Kangchenjunga

Where is Kangchenjunga?

Kangchenjunga is part of the Kangchenjunga Himal, Himalayas.

You will find it in: Nepal, India.

Summit: 27.703° N, 88.148° E

The story behind it

Kangchenjunga is really a massif, a cluster of five separate peaks that all rise above 8,000 metres, formed by the same slow collision of continents that built the whole Himalayan chain. The local Sikkimese and Nepali communities consider the mountain sacred, home to protective deities, and their beliefs shaped one of the most touching stories in mountaineering. When Joe Brown and George Band made the first ascent in 1955, they deliberately stopped a few metres short of the very top, honouring a promise made to the Chogyal, the ruler of Sikkim, that the true summit would remain untouched. Nearly every expedition since has followed the same tradition. Kangchenjunga is still considered one of the hardest 8,000-metre peaks to climb, with fewer successful summits than Everest or K2, partly because its remote approach keeps crowds away.

Find it on the globe

Kangchenjunga is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.