Top Ten Best Well-Known Mountains for Beginner Climbers

Hikes are pretty awesome. You know what's even more awesome? Hiking a freaking mountain! Some really famous mountains are out there and many people put their endurance and skill to the test by trying to scale and traverse them. Unfortunately, some idiots go on impossibly dangerous ones like Mount Everest, the highest (not tallest) mountain in the world, and many of them die miserably. So, for all those folks out there who want to have an adventure and travel a mountain that everyone knows, here's the top ten best well-known mountains to for beginner climbers. By the way, I added well-known in to the title because you'd want to know if mountains that everyone knows like The Rockies, The Andes, The Himalayas, The Alps, etc. are safe, but nobody cares about whether Mount Kikachanglock or Mount Borgen or whatever is safe. Enjoy!
The Top Ten
1 Mount Fuji, Japan

This beautiful, enormous, and famous mountain, clocking in at 3776 meters, is actually quite climbable. Making up an awesome background for the enormous city of Tokyo, Mount Fuji is actually a volcano, which I think hasn't erupted in a really long time but is still active. It's huge but is still good for most people who want to pursue climbing as a career. Its most popular route is called Kawaguchiko. It's praised for introducing tons of climbers to the stamina and determination in a less extreme way than other places. Unfortunately, the official climbing season is only two months or so, from the beginning of July to the end of August, and if you go after that, it's much more dangerous than the hard but still calm-ish hike during climbing season. Sadly, many people actually die on it every year either because they don't go at the right time or aren't careful enough. Still, it's not super hard and so many more people survive than die that it's actually got a pretty good survival rate.

2 Mount Hood, United States

I can't say Mount Hood is easy to climb at all. It's very icy and will test the determination, strength, and constitution of climbers. But it is a almost perfect introduction to ice climbing skills that any intelligent mountain climbers will need later. I find the idea of ice climbing terrifying, but if you want to become a 'professional mountain climber' then you'll need to learn how to use ice climbing equipment, and mount hood is perfect for that. It's got these volcanic peaks with like glaciers and all that, and those require the skill on 8000m peaks, but without the high altitude and thin air, as it's only 3000 and something meters, which is a really good thing for beginners. Also, Mount Hood is extremely beautiful... just look at it. I want to go there someday.

3 Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

One of the most famous mountains in the entire world, Kilimanjaro is the biggest and most well-known mountain in all of Africa, and it's a popular one to climb. Located in the country Tanzania, with a whopping height of almost 6000 meters (5895 meters, to be exact), it can definitely scare many good climbers off at a first glance, but it's not extremely hard. It's extremely hard and dangerous with all of the terribly thin air up there, but it gives climbers a chance to slowly adjust to it over the course of a few days, and since there aren't things like avalanches or other disasters on this mountain, it can be easier than going up another extremely high mountain. You'll need to be prepared for breathing thin air if you really want to pursue mountain climbing.

4 Pikes Peak, United States

This fairly well known mountain, though not as famous as ones like Mount Fuji or Kilimanjaro, is a pretty solid (though quite high) height of 4302 meters. This awesome mountain, which looks really awesome, too, is a good introduction to mountaineers, giving them kind of a taste of what they'll be getting into if they seriously consider it as a big hobby or even career, and it's definitely a tough trip but again, not an extreme introduction to mountain climbing, which I think is very good. It's only 21 kilometers hike, but you're gaining 2250 meters, which is basically for every ten meters you walk, you go up one meter. That's definitely a high rate, not extreme but I'm sure it'll be very tiring indeed. This one's very safe and climbable most of the summer, just like Mount Fuji.

5 Island Peak, Nepal

6189 meters. That's how tall this monster peak is. Seems extremely impossible to climb since it's only 2000 meters less high than the tallest mountain in the world, but it's actually earned the title 'easiest 6000m peak' because it honestly isn't extremely hard. It takes a very long time, but many people still trek it since it's less extreme, not as freezing (though still extremely cold, mind you), and it lets people get more used to the change in altitude (which can lead to altitude sickness, and believe me it's bad - I've had to face it when I hiked down the Grand Canyon with my family) and also help people get a little more used to really thin air... on a less difficult and extreme mountain than taller ones would be.

6 Breithorn, Switzerland

This one you may be familiar with, not like real knowledge of it like you would have with Fuji or Kilimanjaro, but you may have heard of it. It's one of the most famous mountains in a range called the alps, which everyone's heard of it. It's probably one of the most climbed mountains there. It's only 4164 meters high, which is still enormously large, but not extreme. There's something called the Klein Matterhorn Cable Car, which takes people thousands of feet up, and from there they only have to climb a few hundred meters, which makes it good for beginners because they'll get used to the final stretch and the rewarding view without the longer, harder climb.

7 Mount Adams, United States

This very famous mountain located in Washington State in the US is the steadfast height of 3743 meters, which isn't huge by any means, but it's challenging enough to be a good baby step towards those really tough mountains to come in a serious mountain climbing career. The moderate ascend on the slope of this mountain is a great spot to practice with some climbing equipment like crampons and ice axes without being in much danger, and again it's preparing for later, harder mountains.

8 Grays Peak, United States

This fairly famous mountain located in the Rocky Mountains. It's only the tenth highest one of the entire famous mountain range, but it's still really prominent in the range, literally 4352 meters high, which is almost half the height of the highest mountain in the entire world. It's an extremely good mountain for hiking, you can get taken to a spot where you only have to hike up 900 meters (in height, way more in distance), which will still take ages but it's still not impossible and it'll be a fun way to get used to mountaineering.

9 Mount Kenya, Kenya

This mountain is extremely high, actually. The famous mountain in Kenya, named after its country, is 5199 meters high, which is pretty overwhelming at a first glance, but it's actually not a super bad one. Like some of the other giants on the list, this mountain is a not extremely hard, but it's very high, and mountain climber beginners would want to check it or similarly high mountains because on them, you can get used to the extremely high altitude that you'll need to get used to for harder mountains, but with a less difficult climb itself.

10 Tofana di Rozes, Italy

This Italian mountain is 3225 meters high, which is very high, but it's a beautiful mountain that will be good for beginners, with a challenging climb that'll determine whether you have what it takes to be a mountain climber and whether it's the passion for you, but not extremely hard, and an enjoyable one all the way through that's luring, and it may be the mountain that will get you in to mountaineering some day, who knows?

The Contenders
11 Pico de Orizaba, Mexico
12 Snowdon, Wales
13 Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
14 Mount Whitney, United States
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