Kamet Tibetan border - first peak over 25,000 ft to be climbed

Kamet is the second highest mountain in the Garhwal region of India, after Nanda Devi. It lies in the Chamoli District of Uttarakhand, close to the border with Tibet. It is the third highest mountain in India (according to India however, the rank is much lower as it includes in its list of mountains all those in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the 29th highest in the world. Kamet is most properly considered part of (and the highest summit in) the Zaskar (or Zanskar) Range, which lies north of the main chain of the Himalaya, between the Suru River and the upper Karnali River. In appearance it resembles a giant pyramid topped by a flat summit area with two peaks. Climbing Due to its position near the Tibetan Plateau, Kamet is remote and not...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Mountaineering of Mount Kailash

Although Mount Kailash has never been climbed, a number of mountaineers have prospected the mountain with a view to climbing it. In 1926, Hugh Ruttledge studied the north face, which he estimated was 6,000 ft (1,800 m) high and "utterly unclimbable" and thought about an ascent of the north-east ridge, but he ran out of time. Ruttledge had been exploring the area with Colonel R. C. Wilson, who was on the other side of the mountain with his Sherpa named Satan. According to Wilson, Satan told Wilson, "'Sahib, we can climb that!' ... as he too saw that this [the SE ridge] represented a feasible route to the summit." Further excerpts from Wilson's article in the Alpine Journal (vol. 40, 1928) show that he was utterly serious in his intention to...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Pilgrimage of Mount Kailash

Every year, thousands make a pilgrimage to Kailash, following a tradition going back thousands of years. Pilgrims of several religions believe that circumambulating Mount Kailash on foot is a holy ritual that will bring good fortune. The peregrination is made in a clockwise direction by Hindus and Buddhists. Followers of the Jain and Bönpo religions circumambulate the mountain in a counterclockwise direction. The path around Mount Kailash is 52 km (32 mi) long. Some pilgrims believe that the entire walk around Kailash should be made in a single day, which is not considered an easy task. A person in good shape walking fast would take perhaps 15 hours to complete the 52 km trek. Some of the devout do accomplish this feat, little daunted by the...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Religious significance of Mount Kailash

In Hinduism According to Hinduism, Lord Shiva, the destroyer of evil and sorrow, resides at the summit of a legendary mountain named Kailāsa, where he sits in a state of perpetual meditation along with his wife Pārvatī. According to Charles Allen, one description in the Vishnu Purana of the mountain states that its four faces are made of crystal, ruby, gold, and lapis lazuli. It is a pillar of the world and is located at the heart of six mountain ranges symbolizing a lotus. The largest and most important rock-cut temple, Kailash Temple at Ellora, Maharashtra is named after Mount Kailash. Many of its sculptures and reliefs depict episodes relating to Lord Shiva and Maa Parvati, including Ravana's tale. (Ravana was a devotee of Lord Shiva. Ramayana...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Mount Kailash A holy mountain to Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, Bon and Jains

Mount Kailash is a peak in the Gangdisê Mountains, which are part of the Himalayas in Tibet. It lies near the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia: the Indus River, the Sutlej River (a major tributary of the Indus River), the Brahmaputra River, and the Karnali River (a tributary of the Ganges River). It is considered a sacred place in four religions: Bön, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism. In Hinduism, it is considered to be the abode of Lord Shiva and a place of eternal bliss. The mountain lies near Lake Manasarowar and Lake Rakshastal in Tibet. Nomenclature, orthography and etymology The mountain is known as Kailāsa in Sanskrit. The word may be derived[citation needed] from the word kēlāsa which means "crystal". In his Tibetan-English dictionary,...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Climbing history of Jomolhari

Despite its notability and spectacular visibility from the old trade route between India and Tibet's Pagri Valley, the mountain has seen little climbing activity, probably because of access restrictions on the Bhutanese side and the difficulty of the routes from the Tibetan side. The first ascent was made in May 1937 by a five-man British expedition, with Freddie Spencer Chapman and Sherpa Pasang Dawa Lama (of the American K2 expedition fame) reaching the summit from Bhutan over the southeast spur. The second ascent was in 1970 on 24 April over the same route by a joint Bhutanese-Indian military expedition led by Colonel Narendra Kumar. This ascent was notable also for the disappearance of two climbing members and a sherpa in the second summit...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Jomolhari

Jomolhari sometimes known as "the bride of Kangchenjunga”, is a mountain in the Himalayas, straddling the border between Yadong County of Tibet and the Paro district of Bhutan. The north face rises over 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) above the barren plains. The mountain is the source of the Paro Chu (Paro river) which flows from the south side and the Amo Chu which flows from the north side. Religious Significance The mountain is sacred to Tibetan Buddhists who believe it is the abode of one of the Five Tsheringma Sisters; (jo mo tshe ring mched lnga) — female protector goddesses (Jomo) of Tibet and Bhutan, who were bound under oath by Guru Padmasambhava to protect the land, the Buddhist faith and the local people. On the Bhutanese side is a Jomolhari...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

The Sacred Mountain of Sri Pada

It is revered as a holy site by Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians. It has specific qualities that cause it to stand out and be noticed; including its dominant and outstanding profile, and the boulder at the peak that contains an indentation resembling a footprint. As the 1910, Encyclopædia Britannica notes For a long period Adam's Peak was supposed to be the highest mountain in Ceylon, but actual survey makes it only 7353 ft. above sea-level. This elevation is chiefly remarkable as the resort of pilgrims from all parts of the East. The hollow in the lofty rock that crowns the summit is said by the Brahmans to be the footstep of Siva, by the Buddhists of Buddha, by the Muslims of Adam, whilst the Portuguese Christians were divided between...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Sri Pada - Lord Buddha's sacred foot print

Sri Pada (also Adam's peak; Sinhalese Samanalakanda - "butterfly mountain", Tamil Sivanolipatha Malai, is a 2,243 metres (7,359 ft) tall conical mountain located in central Sri Lanka. It is well-known for the Sri Pada "sacred footprint", a 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) rock formation near the summit, in Buddhist tradition it is held to be the footprint of the Buddha, in Hindu tradition that of Shiva and in Muslim and Christian tradition that of Adam. Geography The mountain is located in the southern reaches of the Central Highlands, in the Ratnapura district of the Sabaragamuwa Province - lying about 40 km northeast of the city of Ratnapura. The surrounding region is largely forested hills, with no mountain of comparable size nearby. The region...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Asia

Mount Terror

Mount Terror is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes which make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor, Mount Erebus, 30 km (19 mi) to the west. Mt. Terror was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, the HMS Terror. The captain of the Terror was Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier who was a close friend of Ross. The rocks at the summit have not been studied, but lower areas have been studied and rocks from those areas range from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old. Mount Terror shows no signs of volcanic activity more...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Antartica

Mount Kirkpatrick

Mount Kirkpatrick is a lofty, generally ice-free mountain in Antarctica's Queen Alexandra Range. Located 8 km (5 mi) west of Mount Dickerson, Mt. Kirkpatrick is the highest point in the Queen Alexandra Range, as well as in its parent range, the Transantarctic Mountains. Discovered and named by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907–09), the mountain was named for a Glasgow businessman, who was one of the original supporters of the expedition. Mount Kilpatrick is an alternate name for this mountain. Mount Kirkpatrick as a fossil site Mount Kirkpatrick holds one of the most important fossil sites in Antarctica, the Mount Kirkpatrick Formation. Because Antarctica used to be warmer and supported dense conifer and cycad forest and due to the fact...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Antartica

Geology and volcanology of Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus is currently the most active volcano in Antarctica and is the current eruptive zone of the Erebus hotspot. The summit contains a persistent convecting phonolitic lava lake, one of five long-lasting lava lakes on Earth. Characteristic eruptive activity consists of Strombolian eruptions from the lava lake or from one of several subsidiary vents, all lying within the volcano's inner crater. The volcano is scientifically remarkable in that its relatively low-level and unusually persistent eruptive activity enables long-term volcanological study of a Strombolian eruptive system very close (hundreds of metres) to the active vents, a characteristic shared with only a few volcanos planetarily, such as Stromboli in Italy. Scientific study...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Antartica

Robotic Exploration of Mount Erebus

In 1992 the inside of the volcano was explored by Dante I, an eight legged tethered robotic explorer. Dante was designed to acquire gas samples from the magma lake inside the inner crater of Mount Erebus in order to better understand the chemistry through the use of the on-board gas chromatograph as well as measuring the temperature inside the volcano and the radioactivity of the materials present in such volcanoes. Dante successfully scaled a significant portion of the crater before technical difficulties emerged with the fibre-optic cable used for communications between the walker and base station. Unfortunately, Dante I had not reached the bottom of the crater and as such the mission was cancelled with no data of volcanic significance...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Antartica

Mount Erebus

Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost historically active volcano on Earth, the second highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley), and 6th highest ultra mountain on an island. With a summit elevation of 3,794 metres (12,448 ft), it is located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes, notably Mount Terror. Mount Erebus is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, which includes over 160 active volcanoes. The volcano has been observed to be continuously active since 1972 and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. Discovery and naming Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark...

Read more »

Posted in: List of Mountains in Antartica