Gurla Mandhata
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Gurla Mandhata, also Naimona'nyi or Nemo Nani (), is the highest peak of the Nalakankar Himal, a small subrange of the
Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 ...
. It is named after king
Mandhata Mandhata, also called Shivapuri or Mahismati, Capital of Awanti Mahajanpad Omkareshwar, is a riverine island in the Narmada river in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, India. Omkareshwar Jyotirlinga is situated on the southern part of the i ...
of suryavansha of Ikshvaku dynasty. It lies in
Burang County Purang County or Burang County (; ) is an administrative division of Ngari Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region (''TAR'') of China. The county seat is Purang Town, known as ''Taklakot'' in Nepali. The county covers an area of , and has a po ...
of the
Ngari Prefecture Ngari Prefecture () or Ali Prefecture () is a prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region covering Western Tibet, whose traditional name is Ngari Khorsum. Its administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Shiquanhe. History Ngar ...
in the
Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a Provinces of China, province-level Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China in Southwest China. I ...
of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, near the northwest corner of
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. It is the 34th-highest peak in the world (using a 500-metre
prominence In topography, prominence (also referred to as autonomous height, relative height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop or relative height in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contou ...
cutoff). It is also notable for being well within the interior of the
Tibetan Plateau The Tibetan Plateau (, also known as the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau or the Qing–Zang Plateau () or as the Himalayan Plateau in India, is a vast elevated plateau located at the intersection of Central, South and East Asia covering most of the Ti ...
(most peaks of similar height – except notably
Shishapangma Shishapangma, also called Gosainthān, is the 14th-highest mountain in the world, at above sea level. In 1964, it became the last of the 8,000-metre peaks to be climbed. This was due to its location entirely within Tibet and the restrictions ...
, the world's 14th-highest peak – lie nearer to or outside the edge of the Plateau) and relatively far away from other peaks with heights greater than 7,500 metres. It sits roughly across
Lake Manasarovar Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called Mapam Yutso (;) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The l ...
from the sacred peak of
Mount Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Standard Tibetan, Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It h ...
. The Tibetan name, ''Naimona'nyi'', is said to come from ''naimo'' = "herbal medicine", ''na'' = "black", ''nyi'' = "heaped-up slabs", giving "the mountain of heaped-up slabs of black herbal medicine."''
American Alpine Journal The ''American Alpine Journal'' is an annual magazine published by the American Alpine Club. Its mission is "to document and communicate mountain exploration." The headquarters is in Golden, Colorado. Subtitled as a compilation of "The World's M ...
'' 1986, p. 302.


Climbing history

In 1905, T. G. Longstaff, accompanied by two alpine guides and six porters, made an attempt on Gurla Mandhata. They turned back at around after being caught in an avalanche and encountering other difficulties.Jill Neate, ''High Asia'', The Mountaineers, 1989. This was a strong achievement for the time, especially for such a small group; at that time no summit of over 7,000 m had yet been climbed and Longstaff's height represented a world altitude record. In 1935, a Viennese student,
Herbert Tichy Herbert Tichy (1 June 1912 - 26 September 1987) was an Austrian writer, geologist, journalist and climber. His first ascent of Cho Oyu was on 19 October 1954, with Sepp Jöchler and Pasang Dawa Lama.Sale, Richard. ''On Top of the World: Climbing ...
, disguised as an Indian pilgrim, made a trip to the holy mountain
Kailash Mount Kailash (also Kailasa; ''Kangrinboqê'' or ''Gang Rinpoche''; Tibetan: གངས་རིན་པོ་ཆེ; ; sa, कैलास, ), is a mountain in the Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It has an altitude of ...
. On the way, he attempted Gurla Mandhata with one of his porters, Kitar. They reached a height of 23,400  ft. where they were turned back by fresh snow and bad weather. In 1955 the mountain was the intended destination of the inaugural Welsh Himalayan Expedition, led by
Sydney Wignall Sydney Wignall (16 October 1922 – 16 April 2012) was a British marine archaeologist, climber, explorer and spy. Biography He was born in Wallasey on the Wirral as the son of a cobbler, the youngest of four children. He attended Wallasey Old ...
. The expedition, sponsored by the ''
Liverpool Daily Post The ''Liverpool Post'' was a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. The newspaper and its website ceased publication on 19 December 2013. Until 13 January 2012 it was a daily morning newspaper, with the tit ...
'', intended to summit Gurla Mandata and plant three flags: the
Welsh Dragon The Welsh Dragon ( cy, y Ddraig Goch, meaning 'the red dragon'; ) is a heraldic symbol that represents Wales and appears on the national flag of Wales. As an emblem, the red dragon of Wales has been used since the reign of Cadwaladr, King of ...
, the flag of the recently-overthrown Chinese Republic and the
Jolly Roger Jolly Roger is the traditional English name for the flags flown to identify a pirate ship preceding or during an attack, during the early 18th century (the later part of the Golden Age of Piracy). The flag most commonly identified as the Jolly ...
. Before the climb could begin, the group was captured by the Chinese military who imprisoned and tortured the climbers for two months under the belief they were CIA spies (Wignall had in fact offered to spy for India). The first ascent of the peak was by a joint
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
ese/
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
team led by Katsutoshi Hirabayashi, via the north side of the peak, in May 1985. Since that time, there have been six additional successful ascents and two failed attempts on the peak.The
Alpine Club The first alpine club, the Alpine Club, based in the United Kingdom, was founded in London in 1857 as a gentlemen's club. It was once described as: :"a club of English gentlemen devoted to mountaineering, first of all in the Alps, members of which ...
'
Himalayan Index
(accessed 2007-07-21) lists five ascents and two failed attempts through 2001. The ''American Alpine Journal'' records no ascents or attempts from 2002 through 2005. Th
Expedition blog
of the First American ascent of Gurla Mandhata records the only other ascent, in 2006. (There is some possibility of unrecorded ascents or attempts, so these numbers may be slight underestimates.)
In 1997, an attempt was made to ascend the peak via the then-unclimbed North Face route by Quinn Simons, Soren Peters, and their guide, Charlie Fowler. The team made a valiant effort, climbing high on the mountain, but after severe storms and other difficulties had to retreat. Their descent ended in a fall of some down the North Face of the peak. Fowler was slightly injured, while Simons and Peters both suffered extreme frostbite on their extremities.''American Alpine Journal'' 1999, pp. 211-213. The standard ascent route climbs the western flanks of the mountain ascending the Chaglung'mlungha Glacier to the summit plateau. Most teams choose to approach the mountain overland by jeep from either
Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level city, prefecture-level Lhasa (prefecture-level city), Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Regio ...
,
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
, or
Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...
,
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
. However, an alternate approach begins in the mountain hamlet of
Simikot Simikot is the administrative headquarters of Humla District of Karnali Zone in the mountain region of northwestern Nepal. Significance Lying at an altitude of just over 2,900m on a gentle slope high above the Humla Karnali River, Simikot lies ...
,
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
, in the remote
Humla Humla District ( ne, हुम्ला जिल्ला), a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The district, with Simikot as its district headquarters, covers an area of and has population of 50,858 a ...
district of west
Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...
and follows the
Karnali River Karnali may refer to: Places in Nepal *Karnali Bridge, a bridge over the Karnali River in Nepal *Karnali Highway, a vital transport link in Nepal *Karnali Province, a federal province in Nepal *Karnali River, a river in Nepal and India originatin ...
northward, crossing into
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...
(
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
) in the village of Sher. Jeeps then take climbers north through
Taklakot Purang or Burang, known as Puhreng in Tibetan (, Help:IPA/Tibetan, IPA: puʂeŋ), is a Towns of China, town which serves as the administrative center of Purang County, Ngari Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region ''(TAR)'', China. The town li ...
( Burang) to basecamp on the mountain.


References


External links


A list of prominent Asian peaks


(Go to n30e081)
Historical photo
of Gurla Mandhata with Mount Kailas taken from Lipu Pass, on a NASA-related site

{{Authority control Mountains of Tibet Seven-thousanders of the Himalayas