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Workflow: Narrow-down

Trigger: an open-ended "which peaks…" question with criteria. Examples: - "peaks I haven't done, usually climbed alone, under 4k ft of gain, ranked by distance from me" - "San Juan climbs that combine a lot of mountains" - "give me the next 5 in that list"

Output: a saved list artifact in docs/lists/YYYY-MM-DD_<slug>.md — a frozen result table (snapshot) plus the re-runnable criteria. Also surface the table in chat.

Steps

  1. Login check all three sources (source requirements).
  2. Pick the climber (default Kyle). Their climbed list + home address come from climbers/<name>.yml.
  3. Query the candidate pool from peak_db: filter the relevant list (co_13_14ers, etc.) to ranked peaks, subtract the climber's climbed set, apply the stated criteria (range, gain, class, list membership, season).
  4. First-cut sort by haversine from the climber's home; pull a wide net (top ~50–75) so drive-time reordering doesn't miss anything.
  5. Enrich finalists from all three sources for the columns below (gain, class, trailhead, combo pattern).
  6. Rank by drive time from the climber's home (Maps directions), not haversine.
  7. Write the artifact (template below) and surface the table in chat.

Grouping variant: "which of these peaks combine into days / a weekend?"

A common narrow-down isn't "rank a pool by drive time" — it's "here's a set of peaks; which group into a single day, and which into a multi-day weekend, because the approaches are close?" (e.g. "Italian, Taylor, Star, Pearl, Oyster in the Eastern Elks").

Summit-to-summit straight-line distance is NOT the metric here — it's often misleading. Two summits 2 mi apart can sit on opposite sides of a divide whose trailheads are hours apart by car. What actually determines combinability (Kyle, 2026-06-07):

  1. How people actually climb them — read the trip reports. What's the standard outing for each peak, and what gets bagged together?
  2. Which side / drainage the approach comes from — group peaks by the basin/trailhead they're climbed from, not by where the summits sit.
  3. Trailhead-to-trailhead driving proximity — for peaks on different approaches, how far apart are the start points by car? Close trailheads → a weekend of separate days from one basecamp. Far-apart trailheads → separate trips.
  4. Commonly-combined groups — what link-ups already appear in TRs/GPX (with a real track to back them), vs. what's only theoretically adjacent.

Output of the grouping variant: peaks bucketed by approach, each bucket labeled single-day / long-day / separate-day-same-weekend, with the trailhead, drive-from-home, trailhead-to-trailhead drives between buckets, and a cited TR/GPX for each proposed combination. Don't lead with a distance matrix.

All three sources are required at the narrow-down stage too — not just LoJ (Kyle, 2026-06-07). A grouping/scoping answer is still research: confirm 14ers + listsofjohn + peakbagger are all logged in and actually consult each (approaches, TR combo evidence, peakbagger isolation/prominence as a cross-check on the clustering). "I'll verify the other two at report time" is not acceptable — leaning on a single source at narrow-down is the same invalid-research shortcut as skipping a source on a full report. Run preflight.py and confirm all three logins before pulling anything.

Candidate table format (required columns, in order)

# | Peak | Range | Drive (Maps) | Class | Gain | Trailhead | Confidence | Combos

  • # — rank by drive time
  • Peak — display name, quoted if quoted in the DB ("Pk Z")
  • Range — from peak_db range (don't guess)
  • Drive (Maps) — 1h 42m, ideally a clickable directions link
  • Class — YDS (2, 3, 2(+))
  • Gain — feet, range if multiple TRs (3,422–3,500')
  • Trailhead — short name
  • Confidence — High/Medium/Low + 1-line reason
  • Combos — ranked-13er+-only rule: Mostly Solo / Solo / Combined / Mostly Combined / Mixed, with ranked partner(s) in parens

Below the table: ★ best-solo / ★★ standout callouts, and a "skip when you want a solo half-day" summary of the Combined entries.

"Combined" definition (ranked-13er+ only)

Only count a peak as "combined" if at least one additional ranked 13er/14er is climbed the same day. Sub-13k bumps and unranked summits don't count (Tucker/Union/Copper near Jacque; Galena near Homestake; Music near Savage). Filter the "Additional Peaks" lists to ranked 13er+ before tallying.

Saved-list artifact format

# <Question / title>

**Run date:** YYYY-MM-DD · **Climber:** Kyle · **Source pool:** <list, e.g. co_13_14ers ranked, unclimbed>

## Result (snapshot)
<the candidate table>
<callouts>

## Criteria (re-runnable)
- Filters: <range / gain / class / list / season>
- Climbed-list source: <peak_db | 14ers checklist URL>
- Sort: drive time from <home address>
- Net size: top N by haversine, re-ranked by drive time

The snapshot is frozen at run time; the criteria block lets a future session regenerate it. Re-running produces a new dated file (don't overwrite).