1 00:00:00,459 --> 00:00:05,310 There are many places that human beings have never been: the vast majority of the ocean 2 00:00:05,310 --> 00:00:10,630 floor, Mars, Jupiter, the expansive void of space, Wyoming, and finally here––the 3 00:00:10,630 --> 00:00:14,290 peak of the highest mountain that’s never been climbed. 4 00:00:14,290 --> 00:00:18,689 Seeing as we made yogurt portable over twenty years ago, it seems like every mountain should’ve 5 00:00:18,689 --> 00:00:19,689 been climbed by now. 6 00:00:19,689 --> 00:00:23,880 But in reality, there are well over a million mountains on Earth, and our history of climbing 7 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:27,649 them for fun only dates back to the French Age of Enlightenment. 8 00:00:27,649 --> 00:00:32,460 Specifically, our turn towards rationality and empirical thinking inspired Swiss geologist 9 00:00:32,460 --> 00:00:36,780 Horace-Bénédict de Saussure to ask the ingenious scientific question, “Hey, can anyone climb 10 00:00:36,780 --> 00:00:38,469 up that big mountain over there without dying?” 11 00:00:38,469 --> 00:00:44,480 It turned out, yes—in 1786, these two strapping gentlemen successfully scaled Mont Blanc, 12 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:48,680 kicking off France’s new sport of mountaineering and reinforcing France’s old sport of sending 13 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:51,870 guys to places that those guys aren’t supposed to be. 14 00:00:51,870 --> 00:00:54,820 Mountaineering has since spread around the globe, and, in recent decades, has become 15 00:00:54,820 --> 00:00:57,129 much more accessible to amateur hobbyists. 16 00:00:57,129 --> 00:01:01,609 But, while Mount Everest might be on the cusp of installing escalators and a Rainforest 17 00:01:01,609 --> 00:01:05,820 Cafe, many other summits remain, well, unsummited. 18 00:01:05,820 --> 00:01:14,259 The highest of these—at 24,840 feet or 7,570 meters—is “Gangkhar Puensum,” known 19 00:01:14,259 --> 00:01:18,070 locally as the “White Peak of the Three Spiritual Brothers,” as it’s where the 20 00:01:18,070 --> 00:01:23,299 Rice Krispies elves achieved a state of enlightenment in accordance with the Vajrayāna scriptures. 21 00:01:23,299 --> 00:01:25,770 Or maybe it’s named after a local Bhutanese legend, I don’t know. 22 00:01:25,770 --> 00:01:30,430 But what’s important about this mountain is its location—part of the Himalayas, Gangkhar 23 00:01:30,430 --> 00:01:34,579 Puensum sits right on the border of Bhutan and this area right here, which I’ve never 24 00:01:34,579 --> 00:01:35,590 heard of. 25 00:01:35,590 --> 00:01:36,590 Is this a country? 26 00:01:36,590 --> 00:01:38,329 Please let me know in the comments if this place is a country. 27 00:01:38,329 --> 00:01:41,759 But whatever you do, don’t get into an argument—that might accidentally boost the engagement metrics 28 00:01:41,759 --> 00:01:42,759 of this video! 29 00:01:42,759 --> 00:01:47,260 Anyway, for many years, Gangkhar Puensum’s location warded off potential climbers with 30 00:01:47,260 --> 00:01:52,310 its sheer obscurity—the mountain wasn’t even officially mapped until 1922, and even 31 00:01:52,310 --> 00:01:56,340 then, its exact location and height were under dispute until it could be photographed with 32 00:01:56,340 --> 00:01:57,500 satellites. 33 00:01:57,500 --> 00:02:01,320 But sure enough, there have been a few attempts throughout history––up to four recorded 34 00:02:01,320 --> 00:02:04,549 climbs in the 1980s, none of which were successful. 35 00:02:04,549 --> 00:02:09,390 But, much like frosted tips, no one has dared attempt it since the 90s—and that’s because, 36 00:02:09,390 --> 00:02:13,240 unfortunately unlike frosting one’s tips, it’s no longer legal. 37 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:18,030 In 1994, Bhutan passed a law prohibiting the climbing of any mountain over 6,000 meters 38 00:02:18,030 --> 00:02:23,310 or 20,000 feet, and has since expanded that restriction to any mountain-climbing whatsoever. 39 00:02:23,310 --> 00:02:28,150 This law was put in place for two main reasons: the first is that Bhutan’s mountain range 40 00:02:28,150 --> 00:02:32,500 is a historically sacred place—it’s long been considered to be the home of holy spirits, 41 00:02:32,500 --> 00:02:36,590 so, naturally, the Bhutanese government didn’t want it to be littered with Nature Valley 42 00:02:36,590 --> 00:02:37,590 wrappers. 43 00:02:37,590 --> 00:02:41,530 The second reason is that unlike Nepal, Bhutan doesn’t really have the infrastructure to 44 00:02:41,530 --> 00:02:44,870 rescue stupid tourists who thought they could scale a 7,000-meter mountain with a backpack 45 00:02:44,870 --> 00:02:46,110 full of Nature Valley bars. 46 00:02:46,110 --> 00:02:51,460 So, basically, until the holy spirits retire to a condo in Daytona Beach, Gangkhar Puensum’s 47 00:02:51,460 --> 00:02:53,200 record isn’t going anywhere. 48 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:57,870 But… it’s not much of a record if you can’t legally break it. 49 00:02:57,870 --> 00:03:01,320 That’s like bragging about holding the record for shot putting a baby the furthest—like, 50 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:02,480 really, three yards? 51 00:03:02,480 --> 00:03:05,060 Plenty of people could break that record, but no one will let me. 52 00:03:05,060 --> 00:03:06,060 I mean, them. 53 00:03:06,060 --> 00:03:09,200 So let’s talk about the highest highest unclimbed peak that you could legally climb. 54 00:03:09,200 --> 00:03:14,470 While there’s some debate about this, it’s generally considered to be Muchu Chhish, a 55 00:03:14,470 --> 00:03:19,930 24,449 foot, 7,452 meter mountain in Northern Pakistan. 56 00:03:19,930 --> 00:03:24,740 The last major attempt was in August of 2020, by a group of Czech mountaineers––much 57 00:03:24,740 --> 00:03:28,480 of the ascent follows narrow ridges, which meant that the group had to go days without 58 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,040 setting up camp or even sitting down. 59 00:03:31,040 --> 00:03:37,150 Above 18,700 feet or 5,700 meters, they began to face persistent ice storms combined with 60 00:03:37,150 --> 00:03:42,470 issues with their altitude acclimatization process, and at about 20,700 feet or 6,300 61 00:03:42,470 --> 00:03:46,590 meters, they all remembered that they could be doing literally anything else, so their 62 00:03:46,590 --> 00:03:48,650 expedition ended there. 63 00:03:48,650 --> 00:03:52,860 But, before you grab your climbing shoes, your climbing hat, and your big jar of climbing 64 00:03:52,860 --> 00:03:57,700 cream, you should be warned: Muchu Chhish’s title is a little shaky. 65 00:03:57,700 --> 00:04:02,690 You see, mountains aren’t all about altitude—their prominence from the surrounding area is a 66 00:04:02,690 --> 00:04:04,629 major factor, too. 67 00:04:04,629 --> 00:04:08,081 While The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation considers anything with a 30 meter 68 00:04:08,081 --> 00:04:13,160 drop to be its own mountain, Muchu Chhish only has 263 meters of prominence from the 69 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:15,180 surrounding Batura chain. 70 00:04:15,180 --> 00:04:18,969 That means that it’s only technically its own mountain, sort of like how Tibet is only 71 00:04:18,969 --> 00:04:22,000 technically part of China, even though everyone knows that it’s… 72 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:23,000 I mean, uh, Tibet? 73 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:24,000 What’s Tibet? 74 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:25,000 I don’t know anything about Tibet. 75 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:26,039 Keep discussing in the comments! 76 00:04:26,039 --> 00:04:30,539 Anyway, the point is, the title of highest unclimbed mountain is actually pretty subjective. 77 00:04:30,539 --> 00:04:34,430 If you’re going by altitude, it’s either Gangkhar Puensum or Muchu Chhish. 78 00:04:34,430 --> 00:04:38,129 If you’re going by prominence, it’s a Chinese mountain called Sauyr Zhotasy. 79 00:04:38,129 --> 00:04:42,360 If you’re going by my completely uneducated and arbitrary opinion, it’s a Tibetan mountain 80 00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:46,860 called Karjiang, which I found on Wikipedia and I think has a nice mix of the two. 81 00:04:46,860 --> 00:04:50,360 But eventually, these peaks will all be climbed, and their records will be handed to smaller 82 00:04:50,360 --> 00:04:52,960 peaks, and this video will be swarmed with people telling me that I’m wrong now, so 83 00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:57,169 maybe the truest unclimbed peak is the friends we made along the way. 84 00:04:57,169 --> 00:04:58,719 Does that make sense? 85 00:04:58,719 --> 00:04:59,719 No. 86 00:04:59,719 --> 00:05:01,789 But a lot of things in this crazy world don’t make sense. 87 00:05:01,789 --> 00:05:05,889 Like, for example, why do we store our most valuable passwords and login information in 88 00:05:05,889 --> 00:05:08,330 the forgetful, fallible meat-prison on top of our bodies? 89 00:05:08,330 --> 00:05:09,330 It’s ridiculous. 90 00:05:09,330 --> 00:05:13,169 We’re forced to use the same, predictable passwords over and over again, and simple 91 00:05:13,169 --> 00:05:16,990 log-ins are still a chore; you’ve gotta remember which passwords you used for which 92 00:05:16,990 --> 00:05:20,949 websites, and then you’ve gotta actually type them out, like it’s 1989 or something! 93 00:05:20,949 --> 00:05:25,360 But let me let you in on a little secret: you don’t have to do any of that, because 94 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:29,120 it’s the future, and in the future we have something called Dashlane. 95 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:32,749 Dashlane is a mobile and desktop app that lets you sync your information across all 96 00:05:32,749 --> 00:05:36,300 of your devices—passwords, addresses, payment information, everything. 97 00:05:36,300 --> 00:05:41,159 Then, you can fill out internet forms in a single, easy click; no need to remember passwords 98 00:05:41,159 --> 00:05:43,630 or dig through your wallet for a credit card. 99 00:05:43,630 --> 00:05:48,039 And better yet, Dashlane keeps all of your information incredibly secure, and even sends 100 00:05:48,039 --> 00:05:51,479 you personalized security alerts in the event of a data breach. 101 00:05:51,479 --> 00:05:55,660 To start using the internet more efficiently and securely, I would recommend joining the 102 00:05:55,660 --> 00:06:01,840 11 million other Dashlane users for a super low monthly fee, and get 10% off by signing 103 00:06:01,840 --> 00:06:03,740 up at dashlane.com/hai.