h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You can climb a mountain.
First mountains to have been climbed in their own country?


And now, here's hoping for some QI points :
About the full name of Pic du Midi de Bigorre, here's what I think :

- "Pic" is, amazingly enough, the French word for Peak. (Now, I'm pretty sure you never imagined that!)
- "Midi" is another word for South.
- Bigorre, if I remember correctly, is the name of the area.

So, it's the Peak in the South of Bigorre. Ta dah.

Just out of interest, how do you climb a mountain outside of its own country?

(now *that* would be quite interesting )

I'm going to go with a sporting theme again - risking claxons though I suspect. I'm sure I'm the Alan Davies of this forum

Is it something Olympic? Have they been venues for skiing in the Winter Olympics or something?

Hmmm, thinkiing about it I think I'll do it myself.

If skiing isn't a klaxon then nothing is

Maybe I can sneak out of it by claiming it was specifically 'Olympic' skiing I was talking about.

>>Just out of interest, how do you climb a mountain
outside of its own country?

The thought crossed my mind too, Orcus. But, on reflection, I think sf means that, out of all the mountains in a given country, it was the first to be climbed. But I'm not sure if it would be possible to know that. First recorded climb, maybe, not that's not necessarily the first climb ever.


Geggs

I can't imagine that's true in the USA though - surely many mountains in the Appalachians would have beens scaled long before the frontier even reached Colorado?
(Depends upon when mountaineering became 'official' too of course... )

Still given my own feeble attempts at answering I'm in not much of a position to quibble at others' answers

pioneers...being the first, might it be something to do with the composition of the structures, confirming plate tectonic theories.

Or both were formed about the same time, being the oldest exposed rock formation in their respective continents.

I believe the Appalachians is one of the oldest mountain range in the world. Not sure if that has any bearing on the question though.

Yes, Geggs, that's what I meant.
Maybe "in their respective countries" would have made it clearer?
And yes, recorded climbs is what I had in mind.

(I know I shouldn't hootoo-ize and work at the same time, I generally end up getting something wrong in one or the other... )

SF, >> "Midi" is another word for South.<<

Isn't it also Mid-day, as in Apres-midi, after midday, so:

The Midday Peak of Bigorre.

Which makes me wonder if they were used in past celebrations like Stonehenge etc?

I, too, would have gone with the Observatory thing, as I recall that Pike's Peak either has, or is projected to have, an observatory. Sure I read that in BBC Knowledge, or equivalent...

However, neither of those equate to the title, Pioneers...

So, I'm guessing that both were the home of new types of skiing.

Also, did you know that the modern sport of skiing was started by Brits?

Although skis had been used as modes of footwear to get about on snow, I understand it was a couple of rich, young Brits who thought of strapping on a couple and charging down a Mountain in Switzerland. (From a Stephen Fry QI in the Saturday Daily Telegraph) Although it is probably a Scandinavian who truly started it.

Right. Just checked up on the Winter Olympics bumf here, and could be Nansen, of North Pole fame, or Norheim, both of Norway.

Not sure where that takes us.

MMF

MMF:
Well, yes, it can also mean "mid-day", but in a geographical context, I had a feeling that the geographical meaning made more sense.
Maybe.

I'm going to risk a .

The first thing that I think of when Pike's Peak is mentioned is the car and motorcycle race it's famous for. I don't know anything about Pic du Midi but I somehow doubt it has a similar association.

An Automobile Association, you mean?


Geggs

Yes. I doubt it will have an American Automobile Association.

Only SF. Your understanding of French is obviously vastly superior to mine, and I didn't know Midi also meant South.

I was just including the better-known translation as an option.

Wish I could remember Pike's Peak, from when I was there 35 years ago. All I remember was it was crawling with Marmots. And it was steep!

MMF

Right. Thinking of the title, and knowing Clive's penchant for puns, is it actually to do with pions rather than pioneers? I know that some sub-atomic particle type things can only be collected in huge vats of water buried under lots of rock. Under a handy mountain perhaps? Are both of these mountains home to handy pion catchers?

Isn't there a huge hole in the ground somewhere to trap g-particles or anti-matter or something? There is a particle that is so small it actually goes right through the planet but is extremely rare.

Wish I could get to my copy of BHoT.



MMF

I think they are neutrinos.

Could be. I know I read about them in Nat. Geo. or somewhere similar about it.

But is it at Pike's Peak?

And now for the .

Are they hot-spots for unexplained phenomena?

*Did I word that carefully enough? *

MMF

There's a place called 'Homestead Mine' or something which has a neutrine detector. Is that it?


My own wrong answer is: the US place is the area where the transcontinental railway was joined up (as in East meets West). Was the Pic du Midi where the first trans-French railway?