From Alaska's glacier-wrapped giants to Mexico's snow-capped volcanoes, North America's tallest peaks span three countries — ranked here by elevation above sea level.
Pictured: Denali in Alaska, #1 at 6,190 m.
| Rank | Mountain | Elevation | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denali | 6,190 m | United States |
| 2 | Mount Logan | 5,959 m | Canada |
| 3 | Pico de Orizaba | 5,636 m | Mexico |
| 4 | Mount Saint Elias | 5,489 m | United States |
| 5 | Popocatépetl | 5,426 m | Mexico |
| 6 | Mount Foraker | 5,304 m | United States |
| 7 | Iztaccíhuatl | 5,230 m | Mexico |
| 8 | Mount Lucania | 5,226 m | Canada |
| 9 | King Peak | 5,173 m | Canada |
| 10 | Mount Steele | 5,073 m | Canada |
| 11 | Mount Bona | 5,044 m | United States |
| 12 | Mount Blackburn | 4,996 m | United States |
No matching rows.
Denali's sea-level elevation is modest next to the Himalayan giants, but its base-to-summit rise is roughly 5,500 m — among the largest of any mountain on Earth, since it climbs almost straight up from a low-lying plain rather than an already-elevated plateau. It carried the official name Mount McKinley for over a century until 2015, when the U.S. government restored the traditional Koyukon Athabascan name Denali, meaning roughly "the tall one."[1]
Canada's highest peak sits inside the largest non-polar icefield on Earth, and its summit plateau is so vast that some routes involve kilometres of walking after the technical climbing is done. Its first ascent, in 1925, took a six-person team led by Albert MacCarthy 65 days round-trip and is often ranked among the most grueling mountaineering feats ever completed in North America.[2]
Mexico's highest point and the tallest volcano in North America, Orizaba (also called Citlaltépetl) is dormant but not extinct, and its snow-capped cone is visible from the Gulf of Mexico coast on clear days. Its Nahuatl name, Citlaltépetl, means "Star Mountain," a reference to how the snow-covered summit stays visible for hundreds of kilometres in every direction.[3]
Straddling the Alaska–Yukon border, Saint Elias rises almost directly from the Gulf of Alaska coastline to its summit, giving it one of the greatest base-to-peak vertical rises of any mountain anywhere. It was first climbed in 1897 by Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, whose Italian expedition — then believed to be tackling the tallest peak in North America — included the noted mountain photographer Vittorio Sella.[4]
One of the most active volcanoes in North America, "Popo" regularly sends ash plumes into the sky visible from Mexico City some 70 km away, and is closely monitored for eruptions. Its name is Nahuatl for "Smoking Mountain," and the volcano lived up to it in December 1994, when it roared back to life after nearly 70 years of quiet and entered an eruptive phase that continues today.[5]
Rising immediately southwest of Denali inside Denali National Park, Foraker is known to the Koyukon Athabascan people as "Sultana," meaning roughly "the woman" or "Denali's wife," reflecting its position beside its much taller neighbor. It wasn't climbed until 1934, when Charles Houston — who later led pioneering American expeditions to K2 and became a leading authority on altitude sickness — reached its higher south peak with two companions after an eight-week expedition.[6]
A dormant volcano whose name means "White Woman" in Nahuatl, Iztaccíhuatl's snow-capped summits form a silhouette resembling a sleeping woman when viewed from Mexico City, and Aztec legend paired her with the neighboring volcano Popocatépetl. Its four summits are individually named La Cabeza, El Pecho, Las Rodillas, and Los Pies — the head, chest, knees, and feet — for the parts of the sleeping woman they're each said to represent.[7]
One of the most remote peaks in North America, deep in Yukon's Saint Elias Mountains; its 1937 first-ascent team, led by Bradford Washburn and Robert Bates, had to hike more than 100 miles out through the wilderness after their pickup plane couldn't land on the melting glacier. The mountain was itself named in 1897 by the Duke of the Abruzzi, who christened it from the summit of nearby Mount Saint Elias after the RMS Lucania, the ocean liner that had carried his expedition from Liverpool to New York.[8]
Tucked deep within the Icefield Ranges of Yukon's Kluane National Park alongside Mount Logan, King Peak sits in one of the largest non-polar icefields on Earth and is rarely climbed given its remoteness. It wasn't climbed until 1952, when four University of Alaska students hauled air-dropped supplies to the base of Quartz Ridge and pushed through a storm to reach the summit.[9]
Named for Sam Steele, the legendary North-West Mounted Police officer, Mount Steele rises within the same remote Icefield Ranges as King Peak and Mount Lucania, deep in Kluane National Park's glaciated interior. Its first ascent came in August 1935, when a team led by Walter Wood — there to conduct an early aerial survey of the region — waited out a five-day storm before finally reaching the top via the east ridge.[10]