What are the ten most difficult mountains to climb in the world?

Answer 1

The 10 most difficult mountains to climb is pretty subjective based on what you are defining as "difficult". Technical climbing skills required? Most likely to get you killed by an avalanche? Most likely to get you killed by altitude? Requires the most planning and expedition resources? Subject to the most in-climate weather? Also techniques come into play, is oxygen allowed? Pneumatic drills? Let's go purest and assume no for both.

Based on trying to mix it up a little and look for difficulty that encompasses as many of these factors as possible, I would venture my top 10 as:

1. K2 - immensely challenging in every way. High, savage weather, technical, remote. A beast.

2. Gasherbrum IV - Very similar to K2. Slightly lower, but slightly steeper.

3. Nanga Parbat - North face has the highest relief of any face on earth. Treacherous avalanches have earned it the name "Killer Mountain"

4. Great Trango Tower - Tallest near vertical wall on earth...and it's at 20,000 feet with little or no snow to melt for the tremendous water required at that altitude. All the difficulties of the Patagonian towers at high altitude.

5. Baintha Brakk - "The Ogre" Extremely steep, technical mountain in the Karakorum. The best mountaineers in the world consistently mention it as one of the worlds hardest, that's enough for me. To make it worse, apparently it's covered in hungry bears that cause all kinds of trouble at camp. No, that's not a joke.

6. Latok I - The "Ogre's Brother". Close in proximity and difficulty to Baintha Brakk. It's North Ridge is a notorious unclimbed route. Many of the best have tried, all have failed. The closest was still nearly an El Capitan and a half from the summit.

7. Makalu - Considered one of the hardest and most dangerous of the 8000m giants.

8. Everest - Enough with obscurity, being the worlds tallest has to mean something...It means that especially without oxygen, altitude is a tremendous challenge and Everest has more of it than anywhere else.

9. Annapurna - When you kill fully 40% of the summit attempters I guess you have to make the list. Far from the most technical, but it still has the highest mortality rate among 8000m peaks. Maybe it's the extreme avalanche danger, maybe it's just cursed.

10. Cerro Torre - Had to have 1 mountain not in Asia. Immense, remote, awe-inspiring granite spire in Patagonia. Once considered by some mountaineers the hardest mountain in the world. Low altitude, but extremely technical and subject to horrific weather.

Worth honorable mention:

Mt. McKinnley (Denali) - Probably most dangerous and challenging mountain in North America. In sheer size, one of the largest mountains in the world. Its extreme latitude makes air thinner than altitude would suggest, and subject to terrible weather all year.

Chacraraju - The most difficult peak in Andes.

Monte Fitzroy - Near Cerro Torre. Extremely technical and remote. One of the most breathtaking mountains to look at in the world. Is found near El Chaltén in the Argentinian Patagonia.

Matterhorn - The mountain that really started it all. Still a spectacular peak to behold and one of Europe's greatest climbs.