Skyrim talk:Throat of the World

Mining and Enchanted Pick-Axe

If you hop up to the very tip top highest point on the mountain there is various minerals you can mine including ebony and an enchanted pick-axe up there which makes you better at smithing! I was first to find it, haha! It's really there, go see for yourself! — Unsigned comment by 69.132.142.70 (talk) at 01:00 on 21 November 2011

How to get there without even starting the main quest

First you obviously have to get to high hrothgar. From there zig zag up the snowy parts while spamming the jump button. Eventually you'll be close to the throat, so you want to be careful, but you also need to get creative with your jumps. Use the rocks and scale as much as you can as quickly as possible. Once you "discover" the throat, just fast travel there.

I haven't even started the main questline, but I already have the notched pickaxe :D Haoleboi69 03:46, 29 November 2011 (UTC)

7000 steps

Google finds reports that there are actually only 748 steps, and I think to remember that Todd Howard said he counted them, but have no reference. The {{VN}} should probably stay until a good argument can be made for either case. --Alfwyn 16:33, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Todd Howard said the game would have 7000 steps during an interview before the release of the game. He would count them. In various places in the game is also stated that it has 7000 steps. Although it is said in the game that the path has 7000 steps, there are actually less. I saw in the official forums some different numbers that state how many there really are. So in Lore the game has 7000 steps, ≈748 are there exactly in the game. -CoolGamer 17:09, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

So I guess rewriting the note to something like "According to [sources] there are 7000 steps, but ..." would be the way to go. Using lore as source may be easier, since I think attributing it to Todd Howard should include a exact reference. And any exact number like 748 is a bit problematic (does that step half buried in the ground count ?). --Alfwyn 17:57, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Maybe it resembles 7000 yards. — Unsigned comment by Kharwog (talk • contribs) at 17:01 on 23 December 2011

Has anyone considered that it may mean, you have to take 7000 steps to get to the top. I definitely am not going to try and count that but it is an interesting thought because that might be more accurate then the 800ish actual stone steps counted--Lord.Baal 06:54, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

There's no actual way to count all of the steps, simply because many of the steps are buried in the snow. A tricky situation for a perfect wiki article, no? --Zmedaris 11:16, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

Or we could stick with "supposedly 7,000." No need to count then! --Velyanthe 17:23, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

When the CK comes out it might be possible to count, but then there'll be the problem of what counts as a "step". Something like "a pathway reputed to consist of 7,000 steps" will have to do. rpeh •T•C•E• 17:43, 30 December 2011 (UTC)

has anyone taken into account that there is snow covering some steps

As well as the fact that time has passed,, so some damage should have occured — Unsigned comment by 66.87.68.174 (talk) on January 10, 2012 22:20

Isn't this the root of all the back and forth on this topic? "steps as in stairs" vs "steps as in paces"? The article has it as "stair steps", which is not how it's phrased by anyone in the game, and is only ever going to lead to bickering. On top of that, the note isn't even on the right page: and even explicitly says so itself. It belongs on High Hrothgar, not here. Aliana 00:17, 24 January 2012 (UTC)

(←) Well I always just think of the 7000 steps as meaning a long journey of great importance. Less literal more philosophical. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk | Contribs} 02:50, 16 September 2012 (GMT)

This might be a stretch, but could all this indicate that the game-world version of Skyrim is 1/10 the size of the "real" Skyrim? All the step counts I've seen are close to 700 (+/- a few; I've seen ~650 to ~750). Multiply that by 10 and you get roughly 7000. Also, it says below that someone calculated the height of the mountain to be 766.5 meters which is short for what is supposedly the tallest mountain in Tamriel. But multiply that by 10 and you get 7665 meters (24911 feet) which is an impressive height for a mountain. Not Everest height but definitely good enough to be the tallest mountain on a continent. Also, you can usually walk between the major cities in about a day. If Skyrim were 10 times larger it would take about 10 days to walk the distance, which seems much more likely and realistic for the journey. Am I just overthinking things? (Aren't we all? :) — Unsigned comment by 98.160.100.108 (talk) at 22:03 on 15 December 2013 (GMT)

Does the pickaxe's bonus allow for even greater Daedric items?

At the highest level of enchantment, items with Fortify Smithing give 4 +29% bonuses, allowing for the creation of Daedric items with uber damage and armour characteristics. Does the pickaxe allow the player to create even better items? Literat 21:25, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

The answer definitely appears to be a big no - it's useless, as discussed at http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim_talk:Smithing_Expertise#So.2C_what_does_it_actually_do.3F Literat 22:08, 21 December 2011 (UTC)

Throat of the World location

The wiki says that the location of High Hrothgar and the Throat of the World is South of Whiterun, but isn't it southeast? Or is that change not needed? 70.225.177.54 23:59, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

I agree, atleast if you look at the map. How well it adds up with coordinates I don't know. I just added it to main article. If someone have a different opinion, pls go ahead and "undo". --Middleofsweden 19:57, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Unmelting snowbank?

If you stand at the Throat of the World with the Word Wall at your back, and head up that one large expanse of snow straight ahead, the first little ledge (about 30-40 feet up from the gravelly patch at the base of the peak) had a clickable "Activate Unmelting Snowbank". Clicking on it did nothing, but can anyone confirm its location or purpose? — Unsigned comment by 99.237.100.48 (talk) at 19:51 on 16 February 2012 (UTC)

It's for this--Br3admax 21:50, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

Time Wound and magical damage

I noticed with one of my characters that, using Firebolt while standing in the Wound, my horse and follower took fire. I don't remember testing with frost and shock spells (I'll probably do so this afternoon) but I'm wondering if it happened to other people and why it happened. Did they use the Flammable Gas trap to make the Time Wound and forgot to delete something? Not that it exploded like the gas does, but still. Elakyn (talk) 12:06, 3 March 2013 (GMT)

Alright, after a bit of testing it seems that it only works with Fireball (and not Firebolt as I thought) but for some reason, while both my follower and horse catch fire and take a lot of damage, I'm perfectly fine. That's quite odd... Elakyn (talk) 14:40, 3 March 2013 (GMT)

Actual elevation: 766.5 meters

According to the Creation Kit, sea level in Skyrim is equivalent to a Z-coordinate of -14000; by placing an XMarker on top of the summit of Throat Of The World, I was able to determine that its Z-coordinate is 39655. This is a difference of 53655 units. According to the Creation Kit wiki, 70 units are equal to one meter. Therefore, the actual elevation of Throat Of The World is 766.5 meters.

Considering that Throat Of The World is supposed to be the tallest mountain in all of Tamriel, this is remarkably tiny. By contrast, North Dakota, the flattest state in the United States, has a butte stretching 1069 meters above sea level.

I edited the article to include this tidbit; but someone by the name of Jeancey undid my edit, and claimed that it wasn't relevant. Really, Jeancey? The elevation of the mountain in meters isn't relevant; but the exact number of steps is? I'm somewhat doubtful.

Also, you questioned why North Dakota was a good comparison; as I mention above, North Dakota is a good comparison because it is notorious for being flat, and therefore provides a good illustration of how truly tiny Throat Of The World is.

And finally, you asked whether there was any proof that the mountain was really 766.5 meters tall. I have therefore described, here on the talk page, exactly how I derived that height. You can repeat my experiment, and check the Creation Kit wiki yourself, if you doubt me. Until then, however, you should leave my edit in place. I would appreciate it.

Elen Sila (talk) 04:12, 16 March 2013 (GMT)

To be fair, due to limitations in making a game, you can't make a mountain that is miles high in-game. Lore-wise, the mountain is really huge, it's just one of those things that can't be easily shown in-game. Similar to how the Imperial City is populated by thousands, according to stories in-game, yet only has a few dozen people per district in Oblivion. And, the 7000 Steps are relevant to lore, so that is whatmakes that noteworthy in the article, unlike the proper elevation of the mountain, which, beyond the mention of "tallest in Tamriel", is never mentioned, so far as I am aware. Snowmane➚^{(talk•email)} 04:20, 16 March 2013 (GMT)

(edit conflict) That was what I meant by proof of really being 766.5 meters tall. In lore, the height isn't 766.5 meters, it is much larger, making the mention of the in-game height not really all that relevant. Jeancey (talk) 04:24, 16 March 2013 (GMT)

(edit conflict) (edit conflict) There's no need for a real-world comparison at all on the article. I think the question is more in the gist of, if the mountain were real, would it really be that short? Are we allowed to assume that they choose to keep the mountain downscaled in order to improve gameplay. A note on it's actual size is still relevant though, but there is no need to add details that make it seem what it isn't. Are the same scales used in Oblivion, there are some elevation units documented on Dive Rock that could tell us whether the converted height is the "real height". Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 04:25, 16 March 2013 (GMT)

You can't really judge these things on a real-world scale. You can walk from Markarth to Riften in about a day in the game. The average human walking speed is around 3 mph. This would mean that in a full day's worth of walking at that speed will get you all of 3×24=72 miles travel. (Though I very much doubt most humans could keep up that pace for a full 24 hrs, but that's beside the point.) Since we're to believe that these cities are much further apart than that, it's clear that some liberties have been taken with the scale of the world. — TheRealLurlock (talk) 12:34, 16 March 2013 (GMT)

I do not doubt that the actual sizes of the mountains and land areas in the game, as well as city populations, have been dramaticly reduced for the purposes of performance optimization. However, as long as we are going to include the number of physical in-game steps, instead of just taking for granted that there are 7000 of them, we should also include the in-game elevation, instead of just taking for granted that it is really tall.

I do think there should be a real world comparison, however. If not North Dakota, then maybe mount Everest (8848 meters)? Elen Sila (talk) 20:05, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

The amount of steps may be relative due to the size of the mountain, but there is also no definitive that it is 7000 stone steps, it may be saying 7000 physical steps, which is still relative. The height of the mountain is purely relative to mechanics, and there is no "alternative" explanation for the height. Even at its "proper" height, there still may be an shortage of steps. There are plenty of places along the route that lack stone steps, and also some can be seen to have faded away. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 20:15, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

As a related point, no where in the game are real world measurements used, so using it here is inappropriate, I think. The 7000 steps is specifically stated in lore and in-game, whereas the height is never specifically mentioned, only that it is the tallest point. Jeancey (talk) 20:18, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

(←) Finally, someone actually calculated the height from in-game sea level to in-game height. I've been looking forever for this exact number out of pure curiosity. BUT, I do think using White Butte in ND is misleading. The height of White Butte is 1069 m from sea level, but I think the more important number to quote would be the PROMINENCE (to give you the height relative to the surrounding area, since ND as a whole is already quite far above sea level). The prominence of White Butte is only 166 m. Now, I know you also did you calculation from sea level, but I think a more relavent number would be from the base of the mountain (I would use Whiterun, not Ivarstead, as a closer location to the "base" of the mountain, but this would still just be a rough estimate). I would guesstimate (I play on the PS3, not creation kit to get exact numbers) that from Whiterun to the peak of the Throat of the World would be closer to ~700 m, which would make it substantially larger that White Butte in ND. 700 m is not tall by standards on Earth, but comparing to the size of the game, it is definitely (as is obvious) the largest thing in Tamriel (aside from maybe the Red Mountain). -Chris — Unsigned comment by 132.230.191.184 (talk) at 11:55 on 4 June 2013

I'm going to add here(on the talk page) game terms, because I feel real world calculations don't really translate well to the brain when in game. The throat of the world is 9.5(z coordinate = z position / 4096) cells high, with each cell being 4096 units in length. This is considerably high in-game and jumping off the top of this mountain would certainly kill you, with the damage being well over 150k damage. --Rasikko (talk) 05:46, 1 January 2019 (UTC)

Notched Pickaxe disappears (possible bug)

After talking to Paarthurnax at the end of The Throat of the World quest I scaled the mountain to find the Notched Pickaxe, then mined all the ore veins I could find. I then tried to summit the mountain, but fell to my death. The last auto load took me back to the end of my conversation with Paarthurnax. I climbed up again to collect the Notched Pickaxe, but this time it was gone. I looked for it nearby, assuming I had bumped it and dislodged it, although I think that’s impossible. It’s gone. — Unsigned comment by 174.6.138.95 (talk) at 09:44 on 20 April 2013‎

Edit: forgot to add it is back after a beboot. — Unsigned comment by 174.6.138.95 (talk) at 18:13 on 23 April 2013 (GMT)

What platform did you observe this (PC, PS3 or Xbox 360)? Did you try to check if it was not just temporarily invisible? The invisibility is a bug observed a few rare occasions with some objects, but the these objects usually flicker into view again. —MortenOSlash (talk) 18:28, 23 April 2013 (GMT)

Enemies on the climb

Today I came across an ice wraith and a frost troll on my climb. Both were hit by clear skies as they happened to be in the way. They then both proceeded to die in 1 fireball. I checked the difficulty and I was still on adept. Frost trolls take around 7 and ice wraiths take around 3. An ice wraith later took the correct amount, I never used clear skies on it. I totally understand that it SHOULDN'T do anything like that, but I truly have no idea what was going on...--69.136.59.17 04:56, 1 August 2013 (GMT)

invincible dragon?

after the main quest, a dragon flies around the mountain nonstop. I have tried every shout I have on it and wasted an entire quiver of ebony arrows on it. anyone have an idea why this dragon is so hard to fight?Fyjorki (talk) 12:31, 22 January 2014 (GMT)Fyjorki

Thats Probebly Ohdaviing(i think i spelt that right) he cant die with out the use of the console.

Dunehelm (talk) 06:24, 22 April 2014 (GMT)

1,828 Steps

The Creation Kit's inventory of the exact number of steps leading up to High Hrothgar.

The exact number of steps is 1,828, not 732.

If you count each individual instance of a given static model as a single step, then the total number of steps is actually 446. However, some of the static models are "composites", consisting of multiple steps. The number of steps used to construct each model is indicated in the model name. For example, HHSteps05 consists of 5 steps, HHSteps06 consists of 6 steps, etcetera. The only exception to this is HHSteps10, which for some reason consists of 14, not 10, steps.

If individual models are broken down in this way into their constituent steps, then the total number becomes 1,828.

And in case you're thinking, "Oh, well maybe some of those steps were reused in other places on the map, not necessarily just on the path up to High Hrothgar," I actually did check that. If you right-click on each model and go to "Use Info", you can see the exact cells in which each model is used. Every single one occurs in outdoor cells whose X-coordinates are between 10 and 17, and whose Y-coordinates are between -18 and -9. That means every single one of those 1,828 steps appears in the game world between Ivarstead (18, -16) and High Hrothgar (12, -9).

The reason why many commentators have come up with counts like 732 is because they are counting adjacent steps as the same step. In other words, if two stone blocks are jutting out of the landscape side-by-side, then they are being counted as a single step, when in fact they may really be two separate world objects, and should therefore be counted separately.

The number of steps is therefore 1,828. I will edit the article to reflect this.

Please come here to offer counter-proof for a different count, before editing the article to change this. Thank you.

Elen Sila (talk) 07:21, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Are you sure all the steps are seen visually in the game? Some might be hidden below the surface. I am not sure, bu if I understand correctly, the number of steps that have been given here have been found by actually manually counting visible steps in-game. —MortenOSlash (talk) 09:31, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

When counting "steps" in this manner, standard practice is to count vertical increments as a single step, regardless of how many segments sit side-by-side. Two separate stones beside each other count as one step if they traverse the same vertical area. --Enodoc (talk) 10:49, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Both points above are far more logical and correct when counting, as the visible number comes first, eg some of the steps may be under the dirt and are there to aid the players climb. Also adjacent steps are not counted separately for this kind of count, they are logically one extended step and only "one" step for the purposes of the count. For example, the Howe Street Stairs are counted as 388, but many of the flights of steps use multiple stones on each individual step. Finally, ingame evidence is always taken above creation kit evidence, where there is a direct clash between them. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 12:21, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

Alright. I guess that makes sense. The compromise wording in the article seems fair enough to me.

Elen Sila (talk) 16:43, 30 July 2017 (UTC)