Portal:Mountains

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Introduction

Silvretta panorama from the Ochsenkopf

A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (980 ft) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.

Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers.

High elevations on mountains produce colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the ecosystems of mountains: different elevations have different plants and animals. Because of the less hospitable terrain and climate, mountains tend to be used less for agriculture and more for resource extraction, such as mining and logging, along with recreation, such as mountain climbing and skiing.

The highest mountain on Earth is Mount Everest in the Himalayas of Asia, whose summit is 8,850 m (29,035 ft) above mean sea level. The highest known mountain on any planet in the Solar System is Olympus Mons on Mars at 21,171 m (69,459 ft). (Full article...)

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Selected mountain-related landform

A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (980 ft) above the surrounding land. A few mountains are isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges.

Mountains are formed through tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain range

The Little Snowy Mountains are a small mountain range in central Montana about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of Lewistown. The range lies mostly in Fergus County, but the southern part of the range extends into Golden Valley and Musselshell counties.

The range is a lower continuation of the Big Snowy Mountains which lie immediately to the west. The small Pike Creek Hills are 12 miles (19 km) to the east. (Full article...)

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Selected mountain type

An inselberg or monadnock (/məˈnædnɒk/ mə-NAD-nok) is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch diminutive word kopje. If the inselberg is dome-shaped and formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, though not all bornhardts are inselbergs. An inselberg results when a body of rock resistant to erosion, such as granite, occurring within a body of softer rocks, is exposed by differential erosion and lowering of the surrounding landscape. (Full article...)

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Selected climbing article

Lead climber on the bolted sport climbing route Gezurren Erresuma 8c (5.14b), in Spain.

Lead climbing (or leading) is a technique in rock climbing where the lead climber clips their rope to the climbing protection as they ascend a pitch of the climbing route, while their second (or belayer) remains at the base of the route belaying the rope to protect the lead climber in the event that they fall. The term is used to distinguish between the two roles, and the greater effort and increased risk, of the role of the lead climber.

Leading a climb is in contrast with top roping a climb, where even though there is still a second belaying the rope, the lead climber faces little or no risk in the event of a fall and does not need to clip into any protection as the rope is already anchored to the top of the route (i.e. if they fall off, they just hang from the rope). (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various mountain-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Car of Horská služba (Czech Republic) (from Mountain rescue)
Image 2Mountaineers, c. 1900 (from Mountaineering)
Image 3This 1848 "Sketch showing the actual elevation of the Snow Line in different Latitudes" by Alexander Keith Johnston shows the snow lines of mountains in America, Europe and Asia (from Snow line)
Image 4Mountaineers climbing in South Tyrol (from Mountain)
Image 5The Catskills in Upstate New York represent an eroded plateau. (from Mountain)
Image 6Alpine landscape below Malyovitsa Peak, Rila Mountain, Bulgaria (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 7Mount Everest, Earth's highest mountain (from Mountain)
Image 8Temperate montane forest in Bavaria, Germany (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 9Chimborazo, Ecuador, whose summit is the point farthest away from the Earth's center (from Mountain)
Image 10The city of La Paz reaches up to 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) in elevation. (from Mountain)
Image 11A subalpine lake in the Cascade Range, Washington, United States (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 12The Namcha Barwa Himal, east part of the Himalayas as seen from space by Apollo 9 (from Mountain range)
Image 13The Ocean Ridge, the world's longest mountain range (chain) (from Mountain range)
Image 14An alpine mire in the Swiss Alps (from Mountain)
Image 15Waimea Canyon, Hawaii, is known for its montane vegetation. (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 16The northern Urals at high latitude and elevation have an alpine climate and barren ground. (from Mountain)
Image 17A stand of mountain birch at around 750 m in Trollheimen, typical of Scandinavian subalpine forests (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 18British mountaineer William Cecil Slingsby became known as the father of Norwegian mountaineering and contributed greatly to its popularization with his classic book Norway, the Northern Playground (from Mountaineering)
Image 19Montes Apenninus on the Moon was formed by an impact event. (from Mountain range)
Image 20Mountain rescue team members and other services attend to a casualty in Freiburg Germany. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 21Edelweiss, a plant associated with mountain sports (from Mountaineering)
Image 22Iranian oak scrub in the Zagros Mountains (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 23Everest is highest from sea level (green), Mauna Kea is highest from its base (orange), Cayambe is farthest from Earth's axis (pink) and Chimborazo is farthest from Earth's centre (blue) (from Mountain)
Image 24Climber approaching the summit of Manaslu at 8,163 metres (from Mountaineering)
Image 25Fuji volcano (from Mountain)
Image 26Choppering out the injured – with Mt. Forbes in the background (from Mountain rescue)
Image 27Edward Whymper (1840–1911), painting by Lance Calkin (from Mountaineering)
Image 28Pirin Mountain, Bulgaria, part of the fault-block Rila-Rhodope massif (from Mountain)
Image 29Winter campers bivouaced in the snow (from Mountaineering)
Image 30Antique climbing tools (from Mountaineering)
Image 31A mountain rescue team in Iran moving a casualty. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 32Mountaineers proceed across snow fields on South Tyrol; other climbers are visible further up the slopes. (from Mountaineering)
Image 33Alpine flora near Cascade Pass (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 34Cabane du Trient, a mountain hut in the Swiss Alps (from Mountaineering)
Image 35The Andes, the longest mountain range on the surface of the Earth, have a dramatic impact on the climate of South America (from Mountain range)
Image 36Stretcher box in Cumbria, England, prepositioned equipment saves mountain rescue teams having to trudge up mountains with it. (from Mountain rescue)
Image 37Climbers ascending Mount Rainier looking at Little Tahoma Peak (from Mountaineering)
Image 38Illustration of mountains that developed on a fold that has been thrust (from Mountain)
Image 39Tropical montane forest at around 2,000 m in Malaysia (from Montane ecosystems)
Image 40Fixed lines and ladders are distinguishing characteristics of expedition style mountaineering (from Mountaineering)

Selected skiing article

Freestyle skiing is one of the six skiing disciplines contested at the Winter Olympic Games, and one of the youngest. In 1924, the first Winter Olympics featured Nordic skiing disciplines (cross-country skiing, ski jumping, and Nordic combined), while alpine skiing was first contested in 1936. Only at the 1992 Winter Olympics, in Albertville, France, were freestyle skiing events first held as official medal events. Before that, freestyle skiing was contested at the 1988 Winter Olympics as a demonstration sport, consisting of events for both men and women in three variants: moguls, aerials and ski ballet. In Albertville, moguls was the first-ever official freestyle skiing medal event; aerials and ski ballet were also held but still as demonstration events. The growing popularity of aerials convinced the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to add this freestyle discipline to the 1994 Winter Olympics official program. Moguls and aerials have thus been contested at every Winter Games since. Ski cross inclusion in the Winter Olympics program was approved at an IOC Executive Board meeting in November 2006, and the first events were held at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

At the 2002 Winter Olympics, two days after Steve Bradbury gave Australia its first-ever Winter Olympic gold medal, Alisa Camplin won the freestyle aerials event, becoming the first Australian woman to win gold at the Winter Games; four years later, she collected a second consecutive medal, a bronze. In 2010, the third Olympics hosted by Canada finally consecrated a Canadian athlete as Olympic champion: Alexandre Bilodeau took the gold medal in the men's moguls, overcoming defending champion Dale Begg-Smith of Australia. Kari Traa of Norway has won three medals (one gold, one silver, one bronze) in three successive Games, more than any other freestyle skier at the Winter Olympics. Alexandre Bilodeau and David Wise are the most successful male freestyle skiers, with two gold medals. Alexandre Bilodeau was also the first freestyle skier to win back to back gold medals when he won gold in the 2010 and 2014 moguls. The youngest freestyle skier to win an Olympic medal is Swiss Mathilde Gremaud, who secured a silver in 2018 with 18 years old, while Tatjana Mittermayer of Germany is the oldest medalist, following her silver in the 1998 moguls event, aged 33. (Full article...)