Standing at 1,675 m, Mount Thor may not be as impressive compared to other mountains in Canada. However, if you see how this height is reached, people will be amazed and horrified at the same time.
Mount Thor is said to have the world's largest vertical drop. At an altitude of 1,250 m, its cliff face, which is in Auyuittuq National Park, drops straight down.
Jutting an average of 15 degrees from the vertical, Mount Thor represents the longest possible free fall without hitting anything.
Auyuittuq National Park is just one of Canada's many national parks that stand out as almost unexplored wilderness. Located in the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island, this park has it all, from glaciers, fjords and jagged mountains that stand out from the expansive landscape.
Quoted from IFL Science, its name literally means 'a place that never melts'. In general, this designation explains why Auyuittuq National Park is relatively untouched by humans.
Several hiking routes meander heavily through the area, but freezing conditions and extremely poor access make exploring the rest of the park extremely difficult.
But out of all of them, the most interesting feature is Mount Thor. The mountain was 'carved' by thousands of years of glacial erosion, creating a U-shape consistent with other glacial rock formations.
Interestingly, the granite that forms Mount Thor is also one of the oldest rocks in the world, dating back at most 3.5 billion years.
Mount Thor is becoming a popular climbing route for serious mountain climbers. The mountain was first scaled by a team of four in 1985, which took 33 days to climb the intense vertical surface.
Despite the ban on jumping in the area, the free fall area of more than one kilometer still attracts the attention of BASE jumping jumpers. The ban was made because it was so difficult for emergency services to reach the area.
What do you think? Is Mount Thor scary and steep enough?