+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 1 of 1

Thread: The Climber’s Guide to the Galaxy

  1. Link to Post #1
    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    7th February 2010
    Location
    Ecuador
    Posts
    34,268
    Thanks
    208,995
    Thanked 457,534 times in 32,788 posts

    Default The Climber’s Guide to the Galaxy

    Well, just the solar system, actually. But who knew Earth's mountains were so puny?
    The Climber’s Guide to the Galaxy

    This is Olympus Mons, the highest (and most enormous!) mountain on Mars.






    Here it is, mapped on to France. It's quite big. (It also fits neatly on to Arizona)



    Olympus Mons is a colossal shield volcano on Mars. At 21,300m (70,000 ft), it's the tallest planetary mountain discovered in our solar system. At two-and-a-half times Everest’s height above sea level, Olympus Mons dwarfs anything on Earth.

    But how do you measure height above sea level when there’s no ocean? A substitute reference value must be used, known as the Mars Areoid. The Mars Areoid “is an imaginary sphere with a center that coincides with the center of Mars and a radius of 3,396,000 meters.” This gives us an altitude reference value despite the absence of oceans and Mars’ lumpy topography.

    Climbing up from the Mars Areoid would take quite some time. First, you’d need to clear the 8,000m (26,250 ft) high escarpment that rings the volcano’s outer edge — in itself a climb almost the height of Everest.

    Then you’d set out on a very long hike towards the summit. Despite the elevation gain and provided you’ve somehow managed to get over the escarpment cliffs, the trek might not be too taxing.

    Olympus Mons is 600km (360 miles) wide with only a 5% incline, so you’d be hard-pressed to know you were climbing a mountain. From a skier’s perspective, it’s a bunny hill, albeit a monumentally long one.

    But that's not all that's out there.

    Skadi Mons, Venus: 10,970m (36,000 ft)


    A radar image of Skadi Mons from 1996

    There’s some potential for big-wall climbing on Venus. Skadi Mons in the Maxwell Montes massif features two distinct routes. You can choose to trek the gentle eastern slopes up from the plains of Fortuna Tessera, or you can test yourself on the steep western slopes.

    It’s probably best to take some water, it’ll be hot work. Venus can top out at 470°C (880ºF), which is enough to melt lead. The dense atmosphere traps heat and raises the surface pressure to around 90 times that of Earth.

    This is roughly equivalent to the pressure you'd experience 1,000m (3,300 ft) underwater. You'd essentially be climbing a mountain inside a blast-furnace while being crushed. On the plus side, if you made it to the upper slopes, you might get some metallic lead sulfide snow.

    Rheasilvia Peak, Vesta: 22,530m (73,917 ft, even higher than Olympus Mons, sort of)


    Pretty tricky to get a good image of Vesta. This photo was taken from 100,000km (60,000 miles) away by the Dawn space probe. Rheasilvia can be seen at the bottom of the asteroid.

    Vesta is the second-largest asteroid within a belt between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Its most prominent features are two humongous craters. Rheasilvia Peak is created by an impact rather than volcanic or tectonic activity. The crater that Rheasilvia calls home is over 19,000m deep, almost hiding the 22,530m mountain from view.

    This would have to be a summer climb. Vesta can get up to a balmy -20°C (-4ºF) with the sun overhead but can drop to as low as -190°C (-310ºF) at night. Even Polish mountaineers, the hardiest in the world, might have trouble with that.

    Tenzing Montes (T2), Pluto: 6,276m (20,590 ft)



    A view of Pluto from the New Horizons space probe. The mountain range including T2 can be seen in the left foreground.

    Discovered in 2015 and named after Tenzing Norgay (the Sherpa who climbed Everest with Edmund Hillary in 1953), T2 is an opportunity to beat the Everest crowds. Technically, it’s only a little over 6,000m high but it's actually 1,600m (5.250 ft) higher than Everest from base to peak.

    Formerly regarded as the ninth planet in our solar system, Pluto has been relegated to the little leagues. This dwarf planet’s distance from the sun means that it gets mighty cold, dropping as low as -240°C (-400ºF) These freezing conditions make for a unique climb: T2 is a huge block of ice and you would start your ascent from plains that seem to be made of frozen nitrogen.

    But gravity is only 6% of earth’s, so bounding up T2 is a possibility were you able to survive Pluto's extremely thin mainly-nitrogen atmosphere.



    Additional reference:

  2. The Following 28 Users Say Thank You to Bill Ryan For This Post:

    Agape (6th March 2021), Anka (6th March 2021), Ankle Biter (5th September 2021), aoibhghaire (6th March 2021), Bluegreen (6th March 2021), DeDukshyn (6th March 2021), Dreamer148 (6th March 2021), EFO (6th March 2021), Ernie Nemeth (6th March 2021), gord (5th March 2021), Gracy (5th March 2021), Harmony (6th March 2021), Lunesoleil (6th March 2021), Matthew (6th March 2021), Mercedes (5th March 2021), Michi (6th March 2021), Mike (6th March 2021), mojo (5th March 2021), Nasu (12th March 2021), palehorse (6th March 2021), Sadieblue (6th March 2021), Snoweagle (6th March 2021), Sunny-side-up (6th March 2021), sunwings (6th March 2021), toppy (6th March 2021), Victoria (5th March 2021), Violet3 (6th March 2021), Yoda (6th March 2021)

+ Reply to Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts