The Fourteen
Every mountain on Earth higher than 8,000 metres, modelled from satellite elevation data and set side by side, highest to lowest, on one 1.5 metre counter.
Fourteen summits above the death zone
Above about 8,000 metres the air holds roughly a third of the oxygen at sea level. The body cannot acclimatise there; it can only survive for a limited time. Only fourteen mountains reach that high, all in Asia's two great ranges.
One cell for each mountain
- Fourteen equal cells, 108.9 mm wide, highest on the left.
- Each cell is real terrain from the Copernicus 30 m elevation model, at 1:100,000 across about 11 km.
- Heights are in true proportion, lifted ×1.5 so the relief reads at counter distance.
- Every mountain is turned so the side climbers usually approach from faces you.
- The gold line is an indicative route traced over the real terrain. It is not a navigation track.
The fourteen, compared
| No. | Mountain | Height | First climbed | Line shown | Climb from base |
|---|
Heights in metres; bars start at 7,900 m. "Line shown" and "climb from base" refer to the indicative lines on this page, not official route lengths. Select a row to fly back to that mountain.
All fourteen on one counter
- Footprint
- 1524 × 500 mm, one continuous solid
- Height
- Everest 132.7 mm above a 10 mm charcoal base
- Scale
- 1:100,000 across, heights ×1.5
- Terrain
- Copernicus WorldDEM-30, 30 m resolution
- Fabrication
- 21 printable sections with dowel alignment
Exhibition composite: each cell is real terrain around its summit; the cells sit side by side and are not geographically adjacent. Route lines are indicative paths computed over the terrain, not surveyed tracks. Ascent dates from published mountaineering records.
Produced using Copernicus WorldDEM-30 © DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018 provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA; all rights reserved.