Talk:Altamont Pass

Initial ratings per Wikiproject California

I have assigned initial ratings as follows to this article:

• Class: Start, since it's beyond a stub, reasonably NPOV, stable, one decent image, some sources; to advance it needs more breadth, such as ecology, geology, prehistory.

• Importance: Mid. Normally a pass would rate lower, but this one is traversed by tens of thousands of people per day and it does have further notability in its windfarm. Anlace 22:38, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Name

Shouldn't this be, "Altamont Pass, California"? Openwire 19:20, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

Probably not. Do you know of any other "Altamont Pass"es ? Anlace 22:38, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

Please excuse my complete unfamiliarity with html wiki etc, but as one of the windpower pioneers of the altamont pass i may have something valuable to contribute. I did develop the world's first utility-scale windplant there. The first comment is that in times of low wind, there is virtually no dependence on natural gas. PG&E's system has a huge portion of hydropower, which, since it's already built, is the cheapest storage system of any technology. Secondly, what's profound about the Altamont is that these turbines were the first commercial turbines in the entire world, and a good percentage of them, though completely outmoded, are still running profitably and producing renewable power. AlphaTinker 23:17, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

Deaths

There have been many deaths on this treacherous road. With street racers, clogged traffic, and plenty of people that have places to be, this sets this cliff apart from the rest. Some deaths have left people scarred for life, like a young man named Ahres Yasin. His best friend by the name of Mehrajuddin Atamy died on that "cursed" road. Rest in peace Mehrajuddin Atamy.

http://tracypress.com/content/view/10213/2242/

Snipped from the main article page. Sorry, guys, but this is unfortunately non-notable and extremely NPOV. I live in the vicinity, so I'd like to think I can speak to the sentiments involved, but this has about as much a place here as a comprehensive overview of plastic surgery does on a certain pop-star's page. Orethrius 12:51, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Actual elevation?

According to the USGS, the actual Altamont Pass is on Altamont Pass Road and the rail lines, with an elevation about 720 feet. This is about half the height of Pacheco Pass (1400). --NE2 19:12, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

You do know that CalTrans has signs posted on I-580 listing the pass at 1009 feet, right?[1] Thus it appears that both the State of California and the USGS have different definitions of where the pass is located. The article may have to be rewritten to include these two different figures. Zzyzx11 (Talk) 15:17, 9 July 2008 (UTC)

I checked with my MapsendTopo software, and it all boils down to what is the exact location of the pass. If you define it as the highest point on the lowest possible path connecting the two valleys roughly along I-580, then such point is at 37°43'3.9"N,121°39'40.98"W, and its elevation is 1034 ft above the mean sea level. Mapsend claims its elevation database is accurate to ± 3 m (10 ft) (RMS) and ± 10 m (33 ft) maximum error. Xenonice (talk) 22:14, 24 February 2009 (UTC)