Protected Mountains: Peaks, Ice and Fire

Established in 1976 around Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for Mount Everest, this park rises from forested valleys to permanent snow and ice and keeps the Sherpa villages and monasteries inside its protected landscape. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

Nepal's largest protected area, covering about 7,629 square kilometres, reaches from valley floor to the 8,091-metre summit of Annapurna I. It is a conservation area rather than a strict park, so local peoples such as the Gurung and Manangi keep farming, herding and hosting trekkers on the Annapurna Circuit.

Created in 2008 by merging two earlier parks with the surrounding highlands, it is centered on the largest ice cap in Iceland. Subglacial volcanoes such as Bardarbunga and Grimsvotn lie beneath the ice, and UNESCO inscribed the park in 2019.

Established in 1937 in Argentine Patagonia, the park protects part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field and glaciers that reach Lago Argentino and Lago Viedma. Perito Moreno Glacier stays in relative equilibrium instead of steadily retreating, and the Fitz Roy massif draws mountaineers.

Founded in 1959 and named for three granite towers, this Chilean park holds Grey Glacier and turquoise glacial lakes shaped by the Patagonian Ice Sheet. Guanaco, puma and Andean condor live here, and the park forms part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.

Gifted to the nation in 1887 by the Ngati Tuwharetoa chief Horonuku Te Heuheu Tukino IV and established in 1894, it is New Zealand's first national park. It protects the volcanoes Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro, and holds World Heritage status for both natural and cultural value.

At about 12,607 square kilometres, it is the largest of New Zealand's national parks, established in 1952. Glaciers carved the steep-walled fiords, including Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, and the park forms the largest part of the Te Wahipounamu World Heritage Site inscribed in 1990.

Established in 1951 as one of Britain's first national parks, it is named for Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. The glaciated mountains sit alongside Welsh-speaking hill-farming communities and the old slate-quarrying industry.

Designated in 2003 as the second national park created by the Scottish Parliament, it covers the Cairngorms range and was the largest national park in the United Kingdom before its 2010 expansion. Like the other British parks it protects a working landscape of farms, villages and estates, not land set aside from people.

Proclaimed on 29 May 1998 and formerly called Cape Peninsula National Park, it runs from Signal Hill to Cape Point and takes in Table Mountain itself. Its fynbos belongs to the Cape Floristic Region, one of the richest plant kingdoms in the world for its size.