UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Here’s a list of the world’s most treacherous peaks – you’d need more than the usual physical training to even consider going up any of these; you’d need to consume colon and body cleansers too.

The world’s most dangerous mountain could very well be Annapurna I, at 8,091m the world’s 10th highest mountain. It has the world’s highest climber fatality rate: an incredible 40%. That means out of every 5 climbers attempting to conquer it, 2 would die. Still, it has been conquered even in winter (unlike K2), and it was the first “eight thousander” (at least 8,000m high peak) to be conquered. That honour went to Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal, of a French expedition on 3rd June 1950. That’s 3 years earlier than the Edmund Hillary/Tenzing Norgay conquest of Everest. As of 2005, only 103 summit attempts have been successful, with 56 fatalities, most of them due to avalanches. Those killed include famed Russian climber Anatoli Boukreev in 1997, Christian Kuntner in 2005 and Iñaki Ochoa in 2008. The great Slovienian climber, the late Tomaž Humar climbed it solo in 2007.

The second could be K2, which, at 8,611m, is the second-highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest. Dubbed “The Savage Mountain”, it is extremely difficult to conquer and has the second highest climber fatality rate among the “eight thousanders”: 25% i.e. for every four people who have reached the top, one has died trying. It has never been attempted during winter.

In terms of intimidating factor, nothing comes close to Nanga Parbat, the world’s 9th highest mountain. Dubbed “The Man Eater” and “Killer Mountain”, it boasts the largest mountain face in the world, the Rupal Face – a 4,600m vertical drop – that’s higher than Mount Kinabalu! Apparently only two climbers have ever succeeded ascending up this face all the way to the summit. In August 2005, renowned Slovenian mountaineer Tomaž Humar, was rescued on the Face at 5,900m after being stuck there for 6 days. He’s circled in the following photo – surely the loneliest place in the world:

Compare what I mentioned above to Everest’s stats: as of 2008, there had been 4,102 successful ascents by around 2,700 people, with 210 deaths.

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