Apsarasas Kangri is a mountain in the
Siachen subrange of the
Karakoram
The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
mountain range. With an elevation of it is the
96th highest mountain in the world. Apsarasas Kangri is located within the broader
Kashmir region
Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompass ...
disputed between India, Pakistan and China. It is situated on the border between the areas controlled by China as part of the
Xinjiang autonomous region, and the
Siachen Glacier controlled by India as part of
Ladakh.
Apsarasas was named by Grant Peterkin of the
1908 Workman expedition, from ''
apsara
An apsaras or apsara ( sa, अप्सरा ' lso ' pi, अक्चरा, translit=accharā) is a type of female spirit of the clouds and waters in Hinduism and Buddhist culture. They figure prominently in the sculpture, dance, literat ...
'' ("fairies") and ''sas'' ("place"), thus "place of the fairies". There are at least three main summits of near-equal height, usually labeled I to III from west to east over a distance of 5 km. The eastern summit () is separated from the other two by a saddle just over 6800 m high.
Only the western peak (Apsarasas I) appears to have been climbed. The first ascent was made over the west ridge by Yoshio Inagaki, Katsuhisa Yabuta and Takamasa Miyomoto of the Osaka University Mountaineering Club on August 7, 1976. The second ascent was by an Indian Army expedition on September 18, 1980, and another Indian army team achieved the third ascent in 1988.
[Kapadia, 2002]
p. 302
Apsarasas II and Apsarasas III are listed as "
virgin peaks
An unclimbed mountain is a mountain peak that has yet to be climbed to the top. Determining which unclimbed peak is highest is often a matter of controversy. In some parts of the world, surveying and mapping are still unreliable. There are no co ...
" by the Indian Mountaineering Foundation,
and the eastern summit counts amongst the
highest unclimbed peaks.
References
{{PRChina-geo-stub
Mountains of Xinjiang
Seven-thousanders of the Karakoram
Mountains of Ladakh