Quiz Bowl: Mountains of the World
Mount Aconcagua,Mendoza, Polish
(Argentina) The subduction of the Nazca Plate formed Mount ___________, the highest (22,841 feet) point in the Southern Hemisphere. Found near the city of ___________ in Argentina, the peak straddles the _________ Glacier, which provides a popular route for climbers looking to ascend to the summit.
Yamanaka, Kawaguchi, Mount Fuji, Shinto
(Japan) ____________ and ______________ are two lakes found along the slopes of Mount ________, the tallest mountain (12,389 feet) in Japan. Found only about an hour's drive from Tokyo, the peak has significance in the ___________ religion, being sacred to the goddess Sengen-Sama. The mountain was also depicted in the series of prints Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, drawn by Hokusai.
Ketu, K2
(Pakistan and China) Qogir, ______, and Mount Godwin-Austen are other names for __________, which gains its most common name from its distinction of being the second-tallest mountain (28,251 feet) in the world. The "K" in _______ stands for Karakoram, the mountain range in Pakistan and China in which the peak is found. The House's Chimney and the Black Pyramid are features of ___________, which also possesses a different second-place record: behind the Annapurna Massif, it boasts the next-highest fatality rate among attempted climbers of any mountains above 8,000 meters.
The Matterhorn, Zermatt
Edward Compton and John Ruskin are among the artists inspired by the ______________, which is renowned for its almost perfectly pyramidal shape. The mountain (14,694 feet) is located on the border between Switzerland and Italy, near the Swiss town of ___________. The 1865 ascent by Edward Whymper, which claimed the lives of four mountaineers, was the celebrated first climb of the summit.
Mount Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), "The Snows of Kilimanjaro,"
Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira are the three summits of Mount Kilimanjaro, which is the tallest (19, 341 feet) peak in Africa. It is notable for also being the tallest mountain that is not part of a mountain range, having been formed by a now-extinct volcano. A corpse of a leopard is found on the top the mountain in a short story by Ernest Hemingway, _________________, that uses the mountain as the backdrop for the memories, and ultimately the death, of a writer suffering from gangrene.
Mount Mitchell
The Black Mountain subrange of the Appalachians is the location of Mount ___________, the tallest peak in the United States found east of the Mississippi. This mountain, found in North Carolina, was the subject of a debate over its altitude (6684 feet) between its namesake and Thomas Clingman, leading Elisha ___________ to attempt another ascent in which he fell to his death.
Mount Everest, Khumbu, Sir Edmund Hillary, Sherpas
The border between Nepal and China straddles the summit of the Himalayan peak Mount ___________, which, at a height of over 29,000 feet, is the tallest mountain in the world. The ___________ Icefall and the cliff-like Three Steps are hazards faced by potential climbers of __________, a feat first accomplished by ______________ and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. Local ___________ act as guides for mountaineers in the area, though they walked out of the job over dangerous working conditions in 2014 after sixteen _____________ were killed in an avalanche.
Mount Kosciuszko (Australia) , Tadeusz Kosciuszko
The name of , ___________ _____________the Polish commander who fought in the American Revolutionary War, was appended to the tallest mountain in Australia by European explorers in the 19th Century. When it was discovered that Mount Townsend was actually taller, the names were switched so that _______________ would remain the highest peak on the continent. The peak's name in Aboriginal languages, such as Jagungal or Tackingal, translates to "table-top mountain."
Mount Kenya, Darwin, Diamond
The second tallest (17,057 feet) mountain in Africa is Mount __________, which shares its name with the country in which it is located. British geographer and political theorist Halford Mackinder led the group that was the first to ascend the peak, which bypassed the _______ Glacier and proceeded up the ________ Glacier. Like Kilimanjaro, it was formed by a now-dormant volcano, and, like Kilimanjaro, part of its notoriety rests on a book. Facing Mount Kenya, an anthropological study of the Kikuyu by Jomo Kenyatta, was one of the first such texts by an African ethnographer to gain fame.
Denali ( formerly Mount McKinley), West Buttress
_______________ (United States) The highest (20,310 feet) mountain in North America, ___________ is located in south-central Alaska. It is the highlight of ___________ National Park. The ______________ route is considered the best path to ascend Denali. Frederick Cook, a man notorious for having faked the discovery of the North Pole, is now believed to have also faked his ascent of the mountain in 1906 as well, leaving a climbing party seven years later with the honor.
