Climbing Kerbin's 6000ers!

[Pds314]

Now that Kerbin has been beautified in 1.9, why not climb its tallest mountains, those over 6000 meters tall at the summit! Most of these mountains are very impressive yet have most-likely NEVER been climbed with a stock vehicle. You can be the first!

CASUAL:

• You can start as high as 2400 meters.
• You may use thrust engines, parachutes, propellers or drains or whatever you want, so long as you subjectively feel you made a rover, not a plane or a rocket.
• Getting over 6000 meters counts as a summit.
• No need to return. All you need to do is reach 6000 meters.
• You may use a probe core rather than a pilot if you desire.
• Multiple named Quickloads and Quicksaves are allowed.

NORMAL:

• You must start below 1600 meters.
• You may only use wheel power. Fuel cells, RTGs, Solar cells, etc are allowed. Thrusters, Propellers, and Parachutes are forbidden. Kerbal parachutes are allowed. Reaction wheels are allowed.
• You must reach the top of the mountain and plant a flag.
• You may use a probe core but MUST have a pilot, who must survive.
• The vehicle and pilot should return intact and operable to below 1600 meters.
• Quickload and Quicksave is allowed, but you may only go back to your most recent Quicksave (just use F5 and F9 and you should be fine).

HARDCORE:

• You must start below 800 meters.
• You may only use wheel-driven rovers running purely on battery power. No RTGs, Solar panels, or Fuel cells. No Reaction Wheels, Thrusters, Props, etc. No Kerbal Parachutes.
• You must reach the top of the mountain and plant a flag.
• Probe cores are forbidden. Pilot seats or command pods only. No crew = no control.
• The vehicle and pilot should return intact and operable to below 800 meters.
• Kerbal parachutes are forbidden.
• Quickload and Quicksave is forbidden above 800 meters.

Hint: more terrain detail setting generally helps make them climbable. Use the maximum if possible.
You may get to your starting position via set position in the Alt-F12 cheats menu. Though if you want to send them there by rockets or planes or just driving from a launch site, that's okay too.
A map of the tallest mountains on Kerbin:

 

Edited February 21, 2020 by Pds314

[Pds314]

From a failed attempt on Brutal difficulty, the mountain complex at Lat: -15, Lon: 75 was the goal...

[dnbattley]

Ah hah! Another challenge that doesn't explicitly forbid krackentech, and requires gravity defying traction: is it time to bring back The Spider Pig...?!?

Spoiler

 

 

[Kerbolitto]

1 hour ago, dnbattley said:

Ah hah! Another challenge that doesn't explicitly forbid krackentech, and requires gravity defying traction: is it time to bring back The Spider Pig...?!?

HAHAHA THAT MUSIC xD !!! you killed me

[Pds314]

11 hours ago, dnbattley said:

Ah hah! Another challenge that doesn't explicitly forbid krackentech, and requires gravity defying traction: is it time to bring back The Spider Pig...?!?

  Hide contents

 

 

That is a really cool rover.

It would however be considered legit only in Casual mode, where it would be competing with prop-assisted and jet-assisted designs, as purely wheel-driven rovers don't have Krakendrives.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Pds314

[Guest]

Hardcore should be sea to summit @_@

Edited February 22, 2020 by Guest

[Pds314]

10 minutes ago, Dale Christopher said:

Nope... hardcore is sea to summit @_@

You can definitely do sea to summit. It's just really ardrous for some mountains. Especially if there's not a little lake or river around nearby to plop down your rover.

 

I.e. these mountains are over 100 km from the sea, some of it mountainous terrain itself.

Edited February 22, 2020 by Pds314

[Box of Stardust]

I've tried the mountain range closest to the KSC before; I think that one was pretty much impossible on batteries alone. At the very least, the rover I tried it with couldn't make the trip up; the grades were too steep; I had to use jet engines just to get to where I was able to. (This was in an older version of KSP, to be clear, and almost 2 years ago.)

Maybe I should try with newer parts.

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by Box of Stardust

[Pds314]

On 2/21/2020 at 5:43 PM, Box of Stardust said:

I've tried the mountain range closest to the KSC before; I think that one was pretty much impossible on batteries alone. At the very least, the rover I tried it with couldn't make the trip up; the grades were too steep; I had to use jet engines just to get to where I was able to. (This was in an older version of KSP, to be clear, and almost 2 years ago.)

Maybe I should try with newer parts.

 

My testing suggests you need quite a bit of battery power to get up these mountains. But it is possible on battery power. That being said, only one of the mountains is even close to as steep as K2 there.

As to how steep it is, that vehicle looks much too highset to climb it on battery power unless it is doing weird things with below-ground COM.

Edited February 25, 2020 by Pds314

[purpleivan]

Ah... so the mountains have been spruced up. Maybe I'll have to dig out The Goat for an attack on the big one (well in height at least) Kerverest.

In a challenge entry a year of so ago, it made it from the sea to the summit in 27 minutes.

Edited February 27, 2020 by purpleivan

[Pds314]

13 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Ah... so the mountains have been spruced up. Maybe I'll have to dig out The Goat for an attack on the big one (well in height at least) Kerverest.

In a challenge entry a year of so ago, it made it from the sea to the summit in 27 minutes.

Keverest is the biggest, but it it is by no means the most difficult. Even its sister nearby presents the dilemma of scaling a near-vertical wall for 1500 meters or so. But still, congrats on ascending Keverest. That's some very pretty snow too.

Edited February 28, 2020 by Pds314

[GDJ]

Hmm.....I'll tackle Keverest with my new buggy. 

Update to follow......

[GDJ]

I got up to 6200 or so metres then I flipped over. I survived, but the buggy went butt over teakettle down the mountain.

Will try it again.......

ps. Doing a combo run. Somewhere between Normal and Hardcore (normal for the vehicle but no probe cores, but starting below 800 metres ASL).

The Beasty. 

 

Last screenshot between Keverest and K2.

Edited March 13, 2020 by GDJ