John, starting the hike up Mt. Russell, with (from right to left in the background) Mt. Whitney, Keeler Needle, Day Needle, Third Needle, a whole bunch of other mountains, and finally Mt. Muir (another 14'er) at the lowest point above my head and slightly to the right. It looks smaller because it is farthest away. A mountain has to have at least 300 ft of prominence to be considered a separate mountain and not a sub-peak of some taller mountain. All of the needles are over 14,000 ft tall, but since they lack 300 ft of prominence, they are all part of Mt. Whitney. It's sort of arbitrary, but when you think about it, there's really not a better way to do it. I have heard in Alaska it is common to only name peaks that have 500 feet of prominence. So, it's arbitrary and not even consistent.