11 Best Mountains to Climb in the World

If you are into the hiking, mountaineering or climbing, you will surely be interested to see which the best mountains to climb in the world are.

From the point of view of an outsider, climbing and hiking might seem a little weird — you go, climb a mountain, make a few amazing pictures on the way, and that’s it. But when you enter the world of climbing, the whole new horizons open, and you actually see the world from different perspective. And that makes you want to explore. People, of course, have different preferences and goals in life as in climbing, and during the years spent in climbing everybody finds something that they like the best and keep going deeper in the matter.

But what do we consider climbing to be actually? It depends whom you ask. There are things like mountaineering, sport climbing, traditional climbing, bouldering, ice climbing, hill walking, scrambling just to name some. And since each of these is a science for itself, we will not go through any of them particularly; we will just say that all these divisions are prone to constant changes, inventions and development (both on the matter of technique or equipment), and they inevitably overlap.

If you are a beginner, you will probably not know what to expect when you start climbing, but you will have some ideas in your mind. You might start, say, bouldering and realize you really like ice climbing, and that is OK since one of the points of climbing, in general, is exploring new things and finding yourself in it. So, if you have decided to begin with hiking, we might suggest you search for some mountains to climb for beginners check out 10 Easiest Mountains to Climb in USA, bit also go through the 11 Most Difficult Mountains To Climb In US, to see what to expect later in your climbing career.

Apart from the US, what are some great destinations? First, there is Europe, where all this mountaineering/alpinism/traditional climbing thing begun. And some mountains there still have the reputation of the best mountains to climb in Europe since those starting periods, such as Mont Blanc, the Alps in general, Ortler, Grossglockner or Matterhorn. Then there are the Andes, Peru, for example, and the whole vast Asian area with the world’s most famous and highest Mount Everest and other leas known beauties of the world.

So, what criteria to take in mind when thinking of the best mountains to climb in the world: plain hiking, traditional climbing, mountaineering, via ferratas…? Well, we have decided to take a little from everything, since we are looking for the best mountains to climb in the world, and there certainly is the best from all these categories.

But what are the best mountains anyway? It is totally a matter of personal taste, preferences, and expectations. So, that is why have consulted different opinions on the best mountains to climb in the world. First, we have gone through some National Geographic articles where we have fund compilation of best summit hikes, and climbing peaks picked for different tastes and experiences. Of course, we have also taken in mind beginners in this wonderful activity, so we have also looked for something suitable for them and got some suggestions from the Adventure Sports Network and The Guardian. On the opposite, we have taken in mint the hardest mountains to climb as well from the Rough Guides.

Too many suggestions, and too many opinions, it is not easy to pick the right choice. So, in the end, how did we pick the best mountains to climb in the world? We have looked through the suggestions from the websites we have mentioned above and made our own compilation trying to include as many diverse mountains as we could, from harsh winter routes to amazing views of African and American peaks. And we have tried to rank the list on the number of suggestions and the level of difficulty (more or less).

So, if you are here just for the curiosity or you are planning to ascend some of the best mountains to climb in the world, let’s see our picks on that:

11. Mount Everest, Tibet (China) and Nepal

Elevation: 8,848m (20,029 ft)

Of course, no story that has “best” and “mountain” in the same sentence would avoid mentioning Everest, the tallest and one of the most challenging mountains in the world. Everest has now become more of an ideal and goal that some people spend years and years of preparation to climb. There are several routes that can be picked and two main base camps. The base camp on Nepal only gets around 30,000 tourists a year, but of course, there are much less those who continue up to the top of the world for which of course much more preparation (and money) is needed.

10. Cerro Torre, Andes, Argentina and Chile (Patagonia)

Elevation: 3,128m (10,262ft)

Cerro Torre is not famous for its elevation, but for its outstanding beauty and the difficulty. Cerro Torre is actually considered to be one of the most difficult peaks to climb, but that is what makes it so attractive and challenging. It is disputable whether the first ascent of Cerro Torre was in 1959, hen two Italian enthusiasts took this challenge – one of them died in the avalanche while descending, while everything we have as the proof are the testimonies of another survivor. If you are experienced enough in this kind of extreme activities, you have probably already thought of Cerro Torre as one of the best peaks to climb in the world.

9. Annapurna, Nepal

Elevation: 8,091m (26,545ft)

Annapurna represents a massif in the Himalayas. It has always represented a challenge for climbers and the first ascend on Annapurna was in 1950 by Maurice Herzog and Louis Lechenal, but why this ascend became very important is that Herzog had later published the book about it making climbing closer to “ordinary” people, popularizing the whole thing. Nevertheless, this book remains one of the most inspirational books for climbers. Apart from the inspiration, Annapurna is one of the hardest mountains to climb.

8. Matterhorn, Switzerland, Switzerland, and Italy

Elevation: 4,487m (14, 692ft)

Toblerone, probably the first thing many would think of when someone mentions Matterhorn. For the outsiders, yes, but for those who are into climbing, this peak represents one of the first mountaineering and climbing successes in the history of mountaineering and traditional climbing together with some other peaks and mountains that we have mentioned earlier: Mont Blanc, Ortler, and others. That is one of the things that make Matterhorn one of the best mountains to climb in the world.

7. Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia

Elevation: 4,095m (13,435ft)

Apart from mountaineering experience what makes Kinabalu so special is that it is also home of around 5-6,000 plant species, around 320 bird species and more than 100 mammalian species, which it is the reason this mountain has a status of UNESCO World Heritage. On the climbing part, it is considered not to be very hard if you are in good shape.

6. Denali (former Mc Kinley), Alaska

Elevation: 6,190m (10,310ft)

Denali is the highest peak of the North American continent. Although you can go climb on your own, it is better to have a guided service while climbing Denali, since it is a unique and not so easy climb, since you need to have some knowledge and experience with winter climbing techniques. And especially because when climbing Denali it should be considered as an expedition and not an overnight climb.

5. Mont Blanc, France, and Italy

Elevation: 4,808m ( 15,774ft)

Another mountain/peak shared by several countries, in this case, Italy and France and also very close to Switzerland. It is one of the most famous European peaks, surrounded by many winter sports activity centers since it is so popular, as much as 200 people a day can be seen climbing the summit.

4. Elbrus, Russia

Elevation 5,642m (18,510ft)

This Caucasian mountain has the reputation of the tallest European mountain, although a bit further from the “core” of European mountains which are usually in focus when thinking of Europe. Anyway, although being one of the highest mountains, it is also one of the best mountains to climb in the world taking in mind the level of difficulty – the expedition success is almost 100%.

3. Mount Rainier, Washington

Elevation: 4,392m (14,411ft)

There are many routes on Mount Rainier, ice climbing, mountaineering, skiing, even rescue schools are organized here. That is one of the things which makes this mountain one of the best mountains to climb, not to mention the extraordinary landscape and nature that you would go through, but that is the feature of all these more “extreme” and isolated places, isn’t it?

2. Mount Khuiten, Mongolia

Elevation: 4,375m (14,354ft)

Khuiten peak is located on the very border of Mongolia and China. The track you would be taking in order to climb Mount Khuten is in Mongolia, and the whole adventure would take you around two weeks. It is one of the easiest routes for hiking so you can find many mountaineering agencies offering expeditions.

1. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

Elevation: 5,895m (19,341 ft)

As one of the best mountains to climb in the world, Kilimanjaro takes special place, first because it is one of the easy routes to climb. Other reasons for this lie in incredibly astonishing landscapes you will go through your adventure with six usual routes you can pick which go from the desert environment through the rainforests and up to the ice and snow at the top. Kilimanjaro is also the highest mountain in Africa, and it’s actually a volcano. The last volcanic activity on Kilimanjaro was around 200 years ago, but the last major eruption occurred some 360,000 years ago, so no need to worry.