For some of us, mountains are the best places for a vacation, but for others is a way of living. I’m talking about climbers that take their chances to make it “on top of the world”, conquering some of the highest mountains out there. But some are not only after heights, they’re after the most dangerous mountains. They need adrenaline, even if they have to pay with their lives and that’s why we decided to make up a list with the deadliest mountains in the world.

Image: Wikipedia

In the Northern Areas of Pakistan, Baintha Brakk or commonly known as The Ogre Mountain, definitely deserves to be mentioned here. Rises above the north side of the Biafo Glacier, one of the major glaciers of the central Karakoram, and with an elevation of 7,285m (23,901 ft) Baintha Brakk is a dangerous combination of altitude, height above local terrain, and steepness. That’s the reason why the first ascent from 1977 was only followed 24 years later, in 2001.

Image: Wikipedia

Annapurna is a 55-km long massif in Himalaya with six major peaks over 7,200 m and the 10 highest peak in the world. In Sanskrit it means “full of food”, but locals call it the Goddess of the Harvests, however there’s another reason why Anapurna is famous. Since the first ascend in 1950, it’s been climbed by 130 people out which 53 died trying. Fatality rate is close to 40% making it the most statistically dangerous mountain in the world.

Image: Wikipedia

Remember Patagonia and the stunning Los Glaciares National Park? Located close to the amazing El Chaiten close to the Argentinta – Chile border, Monte Fitz Roy – also known as Cerro Chaltén or Cerro Fitz Roy, it’s guarded on all sides by steep rock faces that make it extremely difficult from a technical point of view. Because of unpredictable weather and the relative isolation, Monte Fitz Roy has been considered the most dangerous mountain in the world for decades.

Image: Se7en Summits

Though fully covered in snow, Antarctica has mountains. And one of them, Mount Vinson, has made it to the list with the most endangered mountains in the world. Though not very high, less difficult and with a lower fatality rate than the other mountains, Vinson is an isolated place with extreme temperatures and unpredictable weather. Accidents, no matter how small, are not an option and could lead to disasters.

Image: Wikipedia

Located in Northern Pakistan and part of the Karakoram segment in the Himalayan range, K2 is the second highest mountain in the world also known as the Savage Mountain. That’s because of its ascent difficulty. One out of four people die trying to “conquer” K2 making it one of the most dangerous in the world, all these because of steep, exposed, and committing nature of all routes, because of the extreme high altitude that lacks in oxygen and the fact that it’s renowned for extreme storms that last for days.

Image : judepics

Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain peaks after Mt. Everest and K2, it translates as The Five Treasures of Snows. Because technology evolved and we now have access to better gear, fatality rates are expeCted to go down, but not on Kangchenjunga. In the recent years, 22 people out of 100 trying to win the top have died because of avalanches and and weather hazards. It’s a dangerous mountain, indeed.

Image: Wikipedia

You would have expected, the highest mountains to be he most dangerous. Well, the Eiger mountain in the Swiss Alps made it to the list as a legendary dangerous, too. The most dificult part of the Eiger is the north face which got the “nickname” of Mordwand (Murder Wall).

Image: Wikipedia

Located on the Swiss-Italian border, Matterhorn (Cervino or Cervin) is one of the most renowned mountains in the European Alps. Looking like a horn rising, it was one of the last peaks in the Alps to be conquered and not only because of its technical difficulty, the prevalence of avalanches and rockfall,but mostly because of the fear it inspired in early mountaineers. Even though these days there are fixed ropes on parts of the routes to help, several climbers die each year.

Image: Ben Tubby

Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest peak in the world and i the western anchor of the Himalayas, lying south of the Indus River in the Astore District of Pakistan. In Urdu the name means Naked Mountain but Nanga Parbat is also two nicknames that made it famouse; Killer Mountain and The Man Eater. That’s mainly because of its technical difficulty.

Image: Giant Ginko

Mount Denali is the highest mountain in North America. Also known as Mount McKinley, the 20,32 ft tall mountain is renowned for its extreme weather conditions and temperature that make it a tough ride. More than 100 climbers lost their lives trying to conquer Denali, keeping the success rate at low levels (50%).

Image: vitafluida

The highest mountain on Earth (8,848 metres – 29,029 ft), Mount Everest makes it hard for climbers to reach its top mainly because of the high altitude where temperatures dip to very low levels causing frostbites to any body parts exposed to air. Exhaustion, extreme cold, the dangers of the climb or the low level oxygen (pressure is one third of sea levels pressure), makes Mt. Everest an undeniably dangerous objective.

So are you up to the challenge? Which one would you like to conquer?

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I’ve always admired how some of the tallest mountains on Earth stitch even the most beautiful clouds, but I never had the curiosity to research and see which are the biggest mountain peaks, how people call them or exactly how tall they are. For those that don’t know, here is a list with world’s top 14 highest and a few details on each one. They’re all eight-thousanders.

14. Shishapangma is a mountain entirely located within China (in central Tibet) and the name means “crest above the grassy plains” in Tibetan language. Highest peak on Shishapangma is 8,013 metres (26,289 ft). (more…)

Did you know that mountains grow at a relatively fast rate (a few mm each year) until the forces that form them are no longer active? Apparently that’s the case with the Andes Mountains which are one of the longest and highest mountain ranges in the world.

For millions of years the Andes grew slowly. Then all of a sudden, 10 – 6 million years ago things changed. Geologists at the University of Rochester in NY, led by professor Carmala Garzione, revealed that in the last 4 million years the Andes grew by as much as 2,500 meters. Furthermore, things are not about to stop.

Formed in the Jurassic period (150-200 milion years ago) as a result of plate tectonics processes which caused a large sheet of crust, the Nazca plate, they slid under the South American plate. What’s more,the Andes are still active.

This new discovery may suggest that the tectonic plates theory, which explains how mountains are formed (two tectonic plates pushing against each other), should be updated. The new “theory” was named delamination, and refers to denser rocks that can detach from the underside of the crust allowing the lighter crust to rise in sudden bursts.

Garzione and her colleagues are now trying to find out what were the effects of such a rapid growth of the Andes (and probably other mountains, too) on climate and the evolution of life on Earth.

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