Kanchenjunga
Expedition (8598m.)
Kanchenjunga,
this is the third-highest peak
in the world and the second-highest
in Nepal. It was first climbed
by a british team in 1956. The
peak consists of four summits.
The west summit,
Yalung Kang, is 8420m. high
and some people classify it
as a separate 8000mpeak. By
the end of 2003, 145 people
had climbed kanchenjunga on
85 expedition and 42 climbers
had died on the mountain.
The first westerner
to explore Kanchenjunga was
the british botanist JD Hooker,
who visited the area twice in
1848 and 1849. Exploration of
the Sikkim side of the peak
continued with both British
and pundit explorers mapping
and photographing until 1899.
In that year a party led by
douglas Freshfield made a circuit
of Kanchenjunga and produced
what is still one of the most
authoritative maps of the region.
Exploration
countinued, mostly from the
Sikkim side, with expeditions
starting from Darjeeling in
british India. One of the major
contributors to Western knowledge
about the region was Dr AM Kellas,
who later dide in Tibet during
the approach march of the 1921
Everest Expedition.
German Expeditions
attacked the peak in 1929, 1930
and again 1931, but none was
successful. After the war sikkim
was closed but Nepal was open.
In 1955 a team
led by Dr Charles Evans approached
the peak via the Yalung Glacier.
Two tefams
climbed the peak, stopping Just
shor of the summit to confrom
to an agreement with the Maharaja
of sikkim that the summit would
remain inviolate.
The Japanese
now took up the challenge and
mounted expeditions in 1976,
1973 and 1974 during which they
climbed Yalung Kang. A German
Expedition climbed Yalung Kang
in 1975, and in 1977 an Indian
army team mounted the secound
succssfull expedition to the
main peak of kanchenjunga.