And the Alps actually fit the lifestyle we want, transhumance and all.... odd, Donald and I looked all over that area, trying to find a model we could use. I'd love to use the Alps as a model, they're stunningly beautiful.
hmm, the bit of mountain range I can see on Google Maps that fits that description is well over 20 miles north to south, not 10-20, and I'm looking at the narrowest bit I can find.
The narrowest part of all, near Kufstein. The town itself is at about 500m, let's treat that as a base and look for the highest peak in the area, where "the area" cuts off when the range is over 20 miles wide. (This isn't very far). I love Google Maps.... there's a few a bit over 1800m. So 1300m relative... about 4000 feet. Somewhat more than Snowdon at 3560 (that does start from sea level, making it all a lot easier), and if it's typical of the Alps, a lot more dramatic. Nowhere near 5000ft, though. Link will be big.... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Kufstein&sll=37.945484,-105.54647&sspn=0.01682,0.038495&ie=UTF8&ll=47.657525,12.09938&spn=0.22986,0.615921&t=p&z=11
right, let me go picture hunting. It probably won't be as dramatic as the bits I'd like to use, I know I started hitting altitude sickness there at about 9500ft, but it's probably better than most of Snowdonia. http://www.kaisergebirge-online.de/images/kufstein.jpg Pretty! I hope that's looking west. The mountains look almost like wargames terrain, dumped on a flat green base. Other pics in that area aren't as impressive, sadly: well, limestone is bound to be a bit soft and boring compared to volcanic rock. But not bad at all. What I'd originally been thinking was more like this: Tryfan. http://www.trekkingbritain.com/041226-cnichtfromgelli-Lago/041226D-TryfanFromGwernGofIsaf.jpg Now that's vicious, and a killer in winter. 915m - about 2700ft. Not the biggest in the area, but the most dramatic. Ok, so we have something 4000ft high rather than 3500, if we go right out to the 20-mile-wide limit. Valleys not as windy as I'd hoped for to fit all the ones in the Penny Love stories in there, but pretty good and plenty of them. 4000ft as an extreme upper limit, then, since it's on the extreme upper limit of width.
Let's see if these American ones can give us anything better.
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangre_de_Cristo_Mountains
Oh.
Length 242 mi (389 km), north-south
Width 120 mi (193 km), east-west
120 is more than 10-20....
Maybe there's a very narrow bit? That's the main range, maybe the sub-range of the same name?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangre_de_Cristo_Range
It actually describes this as "narrow". 48 miles "narrow". Still nowhere near small enough, unless we find a very narrow section.
Over to Google Maps. Again, link will be a bit long...
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Walsenburg&sll=47.666543,12.077751&sspn=0.11491,0.307961&ie=UTF8&ll=38.123754,-105.422058&spn=1.073835,2.463684&t=p&z=9
Head west-southwest of Colorado Springs, the bit with Mt Adams in it looks promising, it's by far the narrowest in the range. A bit "just one string" rather than up and down more than once across the range like we need for the Stormwalks, but definitely promising. Mt Adams.. 13800m?? Ah, no. Feet. Still very, very big. Base altitude? About 8600ish - again, seems to be feet not metres. So 5200 ft! Yay! Only, that is just straight up once and down again, not several peaks across the width like we need. How wide is it? Pretty narrow... but, sadly, still the full ten miles for just one peak :( Shame. It looks very nice, but one single "ridge" line of peaks does not the Stormwalks make, even at their narrowest point, and that 5200ft was the highest in the area. No, won't fit.
Still, we have the Alpine model to fall back on. 4000 ft max and Alpine weather is about right: a nice walk in summer, vicious and just barely passable in winter, with huge differences in travel speed, which Penny Love's novels need. Fine, that "last pass for supplying Whitewall" can carry on making sense.
> Finally, given that Kero Fin itself is 10 miles high on a 20 mile base, I think it is perfectly acceptable for the Stormwalks to
> be 1.5 to 2 miles high on a similar base.
Only if you have the "norm" as seriously different from how the world we're used to works, and that's no good to play in. One magically ridiculous mountain, yes, but not as the norm, any more than talking fish are the norm.
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