3 Deadliest Mountains in the World

Do you remember that famous movie with a young and hot Tom Cruise free solo climbing a frightening high rocky mountain? Well, that was not just a cool stunt, as everyday in the world, experienced climbers sky rocket their adrenaline levels and use their almost superhero features to escalade, boulder or free solo climb dangerous peaks, lethal rocky walls and mountains that claimed thousands of lives. We all know that Everest is the highest mountain and the highest achievement for any alpinist or climber out there who wants to see their names written in golden letters in the history of man versus nature conquests, but there are other mountains in the world that are less high but equally (if not more dangerous). So let’s put on our climbing shoes and travel together around the world to see the deadliest mountains on the planet. Not necessarily to escalade them, though, just learn about their fatal reputation and maybe book for a vacation in the area. The landscapes are indeed spectacular!

Credit to google.com

1.     K2, where Pakistan meets China

This is the second peak of the world, following Everest, but technicians and professional alpinists admit it is twice as dangerous. The wild mountain is virtually impossible to be climbed during winter because the temperatures are inhumane and the violent snow storms already managed to kill a lot of people, culminating with the 1986 disaster, when thirteen alpinists lost their lives in a snow storm. It is not easy to climb it in summer either, as the immortal high altitude glacier represents a menace to all the brave out there. In all, at least 80 alpinists died on this mountain and its reputation is gruesome, as it is also known as the “women killer”: out of the six female climbers to dare confronting this monster, only one managed to survive.

2.       Annapurna, Nepal

This is by far the most blood-thirsty mountain in the world, as it claimed the souls of 41% of all climbers that ever dared conquering it. Annapurna can kill not only because it is one of the highest mountains on the face of the planet, but because it has one of the most dangerous paths ever known to man: the one that connects Marpha andTatopani. Its forests are filled with dangerous beasts, from aggressive bears, to tigers, poisonous snakes and leopards. The abysses, the temperatures and the ever-changing landscape with stone falls and ice walls detaching from the mountain represent only some of the supplemental dangers that one can face if courageous enough to start climbing this ferocious mountain.

3.       Nanga Parbat, Pakistan

This is a devious mountain, ready to kill you in an instant: from its deep crevasses to its heights, from its low temperatures that can cause anything from pulmonary edema and pneumonia to fatal hypothermia, to its winds that can send a man into the deepest abysses in the blink of an eye. It claimed the lives of over 60 people, together with famous, experienced alpinists. The saddest story related to Nanga Parbat is the one of South Korean climber Go Mi-Sun who in 2007 managed the impossible and reached the peak. He was coming down to celebrate a miraculous victory, when the winds of Nanga Parbat blew him into oblivion, sending him to die in a catastrophic fall into a gulch. 

If you think these monuments of nature are the only deadly climbs in the world, you are wrong. The Roof of the World, Everest, claimed the lives of over 215 brave climbers, while Mount Washington, in the U.S. with only 2000 meters height, manages to be in the top ten deadliest mountains in the world, as it stole the life out of 100 people, due to the low temperatures (historically mentioned as world records), while it also registered the highest wind speed ever to be scientifically measured: 298.26mph. If you’re in for extreme adventures, you can also learn more about Mount Fuji in Japan, one of the most beautiful mountains on the planet, a deadly one for the tourists climbing it at night to capture the sunrise on film, or the Great Fitz Roy (CharroChalten at the border of Chile and Argentina) which has a taste for killing photographers came here to capture its wild beauty.