Tuesday, 16 December 2014

Top 10 Things You Never Knew About Mountains

1. The world’s highest unclimbed mountain is the 24,981ft Gangkhar Puensum in Bhutan, which is the world’s 40th highest mountain.

2. There is no generally accepted definition for how tall a hill has to be to be called a mountain. Some regions say 1,000ft, others say 2,000ft.

3. The Ordnance Survey used to say 1,000ft, but they dropped that definition long ago.

4. Mount Kea in Hawaii is some 4,000ft taller than Everest if measured from its undersea base.

5. In 1999, GPS satellites showed that Everest was 7ft higher than had previously been thought.

6. Because of tectonic plate movement, Everest grows about 4mm a year.

7. Over 6,000 people have now climbed Everest including a 13-year-old American in 2010.

8. The first wedding at the summit was in 2005.

9. Scottish mountains over 3,000ft high are called Munros. British mountains and hills over 150 metres high are called Marilyns.

10. In 1974, a German team that had set out to climb Annapurna 4 was reported to have reached the top of Annapurna 2 by mistake.


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