Did you ever wonder which is the highest mountain on each continent?

 

By David McClelland

 

            My golfing buddy, Carl Lowell, told me that his son and his family had just scaled Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous 48 states, but that only his grandson made it all the way to the top. That got me thinking about all of the other highest mountains in our world and on each continent.

           

Let's discuss them in alphabetical order by continent.                                     Rank by Height

The date of the first successful assent is in parens.

 

Africa – Tazmania - Mt. Kilimanjaro – 19,340 feet (1889)                                                4

Asia – Nepal, China – Mt. Everest – 29,035 feet (1953) *                                                1

Antartica – Vinson – Mt. Massif – 16,966 feet (1966)                                                   6

Arctica – Mt. Gunnbjornsfjeld – 12,002 feet – This mountain                                        8

is actually on Greenland, considered part of the Arctic.

Australia – Mt. Kosciusko – 7,310 feet (1840)                                                               9

Europe – Caucasus – Russia – Mt. Elbrus - 18,510 feet (1874)                                      5

(Western Europe – Mont Blanc - Italy – 15,771 feet)           

North America – Denali, Alaska, Mt. McKinley – 20,320 feet                                        3

(Contiguous United States, California – Mt. Whitney – 14,494 feet)                                7

South America – Argentina – Mt. Aconcagua - 22,834 feet (1897)                                  2

 

I found another interesting fact. None of the above are the furthest peak

from the center of the earth. That distinction belongs to Mt. Chimborazo

in Ecuador which is 20,565 feet or 6,268 meters high.

 

* Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

   It was first scaled in 1953 by Sir Edmond Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

 

Now, we all know which is the highest mountain on each continent.