If you were a hiker partaking of this vista, you’d be breathless, and not just from the view. Note the absence of any vegetation, there’s not even ground cover, just scree and rocks. I’m not sure exactly where this photo was taken from, but the elevation is above treeline and likely above 17,000 feet. And before you is a rock wall more than 10,000 feet high. It’s so steep that snow doesn’t cling to it: “The south face rises 3.2 km in only 2.25 km of horizontal distance, which makes it the steepest face of this size in the world.”
Normally a mountain nearly 28,000 ft. high would be coated in ice. Yes, it’s a huge mountain; only Everest (29,029 ft.), K2 (28,251 ft.), and Kangchenjunga (28,169 ft.) are loftier, and only Makalu (27,838 ft.) is in its class; except for those four peaks, every other mountain on earth is at least 1,000 ft. lower. (Click to enlarge)
