[WIP] Climbing the Six Thousanders

[Pds314]

Looking here to generate ideas for and gauge interest in a possible future challenge involving climbing the mountains on Kerbin over 6000 meters tall. There are I believe 14 to 15 of these mountains on Kerbin depending on the amount of prominence and isolation deemed necessary between peaks. Some, like Keverest, are very doable to climb with a normal-ish rover. Some would not be so easy. One is even a steep spire.

 

This thread is for figuring out how that challenge should work and to see how interested people are in something along those lines.

Edited October 15, 2019 by Pds314

[DoctorDavinci]

3 hours ago, Pds314 said:

Looking here to generate ideas for and gauge interest in a possible future challenge involving climbing the mountains on Kerbin over 6000 meters tall. There are I believe 14 to 15 of these mountains on Kerbin depending on the amount of prominence and isolation deemed necessary between peaks. Some, like Keverest, are very doable to climb with a normal-ish rover. Some would not be so easy. One is even a steep spire.

 

This thread is for figuring out how that challenge should work and to see how interested people are in something along those lines.

I definitely see hill climbing with rovers being a thing but what really piqued my interest is using just a Kerbal to climb the mountains

Might have to revisit the 'Ropes n Things' deal I was working on ..... (and perhaps push forward on the spelunking for OrX)

[swjr-swis]

I'm missing the options to start the climb from the deepest point in the ocean, and scoring according to the biggest altitude difference traversed. Naturally, the only allowed vehicles should be powered by hamster kerbal-wheels. Kerbal buoyancy would be an acceptable way of getting through the first leg of the trip.

I'll sit this one out - I just don't have the time for these kind of challenges anymore. Should be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

[EveMaster]

I'd say go for rovers without trusters or propellors. This way there will be no arguments about if a craft is a rover with wings or an aircraft with rover wheels and what counts as a jump and what counts as flying.

I would start at the base of the mountain. I haven't looked at the locations of the 6000ers but maybe the rule could be that the start point must be in specific biomes. That biome should certainly not be the biome mountains. 

The mountains near the KSC are not above 6000m but easier to reach and also quite challenging to climb. Maybe you could include the mountain at 0°3'N, 79°21'W in the challenge. It is 5578m high an has a nice plateau on to with only 8.5° slope:

I climbed this mountain with an electrical rover with fuel cells.

[Pds314]

6 hours ago, EveMaster said:

I'd say go for rovers without trusters or propellors. This way there will be no arguments about if a craft is a rover with wings or an aircraft with rover wheels and what counts as a jump and what counts as flying.

I would start at the base of the mountain. I haven't looked at the locations of the 6000ers but maybe the rule could be that the start point must be in specific biomes. That biome should certainly not be the biome mountains. 

The mountains near the KSC are not above 6000m but easier to reach and also quite challenging to climb. Maybe you could include the mountain at 0°3'N, 79°21'W in the challenge. It is 5578m high an has a nice plateau on to with only 8.5° slope:

I climbed this mountain with an electrical rover with fuel cells.

One of the 6000ers is a lot like K-2 there, except the top is virtually a point. I considered making a challenge of just "climb K2" but I think it would be duplicate, considering that there is mountain 500 meters taller with similar difficulty.

[Pds314]

A map of all the six-thousanders I could find with a prominence of over 500 meters. My search was pretty thorough and I think I covered every range on Kerbin but it is possible I missed something somewhere, so if you know of one that I missed, do tell me.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pds314

[EveMaster]

That pointy 6000er seems to be quite a challenge to climb!

If you take the highest summit of each mountain range with a 6000er, the challenge would be a seven summits challenge. Are the highest 6000ers in each mountain range also the most difficult to climb in their mountain range?

[Pds314]

7 hours ago, EveMaster said:

I'd say go for rovers without trusters or propellors. This way there will be no arguments about if a craft is a rover with wings or an aircraft with rover wheels and what counts as a jump and what counts as flying.

I would start at the base of the mountain. I haven't looked at the locations of the 6000ers but maybe the rule could be that the start point must be in specific biomes. That biome should certainly not be the biome mountains.

This is generally my preference as well.

As for the "base" of the mountain the biggest problem I can see is that it is not always entirely clear where that is.

Take this mountain near Woomerang? The 6000-meter peak is distinct from the surrounding mountain biome, which itself is distinct from the highlands surrounding it. Which itself is distinct from the grasslands slowly rising up to it, which itself is distinct from the surrounding area and most especially the beach.

25 minutes ago, EveMaster said:

That pointy 6000er seems to be quite a challenge to climb!

If you take the highest summit of each mountain range with a 6000er, the challenge would be a seven summits challenge. Are the highest 6000ers in each mountain range also the most difficult to climb in their mountain range?

No. In fact, if it were the highest peaks in each area, that spike would not make the cut.



And the one that would is quite a bit easier to climb. Maybe even the easiest of all. It basically has a massive highway pre-made for you.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pds314

[Pds314]

And likewise, This one is right next the Keverest, 750 meters shorter, but it's cliffed steeply on all sides. Which means it might be harder than Keverest, which has a (somewhat indirect) route up it that doesn't involve any clinging to sheer cliffs.


 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pds314

[Pds314]

A rather stylized showcase of 13 out of 14 of the mountains. I thought I had all 14 but somehow I missed a photo op.

[swjr-swis]

3 hours ago, Pds314 said:

A rather stylized showcase of 13 out of 14 of the mountains.

Hmm... a single-launch orbital delivery system to plunk 14 payloads (relay/science stations?) with reasonable accuracy onto the listed peaks...

Argh noooo, I don't have time for this!

.

.

.

And yet...

[panzerknoef]

I've played with this idea before as well. Albeit a version that would see one fly between all of them and land on every one with a single plane. I do actually think you've mapped all of them! Some of them are double peeks that have a small sub 6000 saddle though, dunno if you would count them as 2. Regardless, I'll check my own records later to see if I've got any peak you haven't mapped, but I don't think there will be one. 

[EveMaster]

@Pds314 said he mapped only summits with a prominence of more than 500m. I think that is a reasonable limit. Prominence means how far you have do descent to reach a higher point.

I would start the climb of the mountain near Woomerang from the grasslands biome.

 

[Pds314]

46 minutes ago, EveMaster said:

@Pds314 said he mapped only summits with a prominence of more than 500m. I think that is a reasonable limit. Prominence means how far you have do descent to reach a higher point.

I would start the climb of the mountain near Woomerang from the grasslands biome.

 

Yes those two are probably the only ones where it makes sense to just start from a major facility. And they should be reachable without directly climbing the Woomerang wall by going through the difficult but doable mountain pass.

Edited October 16, 2019 by Pds314

[Robonoise]

If you head up to the North Pole area of Kerbin, you can find a lot of high mountains. I call them the Kermelas. I’ve only been able to reach it by plane, but rovers seem like a fun challenge! You can reach the kermelas simply by flying north from the Woomerang launch site

Edited October 18, 2019 by Robonoise
Spelled woomerang wrong

[Pds314]

41 minutes ago, Robonoise said:

If you head up to the North Pole area of Kerbin, you can find a lot of high mountains. I call them the Kermelas. I’ve only been able to reach it by plane, but rovers seem like a fun challenge! You can reach the kermelas simply by flying north from the Woomerang launch site

None of those are 6km though. The south pole has a 6 km on the rim though.