Highest Peak by Continent

Data

Source: Wikipedia — Seven Summits. Europe's highest point uses Mount Elbrus (Caucasus definition).

Note: What You Should Know About the Highest Peak on Each Continent

Every continent on Earth has one summit that rises above all the rest. Together, these seven giants form a famous mountaineering bucket list known as the Seven Summits — the climbing challenge of reaching the highest point on each of the seven continents. Here is the lineup, roughly tallest to shortest, matching the heights in the chart and table above.

The Seven Summits — one peak per continent

• Asia — Mount Everest (8,849 m / 29,032 ft): The highest mountain in the world, straddling the border between Nepal and China in the Himalayas. First summited by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
• South America — Aconcagua (6,961 m / 22,838 ft): The "sentinel of stone" in Argentina, the highest peak outside Asia and the tallest mountain in the Western Hemisphere. First climbed in 1897.
• North America — Denali (6,190 m / 20,310 ft): Known as "The Great One" in the Alaska Range, and the tallest mountain in North America from base to summit. First summited in 1913.
• Africa — Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m / 19,341 ft): A free-standing volcanic giant in Tanzania and the highest mountain in Africa, famous as a walk-up climb. Its first verified ascent was in 1889.
• Europe — Mount Elbrus (5,642 m / 18,510 ft): A dormant volcano in Russia's Caucasus mountains, and the tallest peak in Europe if you use the traditional Caucasus boundary. First climbed in 1874.
• Antarctica — Vinson Massif (4,892 m / 16,050 ft): The highest point on the coldest continent, located in the remote Ellsworth Mountains and first climbed in 1966.
• Oceania — Puncak Jaya (4,884 m / 16,024 ft): Also called Carstensz Pyramid, on the Indonesian island of New Guinea — the highest peak in Oceania on this chart. First climbed in 1962.

A note about Oceania — two ways to count it

The "seventh summit" is the trickiest one. If you define Oceania as spanning Australia and the islands of the Pacific, the highest peak is Puncak Jaya on the island of New Guinea, as shown in the table above. But if you count only mainland Australia, the highest point is the much smaller Mount Kosciuszko (2,228 m / 7,310 ft). That is why some climbers chase all eight peaks — to "complete" the Seven Summits under both definitions. For this page we go with Puncak Jaya, the stricter "high point" definition.

Climbing context and difficulty

• Easiest: Kilimanjaro is the least technical — many people walk up it without ropes or ice gear, though altitude is the real challenge.
• Most technical: Puncak Jaya involves real rock climbing and jungle access; Denali and Everest demand serious cold-weather and expedition skills.
• Weather danger: Denali is bitterly cold and stormy; Everest is crowded and sits in the jet-stream-threatened "death zone" above 8,000 m.
• The death zone: Above roughly 8,000 m, there is so little oxygen that most bodies can't recover — a big reason Everest always carries risk.
• Acclimatization matters: Slow, staged climbs help your body adjust to thin air and dramatically reduce the chance of altitude sickness.
• Guides and permits: Most Seven Summits peak fee-for-permit climbs, and many expeditions use local Sherpa and mountain guides for safety.
• Duration: Each climb is typically a multi-week expedition, from about a week on Kilimanjaro to two months on Everest.

Fun facts

• Everest's summit grows a few millimetres taller every year because the tectonic plates pushing up the Himalayas are still colliding.
• Denali has the greatest vertical relief of any mountain on Earth — from its base it rises roughly 5,500 m (around 18,000 ft).
• Aconcagua is the highest mountain whose name has a single root: the Andes' highest rocky pyramid has no permanent snowcap in summer.
• Elbrus is a volcano, with two summits; the western (higher) crater is the one counted here.
• Vinson Massif sits so close to the South Pole that the sun doesn't set in its short climbing season.
• Kilimanjaro is so famous as a "standalone" volcano that climbers can go from tropical rainforest to glacial summit in one trek.
• Only a few thousand people have completed the full Seven Summits since the challenge became popular in the 1980s, when Dick Bass popularized it.

Similarly to the table, figures use the commonly cited elevation for each summit. Different surveys occasionally list slightly different numbers, but the order stays the same: Everest towers above the rest.