What is the highest "hikeable" mountain in the world?

Question

What is the highest mountain in the world that can be hiked all the way up? That you can go up to the top without any sort of experience climbing.

Answer 1

It’s probably not THE highest, but Kilimanjaro at 5895 meters is a pretty famous one that doesn’t require any particular skill, just basic conditioning.

That said, I am reading 'climbing' as the physical process in your question. You still need to know about altitude acclimitization to go this high.

Answer 2

Candidate: Cerro Toco, 18,386 feet (5,604 meters), an easy drive from San Pedro de Atacama, which is a pleasant town in Chile with good places to stay and eat. You can drive to about 17,000 feet. The radiotelescope array at Chajnantor is visible from a lookout point on the road up to the parking spot.

The caveat is: Is this really a mountain? It is the highest peak in its vicinity, it has a name, and cerro means hill or mountain in Spanish, but by Andes standards it is a hill.

Nothing remotely resembling technical climbing is required. A pair of hiking poles is advisable on the snowy part of the descent -- or at least what was a snow slope in 2007.

Warning: Acclimitization is a technical climbing skill, as is identifying pulmonary edema or cerebral edema, even if the mountain could be climbed as a mere hike. I made this point in a comment under the Question, and @RockPapertz-Mask it or Casket also did in a comment below. At the very least, spend the night before at San Pedro de Atacama (over 8,000 feet). This problem is less dangerous on Cerro Toco than many other peaks because there is only a 1,500 feet or so very easy climb down, and then a quick descent by car to San Pedro. But you have to know enough to be aware. Read up before hiking up! Better, get some experience hiking at altitudes of, say, 12,000 feet -- easy to do in California or the Rockies. But even if you are fine at 12,000 or 14,000 feet, you may be in trouble a thousand feet higher.

Answer 3

In Europe, the highest you can get without any effort is the "Klein Matterhorn" at 3883m. It has a cable car to the top. And then there are some other very high places you can get even with flip-flops or high-heels if you wish, such as Titlis or most famously the Jungfraujoch.

I need to add that I do not recommend wearing such poor footwear up there. It's still only 5-10 C even in summer and outside of the cable station the path is snow or ice.

Answer 4

Mt Kinabalu (4,095 m) in Malysian Borneo can be "climbed" with no particular climbing experience, although a certain level of fitness is required (and it is compulsory for a guide to accompany each party). Not as high as Mt Kilimanjaro, but less likely for unacclimated climbers to experience altitude sickness.