Mountain Facts
Mountains form some of the most magnificent landscapes around the world – and throughout the solar system. Explore these amazing facts and you'll discover some truly extraordinary things about the incredible mountains of earth and beyond!
1) Every year only about half of the approximately 1,200 people attempting to climb Mt. Everest reach the summit.
2) Below Yucca Mountain is a nuclear waste repository. A sign designed to last 10,000 years warns future civilizations of hazard within.
3) Five of the ten tallest mountains in the solar system are found on Mars.
4) In New Zealand there is a mountain named: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu. Translation: “The summit where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, the slider, climber of mountains, the land-swallower who traveled about, played his nose flute to his loved one.”
5) Olympus Mons on Mars is the tallest known mountain in the solar system. It’s 15.5 miles tall. Mt. Everest is only 5.5 miles tall in comparison.
6) About six people die every year in their attempt to climb Mt. Everest.
7) K2 is the world’s second tallest mountain and was given the moniker by British surveyors because the mountain was never named by locals due to how inaccessible and remote it is.
8) While Mt. Everest is the tallest mountain on land at more than 29,000 feet, the tallest mountain as measured from base to peak is Mauna Kea in Hawaii at over 33,400 feet.
9) About 10% of the world’s population call mountains their home.
10) Expeditions continue to this day in the search for the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, believed to live in the Himalayas.
11) Mons Huygens is the tallest mountain on the Moon at about 15,000 feet tall. For comparison, Mt. Rainier in Washington State is about 14,500 feet tall.
12) According to many belief systems around the world, from Greek and Scandinavian to Hopi and Masai, mountaintops are where gods live.
13) The longest mountain range on earth is 40,400 miles long with 90% of found underwater and known as the Mid-Ocean Ridge.
14) About 80,000 World War 1 troops served near the Austrian Alps. Sadly, almost 50% died not from combat but from avalanches.
15) If you traveled to Venus, you would see mountains capped not with snow, but metal.
“I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I must break away and get out into the mountains to learn the news.”
— John Muir