G
By "no one" I guess I mean the people in the head shed. The central valley of California is excluded from the designated mountainous area.
I will stand by my statement that the designated areas are adiquite. Your helitack should not be shocked. There are a lot of places 5000 and below that are in the mountains and require mountain flying techniques. I am only saying that high altitude is not the defining element for mountain flying. There is no regulatory definition, but when you look at the contracts let by DOI/USFS etc. They qualify it with numerous take off and landings to/from pinnacals, ridgeline, confined areas and typical terrain. I think it is a bit much to require a pilot to have 200 hours above 8000 msl to work on a fire contract in Arkansas.
So for Trans Lift, if you are conducting operations using mountain flying techniques log it and keep track of altitude both MSL and DA.
They miss you here on Kauai. I am sending you a PM so check it.
Doug