99 Fun Facts About Mountain

What height did the 2020 joint Nepalese-Chinese survey give for Mount Everest?

The 2020 joint survey put Everest at 8,848.86 m, about 86 cm above the long-used 8,848 m figure from a 1955 survey, by combining GNSS readings at the summit with radar soundings of the snow cap.

What does Sagarmatha, Everest's Nepali name, mean?

Sagarmatha, coined by the historian Baburam Acharya in the late 1930s, joins sagar (sky) and matha (head) to mean 'the head in the great blue sky'; Tibetans call the peak Qomolangma.

Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary made the first documented ascent of Everest in 1953 by which route?

Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit on 29 May 1953 by the Southeast Ridge, via the South Col, on John Hunt's British expedition.

George Mallory and Andrew Irvine disappeared on Everest during a summit attempt on 8 June of which year?

Mallory and Irvine were last seen on 8 June 1924 high on the Northeast Ridge; Mallory's body was found in 1999, and whether the pair reached the top has never been proven.

By May 2024, roughly how many people had died on Mount Everest?

The toll stood at about 340 by May 2024; over 200 bodies remain on the mountain because retrieving them is too dangerous.

Which body of water is the closest sea to Everest's summit, almost 700 km away?

The Bay of Bengal, reached across the Ganges delta of Bangladesh, is the nearest sea to Everest, roughly 700 km to the south-east; the Arabian Sea lies well over 1,500 km away.

K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth at 8,611 m, lies in which range?

K2 stands in the Karakoram, about 1,300 km north-west of Everest, and took its name in 1856 from a survey label for the range's second measured peak; Balti speakers call it Chogori.

K2's nickname 'the Savage Mountain' comes from a remark by which climber on the 1953 American expedition?

George Bell, a member of Charles Houston's 1953 American expedition, told reporters 'It's a savage mountain that tries to kill you'; for decades roughly one climber died for every four who reached the top.

Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni made the first ascent of K2 in 1954 for which country's expedition?

Ardito Desio led the expedition up the Abruzzi Spur.

A team from which country made the first winter ascent of K2 in January 2021?

Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa led the all-Nepali team.

Which peak, in the Ellsworth Mountains, is the highest in Antarctica?

Mount Vinson, 4,892 m, in the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains, is Antarctica's highest peak; an American team made the first ascent in December 1966.

Which peak was the first eight-thousander climbed, by Herzog and Lachenal in June 1950?

Annapurna I, 8,091 m, was climbed on 3 June 1950 by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, who lost fingers and toes to frostbite on the descent; it was the first eight-thousander summited.

Which eight-thousander, entirely in Tibet, was the last to be climbed, in 1964?

Shishapangma, 8,027 m, the lowest eight-thousander and the only one wholly inside Tibet, was first climbed on 2 May 1964 by a ten-man team led by Xu Jing.

Who became the first person to climb all 14 eight-thousanders, in October 1986, without bottled oxygen?

Reinhold Messner completed the set on Lhotse on 16 October 1986, having also made the first ascent of Everest without bottled oxygen with Peter Habeler in 1978 and the first solo ascent in 1980.

Nirmal 'Nims' Purja set what record on the eight-thousanders in 2019?

Purja's Project Possible took him up all the peaks between 23 April and 29 October 2019, six months and six days, smashing the previous mark of almost eight years set by Kim Chang-ho.

Who was the first person to climb the Seven Summits, on 30 April 1985?

Richard 'Dick' Bass, a Texas businessman, finished the Seven Summits on Everest on 30 April 1985, at 55 then the oldest person to climb it; his partner Frank Wells never reached Everest's top.

The Messner version of the Seven Summits swaps Australia's Kosciuszko for which peak?

Puncak Jaya, also called Carstensz Pyramid, is a 4,884 m rock peak in Indonesia's Papua; unlike the walk up Kosciuszko, its climb 'has the character of an expedition', the reasoning behind the alternative list.

Depending on Europe's boundary, its highest peak is Mont Blanc or which Caucasus mountain?

Elbrus is 5,642 m against Mont Blanc's 4,810 m.

Why is Mauna Kea, only 4,207 m above sea level, sometimes called the world's tallest mountain?

Its name is short for Mauna a Wākea and means 'white mountain'; thirteen telescopes crown the summit.

Olympus Mons on Mars is how many multiples of Everest's height above sea level?

It is a shield volcano about 600 km wide covering an area the size of Italy, with six nested calderas at the top.

Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest peak, holds what worldwide distinction?

Almost 85 percent of its ice cover disappeared between 1912 and 2011.

Kilimanjaro's summit, Uhuru Peak, sits on the crater rim of which of its three volcanic cones?

Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller made the first ascent in 1889 and confirmed Kibo has a crater.

What does the Koyukon Athabaskan name Denali, applied to North America's highest peak, mean?

Denali, from the Koyukon deenaalee, means 'the high one' or 'the tall one'; the federal name switched from Mount McKinley to Denali in 2015 and back to Mount McKinley in January 2025.

The first verified ascent of Denali, on 7 June 1913, was led by which Episcopal archdeacon?

Hudson Stuck, Episcopal Archdeacon of the Yukon, organised the 1913 climb with Harry Karstens; Walter Harper, an Alaska Native, was the first to step onto the summit on 7 June.

What went wrong when four of Edward Whymper's party died descending the Matterhorn after its first ascent in 1865?

The rope linking Lord Francis Douglas to the elder Taugwalder snapped; Douglas's body was never found, and the tragedy is said to have ended the golden age of alpinism.

Which Alpine peak's notorious north face was first climbed in July 1938?

The Eiger's 1,800 m north face was first climbed in July 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek after a string of fatal attempts.

The summit of which Ecuadorian volcano is the point on Earth's surface farthest from the planet's centre?

It is 2,585 m lower than Everest, but the equatorial bulge does the rest; Humboldt tried and failed to climb it in 1802 and Whymper succeeded in 1880.

Mount Fuji, Japan's highest peak at 3,776 m, last erupted in which years?

Fuji's most recent eruption, the Hōei eruption of 1707 to 1708, began on 16 December 1707 and dropped ash on Edo, 100 km away; the mountain was listed as a UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site in 2013.

Fuji is one of Japan's 'Three Holy Mountains', along with Tate and which other peak?

Hakusan, or Mount Haku, 2,702 m on the Ishikawa-Gifu border, joins Fuji and Tateyama as Japan's Three Holy Mountains, the Sanreizan, all long revered by mountain pilgrims.

The Himalayas were formed when the Eurasian landmass collided with which other?

The Indian plate began colliding with Eurasia about 50 million years ago, crumpling the sea floor between them into the Himalayas; the range's name is Sanskrit for 'abode of snow'.

The Himalayas span five countries: Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and which other?

Pakistan holds the western end of the Himalayas, where Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m, anchors the range above the Indus; about 53 million people live across the five Himalayan countries.

Roughly how long is the Andes, the world's longest continental mountain range?

The Andes stretch about 8,900 km from Venezuela to the southern tip of South America through seven countries, making them the longest continental mountain range in the world.

Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Southern and Western Hemispheres at 6,961 m, is in which country?

Aconcagua stands in Argentina's Mendoza province, about 15 km from the Chilean border; its 6,961 m summit was first reached by the Swiss guide Matthias Zurbriggen in 1897.

Which oceanic slab is sliding beneath South America to push up the Andes?

The Nazca plate, an oceanic slab off the Pacific coast, dives beneath the South American plate along the Peru-Chile Trench at up to about 8 cm a year, lifting the Andes.

What is the Lakota name for the mountain into which Mount Rushmore was carved?

The Lakota call the peak Six Grandfathers, Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe, for the six sacred directions; Gutzon Borglum and about 400 workers carved the 60-foot heads between 1927 and 1941 without a fatality.

How far down were the four Mount Rushmore presidents originally meant to be carved?

Borglum's design showed the presidents to the waist, but funding dried up and work stopped at the heads after his death in 1941; the Hall of Records behind them was also left largely unbuilt.

A team from which country made the first documented ascent of Everest's North Ridge, in 1960?

China's team of Wang Fuzhou, Gonpo and Qu Yinhua topped out by the North Ridge at night on 25 May 1960; the Tibetan side was closed to Western expeditions from 1950 until 1980.

Which eight-thousander is generally considered the safest, with the lowest fatality rate?

Cho Oyu, 8,188 m, is the sixth-highest mountain and the safest eight-thousander, with a death rate of roughly 1.4 percent, thanks to a straightforward north-west ridge route from a high base camp.

Denali's vertical relief above the surrounding plateaus is roughly how much?

Denali rises about 5,500 m (18,000 ft) from its base at roughly 600 m, a greater vertical relief than Everest's 3,700 m rise above the Tibetan Plateau, which is why it looks so vast.

Olympus Mons was known to 19th-century astronomers by what Latin name?

Nix Olympica, 'Olympic Snow', was the bright albedo feature mapped by Giovanni Schiaparelli in the 1870s; Mariner 9 revealed it in 1971 to be a vast volcano, renamed Olympus Mons.

Which Andean peak, 6,893 m, is the highest volcano on Earth?

Ojos del Salado, 6,893 m, straddles the Chilean border in the Atacama region and is the highest volcano on Earth, second in the Andes only to Aconcagua.

Roughly what share of Earth's land mass is classed as mountainous?

Mountains cover roughly 24 percent of Earth's land surface, with about 33 percent of Eurasia, 19 percent of South America and 14 percent of Africa classed as mountainous.

In the UK, a mountain is officially defined for access purposes as a summit of at least what height?

The Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 treats land above 600 metres, roughly 2,000 feet, as mountain for open-access purposes; many hill lists add a prominence rule, such as the 150 metres required for a Marilyn.

What are the three main types of mountains, all products of plate tectonics?

Volcanic, fold and block mountains are the three main types: volcanic peaks build from erupted material, fold ranges like the Alps crumple where plates collide, and block mountains rise where crust breaks along faults.

Climbing 100 metres up a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving how far towards the nearest pole?

Climbing 100 metres cools the air about as much as moving 80 km, roughly 0.75 degrees of latitude, towards the nearest pole, though proximity to oceans can drastically modify local climate.

What is the moist adiabatic lapse rate, the rate at which saturated rising air cools?

The moist adiabatic lapse rate averages about 5.5 °C per km, well below the dry rate of 9.8 °C per km, because water vapour condensing in saturated air releases latent heat that offsets some of the cooling.

The Alpide belt of young mountain ranges stretches roughly how far across southern Eurasia?

The Alpide belt runs about 15,000 km from Java and Sumatra through the Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Alborz, Caucasus and Alps to the Iberian Peninsula, and is Earth's second most seismically active zone.

The Atlas Mountains stretch across Morocco, Algeria and which other country?

The Atlas Mountains run about 2,500 km across north-west Africa from Morocco through Algeria to Tunisia; their highest peak, Toubkal at 4,167 m, is in Morocco.

Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes are mountain ranges made mainly of ice on which body?

Tenzing Montes and Hillary Montes, water-ice ranges up to about 6 km high beside Pluto's Sputnik Planitia, were imaged by New Horizons in July 2015 and named for the first men up Everest.

Where does the longest mountain range on Earth, a continuous chain about 65,000 km long, lie?

Under the oceans runs the mid-ocean ridge, a chain of volcanic mountains several times longer than the Andes. It winds through every ocean basin on the planet.

Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano and the highest mountain in Africa, rises above the plains of which country?

Tanzania is home to Kilimanjaro, whose famous ice cap is vanishing. Almost 85 percent of the ice cover disappeared between 1912 and 2011.

Which chocolate brand showed the Matterhorn on its packaging until some production moved out of Switzerland?

Toblerone had to drop the Matterhorn once some bars were made in Slovakia. Swiss rules reserve images typical of the country for products made there.

Which dog breed was originally bred for rescue work by a monks' hospice on a snowy Alpine pass?

St. Bernard dogs worked the Great St Bernard Pass in the Western Alps. The most famous of them, Barry, reportedly saved between 40 and 100 lives.

The summit of Mount Everest is made of which rock, studded with fossils of ancient sea creatures?

Limestone caps Everest because the rock formed on a sea floor before colliding continents lifted it nearly nine kilometres. It holds fragments of trilobites and crinoids.

Edmund Hillary, who reached the summit of Everest in 1953, earned his living in which trade?

Beekeeping was the Hillary family business, with 1,600 hives to tend. He kept bees in summer and concentrated on climbing in winter.

Which Carthaginian general marched war elephants over the Alps in 218 BC to attack Rome?

Hannibal surprised the Romans by marching overland from Spain and across the Alps. They had planned to fight him far from home.

Which Cascade Range volcano lost the top 400 metres of its cone in a catastrophic eruption in May 1980?

Mount St. Helens blew out its entire north face on 18 May 1980. The eruption killed 57 people and destroyed 200 homes and 47 bridges.

At the Tour de France, the best climber, known as 'King of the Mountains', wears a jersey of which design?

Red polka dots on white have marked the best climber since 1975. The sponsor, Chocolat Poulain, wanted a jersey that stood out in the peloton.

Which ape-like creature of Himalayan folklore was nicknamed the 'Abominable Snowman' by a journalist in 1921?

The Yeti got its lurid nickname when a Calcutta columnist interviewed porters returning from the first British reconnaissance of Everest.

Table Mountain, often draped in a cloud nicknamed the 'table cloth', overlooks which South African city?

Cape Town sits beneath Table Mountain, whose cloud cover forms when a southeasterly wind is pushed up the slopes into colder air and its moisture condenses.

Mount Ararat, long identified with the resting place of Noah's Ark, is the highest peak in which country?

Turkey holds Mount Ararat, yet the peak is the principal national symbol of neighbouring Armenia and appears on its coat of arms.

Which mountain near Fort William in the Scottish Highlands is the highest in the British Isles?

Ben Nevis stands 1,345 metres high. The ruins on its summit belong to a weather observatory that was staffed continuously from 1883 to 1904.

Which Yosemite granite wall did Alex Honnold climb without ropes in 2017, a feat filmed for 'Free Solo'?

El Capitan rises about 900 metres from base to summit along its tallest face. Honnold climbed it alone and unroped in 3 hours and 56 minutes.

Why does water boil well below 100 °C near the top of a high mountain such as Everest?

Lower air pressure drops the boiling point by roughly 1 °F for every 500 feet climbed. High-altitude cooks compensate with longer cooking times or a pressure cooker.

What are the spiked metal frames that mountaineers fix to their boots for grip on steep ice?

Crampons changed climbing after Oscar Eckenstein's 10-point design of 1908, which dramatically reduced the need to cut steps into the ice.

What name is given to the elevation on a mountain above which forests can no longer grow?

The tree line is where growth turns sparse, stunted and deformed by wind and cold. The dwarfed shrubs at the limit are called krummholz, German for crooked wood.

The view from which Colorado summit inspired Katharine Lee Bates to write 'America the Beautiful' in 1893?

Pikes Peak takes its name from explorer Zebulon Pike, who sighted it in 1806 and simply labelled it 'Highest Peak'.

Mount Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous United States, was first climbed by fishermen in which state?

California's Mount Whitney was first climbed in 1873 by three local men on a fishing trip, who called it Fisherman's Peak. Its lasting name honours the state geologist.

Which volcanic island in the Sunda Strait exploded in 1883 with the loudest sound known to history?

Krakatoa's final explosion was heard in Perth, 3,110 km away, and on the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km away.

Which volcano on the east coast of Sicily, one of the most active on Earth, looms over the city of Catania?

Mount Etna is in an almost constant state of activity, and Greek myth placed the forge of the smith god Hephaestus beneath it.

Which Inca citadel, whose Quechua name means 'old peak', stands above a bend of the Urubamba River?

Machu Picchu was always known locally, but it came to international attention only in 1911 through the American historian Hiram Bingham.

Which Andean seat of government, about 3,650 metres above sea level, is the highest capital city in the world?

La Paz is Bolivia's seat of government, while the constitutional capital, Sucre, keeps only the judicial power.

Which mountain range runs south from the Arctic Ocean through Russia, dividing Europe from Asia?

The Urals separate European Russia from Siberia. At an estimated 250 to 300 million years, they are among the world's oldest surviving mountain ranges.

Which mountain range straddles the border between France and Spain, with tiny Andorra sandwiched between them?

The Pyrenees are named in Greek myth after a princess called Pyrene. Their main crest still forms the political divide between the two countries.

Aoraki, also known as Mount Cook, is the highest mountain in which Pacific country?

New Zealand's highest peak was climbed by Edmund Hillary in January 1948, five years before he reached the top of Everest.

On which mountain in Egypt, also called Jabal Musa, is Moses believed to have received the Ten Commandments?

Mount Sinai has the 6th-century Saint Catherine's Monastery just to its north, although it is only one of several peaks claimed to be the mountain of the Bible.

Sugarloaf Mountain, known worldwide for its cable car, rises at the mouth of Guanabara Bay in which Brazilian city?

Rio de Janeiro's Sugarloaf rises 396 metres above the harbour. It is named for its likeness to the cone-shaped loaves in which refined sugar was once sold.

Which ethnic group from the high valleys near Everest is famed for guiding Himalayan mountaineering expeditions?

Sherpa comes from Tibetan words meaning 'people of the east'. Sherpa climbers have been instrumental in the first ascents of many Himalayan peaks.

Which journalist's bestseller 'Into Thin Air' recounts the 1996 storm that killed eight climbers on Everest?

Jon Krakauer joined the climb on assignment for Outside magazine. His own guide, Rob Hall, was among the eight who died.

The rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972, a story told in the film 'Alive', came from which country?

Uruguay's Old Christians Club was flying to a match in Santiago. The survivors endured 72 days in the high peaks before two of them climbed out to fetch help.

Which big cat of Central Asia's high mountains sleeps with its thick tail wrapped over its face like a blanket?

Snow leopard vocal folds are only about 9 mm long, too short to produce a roar. The cat lives mostly between 3,000 and 4,500 metres up.

What term describes the dry region on the side of a mountain range facing away from the prevailing winds?

A rain shadow helps make Chile's Atacama the driest non-polar desert on Earth, because the Andes block moisture arriving from the east.

Which Philippine volcano's 1991 eruption cooled global temperatures by about half a degree Celsius?

Mount Pinatubo produced the second-largest eruption of the 20th century, yet early predictions led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Which active volcano, visible from Mexico City, takes its name from Nahuatl words meaning 'smoking mountain'?

Popocatépetl is joined by a high saddle, the Paso de Cortés, to a twin volcano nicknamed the Sleeping Woman for its snowy outline.

The mountain men who roamed the Rockies between 1820 and 1840 mainly trapped which animal for the hat trade?

Beaver pelts were felted into hats, and the trade collapsed once European fashion shifted away from them and the animal had been over-hunted.

Which mountain man explored the Great Salt Lake region in 1824 and later founded a Wyoming fort on the Oregon Trail?

Jim Bridger reached the lake by bull boat down the Bear River. In 1843 he and Louis Vasquez set up Fort Bridger on the Blacks Fork of the Green River.

Which Himalayan giant, the third-highest mountain on Earth, was assumed to be the world's highest until 1852?

Kangchenjunga's first climbers stopped just short of the top, keeping a promise to the ruler of Sikkim that the sacred summit would remain untouched.

Triglav, a three-headed peak shown on the national flag and coat of arms, is the highest mountain in which country?

Slovenia treats Triglav as the pre-eminent symbol of the nation. Before independence in 1991 it was the highest peak in Yugoslavia.

What name is given to Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet, after the baronet who first listed them in 1891?

Munros honour Sir Hugh Munro, whose tables of 1891 are usually considered the starting point of modern peak bagging.

Which peak in western Tibet, sacred to four religions, has no recorded ascent and is closed to climbers?

Mount Kailash is the home of Shiva for Hindus and holy to Buddhists, Jains and followers of Bon. Pilgrims walk a circuit around the mountain instead of climbing it.

Which climber became the first woman atop Everest in 1975, twelve days after surviving an avalanche?

Junko Tabei later became the first woman to climb the highest peak on every continent, a feat she completed in 1992.

What did Rocky Mountain fur trappers call their annual gathering for selling pelts, held from 1825 to 1840?

The rendezvous saw company men haul supplies to a chosen mountain site, trade with the trappers and carry the pelts back to towns on the Missouri.

Which Antarctic peak on Ross Island is the southernmost active volcano on Earth, with a long-lived lava lake?

Mount Erebus was named in 1841 by James Clark Ross after his ship, a vessel later lost on John Franklin's disastrous Arctic expedition.

Which peak in the Yukon, the highest mountain in Canada, is second only to Denali in North America?

Mount Logan is believed to have the largest base circumference of any non-volcanic mountain on Earth, and tectonic uplift is still pushing it higher.

Which South African range, called uKhahlamba or 'barrier of up-pointed spears' in Zulu, holds the Tugela Falls?

The Drakensberg got its Afrikaans name from the earliest Dutch settlers, who called the great escarpment the Dragons' Mountains.

Which African range did explorers link with the legendary 'Mountains of the Moon', Ptolemy's source of the Nile?

The Rwenzori stand on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rivers fed by their streams form one of the sources of the Nile, which prompted the link.

Which peak on Canada's Baffin Island has Earth's greatest vertical drop, an overhanging cliff over a kilometre high?

Mount Thor's cliff overhangs at an average angle of 105 degrees. Glaciers grinding through the Akshayuk Pass carved the wall over millennia.

Which flat-topped mountain, ringed by cliffs up to a kilometre high, stands where Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela meet?

Mount Roraima was described by Walter Raleigh as a 'crystal mountain' gushing waterfalls, yet its first recorded ascent came only in 1884, by a British expedition.

What name is given to a climber's giant silhouette projected on cloud, after the highest peak of the Harz range?

Brocken spectre sightings owe their name to the frequent fogs and easy access of the Brocken, which built up a local legend around the looming figure.