{"id":706,"date":"2013-09-23T12:53:06","date_gmt":"2013-09-23T11:53:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/?p=706"},"modified":"2020-05-21T21:47:45","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T20:47:45","slug":"tallest-mountains-in-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/tallest-mountains-in-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 Tallest Mountains In The World"},"content":{"rendered":"
In respect to the abundance of mountains and valleys that planet earth has been blessed with, there are people in the world who have made it their mission to climb all the tallest mountains in the world. We may call them<\/strong>\u00a0mad, but these people are having quite a lot of fun taking the risk required to be named among the very countable few who have stepped unto the highest peak of the tallest mountains in the world. So Here, in reverse order, are the ten tallest mountains in the world<\/strong> that would have been the first on their lists!<\/p>\n Annapurna\u00a0is situated in the Himalayas, a ‘backbone’ of Asia that separates India from Tibet. It sits at the western end of a massif that contains no less than thirty peaks over 19,690ft (6,000m) and is next to the Kali Gandaki Gorge, considered by many to be the earth’s deepest canyon.\u00a0 It was first climbed successfully in June 1950 by an expedition led by Maurice Herzog, who shared the achievement with team member Louis Lachenal.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n This is the most westerly peak of the Himalayas. It is an extremely difficult peak to climb, with the number of deaths of mountaineers becoming so high it was nicknamed the ‘killer mountain’, and it has never been successfully climbed in winter at all. In fact, there have been so far (to March 2012) 62 deaths and just 191 successful climbs, meaning that for every three climbers that make it up and back, one has died in the attempt.\u00a0 There were many unsuccessful attempts to climb this peak before the first success, and this was by Austrian Hermann Buhl in July 1953 – who succeeded in reaching the summit of one of the most dangerous high peaks in the world *alone*, and without oxygen, after the rest of his team turned back! He is (and of course will always be) the only man to has made the first ascent of an 8,000m peak alone.<\/p>\n This is number 8, and its name means ‘Mountain of the Spirit’. It is situated in the Nepalese part of the Himalayas and it is also extremely dangerous to those trying to climb it – it has been climbed successfully just six times as many times as it has killed the climbers \u2013 297 successes and 53 deaths.\u00a0 It was first successfully climbed by Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu as part of a Japanese expedition in May 1956, but it would be another fifteen years before it was conquered again \u2013 by another Japanese team.<\/p>\n This is the highest point of the Gandaki river basin, the highest mountain entirely within the country of Nepal, and a mountain not much kinder to its climbers than Manaslu \u2013 358 successes and 58 fatalities.\u00a0 It is one of the few 8,000m peaks that are visible from any distance (most are obscured by closer mountains) and rises precipitously some 7,000m on the southeast, and more than 4,000m to the south and west.\u00a0 It was first conquered in 1960 by a Swiss\/Austrian expedition led by Kurt Diemberger after ten years of failed expeditions.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Standing on the Nepal\/Tibet border, and its name means ‘Turquoise Goddess’ in Tibetan. There is a major trading route just a few kilometers to the west, through the Nangpa La glaciated pass, and a nice moderate ridge route to the northwest, and these two combine to make Cho Oyu a relatively easy climb. It was first successfully climbed in October 1954 by Herbert Tichy, Joseph J\u00f6chler and Pasang Dawa Lama, using that nice easy northwest ridge.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n At 8,485m (27,838ft) is number 5 on this list, and is just 19km (12 miles) southeast of Mount Everest, on the Nepal\/China border. It is shaped like a four-sided pyramid and has two subsidiary peaks, Makalu II (or Kangchuntse), a couple of miles to the north-northwest and only a little over 300 meters short of being an 8,000m peak itself, and Chomo Lonzo to the north-northeast, even closer height-wise at less than 200 meters short. The first mountaineers to ‘summit’ Makalu were Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy as part of a French expedition in May 1955.<\/p>\n This means ‘South Peak’ in Tibetan, and it is in fact connected to Mount Everest by the South Col. Its two minor summits, Lhotse Middle and Lhotse Shar, are both also well into the 8,000m bracket, being respectively 8,518m (27,605ft) and 8,383m (27,502ft). Strangely, for the fourth highest mountain in the world, it is sometimes seen as a minor ‘eight-thousander’ because its main peak is actually only 600m higher than the South Col so it’s not very prominent. On the other hand, in 1.4 miles (2.25km) of horizontal distance, its south face rises vertically by 2 miles (3.2km), which makes it the steepest face in the world of this size. Needless to say, very few of its ascents have been via the south face! The first ascent of the main summit was made by Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger from a Swiss team, in May 1956. Lhotse Shar was climbed in May 1970 but Lhotse Middle was for a very long time the highest unclimbed peak in the world \u2013 its first ascent wasn’t made until May 2001, by a Russian expedition. With 371 successful ascents and only 20 deaths, Lhotse is one of the more kindly of the ten highest mountains.<\/p>\nAn Overview of 10 Tallest Mountains in the World<\/h2>\n
10. Annapurna I\u00a0(8,091m, 26,545ft)<\/h3>\n
9. Nanga Parbat\u00a0(meaning ‘naked mountain’ – 8,126m, 26,660ft)<\/h3>\n
8. Manaslu (8,163m, 26,781ft)<\/h3>\n
7. Dhaulagiri I\u00a0(‘white mountain’ – 8,167m, 26,795ft)<\/h3>\n
6. Cho Oyu (8,188m, 26,864ft)<\/h3>\n
5. Makalu<\/h3>\n
4.<\/b> Lhotse (8,518m, 27,940ft)<\/h3>\n
3. Kangchenjunga (8,586m, 28,169ft)<\/h3>\n