A mountaineering calendar of the world’s greatest mountains and the optimal time of year at which to climb them, listed month by month
Since I first started climbing, I must have spent hours typing “when is the best time to climb…” into search engines and then crawling through websites to find the key piece of information I needed. Only when I have a date in mind can I start to think about the practicalities of actually trying to climb a mountain (i.e. booking time off work, flights, budget, gear etc).
To solve this problem once and for all, we have put together a mountaineering calendar of the world’s greatest mountains and the optimal time of year at which to climb them. Drawing on Adventure Consultants’ expedition calendar, we list the world’s major mountains and ranges month by month.
The list on our mountaineering calendar is not entirely inclusive as it would take too long to record every mountain on the planet. Likewise, to avoid repetition we list select mountains in a range, considering the world’s 100 highest mountains lie within the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges.
We have also excluded winter ascents from the list because, well, if you’re that guy, you probably don’t need a mountaineering calendar.
Finally, our mountaineering calendar is an evolving project so please send us any suggestions and we’ll continue to add mountains and ranges over time.
JANUARY
| DATE | MOUNTAIN | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aconcagua, Argentina | Seven summits. Highest non-technical mountain in the world. |
| 1 | Mount Kenya (south-face), Kenya | Seven second summits. Best time to climb south face. |
| 1 | Chimborazo, Cotopaxi and Cayambe, Ecuador | Farthest point from Earth’s core. Dry period with low winds. |
| 1 | Puncak Mandala, Indonesia | Seven second summits. January is dry season in Papua Province. |
| 1 | Mount Tyree, Antarctica | Seven second summits. |
| 6-31 | Vinson Massif, Antarctica | Seven summits. |
| 16-30 | Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia | Seven summits (Messner list). Can be climbed year-round but January is dry season in Papua Province. |
Mount Whitney can be climbed anytime during the mountaineering calendar. It is the highest summit in the contiguous United States (i.e. excluding Hawaii and Alaska) as well as the highest peak in the Sierra Nevada.
It looks intimidating at first sight but the popular Mount Whitney Trail starts at an elevation of 2,550m (8,360ft) meaning the summit can be reached in just a day…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Atlas & Boots…