Mountain Stats

Talon's Uncle Einstein

My brain wasn't wired for mathematics – no matter how much I wished it could have been – nevertheless I mastered enough to balance a checkbook and run a successful business. Well, I concede that my business might have prospered better had I comprehended prime numbers, integers and other numerical concepts. I don't rise even knee-high to my five children when it comes to math, and they all surpassed my feeble acumen by the time they were about 10-12 years old. In spite of this truthful admission I'm still a fan of numbers, statistics, records and the like.

Mt. Everest

Mt. Everest Base Camp

I plan to return to Santa Fe, New Mexico at the end of March, to the “Land of Enchantment,” and already 19 years have passed since my last visit. Looking on the internet for some travel information, one website warns the reader about the area's potentially dangerous altitude (Santa Fe at 7,199 ft, 2194 m) “which equals 1/4 the way up to the base camp of Mt. Everest!” Woah there, blogger boy, let's get the facts straight: ...hmm, the summit of Mt. Everest is 29,029 ft (8848m), so Santa Fe is indeed a littler under “1/4” the way up” to the top, but the base camp by definition is always headquartered at the bottom. Everest's base camp is at 17,500 ft, and I visited it in the 1970s, then we climbed the nearby Kala Patthar (“black rock”) at 18,519 ft for a better view.

As an aficionado of statistical trivia, I have read that all the Himalayan peaks and all the world's other large mountain ranges are insignificant in their relationship to the earth's entire surface, that if the earth was reduced down to the size of the moon, the surface would be as smooth as a billiard ball. Perhaps that's an insult to the 310+ climbers who have perished on the ascent or descent of Mt. Everest.

Mt. Chimborazo

I find it interesting that while Mt. Everest is the highest point on earth, its peak is not the furthest distance from the earth's center. That honor would go to Ecuador's Mt. Chimborazo (20,548 ft, 6263 m) which is over 2,000 meters further from the center of the earth than Everest's peak. The science is that the earth is not a perfect sphere, that it bulges at the equator due to the centrifugal force created by our plant's constant rotation. Mt. Chimborazo is located just one degree south of the equator where the earth's bulge is the greatest, and it is defined as the nearest point from our little world to the stars.

Alexander von Humboldt

Andes Mountains

Mt. C. is the highest mountain in Ecuador, but only the 39^th highest peak in the Andes. In previous centuries it was considered the highest mountain on earth, measured from sea level, and many climbing attempts were made in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. The Prussian-born naturalist Alexander von Humboldt and partner, French botanist Aime Bonplant (in June 1802) started for the summit, but had to retreat after attaining 5,875 ft due to altitude sickness. The origin of the Chimborazo name consists of many theories, with one being the fact that locals used to call it Urcurazu, in the Quechua language for “mountain of ice.”

Joseph Rock

Joseph Rock article on Minya Konka

Minya Konka

Dr. Joseph Rock, the Austrian-American botanist, linguist and author, penned an article for the National Geographic (1930) named “Glories of the Minya Konka” where he hyperbolized: “Strange as it may seem, hoary old China still holds within its borders vast mountain systems 'wholly unknown' not only to the western world, but to the Chinese themselves.” Rock published the assertion that Minya Konka – now known as Gongga Shan – was the highest mountain on earth, more so than Mt. Everest, and he was quite proud to have made the discovery. In fact the Szechuan peak is 4,000 feet lower (at 25,000 ft) than Everest, and Rock should have been embarrassed with his erroneous cartographic calculations. Furthermore, Minya Konka was not “wholly unknown” to the Chinese, and it had also been visited by the English botanist E.H. Wilson in 1908. Rock's BS aside, he managed to send to his sponsors large quantities of Chinese plants and bird specimens, as well as thousands of photographs, many of which I find stunning.

The Darjeeling region

Johnson's World Mountains and Rivers Chart

Even before Rock's measurement mistake of Minya Konka, Mt. Kanchenjunga in Nepal-Sikkim was for a long time considered the highest mountain in the world. Later calculations by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 showed that Mt. Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was indeed the tallest, and that Mt. Kanchenjunga came in third at 28,169 ft (8,586 m). I have been to Darjeeling, India, when I was 40 years old and on my way to Bhutan. In the hazy distance I could see the Kanchenjanga massif and later I acquired a drawing of it with Darjeeling in the foreground. I also collected a print of Johnson's World Mountains and Rivers Chart of 1864 where Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is identified as the world's highest mountain and the Nile is its longest river. I find these past speculations to be great fun in light of what we now know, and I would love to live another couple of hundred years to see how “new knowledge” will differ from today's.

Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Further reducing Mt. Everest's stature occurs when we consider the Hawaii volcano Mauna Kea which is actually taller from its oceanic base to its top at 33,500 ft (10,210 m). I wonder if a Guinness record-seeker has attempted to scuba from the bottom base to the land base, and then to ascend the above-water portion on foot. Could, or has that been done in a day?

Mount Lamlam, Guam

Mariana Trench

Or, what about Mount Lamlam on Guam? Since it is located adjacent to the Mariana Trench, where the Challenger Deep (between 35,768 ft – 35,856 ft, 10,902 m – 10,929 m) portion of the Trench is only 194 miles (313 km) away from Lamlam. That would make it 37,820 ft tall (11,530 m).

Ojos del Salado, Chile

Highest lake in the world

The Atacama Trench, 99 miles (160 km) off the coast of Peru and Chile, reaches a depth of 26,460 ft (8065 m) in Richards Deep and is 3,666 miles long (5,900 km) and only 40 miles wide (64 km). The Ojos del Salado, a dormant volcano in the Andes (22,595 ft, 6887 m) is the highest volcano on earth and the highest peak in Chile. Therefore the Ojos has the greatest “rise” on earth at 44,029 ft (13,420 m) from trench bottom to Ojos peak which is about 350 miles (560 km) away. However, most of this rise is not part of the mountain. The name Ojos del Salado refers to the river Salado, except that said river does not actually originate on Ojos del Salado mountain. The mountain is not a single conical summit, rather a massif complex formed by overlapping, smaller volcanoes with over 20 craters. Its southern-location is near the Arid Diagonal of South America, and its dry conditions prevent glaciers or permanent snow to accumulate. Its permanent crater-lake at the summit is the highest lake of any kind in the world, but the area of the lake is devoid of any vegetation.

Wheeler Peak, New Mexico

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

When considering record heights, the definition of a mountain peak comes into question. A common way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is a measurement called topographic prominence, or comparing their height above the highest saddle, and if it exceeds 980 ft (300 m ) then the higher summit is known as the “parent peak” and is a “mountain.” Wheeler Peak near Taos, New Mexico, is on my proposed itinerary. I'm not sure if it meets the 300 m qualification to be a mountain – maybe it does – but photos of the range show it to be a mere bump on an elevated ridge, and not really a mountain, not a “mountain” that, say, a child would depict in a kindergarten class drawing. Frankly I consider a mountain's height to be its elevation above the surrounding terrain, that's my definition anyway, and so Kilimanjaro in Africa, Nanga Parbat in India and Denali in Alaska are perhaps the tallest “real” mountains from my point of view.

Mt. Baker

Mt. Hood

Mt. Shasta

I'll admit a little disappointment when I first set eyes on Mt. Everest (from the southern, Nepali side), for it was far less impressive than some of the Cascade mountains from western North America, such as Mt. Baker, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta and others which have blessed my life. I have climbed a few of them but my late friend R. Hatch never did – he didn't see the point. I never did it to boast, or because “it was there,” rather I felt that one never really knows a mountain unless you experience it from atop, just as one never really knows a river unless you raft down its middle. Similarly you don't even know a mountain's name unless you also consider what it used to be called by the natives of the area. Besides, one tribe residing on one side of the mountain is likely to call it differently than one from the other side.

Himalaya

I never looked at a mountain as something to conquer, not like most of the insufferable A-type jerks who seek another notch on their climbing resume. For me a mountain is something that abides, a presence that dwells with me and which humbles me. After all, the Sanskrit name Himalaya comes from hima for “snow” and alaya for “abode.”

Ama Dablam, Nepal

Sherpa Boy

If I have a favorite mountain it is certainly not one statistically impressive; it is Ama Dablam (22,349 ft, 6812 m) in the Khumbu region of Nepal and the name means “mother's necklace” or “mother's charm box” due to a curious protrudence of snow-covered rock on its flank. But maybe its primary attraction for me is that it abides in the homeland of the true Sherpa, a group of people who stand taller in spiritual development than any other population I have ever met.

Columbia River Gorge

Originally this blog was also going to contain a discussion about the world's longest rivers, but I fear your brains might already be overwhelmed with excessive feet-meter statistics, so I'll save the rivers for another day.