Thor Peak– Baffin Island, Canada

Height: 1,675m

Wall prominence: 1,250m

The Thor Peak has the Earth’s greatest sheer vertical drop of 1,250m (4,101 feet). The drop has an average overhang on 15 degrees and you can take one step off the peak and fall nearly a mile before you hit anything.

The largest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa is only 829m tall and would be dwarfed by this giant.

Thor Peak (also known as Mount Thor) is in Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island, Canada. The mountain was first climbed in 1965 during an Alpine Club of Canada expedition but it wasn’t until 1985 that the giant wall was finally scaled. The world record for the longest repel was also set on Thor Peak in 2006 by an American team.

Great Trango Tower – Baltistan, Pakistan

Height: 6,286m

Wall prominence: 1,340m

Great Trango, on the right, has the world’s greatest nearly vertical drop, 1,340m. The beautiful spire in the centre is Nameless Tower.

Great Trango Tower is part of a collective group of impressive peaks, the Trango Towers, in Northern Pakistan. The east face of the Great Trango Tower is the world’s greatest nearly vertical drop at 1,340m.

Great Trango, the largest of the peaks, was first climbed in 1977 by Galen Rowell, John Roskelly, Kim Schmitz, Jim Morrissey and Dennis Hennek, seven years later Great Trango’s formidable east face was conquered by Norwegian climbers Hans Christian Doseth and Finn Dæhli. Tragically Hans and Finn died during the descent.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 11th, 2017