According to Andrew Kirmse‘s excellent Fusion Table in 2017 covering all peaks in the world down to a prominence of 300 feet (!), there were approximately 6637 Ribus globally. His improved and revised list using GLO-30 DEM (Digital Elevation Model) in 2023 gave a figure of 6842. Because the current methods for obtaining elevation data remain imprecise, checking these one-by-one is necessary in order to produce the best quality list. The latest count by the World Ribus project (see below) in January 2023 is 7051. Those identified at present include 8 in Taiwan, 58 in The Philippines, 16 in Australia (including 3 in Tasmania) and 68 in New Zealand (including 4 on the North Island).
On the image above, red circles denote Ultra-prominent peaks (the ‘Ultras’, with over 1500m of topographic prominence) and the pink circles denote Ribus. All Ultras are obviously also Ribus! Huge thanks to Andrew Kirmse for his pioneering work.
As of early 2023, a group of mountain lovers scattered across the globe are getting to the final stages of putting together a list of all the Ribus in the world, with information such as name, elevation and prominence. This may take some time but it is hoped a first edition of the list will be available in 2023! Current progress can be seen at the World Ribus project editors’ website and soon in table form for different regions of the world on the World Ribus website.
A sub-Ribu is a peak with a prominence of between 990 metres and 999 metres and therefore fails to quality as a Ribu by ten metres or less. This sub-list will be published later as an appendix to the main list. At the most recent count inJjanuary 2023, there are – very approximately – around 200 sub-Ribus.
If you would like to work out how many Ribus you have climbed elsewhere in the world, or check if a favourite peak is indeed a Ribu, there are three main ways you can do this at present:
1. Consult the ongoing World Ribus project website to see if the peak has been identified, checked and confirmed as a Ribu. This is by far the best method as methods 2 and 3 below involve data that have not been manually checked and amended using various sources by a human editor.
2. As Andrew Kirmse’s Fusion Table was discontinued as a format by Google in December 2019, go direct to Andrew’s separate website http://everymountainintheworld.com/ and be patient while the site loads (not recommended with an old mobile phone!) You can then explore the world and check the prominence of an unbelievable number of peaks (approximately 11.8 million!).
3. For those who are keen on raw data, go to https://www.andrewkirmse.com/prominence-update-2023 and scroll down to download the 179MB txt file of approximately 11.8 million peaks yourself.
