Mount Thor - Stiffest and Tallest Cliff in the World
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| Mount Thor. Photo: CN Traveler |
Where is Mount Thor - The Tallest Cliff in the World
One of the last great uncharted wildernesses remains in the northern Canadian province of Baffin Island's Auyuittuq National Park.
Few have succeeded in doing so. fewer still can spell it. With an Inuit name that means "the land that never melts," Auyittuq is known for its breathtaking fjords and towering mountains, including Mount Asgard, the cliff that James Bond jumps from at the start of The Spy Who Loved Me while wearing a Union Jack parachute.
As the CN traveler points out, however, Mount Asgard is not the park's scariest peak. The world's tallest cliff, close by Mount Thor, has that distinction.
How Height is Mount Thor?
The Norse god of thunder is honored by the name Mount Thor, and trust me, climbing it might require a miracle or some Marvel Comics superpowers. The peak's west face drops 4,101 feet (almost a mile!) straight down, making it the longest vertical drop on Earth. Since the face is actually an overhang of 105 degrees, the slope is actually steeper than vertical.
Although it was first scaled in 1965, it took another two or so decades for people to succeed. And all of this was accomplished with a team of four people who carried about a half-ton of supplies. In other words, the Curiocity claims that the outdoors is not a picnic.
But for the committed, boy is it worth it. To put Thor's immense size into perspective, consider that it is nearly half a kilometer taller than the Burj Khalifa (828 m) and more than twice as tall as the CN Tower (553 m). That is a seriously large drop. If you ever find yourself at the top, simply don't look down.
BASE jumpers and paragliders frequently flock to Mount Thor in search of the greatest rush by plunging off the highest cliff in the world (likely after downing a Mountain Dew). Due to the difficulty in sending rescue teams to the remote location, Auyuittuq Park has a special jumping ban, so Canada regularly prosecutes thrill-seekers foolish enough to take the shortcut back down to base camp.
Go to Baltistan in northern Pakistan if you're looking for new challenges after scaling the tallest vertical cliff in the world. There is the tallest nearly vertical cliff in the world on the east face of the Great Trango Tower; it is three hundred feet higher than Thor but not quite as sheer. The first expedition to climb Trango's east face in 1984 perished on the way down, and it is still regarded as the hardest big-wall climb in the world today.
| A sheer 4,000-foot rock face is not easy to climb, as you might imagine. Before an American team of four finally succeeded in ascending Thor in May 1985, more than 30 previous attempts at the feat had failed. Even though they carried more than half a ton of food, gear, and fuel up the cliff with them, the team was constantly in danger from things like falling rocks and running out of supplies. They spent 33 days climbing! |
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