No Longer Everest-Westerners Urged to Recognize Original Name of World's Highest Peak

Xinhuanet News Service ^ | Staff Writers

[abner]

Bump!

[Alberta's Child]

Mt.Kinley goes all the way from sea level to just a few feet less than Everest . .

The peak of Mount Everest is about 9,000 feet higher than the top of Mt. McKinley. I think your comment about the "tallest mountain" is right, though (in terms of the vertical distance from base to peak) -- it's just that Mt. Everest is probably on a much higher plateau than 3,000 feet.

On another note, Canada's Mount Logan may be the most massive mountain in the world. It's peak is only 19,550 feet above sea level, but the mountain covers an enormous area -- in fact, there is no real "peak" in a true sense -- the summit is a ridge that is more than ten miles long.

[vollmond]

I don't know how accurate this information is, but I read many years ago that Mt. Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain, if you measure from the center of the Earth (it sits on the equatorial bulge). And the island of Guam is the tallest mountain, if you measure from its base (rising from the bottom of the Marianas trench).

I only bring this up because I used to live on Guam :).

[Notforprophet]

Actually by that standard Mauna Kea in Hawaii is the tallest, as it is over 32,000 feet from base to peak. Some 19,000 feet of it are underwater.

[ewing]

Interesting!

[SamAdams76]

Too long a name for us Americans to remember. Everest it stays. Or "K1" for short.

[Moosilauke]

Mauna Loa tops them all, it's 56,000 ft from base to peak.

[kms61]

Everest actually rises from a high plateau...If measured from its base, Denali is the highest mountain on earth, rising from about a thousand feet above sea level to over 20,000 feet. If you include submerged mountains, it's the island of Hawaii at over 30K.

If we're going to rename Everest, I vote for the Sherpa name, which means something like "Mother Goddess of the World."

[Sloth]

That all depends on what your definition of "is" is. Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador has a peak almost 3,000 meters farther from the center of the Earth than Everest, but it's not nearly as high above sea level because of the planet's equatorial bulge.

[Mudboy Slim]

"yes"

[Mudboy Slim]

"yes"

[BlackJack]

The Chinese are trying to exterminate the Tibetans.
Maybe it should be called slaughter mountain.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Don't you mean a 9000 ft. plateau? I've been on it in Shimla. Breathtaking!

[RightWhale]

I would settle for elevation above the geoid. Then we would have to agree on a geoid, but that is another program.

[Verginius Rufus]

If we're in the renaming mode, we need to rename the 25th President of the United States "William Denali" (give me men to match my mountains).

Last week Jay Leno had a bunch of Jaywalking finalists on his show. When he asked what was the highest point on earth, one contestant suggested "Mars." When Jay indicated that wasn't right, she changed her guess to "Pluto."

[southernnorthcarolina]

OK, the mountain straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. But in which country does its highest point lie, or is that point precisely on the border?

[eddie willers]

Don't you mean a 9000 ft. plateau?

At that height, you'd be still be in a deep valley.
At 17,000 feet you're at the base looking another 12,000 ft. up and saying, "Ain't she something".

It was named after Sir George Everest who, as Surveyor General of India from 1830 to 1843, recorded the location of Everest. He never set foot near it and protested naming after himself, prefering that it be called by the name it's Tibetian name, Chomolungma or by it's Nepalese name, Sagarmatha. Both loosely translate into "Mother Goddess of the World".
And from this view from the north, you can see why!

BTW abner, have you seen the Toyota commercials?
They actually got a car into the Rongbuk Valley to get some great shots of the Northern face.