Coming from the east coast of the United States, I tend to think of a high mountain as being 4 or 5 thousand feet high. Heck, the highest peak in New England is just a little higher than 6000 feet, and I used to think that was high. Now I come to Washington and the place is littered with mountains that are 5+ thousand feet high. It seems the difference here (vs. the east coast) is the mountains seem to be much sharper and steep - as can be seen by the above picture of one of the 5000+ foot mountains in the Olympic range.