Eleven of the world's great summits — from Everest's US$15,000 permit and Kilimanjaro's guided-only trek to Mont Blanc's reservation-controlled Goûter route and Mount Whitney's February lottery — with the permits, fees, quotas and season windows each one enforces in 2026, altitude-honest do's and don'ts, and trailheads, huts and summits plotted with approximate GPS coordinates.
11 destinations · rules and fees last verified 2026-08-15
Coordinates are approximate reference points (WGS84) for planning and orientation — never navigation data. Mountains demand current conditions, proper equipment and honest self-assessment; hire licensed guides where required and check official sources before you commit. Permit rules, fees and season dates change often; confirm on the pages linked under each peak.
Africa
Kilimanjaro Tanzania
The biggest free-standing mountain on Earth: five climate zones from rainforest to summit ice, no ropes required, and a midnight summit push to watch dawn from the crater rim.
SummitUhuru Peak, 5,895 m — Africa's highest
PermitsLicensed operator mandatory — no independent climbs
Park fees≈US$70/day conservation + US$50–60/night + US$20 rescue (≈US$970 for 7 days incl. VAT)
SeasonsJan–Mar & Jun–Oct (dry windows)
DifficultyNon-technical trek — altitude is the opponent
Permits & booking: Kilimanjaro is guided-only by park regulation: every climber must be booked through a licensed Tanzanian operator, and rangers register you at the gate. The park fees are fixed and unavoidable — roughly US$70 per day conservation, US$50–60 per night for camps or the Marangu huts, plus a US$20 rescue fee, all subject to 18% VAT. A typical 7-day route carries close to US$1,000 in park fees before the operator's costs, which is why ultra-cheap climbs cut exactly the things you want intact: crew welfare, food and acclimatization days. Book 2–6 months ahead for the dry seasons; full-moon summit nights sell first. Choose the 7–8 day versions of Machame, Lemosho or the Northern Circuit over anything shorter — summit success tracks acclimatization days almost linearly.
✓ Do
Take the 7+ day itineraries — the extra acclimatization night is the single best predictor of reaching Uhuru Peak.
Check your operator holds a current KINAPA licence and treats porters to KPAP standards — ask for the evidence, good ones volunteer it.
Train with long back-to-back hiking days, not gym intensity — summit night is 10–14 hours on 40% less oxygen.
Carry your passport to the gate — registration checks it against the permit.
✕ Don't
Don't book 5-day climbs to save money — they have the worst summit rates and the most altitude evacuations.
Don't ignore mild altitude symptoms above Barafu — pushing through worsening AMS is how emergencies start.
Don't tip-shame the crew budget: porters carry your camp; the customary tips are part of the real price.
Don't expect solitude in February or September — Machame's camps run full; pick Lemosho or the Northern Circuit for quieter nights.
The High Atlas headliner: mule trails through walnut villages, a stone refuge under a wall of scree, and a summit pyramid with the Sahara's haze on one horizon and (on the clearest days) the Atlantic's on the other.
Summit4,167 m — North Africa's highest
GuideCertified local guide mandatory (rule since 2018) — checkpoint enforced
BaseImlil village (1,740 m), 90 min from Marrakech
RefugesLes Mouflons & CAF Toubkal at ≈3,200 m
SeasonsApr–Oct trekking · Dec–Mar a crampon winter climb
Permits & booking: Since 2018 Toubkal is guided-only: a gendarmerie checkpoint above Imlil records every trekker and their certified guide, and unaccompanied hikers are turned back before the refuge. It's enforcement with a purpose — the rule professionalized the valley — and in practice the guide is the easy part: Imlil runs on trekking, and any refuge booking comes with one attached. Two days is the standard: Imlil to the refuge (≈5 h), summit at dawn, out by afternoon. Book refuge + guide together, a week ahead in spring and autumn, further out for holiday weeks. Winter ascents need crampons, ice axe and a guide who owns the word 'no'.
✓ Do
Carry your passport — the Imlil checkpoint records documents for every trekker heading up.
Summit at first light — the scree freezes firm overnight and the valley wind arrives with the afternoon.
Acclimatize with the Tizi n'Tamatert or azzaden valley loop first if you've come straight from sea-level Marrakech.
Agree the guide fee, mule and meals in writing before leaving Imlil — clarity is kindness in both directions.
✕ Don't
Don't attempt to slip past the checkpoint without a guide — it's a legal requirement, not a suggestion.
Don't underestimate winter Toubkal — the same slopes that are a walk in July avalanche in February.
Don't drink untreated stream water below the villages — treat everything under 3,000 m.
Don't leave Imlil after midday for the refuge — dusk in the gorge with mules descending is chaos.
A flat-topped icon rising straight out of a city: fynbos found nowhere else on Earth, dassies sunning on the rim, and the Atlantic curling around Lion's Head a kilometre below your boots.
SummitMaclear's Beacon, 1,086 m above Cape Town
PermitsNone for day walks — cableway tickets optional for the ride
Classic routePlatteklip Gorge: ≈700 m of stone steps, 2–3 h up
HazardThe 'tablecloth' — cloud that swallows the plateau in minutes
SafetyHike in groups on quieter paths; check SANParks advisories
Permits & booking: The most accessible summit on this list: no permit, no quota, just a choice between the cableway and your legs. Platteklip Gorge is the honest direct line — a stone staircase up the mountain's front face — and the cableway makes a one-way ticket the great equalizer for knees. The rules that matter are safety ones: the tablecloth cloud can erase visibility in minutes, the sandstone ledges drop far, and SANParks advises groups on the quieter routes. Nothing to book for the hike; buy cableway tickets online to skip the queue and check the wind status first — the cars stop running when the southeaster blows, which is exactly when you don't want to be committed to descending on foot in cloud.
✓ Do
Start Platteklip by 8 am in summer — the gorge is a windless heat trap by noon.
Check the cableway's live status before summiting if you plan to ride down — wind closures strand walkers daily.
Walk the plateau to Maclear's Beacon — the true summit is 35 minutes from the upper cable station and most visitors miss it.
Carry more water than a city hike suggests — two litres each on Platteklip is the local rule.
✕ Don't
Don't descend unfamiliar ravines when the tablecloth drops — wait it out or use the cableway; India Venster claims the impatient.
Don't hike the quiet routes alone with valuables visible — do it the local way: groups, daylight, and check current SANParks advice.
Don't trust the city's weather at the top — the plateau makes its own, 10 °C colder with wind.
Don't feed the dassies — cute, yes; also the reason the rim has biting-rodent signs.
The alpinist's classic first 4,000er-plus: cog railway to Nid d'Aigle, scramble to the refuges, then a crampon ridge at dawn with the whole of the Alps below.
Summit4,806 m — Western Europe's highest
ReservationHut booking MANDATORY on the Goûter route — proof checked on the mountain
Huts 2026Tête Rousse open 29 May–3 Oct · Goûter 30 May–4 Oct
SeasonJune–September; July–August peak
DifficultyReal alpinism — crampons, rope, glacier and rockfall judgement
Permits & booking: France doesn't sell a summit permit — it regulates the beds. On the normal (Goûter) route a valid reservation at the Tête Rousse or Goûter refuge is compulsory under prefectural rules, and checks happen on the route: no booking, no climb. The infamous Grand Couloir rockfall crossing is the route's serious hazard — a guide and client were killed there in July 2026 at 2:30 in the morning, a blunt reminder that no clock time makes it safe; current conditions decide, and in heatwaves the authorities have closed the route outright. Refuge reservations open in spring and the July–August weekends vanish within days — book the moment dates firm up, under your own name (transferred bookings are refused). Going guided? Chamonix and Saint-Gervais bureaux book the huts with the engagement.
✓ Do
Acclimatize on 3,000–4,000 m peaks the week before — summit day fails more often to altitude than to weather.
Cross the Grand Couloir on current advice, moving fast and spaced out — ask the hut guardians the evening before.
Carry proof of your hut reservation — patrols do ask, and bivouacking to dodge the rule earns fines.
Check La Chamoniarde / OHM conditions bulletins the week of your climb — the route changes character fast in heat.
✕ Don't
Don't climb without rockfall-honest judgement in the couloir — the 2026 accident happened at night, in 'safe' hours.
Don't buy someone else's hut booking — name checks void it and your climb with it.
Don't treat the cog railway timetable casually — miss the last Nid d'Aigle descent and you're walking to Les Houches.
Don't confuse the Goûter route with a trek — self-arrest, crevasse awareness and rope work are entry requirements.
The reference entry: almost nobody reading this page will climb Everest, but everyone deserves the real numbers behind the headlines — and the trek to its Base Camp is one of the world's great achievable walks.
Summit8,849 m — the highest point on Earth
Permit 2026US$15,000 spring · US$7,500 autumn · US$3,750 winter/monsoon (south side — raised 1 Sep 2025, first rise since 2015)
GuidesMandatory — at least one guide per two climbers on any 8,000 m peak
SeasonSpring (Mar–May) expeditions of ~6–9 weeks, summit window typically mid-May
Rule watchPending bill: a prior 7,000 m Nepali summit required — passed the National Assembly 14 Feb 2026, not yet law
Permits & booking: Everest's south side runs on a royalty system revised on 1 September 2025 — the first rise since 2015: US$15,000 per climber for the spring normal route, US$7,500 in autumn and US$3,750 in winter or monsoon, on top of liaison and garbage fees with a refundable waste deposit. At least one guide per two climbers is now mandatory on every 8,000 m peak. A further Integrated Tourism Bill — passed by the National Assembly on 14 February 2026 but not yet law — would require every Everest candidate to have summited a 7,000 m Nepali peak first, carry health certificates, and declare route and climbing style in advance. Serious operators fill spring rosters a year or more ahead, and the permit is issued through your expedition agency — there is no walk-up. If your real goal is to stand in the Khumbu amphitheatre, book the Everest Base Camp trek instead: teahouse-supported, no lottery, and covered stage-by-stage in our hiking guide.
✓ Do
Treat Base Camp as the destination unless you are an experienced high-altitude mountaineer — the EBC trek delivers the amphitheatre without the death zone.
Vet operators on guide-to-client ratio, oxygen logistics and weather-window policy — the US$15,000 permit is the cheapest line on a US$45,000–100,000+ bill.
Build a record on progressively higher peaks first — the pending Nepali rules would formalize what good operators already demand.
Walk up Kala Patthar (5,644 m) for the classic summit panorama — Base Camp itself cannot see the top.
✕ Don't
Don't chase the cheaper autumn and winter royalties — fixed ropes, icefall doctors and weather all assume spring; the discounts exist mostly on paper.
Don't skip the Khumbu acclimatization ladder (Namche and Dingboche rest days) — altitude sickness ends more climbs than weather.
Don't plan an undeclared no-oxygen or speed attempt — route and style must now be stated up front.
Don't treat the north side as a loophole — Tibet runs its own permit regime through the CTMA with different rules and costs.
The world's most-climbed serious mountain: a perfect volcanic cone, a night in a hut at 3,000 m, and goraikō — sunrise from the crater rim — with a sea of clouds below.
Fee¥4,000 per climber, all trails — online reservation before you go
Daily cap4,000 climbers/day on the Yoshida trail
Gate hoursTrailheads closed 2 pm–3 am except hut guests — no more 'bullet climbing'
Permits & booking: Fuji formalized its rules after the overtourism years: every climber on every trail now pays a ¥4,000 fee with online reservation and payment ahead of time, the Yoshida trail caps at 4,000 climbers a day, and the gates physically close from 2 pm to 3 am to anyone without a hut booking — the all-night 'bullet climb' from the base is over. Outside the official season the trails are formally closed and rescue becomes your problem. Reserve the fee slot online before travelling, and book a mountain hut months ahead for weekends and Obon week — the huts are what unlock a sane two-day climb with a sunrise summit. Weekdays early in July are the quiet window.
✓ Do
Book hut + fee reservation together the day your dates firm up — Yoshida weekends genuinely sell out.
Climb the Yoshida trail for first-timer infrastructure, Fujinomiya for the shortest route, Gotemba only if you want emptiness and a big descent run.
Bring layers for 0–5 °C at the crater even in August — the temperature drop from the 5th station is brutal.
Walk the crater rim (o-hachi-meguri) to Kengamine — the true highest point is a 90-minute loop most climbers skip.
✕ Don't
Don't attempt the closed season — huts shut, weather turns alpine, and authorities treat off-season rescues severely.
Don't 'bullet climb' overnight without a hut — the gates now enforce what common sense didn't.
Don't rely on card payments on the mountain — huts and vending run on cash.
Don't skip the reservation because a trail 'looked open' — checks happen at the 5th-station gates.
A granite monolith above Bornean cloud forest: via ferrata cables, pitcher plants, and a pre-dawn scramble on bare rock slabs to watch sunrise light the South China Sea.
Itinerary2 days via Timpohon → Panalaban (Laban Rata), summit before dawn
Cut-offSayat-Sayat checkpoint closes ≈5 am for summit attempts
Permits & booking: Sabah Parks issues only about 163 climbing permits a day, every one tied to a bed at Panalaban (Laban Rata) and a registered mountain guide — one guide per five adult climbers is the law of the hill. The permit-plus-bed bundle is why Kinabalu books like a hotel, not a hike: when Panalaban is full, the mountain is full. Book the 2-day package months ahead — the annual release sells the school-holiday and weekend dates almost immediately. International climbers should expect a bundled price in the hundreds of dollars; day-climbs are no longer offered.
✓ Do
Reach Sayat-Sayat before the ~5 am cut-off — miss it and the guides turn you around regardless of how close the summit looks.
Train stairs specifically: the trail climbs ~1,400 m of steps to Panalaban and your knees pay on the way down.
Book Kinabalu Park accommodation the night before — the 7 am start from Timpohon Gate is protected sleep.
Consider the world's highest via ferrata from Panalaban if you have alpine appetite — it books with the same bed.
✕ Don't
Don't attempt it as a day climb — the quota system requires the overnight, full stop.
Don't ignore AMS signs at Panalaban (3,272 m) — descending a night early is routine, being carried down is not.
Don't expect shelter above Sayat-Sayat — the summit slabs are exposed granite; storms end summit bids instantly.
Don't leave booking to arrival in Kota Kinabalu — walk-up permits effectively don't exist.
The Sierra Nevada's giant: 99 switchbacks, Trail Crest at 4,100 m, and a summit plateau with a stone hut and a view across two national parks — most attempt it in a single savage day.
Summit4,421 m — highest in the contiguous US
Lottery 2026Apply 1 Feb–1 Mar · results 15 Mar · leftovers 22 Apr
Quota season1 May–1 Nov: ≈100 day + 60 overnight permits/day
FeesUS$6 per application + US$15 per person
RouteMount Whitney Trail: 35 km round trip, 1,900 m gain — brutal as a day hike
Permits & booking: Whitney runs on recreation.gov: a February lottery (US$6 to enter, US$15 a head if you win) allocates the May–November quota season of roughly 100 day-use and 60 overnight permits per day; unclaimed dates release in late April on a first-come scramble. Permits are required year-round — outside quota season the caps vanish but the mountain turns into a snow climb. Enter the lottery with flexible mid-week dates in July–September for the best odds, and set an alarm for the leftover release. No luck? The Cottonwood Lakes approach or a winter-skills ascent are the honest alternatives — not permit dodging.
✓ Do
Start day hikes by 3 am — the 35 km round trip regularly takes 12–16 hours and afternoon storms own the ridge.
Acclimatize at altitude the days before — sleeping in Lone Pine (1,140 m) the night before is how AMS finds you at Trail Camp.
Carry the required bear canister on overnights and pack out waste — rangers check both at Whitney Portal.
Print or screenshot your permit — reception dies at the Portal and rangers check above Lone Pine Lake.
✕ Don't
Don't count summit chances on a first-ever altitude day — Trail Crest turns back more hikers than the distance does.
Don't attempt the Mountaineer's Route without genuine snow skills — it is a climb, not a trail.
Don't stash food in cars at the Portal overnight — the bears there are professionals.
Don't ignore the storm forecast because the morning is blue — Whitney's afternoon lightning is a pattern, not luck.
The Andes' giant and the highest thing on Earth outside the Himalaya-Karakoram: a brown colossus where the challenge is not rock but thin air, viento blanco winds and three weeks of patience.
Summit6,961 m — highest outside Asia
Season1 Nov–30 Apr (permits only in season)
Permit 2025/26≈US$1,170 via licensed local service · ≈US$1,640 independent (Normal Route ascent)
Duration≈18–20 days with acclimatization rotations
DifficultyNon-technical by the Normal Route — extreme altitude, cold and wind
Permits & booking: Mendoza province sells the climb: an ascent permit for the Normal (Horcones) route costs about US$1,640 independent or US$1,170 when arranged through a licensed local service for the 2025/26 season — the province deliberately prices solo bureaucracy higher. Permits exist only inside the November–April season, are checked at the Horcones gate and at Plaza de Mulas, and come with mandatory waste rules right down to numbered toilet bags. Count three weeks door to door and book mule support to Plaza de Mulas with an Mendoza outfitter — carrying triple loads to 4,300 m is how climbs end early. December–January holds the kindest weather window.
✓ Do
Build the classic rotation — carry high, sleep low, rest at Plaza de Mulas — the summit is won at the acclimatization camps.
Budget for mules and a base-camp service — energy saved below 4,300 m is summit fuel above 6,000 m.
Watch the viento blanco forecast religiously — wind, not snowfall, closes the upper mountain.
Carry the permit and passport to every checkpoint — rangers check at Horcones and again at base camp.
✕ Don't
Don't treat 'non-technical' as 'easy' — Aconcagua's summit rate hovers near 60% and altitude is the entire reason.
Don't skip the Independencia-to-summit weather margin — the Canaleta at 6,700 m is no place to discover a storm.
Don't dodge the waste rules — rangers fine and expel for it, and the mountain shows why they exist.
Don't book flights tight to your last possible summit day — weather windows decide this mountain, not itineraries.
The roof of Britain above Fort William: a relentless zigzag track, a plateau of shattered stone, ruins of a Victorian observatory — and, in clear air, views from Ireland to the Cairngorms.
Summit1,345 m — Britain's highest
PermitsNone — free access under Scottish outdoor access rights
RouteMountain Track from Glen Nevis: 17 km round trip, ≈1,320 m gain
Grid refSummit trig at OS grid NN 166 712
HazardSummit plateau navigation — gullies flank the safe bearing lines
Permits & booking: No permit, no fee, no quota — Scotland's access rights make the Ben free to anyone. What regulates this mountain is weather: the summit plateau spends two days in three in cloud, holds snow into early summer, and its safe descent depends on two compass bearings walked precisely, because Gardyloo and Five Finger gullies eat the careless on both sides of the path. Nothing to book but parking — the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre car park fills by mid-morning in summer. Fort William has beds, buses and the West Highland Line.
✓ Do
Carry map and compass and know the two summit bearings (grid 231° then 281° from the trig) — phone GPS dies in Scottish rain.
Check MWIS or the Met Office mountain forecast the morning of — the summit is routinely 10 °C colder with triple the wind.
Use our OS grid tool with the summit reference NN 166 712 to practise before you go — Scottish rescue works in grid references.
Start early enough to be off the plateau by mid-afternoon; 7–9 hours round trip is normal, not slow.
✕ Don't
Don't follow strangers' footprints on the plateau in mist — snow cornices over Gardyloo Gully have killed on the 'shortcut'.
Don't judge conditions by Fort William's weather — sea level and 1,345 m are different countries.
Don't treat the Mountain Track's name change ('Tourist Path') as a difficulty rating — it is a serious mountain day.
Don't rely on the CIC hut or observatory ruins for refuge — neither is an open shelter.
Wales' great horseshoe: six classic paths, a lake-filled cwm ringed by ridges, and — uniquely for a mountain this wild-feeling — a train and café at the top.
Summit1,085 m — highest in Wales
PermitsNone — but Pen-y-Pass parking must be pre-booked
AccessSherpa'r Wyddfa buses link all trailheads — park once, ride the loop
RailwayMountain railway + summit café from Llanberis (seasonal)
Permits & booking: Climbing Yr Wyddfa is free; parking is the permit. Pen-y-Pass — the trailhead for the Pyg and Miners' tracks — is pre-book-only and sells out days ahead in season, and the Eryri (Snowdonia) park runs Sherpa'r Wyddfa buses precisely so you park in the valleys and ride to any trailhead. The mountain's other regulation is gravity: Crib Goch, the knife-edge alternative start, is a genuine scramble that claims casualties from hikers who took a wrong 'path'. Book Pen-y-Pass parking online the week before, or park in Llanberis/Nant Peris and use the buses. The summit railway books out in school holidays; walking up and riding down needs standby luck.
✓ Do
Go up the Pyg Track and down the Miners' for the classic circuit — the lake-shore finish is the best mile in Wales.
Check the Met Office Yr Wyddfa summit forecast, not the village one — cloud sits on the top 200 days a year.
Use the Sherpa'r Wyddfa bus loop to link different up/down routes — it beats two cars and parking roulette.
Carry layers even on blue days — the summit ridge funnels wind that the cwm never hints at.
✕ Don't
Don't drift onto Crib Goch by accident — if the path becomes a rock ridge with drops both sides, you've left the Pyg Track.
Don't park on the Llanberis Pass verges — fines and towing are enforced, and the buses exist for a reason.
Don't count on the summit café for rescue-level shelter — it closes with the railway.
Don't underestimate the Watkin path descent in wet weather — its upper scree is the range's ankle-breaker.
Spotted an outdated permit rule, a wrong coordinate, or a peak we should add? Tell us below — every note is read by a human, and verified fixes are credited in the reader updates above.
The permit is the summit plan
Every peak above regulates access differently, and the mechanism dictates your calendar. Mount Whitney is a February lottery — miss the 1 February–1 March window and you're refreshing the late-April leftovers. Kinabalu is a bed quota: about 163 permits a day, each welded to a bunk at Panalaban, so the hut booking is the permit. Mont Blanc's Goûter route made the hut reservation itself compulsory, with checks on the mountain. Kilimanjaro and Toubkal are guided-only by law — the operator booking is the paperwork. Fuji now takes a ¥4,000 fee with advance reservation and locks its gates overnight to non-hut guests. Aconcagua sells seasonal ascent permits (November–April) priced to favour licensed local services. And Britain's big two are free — there the scarce resource is a parking space at Pen-y-Pass or Glen Nevis.
The pattern to exploit: identify the bottleneck, book it first, and only then buy flights. All figures above were last verified in August 2026 — these rules move nearly every season, which is why each peak links its official source.
Altitude: the honest arithmetic
Above roughly 2,500 m, everyone acclimatizes or suffers — fitness buys speed, not immunity. The peaks here span three very different bands. Under 1,500 m (Ben Nevis, Yr Wyddfa, Table Mountain) altitude is irrelevant and weather is everything. The 3,700–4,500 m band (Fuji, Kinabalu, Toubkal, Whitney, Mont Blanc) is where summit-day headaches, nausea and turn-arounds live — the fix is a night high (Fuji's huts, Panalaban, the Toubkal refuge) and an honest pace. Kilimanjaro's 5,895 m and Aconcagua's 6,961 m are expedition altitude: success tracks days spent, not training logs, which is why 7–8 day Kilimanjaro routes massively outperform 5-day ones and Aconcagua consumes three weeks.
The rule that keeps people alive is boring: symptoms that worsen at rest mean descend, now, with company. Check your elevation anywhere with our elevation tool, and read the mountain-specific do's above — every one of those lines earned its place.
Navigation and emergencies on big hills
Phone GPS works surprisingly high — but batteries, cold and cloud don't care. On British hills, rescue teams work in OS grid references: practise reading one before you need it (Ben Nevis' summit trig sits at NN 166 712), and see our guide to grid references for mountain rescue. Elsewhere, rescue wants plain latitude and longitude — exactly what our emergency location page reads out, offline, from your phone's GPS. Carry the real map for the range anyway; the coordinates in the tables above are planning references, not a navigation source.
Frequently asked questions
Which of these peaks can a fit beginner actually climb?
Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa, Ben Nevis and Table Mountain are serious hill days but need no mountaineering skills in summer. Fuji, Kinabalu and Toubkal add altitude and (for the latter two) mandatory guides, yet remain walking peaks. Kilimanjaro is a guided high-altitude trek where acclimatization decides the outcome. Whitney is a brutal but non-technical day at altitude — the permit lottery is often the harder part. Mont Blanc and Aconcagua are the two that are not hikes: the first is genuine alpinism, the second an expedition. Everest is the outlier — an expedition, not a hike; for most people the realistic goal is the Base Camp trek.
How far ahead do the permits really need booking?
Whitney's lottery runs 1 February–1 March for the May–November season. Kinabalu's ~163 daily slots and Mont Blanc's compulsory hut beds sell out months ahead for peak dates. Fuji's ¥4,000 reservation and hut bunks need weeks (more for weekends). Kilimanjaro, Toubkal and Aconcagua are operator bookings — two to six months is comfortable. Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Table Mountain need no permit at all; at Snowdon pre-book Pen-y-Pass parking or ride the Sherpa'r Wyddfa buses.
Do I need a guide on any of them?
By regulation: Everest (at least one guide per two climbers on any 8,000 m peak since September 2025), Kilimanjaro (licensed operator), Toubkal (certified guide, checkpoint-enforced since 2018) and Kinabalu (registered guide, max five climbers each). By good judgement: Mont Blanc unless you are an experienced alpinist, Aconcagua unless you are expedition-self-sufficient, and winter ascents of anything on this list.
Are the coordinates on this page accurate enough to navigate by?
No — they are approximate WGS84 reference points for planning, roughly locating trailheads, huts and summits on the map. Navigate with the proper topographic map for the range, a compass you can use, and offline mapping. For emergencies, know how to read your live position: plain coordinates from our emergency page, or an OS grid reference on British hills.