with some common GPS statistics—including distance and elevation gain (in your units of choice)—if you choose to add them. You can also add duration, companions and comments. When you add an activity, we automatically update your progress against any of the lists you're working on based on the activity date and season in addition to interactive charts and maps so you can dive deep into your data in ways that are quick, easy and completely customizable. See the profile page and list progress page sections for more information.
To add an activity, log in and press the green plus sign in the Log section of your profile page:
This will open the new activity modal. Input your data (only one peak, the date and a season are required) then press Create Activity:
If a friend tags you in an activity, and you haven't already added an activity with the same peaks for the same date, then you can copy the tagged activity to your Activity Log. To copy an activity, press the alert on the Log section of your profile page, which will display whenever you have an activity you can copy:
This will bring up the activity (or activities) in which you were tagged:
To copy a tagged activity, press the copy icon under the Options column (left). To ignore a tagged activity, press the ignore icon under the Options column (right).
To manage your activities, log in and go to the table in the Log section of your profile page
To edit an activity, press the edit icon under the Options column (left). To delete an activity, press the delete icon under the Options column (right).
Units are the way we record and display measurements of distance and height on PeakBucket—either imperial (miles/feet) or metric (kilometers/meters):
| Measurement | Imperial | Metric |
|---|---|---|
| Distance | miles (mi) | kilometers (km) |
| Elevation | feet (ft) | meters (m) |
| Prominence | feet (ft) | meters (m) |
Without an account, PeakBucket defaults to imperial; however, once you create an account you can view the entire site in your units of choice anytime you're logged in. You can also change your units at any time and as many times as you want. When you do, all of your existing activity data will be converted to your new units automatically.
Seasons are the four familiar divisions of the year: winter, spring, summer and fall. An activity's season depends on where its date falls in relation to four dates of the calendar year (time zone-dependent) in addition to the hemisphere of the world in which it took place:
| Hemisphere | Dec Solstice to Mar Equinox | Mar Equinox to Jun Solstice | Jun Solstice to Sep Equinox | Sep Equinox to Dec Solstice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Northern | Winter | Spring | Summer | Fall |
| Southern | Summer | Fall | Winter | Spring |
PeakBucket uses seasons to track your list progress against the winter and four season completion styles. 361 days of the year (362 on a leap year), we're able to automatically assign the season in which your activity took place:
For activities taking place on solstice/equinox dates in the table above, you'll need to assign the season manually (we'll notify you of which seasons it changed from and to on these dates):
You can always manually assign an activity's season:
When adding an activity that started or ended on a solstice/equinox date, keep in mind that lists can have different criteria for determining seasons. For instance, the Appalachian Mountain Club recognizes seasons as starting exactly on the equinox/solstice date (to the minute), and requires an activity to start after the equinox/solstice date for an incoming season or be completed before the equinox/solstice date for an outgoing season, whereas the Adirondack Mountain Club recognizes seasons as starting at midnight of the equinox/solstice date (to the day), and requires an activity to start after midnight on the equinox/solstice date for an incoming season or be completed before midnight of the equinox/solstice date for an outgoing season.
The user profile page is your hub for tracking and reviewing activity data. By default, it displays your activity for the last 365 days; however, you can customize the date range using the date icon. Additionally, you can search for activities including specific peaks within the current date range using the search icon. The profile has two primary sections: log and stats.
Log
In addition to being the place where you add, copy and manage activities, the Log section enables you to review them as well. At the top is a heat map that summarizes your activity data for the current date and search selections by activities, summits, distance, elevation or duration (not visible on mobile):
Below the heat map is a sortable table of activities:
Press an activity row in the table to see details:
Stats
The stats section is where you can review trends in your activity data. The stats section has two sub-sections: activity and peak.
Activity Stats
At the top of activity stats are counts of summits, distance, elevation gain and duration along with highlights for the current date and search selections:
Below the counters and highlights is a chart that displays the trend of activities, summits, distance, elevation or duration by day in your activity data for the current date and search selections:
At the bottom of activity stats is a table you can export.
Peak Stats
At the top of peak stats are counts of peaks and summits for the current date and search selections:
Below the counters are highlights of peaks by highest elevation, most prominence and most summits for the current date and search selections:
Below the highlights is a map that display your peaks by location for the current date and search selections:
At the bottom of peak stats is a table you can export.
You have the option to make your PeakBucket activity private during the signup process or by updating your settings. To visitors, private users are not displayed anywhere on the site (e.g. users page). If a visitor follows a direct link to a private user page (e.g. profile page, list progress page, etc), then they'll see a completely anonymized page:
To other users that aren't friends, only the names of private users are displayed on the users page:
If another user that isn't a friend follows a direct link to a private user page, then they'll see only the private user's name and a button to send the private user a friend request:
Users that are friends with a private user are able to view the private user's activity and tag the private user as a companion in their own activities, which is only visible to other users. See the friends section for more information about sending, responding to and managing friend requests.
To update your settings, log in and press the gear icon at the top of your profile page:
This will open your user settings page. Here you can update your picture and personal information (including name, birthday, location, units, password and privacy):
To download an XLS file of your data, log in on a computer and click the export button at the bottom the activity or peak stats sections of your profile page (make sure to select the date range you want) or any of your list progress detail pages:
To send a user a friend request, press Add Friend on their profile page:
To manage ignored and sent friend requests, press the manage friend requests icon on your friends page, which will open the friend request management modal:
To respond to a friend request that you previously ignored, press Accept:
To cancel a friend request that you sent, press Cancel:
To unfriend a friend, press the unfriend icon for that friend on your friends page:
Peakbagging is a recreational activity with the goal of summiting all of the peaks on a list at least once. Peakbaggers summit these peaks by some combination of walking, running, hiking, scrambling and/or climbing. The accumulative nature of peakbagging requires that peakbaggers precisely record, and periodically review, their activity; this is where PeakBucket comes in.
Peakbaggers cite a number of different reasons for peakbagging, which include: spending time outdoors, exercise, sightseeing, socialization, challenge and adventure. Whatever the reason, peakbagging is a pastime for some and an obsession for others; in both cases it's a whole lot of fun.
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