Mount Taranaki
Mount Taranaki, alternately known as Mount Egmont, is a 2,518 meter (8,261 ft) high volcano located on the west coast of North Island in New Zealand. Last active in the mid-nineteenth century, Mount Taranaki is prominent in Māori mythology and is of special significance to the Taranaki tribe.
In the years before European explorers first visited New Zealand, people of the Taranaki tribe lived on the mainly flat plains surrounding the volcano. They saw the mountain as being central to their existence: water cascading off its slopes watered their crops and eruptions threatened not only their way of life but their lives themselves. Though Mount Taranaki has been quiescent for many decades, volcanologists warn the peak is considered to be active in geological terms and that a large eruption is overdue.
Mount Kailash
Situated in the Kailas Range (Gangdisê Mountains) of southwestern Tibet, 6,638 meter (21,778 ft) high Mount Kailash is one of the world’s highest unclimbed mountains and chances are it will remain so for the foreseeable future. This strikingly beautiful peak is sacred to no less than 4 religions (Bon, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism) and is the recognized source of some of the region’s mightiest rivers.
For thousands of years, religious pilgrims have visited Mount Kailash – not to climb it but to circumnavigate its base by foot. In the modern era, several mountaineers presented plans to climb Mount Kailash but none of them proceeded past the scouting stage. In 2001 and in response to international pressure, the Chinese government (who exercises authority over Tibet and its mountains) explicitly banned all climbing on Mount Kailash. Protests against the decision were surprisingly muted though as Italian mountaineer Reinhold Messner explained, “If we conquer this mountain, then we conquer something in people’s souls.”
