On the summit of Mount Everest, water boils at just 160°F (71°C), which is too cold to cook pasta.

The boiling point of a liquid is the temperature at which its vapor pressure equals the surrounding atmospheric pressure. At sea level, the standard atmospheric pressure is 101.3 kilopascals, resulting in a boiling point of 212°F (100°C). However, at the summit of Mount Everest, which stands at 29,032 feet (8,849 meters), the air pressure drops to about one-third of its sea-level value.According to the Hypsometric formula, as altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases exponentially. This means that at the top of the world, water begins to turn into steam at approximately 160°F (71°C). While this is hot enough to cause a burn, it is insufficient for many culinary processes that rely on higher temperatures to trigger chemical changes in food.Cooking pasta requires the gelatinization of starch, a process that typically begins around 140°F but requires sustained temperatures near 212°F to occur rapidly and evenly. At 160°F, the water cannot transfer enough thermal energy to the center of the pasta before the outside becomes mushy or the water evaporates. Even if you boiled the pasta for hours, the low temperature would fail to properly denature the proteins and hydrate the starches.This phenomenon was famously documented by various high-altitude expeditions and is a staple of thermodynamics education. Climbers often rely on pressure cookers to bypass this physical limit. By sealing the pot, they artificially increase the internal pressure, allowing the water to reach the higher temperatures needed to cook food thoroughly and safely.