[Tagging] Wiki page for natural=mountain_range

[Joseph Eisenberg]

"a pass was simply a saddle that was a convenient route for travel."

Yes, usually.

But not all passes are saddles. A saddle is a specific topographical
feature: the lowest point on the ridge line between two higher areas.
It's also called a "col" (from French), especially in the Alps. Like a
peak, a saddle is a single point.

A pass is any "navigable route through a mountain range or over a
ridge", so it's always a point on a path or road:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:mountain_pass=yes

Often the location of the pass on the highway is a few meters away
from the exact point of the saddle, for example, if the road has to
curve while crossing the ridgeline. Other times there are named passes
which cross a ridge at a fairly high point, far away from a saddle.

"Be aware that highways don't always go exactly through the saddle
point, so that the highest point on the highway and the saddle point
can have different positions."

So a mountain pass is any place where a road or path passes over a
ridge, whether at a saddle or not

On 5/1/19, Tod Fitch <tod at fitchdesign.com> wrote:
>
>> On Apr 30, 2019, at 9:28 PM, Warin <61sundowner at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Depends?
>>
>> Warning - my interpretation!
>>
>> SADDLE = low point between two high points (mountains), it does not
>> descend near the level of the adjacent valleys.
>>
>> PASS =A gap in a range of mountains or hills permitting easier passage
>> from one side to the other, it descends near the level of the adjacent
>> valleys.
>>
>> This gives me a difference between 'pass' and 'saddle',otherwise they
>> appear to be the same?
>>
>>
>> If it were a 'pass' then that would make the range into two separate
>> ways.
>> If it is a saddle then it does not break the range, but forms part of it.
>>
>> Some mountain ranges do not have crest along their entire length .. yet
>> they are a mountain range along the entire length.
>>
>
> Hmmm. Then many of the passes, including Donner Pass and Tioga Pass, in
> California’s Sierra Nevada are actually saddles?
>
> I’ve assumed that a pass was simply a saddle that was a convenient route for
> travel.
>
> Looking at
> https://www.vividmaps.com/2018/11/gap-vs-pass-vs-notch-vs-saddle.html
> <https://www.vividmaps.com/2018/11/gap-vs-pass-vs-notch-vs-saddle.html>
> maybe the difference between pass, saddle, gap and passage - at least in the
> US - is mostly a difference in regional dialect. In which case I guess OSM
> can do its usual and try to formalize the use and definition of one that
> most closely matches UK usage.
>
>
>