Rotor and wave.
Some excellent posts but I would like to add a bit more.
I have hiked Mount Fuji and flown over her. I have also soared three conical mountains.
The first, Hongorie, in the Alp maritine and in a glider.The second south of Auckland when my paraglider instructor imprudently threw me off in an El Nino year when everywhere else was blown out and the third is Sugar loaf in the Wicklow mountains last week.
India 4 2 posts are highly informative and Sugar loaf acted exactly like the Von Karman link on the windward face with the flow oscillating. Sugar loaf is a Marilyn, steeper than Fuji and in a 16 kph pressure gradient flow I was able to soar 150ft above the 660ft mountain - my paraglider has a sink rate of 1m/sec.
Similarly I was able to gain around 50% of the height of the NZ hill in a 30 kph wind (mind you my sphincter was going sixpence - half a crown at a great rate of knots).
Bearing in mind the relatively low Reynolds numbers the airflow over a conical mountain is influenced up to 50% of its height.
Rotor.
As shown in I-42 link it moves and can gallop off downwind...I would imagine there is a ducting effect with it bouncing of inversions.
I have flown in rotor many times and it's best described as being in a tumble dryer. My first trip in the Pyrenees had me spending around 9 hours over four days trying to climb into the wave system.
I had two unpleasant experiences - one where I was knocked unconscious during a transit of the Durance valley on a light wind day...I came too with the undercarriage hanging out and the airbrakes extended. The other was near the Cape gliding club where I found myself inverted at 200ft. There are several members of the club who have managed to put their head through a canopy - one twice.
It was suggested the Steve Fossett crashed due to rotor.
I have also seen a down burst in the lee of Tenerife which terminated 6ft above the road on a day when the wind was blowing force 6.
But I have flown on the lee side of the mountain in a Mistral less than a wingspan away from the southerly face - a technique taught by some of the best french glider pilots - one has to just stay very close and put on a thinking hat as to how and where to leave the lee.
Bergerie would probably remember the loss of a 747 skipper who died in Spain - Vic was one of the few guys who really loved flying and had started hang gliding in the mid 70s when we were both in BEA. He transitioned to paragliders in the mid 90s and was blown back into the rotor above take off at an altitude of 200ft where his wing had a series of collapses (I contacted the investigator). The point of this observation is that the rotor extends practically vertically above the leading edge. I have also witnessed a 200 ft plume of spray above the cliffs of Mohar.
WRT to wave for the curious.
The bars are stationary and parallel with the feature that sets them off. They aren't necessarily at right angles to the wind. I have had a difference of 80 knots on beats soaring the leading edge.
Two features will react similarly to a light interference pattern - the lift can cancel itself out or augment the climb - there is a hotspot over the A1 south of Sutton Bank.
Wave can also be set off by wind shear and there is a theory that cloud streeting is indicative of a sheer wave system. I do know someone who has soared above one side of a street.
I flew yesterday Sleive Gullion which is a part of the Ring of Gullion - either a weathered volcanic ring dyke.
Geology ? Ring of Gullion
In a NNE wind the lower edge throws off a rotor which can make flying interesting...rather curious as it's virtually an edge to a plateau and it's the downwind lip that throws off the turbulence and also forms a wave above the rotor.
To sum up rotor extends far further than many imagine and it can be bloody rough.