49 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.