3. Kanchenjunga – The Third Highest Mountain (Peak) in The World

Mount Kanchenjunga is the 3^rd highest peak of the world. It is situated in the Far East region of Nepal on the border between Nepal and Sikkim. It has a height of 8, 598m. It is an enormous mountain mass with many satellite peaks rising from its narrow icy ridges. Just 46 miles northwest of Darjeeling, it is the most easterly of the great 8,000 meter peaks of Himalaya. The peak has four summits. The west summit, Yalung Kang is 8420m high and some people classify it as a separate 8000m peak, the south summit is 8494m.

The three peaks are on the border of North Sikkim, India and Taplejung district of Nepal and two peaks are completely located in Taplejung district. The word Kanchanjunga is derived from the Tibetan word “Kanchen” and “Dzonga” which means the five treasures of the snows. The five treasures are represented by Silver, gems, Grain, Holy books, and gold. It is regarded as a sacred by a local people. The first known map of the mountain was made by one of the pandits, Rinzin Namgyal an explorer of the mid-19^th It is also the attracting mountain with its beauty, charm, and mystery. At the base of two peaks of Kanchenjunga, there is a protected area named as Kanchenjunga conservation area which is the sanctuary home for Red panda and other animals, birds, and plants. The India’s side of Kanchenjunga has also the protected area named as Kangchendzonga National park.

Kanchenjunga Mount - 3rd Highest Mountain in the world — Kanchenjunga Mount – 3rd Highest Mountain in the world – Image source: wikimedia.org

Until 1852, Kanchenjunga was assumed to be the highest peak of the world but in 1849, the British Great Trigonometric survey was held which crowned the Mountain Kanchenjunga as the world’s third highest mountain and Nepal’s second highest mountain. The trek Kanchenjunga is a unique trek. It is rarely visited trail of trekking of Nepal. During trekking, various attractive spectacular views can be seen along the way. Beautiful wild sheep’s, birds can be spotted on the way. The beautiful and popular areas in the Kanchenjunga region are Milke Danda, Jaljale Himal, Tinjure. There are four routes to climb Kanchenjunga. Among them, three routes are in Nepal from the southwest, Northwest, and Northwest. One route is from northeastern Sikkim in India. The Indian government has banned the climbing too Kanchenjunga after its use from northeastern route three times and it has been closed since 2000.

Various attempts were made to climb the mountain;

In 1883, climber William Woodman Graham together with two mountaineers from Switzerland climbed the mountain. They were first to ascend the Kabru within 9.1-12.2m below the summit.
In 1905, a team led by Aleister Crowley attempted to climb the mountain and they reached the altitude of 6,500m and returned back.
In 1929, an expedition team led by German Paul Bauer reached the height of 7,400m on the northeast spur and they returned back.
In 1955 May 25^th, Joe Brown and George Band made the first ascent and they were regarded to reach the peak for the first time from the route located in the Southwest of Kanchenjunga.
On May 18, 1998, British climber Ginette Harrison residing in both Australia and United States became the first woman to reach the summit. Kangchenjunga was the last peak of 8000 meters to be climbed by a woman.

Since the first ascent in 1955, only a few i.e. 243 climbers reached the summit of the mountain. Some of the views of Kanchenjunga are seen from the hill station of Darjeeling and Antu Dada of Ilam. Kanchenjunga is not much explored by tourists and trekkers due to the difficulty in accessing from India and remote location of Nepal. Government policies require some of the trekking areas to have a special permit with a compulsion of taking trekking staff either with a porter or guide.

If a tourist wants to visit such restricted area then tourist need one least one government authorized person according to Nepal immigration law. For Kanchenjunga trekking permit, it is necessary for tourist to follow the immigration law. Also, Trek in Kanchenjunga can be done in the month of September-October and in March- April. Particularly at the higher altitudes, there may be some lodges closed at the start and end of these periods. So, you can inquire about the best time. The fee to pay for the trekking of Kanchenjunga area is the US $30 and you need to take the permit card and for this, all you need is two photos per person.

4. Mount Lhotse – The Fourth Tallest Mountain (Peak) in The World

Mount Lhotse is the 4^th tallest peak in the world and 3^rd highest mountain in the world. Mount Lhotse is connected to Mount Everest. It has the height of 8,516 meters. It is Also Known As Independent Mountain. The word Lhotse is derived from the Tibetan word which means south peak. Mount Everest has more than 3,000 ascents but Lhotse has only 400 ascents. The long east-west crest of Lhotse is situated immediately south of Mount Everest. But, the summits of both the mountains are connected by the south col that is a vertical ridge which never drops below 8,000 meters. Mount Lhotse is popular for its dramatic and tremendous south face. The south face is considered as the largest mountain faces of the world. The south face raises 3200 meters within 2250 meters horizontal distance making the south faces the sharpest face of this size in the world. Mostly, Lhotse base camp is the located beside the Khumbu Glacier likewise of Mount Everest Base camp as well as close to Island Peak. It is really very difficult to climb and it is rarely attempted.

The most dangerous section during climbing of Lhotse is the Khumbu Icefall. The south face of Lhotse is attempted several times but it is successful in climbing only for 1 time in 1984 by Czech expeditions. Either from Everest Base camp and nearby Chhukung, Lhotse can be climbed. In 1955, International Himalayan Expedition led by Norman Dyhrenfurth with two Austrians and two Swiss attempted to climb the Mountain for the first time and they were accompanied by 200 porters and climbing Sherpa’s. They climbed up to the height of 8,100 meters but they returned back to unexpected storm and cold temperature.

Mount Lhotse - 4th highest mountain in the world — Mount Lhotse – 4th highest mountain in the world (image source: wikimedia.org)

On may 18, 1956 the summit of the mountain was climbed by the Swiss team of Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger. On 12^th May 1970, Sepp Mayerl and Rolf Waltersepp from Austria made the first ascent of Lhotse Shar. The middle of Lhotse was climbed for the first time by Eugeny Vinogradsky, Petr Kuznetsov, Alexei Bolotov of Russia Expedition on 23^rd may 2001. In December 2008, 371 climbers reached the summit of Lhotse but 20 of them died during their attempt. Due to the series of incidents, Lhotse mountain wasn’t summated in the year of 2014, 2015, 2016 but again in may 2017, it was summited. Also, in 2016, Mang Furba Sherpa died by falling down during setting the ropes in the mountain.

Various attempts were done in the Lhotse Mountain which are;

In 1973, Japenese expedition led by Royei Uchida first attempted on the south face of the mountain.
In 25^th December 1974, in winter, the first attempt was done by Polish climbers Andrzej Zawada and Andrzej Heinrich at the height of 8,250 meters in the winter season.
In 1975, Reinhold Messner attempted to reach the summit of the south face.
In 1977, German expedition led by Dr. G. Schmatz achieved the second ascent of the main summit.
In 1979, Jerzy Kukuczka reached the main summit without the use of supplemental oxygen.
In 1980 April 27, French climber Nicolas Jaeger, an attempt on Lhotse Shar at the height of 8,200 meters.
In 1981, a Yugoslavian expedition led by Ales Kunaver attempted to reach the south face. Two climbers Francek Knez and Vanja Matijevec reached the top of face but they didn’t reach the
On April 30, 1981, Hristo Prodanov made the first solo attempt without the use of supplemental oxygen and reached the summit.
On October 16, 1981, coline Moline from Switzerland made the second ascent of Lhotse Shar.
In May 21^st, 1984, a Czechoslovak expedition led by Galfy climbed the south face of shar of Lhotse for the first time.
On October 16, 1986, Reinholder became the first person to climb all the fourteen eight-thousanders.
In may 21^st 1987, Swiss has Singera and Otto William Gersten Berger from Brazil reach the summit.
In December 31^st, 1988, a polish climber Krzysztof Bielicki completed the first winter climbing of Lhotse.
In October 24^th,1989, with the breaking of second-hand rope of Jerzy Kukuczka perishes while he was climbing the south face.
On April 24^th, 1990, Slovenia citizen Tomo Cesen made a solo ascent of Lhotse mountain.
On October 16, 1990, USSR Himalayan Expedition members Sergey Bershov and Gennadiy Karataev made the first ascent of the south face.

On May 13, 1994, Carlos Carsolio made mountaintop solo with the world speed record of 23hr 50 min with a rise from Base camp to summit.
In 1996, Chantal Mauduit became the first lady to reach the peak of the Lhotse.
In 1997, Russian expedition led by Vladimir Bashkirov attempted to climb the middle of Lhotse via the ridge between Lhote shar and the main summit.
In 1999, Russian team failed to climb Lhotse Middle and traverse the three summits due to extremely bad conditions.
In May 23^rd, 2001, Russian expedition made the first ascent of Lhotse middle.
In 2007, Nepali mountain climber and two times summit reaching of Mount Everest, Pemba Doma Sherpa died during climbing Lhotse at the height of 8000m.
On May 14-15 2011, American guide Michael Horst reached the summits of Mount Everest and Lhotse without descending below the camp IV with less than 21 hours of elapsed time between the two summits.
On May 20, 2011, Arjun Vajpai an Indian climber became the youngest climber of age 17 to reach the summit.