Narrative:

Was given cowboy 4 departure and told to comply with the departure limitations. Cowboy 4 depicts; what looks to be conflicting altitude limitations. The fix in question; roppr; shows at or below 7;000 (ATC)/5;900 at or above. This looks like two different limitations and one is given by ATC. We thought we had to comply with at or above 5;900 since ATC did not give us the at or below 7;000. In talking to ATC after landing; we were told that the 5;900 altitude is for terrain. If the altitude reason was listed on the departure it sure would clear up the confusion of having two limitations. Example of what could help...at or below 7;000/ at or above 5;900 for terrain.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: LAS departure assigned a Cowboy 4 SID noted confusion regarding the two altitudes listed as crossing altitudes; ATC vs. conventional.

Narrative: Was given Cowboy 4 departure and told to comply with the departure limitations. Cowboy 4 depicts; what looks to be conflicting altitude limitations. The fix in question; ROPPR; shows at or below 7;000 (ATC)/5;900 at or above. This looks like two different limitations and one is given by ATC. We thought we had to comply with at or above 5;900 since ATC did not give us the at or below 7;000. In talking to ATC after landing; we were told that the 5;900 altitude is for terrain. If the altitude reason was listed on the departure it sure would clear up the confusion of having two limitations. Example of what could help...At or below 7;000/ at or above 5;900 for terrain.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.