<p>I was reminded recently of a moment in the Eragon books where the main characters see a "tall" mountain range, and then after a minute realize that the white sky stretching up above them is just mountains too, covered in snow. Which got me wondering - if there was a mountain that reached to space, obviously there would be some point above which snow would not accumulate. Where would this be?</p>

<p>Thoughts: I know most of the Earth's moisture is in the troposphere, so it seems reasonable to assume it would be confined to that region - but higher clouds like nacreous and noctilucent clouds are made of ice crystals, which could conceivably deposit on a mountain. Or would this be rare enough that it would sublimate faster than it could accumulate?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-25T13:53:18.510Z
@gansub I'm thinking from the point of view of a fictional mountain several times higher than mount Everest. Clouds have never been observed above 55 kilometers altitude, so obviously there would be a second "snow line" there if not before.
Skyler
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-21T05:43:19.980Z
we have this frustrating thing called the laws of nature here on this site,so a good place to start might be to find how tall a mountain can get and then ask this question again.
trond hansen
<clouds><mountains><snow>
How high could snow form on a mountain?
Skyler
# How high could snow form on a mountain?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-22)

I was reminded recently of a moment in the Eragon books where the main characters see a "tall" mountain range, and then after a minute realize that the white sky stretching up above them is just mountains too, covered in snow. Which got me wondering - if there was a mountain that reached to space, obviously there would be some point above which snow would not accumulate. Where would this be?

Thoughts: I know most of the Earth's moisture is in the troposphere, so it seems reasonable to assume it would be confined to that region - but higher clouds like nacreous and noctilucent clouds are made of ice crystals, which could conceivably deposit on a mountain. Or would this be rare enough that it would sublimate faster than it could accumulate?

**Tags:** clouds, mountains, snow

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @gansub I'm thinking from the point of view of a fictional mountain several times higher than mount Everest. Clouds have never been observed above 55 kilometers altitude, so obviously there would be a second "snow line" there if not before.  
> **username_1**: we have this frustrating thing called the laws of nature here on this site,so a good place to start might be to find how tall a mountain can get and then ask this question again.  

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## 0 answers

