Gasherbrum III (); ),
surveyed as K3a, is a summit in the
Gasherbrum
Gasherbrum () is a remote group of mountain, peaks situated at the northeastern end of the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram mountain range. The peaks are located within the border region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and Xinjiang, China. T ...
massif of the
Baltoro Muztagh, a subrange of the
Karakoram
The Karakoram () is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range is withi ...
on the border between
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Gilgit-Baltistan
Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...
,
Pakistan
Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...
.
It is situated between
Gasherbrum II
Gasherbrum II (; ; ); surveyed as K4, is the 13th highest mountain in the world at above sea level. It is the third-highest peak of the Gasherbrum massif, and is located in the Karakoram, on the border between Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and ...
and
IV.
Gasherbrum III fails to meet a
topographic prominence
In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...
cutoff to be an independent mountain; hence it can be considered a subpeak of Gasherbrum II.
[Some sources use a lower cutoff value, and consider Gasherbrum III to be independent.]
Gasherbrum III was one of the highest unclimbed summits in the world
[In fact no summit in 1975 was both higher and more topographically prominent.] up to its first ascent in 1975, by
Wanda Rutkiewicz,
Alison Chadwick-Onyszkiewicz,
Janusz Onyszkiewicz and Krzysztof Zdzitowiecki, members of a Polish expedition.
See also
*
List of mountains in Pakistan
Pakistan is home to 108 peaks above 7,000 metres and 4555 above 6,000 m. There is no count of the peaks above 5,000 and 4,000 m. Five of the 14 highest independent peaks in the world (the eight-thousanders) are in Pakistan (four of which lie in ...
*
List of highest mountains
There are at least 108 mountains on Earth with elevations of or greater above sea level. Of these, 14 are more than . The vast majority of these mountains are part of either the Himalayas or the Karakoram mountain ranges located on the edge o ...
Notes and references
Seven-thousanders of the Karakoram
Mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan
{{GilgitBaltistan-geo-stub