“Finally,” announces my next door neighbor Nick, “someone comes up with a scientific explanation for what I’ve been calling ‘prominence.’ Why are the mountains around Flathead Valley so much more majestic than the ones in Vail, Aspen or Park City, even though our elevation is so much less?”
He forwarded the September 2025 National Geographic article headlined: “Have We Been Measuring Mountains All Wrong?”
“What,” inquires the opening sentence, “makes a mountain truly impressive?”
Most people will point to Mount Everest, the article explains, because it’s the tallest peak above sea level. But the height of a mountain, it turns out, isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Rather, it’s “jut.” And when it comes to jaw-dropping jut, Flathead County’s mountains stand tall.
Here’s the lowdown: a 23-year-old mathematician named Kai Xu devised a scientific method that calculates a mountain’s “grandeur.” His formula, describes the article, factors in “a mountain’s height above its surroundings and the steepness of its rise, which produces a single number he calls ‘jut’: a measure of how dramatically a peak thrusts into the sky.”
Traditional metrics, in other words, don’t do an otherwise truly majestic mountain justice because they can’t measure what the human eye can see: towering spires rising above deep canyons; huge sweeping faces giving way to sheer cliffs.
Think Going-to-the Sun Road. What you see out the car window is breathtaking jut.
Better yet for all outdoor enthusiasts, Xu has created a website, PeakJut.com, that not only measures the most dramatic features (the jut) of a particular mountain, it provides every coordinate, including the most impressive viewpoint from ground level.
So what mountains in our backyard are among the contiguous United States’ most magnificent, outperforming on the jut scale more well known peaks such as Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Shasta and El Capitan in California?
Ranked at the very top in Flathead County is imposing Mount Stimson, the second highest peak in Glacier National Park:
North America > United States > Montana > Flathead County
Mountain | elevation: 3,076 m (10,092 ft)
Jut: 979 m (3,213 ft)
Rises 1,853 m (6,078 ft) in horizontal distance 2,975 m (9,761 ft) at angle 31.9° from the northwest
Base (most impressive viewpoint) coordinates: 48.531711,-113.638857
Summit coordinates: 48.513924,-113.609752
Second place honors for our county go to Mount Brown, certainly with a lower summit (8,438 ft) but featuring a spectacular jut of 3,176 feet. Next in line is Mount Cannon, also with a less dramatic peak (8,829 ft) yet sporting a splendid jut of 3,126 feet. The far more lofty Mount Jackson (10,039 ft)—one of only six summits in Glacier Park cresting over 10,000 feet—presents a sheer jut of 3061 feet.
Close on their heels, all in Flathead County, are Kintla Peak, Blackfoot Mountain, Heavens Peak, Mount Custer, Mount Saint Nicholas (a personal favorite, it’s always reminded me of the Matterhorn) and Walton Mountain.
That said, adjacent Glacier County’s 10,479-foot Mount Cleveland—the tallest mountain in Glacier Park five miles south of the Canadian border—takes best in local show for jut. Its sharp vertical rise above the surrounding terrain measures a whopping 3,465 feet, a scale and steepness uncommon in these lower 48 states.
Glacier County similarly showcases Mount Siyeh with 2,796 feet in jut, Going-to-the-Sun Mountain (2,783 ft), and Little Chief Mountain (2,589 ft).
Besides the ever-present McDonald Glacier, Lake County’s McDonald Peak, at 9,820 feet the highest summit in the Mission Mountains, provides a none-too-shabby 2,830 feet of jut.
Finally, 12 miles as the crow flies from Libby, and rightfully claimed by both Lincoln and Sanders counties, the 8,634-foot A Peak offers 2,792 feet of jut.
Barely a day goes by that I don’t shoot a glance towards Mount Aeneas, one of the more recognizable peaks rising above the Flathead Valley floor (I’m staring at the mountain as I write this sentence). And where, out of curiosity, does Aeneas juxtapose with our other jut-laden mountains?
Reaching a respectable 7,510 feet in elevation, Aeneas offers only 1,193 feet of jut. Still, as any hiker in Jewel Basin will caution, do not be deceived by the mountain’s southern slope, which drops precipitously to the vegetation line below.
Oh, and as for Aeneas’ most impressive viewpoint, Xu’s calculations pinpoint by map an otherwise ordinary stand of pine trees just east of Echo Lake. Maybe I’ll see you there.
John McCaslin is a longtime journalist and author who lives in Bigfork.