Height: 8534
Location: North-west Sikkim, India
Glacier: Zemu,Rathong Glacier
Best Climbing Season: March-June
Grade: Expedition Level
Accessibility: Open
synopsis: Kanchenjunga is the easternmost of the 8000 m Great Himalayan peaks. It is called ‘Five Treasures of Snow’, after its five high peaks.
The highest of these five is the third highest summit in the world and the highest peak possible to be climbed from India.
Kanchenjunga has always been worshiped as a sacred deity by the people of Darjeeling and Sikkim.
There are basically two major approaches to climb Kanchenjunga or reach near its base.
The approach from India is via Sikkim. One can go to Gangtok and proceed to Chumathang and Lachen. From here a little difficult trail leads to what is known as ‘Green Lake’.
The Green Lake has now almost disappeared and there is only a vast camping ground on the banks of Zemu glacier, one of the longest glaciers in the eastern Himalaya.
From this eastern approach one can see the huge east face of Kanchenjunga rising hundreds of feet above.
The other is from Nepal and it is the easternmost peak of the Nepal Himalaya.
Rising from the Kanchenjunga glacier the peak is surrounded by many other glaciers.
As Sikkim was closed to foreigners for a long period, this approach from Nepal became rather popular with the trekkers and mountaineers.
It was by this route that the summit was climbed for the first time.
Before 1949, when Nepal was closed, all approaches to climb Kanchenjunga had to be made through Sikkim.
Various expeditions have climbed Kanchenjunga via many different routes and it has remained one of the most beautiful and prized objective for mountaineers.
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