Yes, that’s so.
The top of El Capitan really isn’t that flat. (I’ve hiked there from the back side). It is a gradual slope that gets steeper as you reach the edge. The top of Half Dome would fit your requirements better, I think.
Upon reflection, this most decidedly does not qualify for the OP. While it does have a taller sheer face than any of the others in the thread, it has absolutely no flat area on top. From the pictures, it looks like you climb up a 60-degree slope, which is quite suddenly interrupted by a 90-degree drop.
Mount Thor? 1250m is a heck of a lot. But it might not qualify as a flat enough top for you. But the angle is back away from the cliff. So there is a definite hard lip. You may not feel comfortable strolling about on the top, for fear of slipping down the back slope.
You can drive to the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado in the summer, and from there it is a fairly easy (considering the 14,000’ altitude) walk down through an alpine tundra meadow to the base of the “Sawtooth” a high ridge connecting to the summit of Mt. Bierstadt. At the beginning of the sawtooth ridge is a section that provides about three feet of level ground with nearly vertical rock on your left side and 100% vertical drop on your right. It is only about thirty feet long but it is scary as hell.
I don’t know what the vertical drop is, but to my eyes it is a couple thousand feet.
Now I know where my lair is going to be.
That picture is giving me the boo-hoo-heebie-jeebies! :eek:
PLEASE tell me the Norwegian government has built a fence or something there to keep people from, you know, falling off. There are CHILDREN on that cliff! WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE [NORWEGIAN] CHILDREN?!?!?!?! :eek:
BTW, some pics of Preikestolen appear to show a whopping great crack (or at least joint in the rock) across it. You can see it here:
http://www.preikestolen.org/webutleie/bilder/smaal/Preikestolen-folk.jpg
and here:
I wonder how strong that rock is…
That’s the decoy.
I scared the ever lovin’ crap out of myself there when I scrambled up the hillside behind it (sort of near where the wiki photo was taken) and made the mistake of looking down. I saw nothing below my feet but air and the bottom of the fjord. It was more the angle I was looking at than reality. I froze in a death grip until the person below me gave my foot a little push and I was on my way. I think I was 16 at the time. shiver
What about El Capitan and the Lotus Flower Tower. Maybe not as high as some, but definitely vertical.
South Africa fits the bill more than anywhere I’ve been. The Drakensberg mountains are like one major escarpment with huge huge cliff faces. It’s like a massive one sided mountain range - with the backside pretty much all flat. Awesome for hiking, my favorite mountains I’ve been to.
A really famous cliff in the range is called the Amphitheatre for obvious reasons. Check out Amphitheatre (Drakensberg) - Wikipedia for details. The cliff face is 4000 feet tall, with the back end flat and easy to walk. A waterfall over 3000 feet tall, world’s second highest, falls off it. The wiki link explains the walk too. Best pics I found online include:
and
and
Table Mountain is a seriously awesome option as well. Cape Town’s a wickedly brilliant city.
In the US, El Cap’s an obvious one? Not as big as above, but cool obviously. Though the top is definitely not as flat as Table Mountain or the Drakensberg Amphitheatre. Preikestolen also cool, but nowhere near as tall of course.
Google Maps topo seems to imply that it is around 1000 feet, maybe a bit more if you are looking down the northwestern side and you include some of the non-100% vertical slope. 'course, 1000 feet is nothing to sneeze at either, especially if you’re on a 3 foot ridge with no cliff to lean on.
I wouldn’t worry about it. For many rock formations that seem precariously balanced (much more so than that), when you realize the mass of rock involved, you are about as likely to upset it by standing on it as a gnat landing on the end of a brick hanging half off a bookshelf.
If you are willing (and able) to go to Miranda (a moon of Uranus), there is a suitable cliff at Verona Rupes, roughly 20km high (about 65,616 feet).
Half Dome actually has rocks hanging over the 4,700 foot ledge and you can walk out on them. A day to get up and back. Well worth it. http://www.yosemitevacation.com/hd_gallery-images/halfdome-jd-06-11-07.jpg http://www.yosemitevacation.com/hd_gallery-images/halfdome-aa-08-18-06.jpg
It won’t win, but the cliff at Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park is nothing to sneeze at. Not too bad a hike either, I did it at about 5, though I think my parents didn’t let the 4 year old sis go past this knife edge. Can’t say I blame them - scared the hell out of me the last time I went.
12-minute freefall! 