Yes, I know Everest is considered the highest point and strictly speaking from base to summit Mauna Kea is the tallest. In looking I found that Chimborazo is considered the tallest measured from the Earth’s center of mass, and Mauna Loa is most massive by volume. What I want to know is what mountain has the greatest elevation change from base to summit on land. That is, what will be most impressive when looking up from the base of it.
I’ve seen reference to Nanga Parbat, but I thought I’d ask the Teeming Millions.
If you stand in Jackson Hole and enjoy the view of the Grand Teton Range, in a horizontal distance of about one mile, the vertical climb is greater than 7,000 feet, give or take.
The vertical displacement is actual greater than 30,000 feet, but due to erosion and sediment fill, all that remains is the 7,000 foot (approx.) change. Still the view is most impressive.
Mt. McKinley in Alaska may be what you are thinking of.
Though it’s actual height is less than Everest, the actual climbing distance is higher, since you are starting much closer to sea level. At the bottom of Everest, you have been going uphill for hundreds of miles, and are already quite a bit above sea level when you start climbing the mountain.
Not the necessarily the actual base, not sea level, but the place one would stand and look up at the mountain. Since this is a very unscientific way of looking at ‘tallest’ I’ve been having trouble Googling™ this question.
The vertical climb from Badwater in Death Valley to the top of Telescope Peak in the Panamint Mountains is from -282 ft. msl to 11050 ft msl. Second to Mt. Ranier in the contiguous US.
Talkeetna, Alaska, at an elevation of around 400’ MSL, is about 60 miles from the summit of Mt. McKinley/Denali whose elevation is approximately 20,320’. 60 miles seems like a long way, but on a clear day the mountain completely dominates your view to the north - it seems to be almost on top of you. So by any reasonable definition of base, this mountain rises close to 20,000’.
OTOH, it seems that Nanga Parbat can claim something like 22,000’.
To get Clintonesque here, it all depends on what your definition of “tall” is.
Subject to disputes too bizarre to get into here, Mount Everest has the highest altitude above sea level.
People above have named numerous mountains which stand higher above the surrounding terrain than does Everest.
From flat surface terrain to summit, disregarding altitude and sea level, though, the correct answer is Mauna Kea, followed closely by Mauna Loa, and the two together being significantly higher than anything else on Earth – since they start from an abyssal plain 18,000 feet below sea level and climb to a significant altitude – Mauna Kea’ summit is 13,796 feet above sea level, and Mauna Loa’s 13,667. This means that the two mountains are nearly 32,000 feet high, from base to peak.
If I remember right, I think it does; but they’re probably not the sort of pictures you’re looking for.
The book is a history of British exploration and conquest in the Western Himalayas and the Hindu Kush from 1865 through 1895. If you have an interest in The Great Game, it’s good stuff, but the lyrical descriptions of the mountains is only in the author’s introduction. I think the romance of the locale overwhelmed the historian in John Keay and he just had to cut loose a little bit in his intro. Those bookish types can surprise you once they get out of the library.
