Mount Kanchenjunga

Mount Kanchenjunga, at 8,586 metres, is the third-highest mountain in the world and the great anchor of Nepal's far east. Its name means roughly Five Treasures of the Great Snow, after the five summits of its massif, and it stands astride the border with the Indian state of Sikkim — a sacred peak whose true summit, by long tradition, climbers still decline to tread.

Where is Mount Kanchenjunga?

Kanchenjunga rises at roughly 27.70° N, 88.15° E on the frontier between far-eastern Nepal and the Indian state of Sikkim, about 125 kilometres east-south-east of Everest. On the Nepali side it belongs to the Taplejung district, a land of steep tea-growing hills, cardamom forests and some of the country's least-visited trails; on the Indian side its slopes fall into Sikkim, where the mountain is revered as the seat of a guardian deity. It is also the most famous sight in Darjeeling, whose dawn panorama of the massif — seemingly floating above the tea gardens — has drawn travellers since the Raj. Among Nepal's eight-thousanders it is by far the most easterly, further from Kathmandu than Makalu, Everest or Lhotse, which is a large part of why so few trekkers ever reach it.

Five treasures of the great snow

The name Kanchenjunga derives from Tibetan words usually translated as Five Treasures of the Great Snow. The treasures belong to the five summits of the massif — the main peak plus Kanchenjunga West (Yalung Kang), Central and South, and Kangbachen — several of which top 8,000 metres in their own right, making this one of the bulkiest mountain masses on Earth. In the traditions of Sikkim's Buddhist peoples the five treasures are gold, silver, gems, grain and sacred texts, hidden in the snows against a time of need. That sanctity is not a historical footnote: it still shapes how the mountain is climbed.

Height: third on Earth, once thought first

At 8,586 metres (28,169 feet), Kanchenjunga ranks third among the world's mountains, behind Everest and K2 and just ahead of Lhotse. For the first half of the nineteenth century it was widely believed to be the highest mountain on Earth; only in 1852, when computations from the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India showed that the distant Peak XV — later named Everest — was higher, did Kanchenjunga lose the title. Seen from the east it still looks the part, rising in one enormous sweep of ridges and hanging glaciers above the hills, with no comparable neighbour to diminish it. A wider ranking of the country's giants is in our guide to the mountains of Nepal.

The summit no one stands on

The first ascent came on 25 May 1955, by Joe Brown and George Band of a British expedition led by Charles Evans. Honouring a promise made to the Chogyal, the ruler of Sikkim, that the sacred summit would remain inviolate, the two men stopped a few steps below the highest point — and generations of climbers since have followed suit, turning back within touching distance of the top out of respect. It remains one of mountaineering's most graceful traditions. The climbing itself is anything but gentle: Kanchenjunga is remote, storm-battered and avalanche-prone, with a fatality rate among the highest of the 8,000-metre peaks and no easy line to its crest. It sees only a handful of expeditions in a normal year, a world away from the crowds on Everest.

The Kanchenjunga Base Camp trek

For trekkers, the mountain is the prize at the end of one of Nepal's great wilderness walks. The Kanchenjunga Base Camp trek works through terraced foothills and Sherpa and Limbu villages to reach both base camps: Oktang in the south, beneath the colossal Yalung face, and Pangpema in the north, staring straight at the mountain's northwest wall. Most itineraries link the two over roughly three weeks. This is a restricted area, so you will need special permits and a registered guide, and the region's remoteness means basic lodges and long days — the full picture is in our Kanchenjunga trekking guide, with seasonal advice in when to trek Kanchenjunga. The reward is an eight-thousander almost to yourself.

Snow leopard country

The Nepali flank of the massif is protected as the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, more than 2,000 square kilometres of glaciers, alpine meadow and rhododendron forest managed with the local communities. It is one of the strongholds of the snow leopard in Nepal, and its mid-altitude forests shelter the red panda, along with blue sheep, Himalayan black bear and hundreds of bird species. Between the wildlife, the sacred summit and the empty trails, Kanchenjunga offers something increasingly rare in the Himalaya: a giant that still feels wild.

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