This astronaut photograph highlights the northern approach to the world’s tallest mountain.
Published Jan 17, 2011
As the tallest mountain in the world, Everest is the standard to which all others are compared.
Published Jan 2, 2014
An ancient collision between continents left a series of fractures in the bedrock around Virginia’s Massanutten Mountains. The event spawned some unusual zig-zagging stretches on the Shenandoah River.
Published Dec 5, 2014
At 6:30 a.m. on May 28, 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay set out from a camp high above the South Col on the Southwest Face of Mount Everest and began the ascent for which both would become famous. Fighting through snow, winding along an exposed ridgeline with drops of over 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) on either side, scrambling up steep, rocky steps, and finally climbing a sloping snowfield, the pair reached the summit at 11:30 a.m. It was the first known climb of the world’s tallest mountain.
Published Jan 12, 2008
Mount Olympus is the highest peak in Greece. The 2,917-meter (9,570-foot) summit is the tallest in a mountain chain that runs north into Bulgaria and south into Turkey, via the Cyclades Islands. In this winter view, Olympus is the only peak with a dusting of snow—perhaps the reason its name in classical Greek means “the luminous one.” In Greek mythology, the peak was inhabited by the Twelve Olympians, the most famous gods of the ancient Greeks. North of Mount Olympus lies Macedonia, the homeland of Alexander the Great. Climbing the famous mountain is a favorite tourist activity today.
Published Apr 4, 2005
