Melungtse (; ; ; other English spelling: ''Menlungtse'') is the highest

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

of the

Rolwaling Himal Rolwāling Valley (), known as a ( Gaurishankar) rural municipality, is a section of the Himalayas in east-central Nepal along the Tibet border. Rolwaling Himal includes Melungtse 7181m and Melungtse II 7023m inside Tibet and Gaurishankar 7134m ...

in the

Himalayas 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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

. The peak has a long summit ridge capped by the east (main) summit and the west summit, also known as Melungtse II, 7,023m. The mountain's steep faces make it more difficult than its elevation would suggest.

Location

Melungtse lies just north of the

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

–

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 ...

border, on a western spur ridge coming out of the main north-south trending ridge of the Rolwaling Himal, in

Tingri County Tingri County (; zh, s=定日县, t=定日縣, p=Dìngrì Xiàn) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Xigazê in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The county comprises the upper valley of the Bum-chu or Aru ...

Shigatse Prefecture Shigatse, officially known as Xigazê () or Rikaze ( zh, s=日喀则, p=Rìkāzé), is a prefecture-level city of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Its area of jurisdiction, with an area of , corresponds to the histo ...

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. To the southwest, across the Menlung Chu, lies

Gauri Sankar Gaurishankar (also Gauri Sankar or Gauri Shankar; ; Sherpa: Jomo Tseringma), a mountain in the Nepal Himalayas, is the second highest peak of the Rolwaling Himal, behind Melungtse (7,181 m). The name comes from the Hindu goddess Gauri, a ...

, which, though a bit lower (7134 m), is much more visible from Nepal, hence better-known. Melungtse lies about 40 km west of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (), known locally as Sagarmatha in Nepal and Qomolangma in Tibet, is Earth's highest mountain above sea level. It lies in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas and marks part of the China–Nepal border at it ...

Climbing history

Melungtse was off limits to climbing until quite recently. The first attempt was made in Oct 1982 when Bill Denz made a strictly illegal attempt on the southeast ridge, after sneaking over the border from Nepal's Rolwaling Valley. However he turned back while still low on the route. In 1987 and 1988

Chris Bonington Sir Christian John Storey Bonington, CVO, CBE, DL (born 6 August 1934) is a British mountaineer. His career has included nineteen expeditions to the Himalayas, including four to Mount Everest. Early life and expeditions Bonington's father, ...

led two expeditions, with the second one succeeding in putting

Andy Fanshawe Andy Fanshawe (1963 in Cheshire – Lochnagar 1992) was a British mountaineer. Biography He started climbing as a student at Wilmslow County Grammar School for Boys. Whilst studying geology at Imperial College London, he led his first expedition ...

and

Alan Hinkes Alan Hinkes OBE (born 26 April 1954) is an English Himalayan high-altitude mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. He is the first British mountaineer to claim all 14 Himalayan eight-thousanders (mountains above in height), a fe ...

on the west summit, but did not climb the main summit. Another attempt in 1990, this time on the East Ridge of the main summit, failed well below the top. The first ascent of the main peak came in 1992.

Slovenians The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...

Marko Prezelj Marko Prezelj (born 13 October 1965) is a Slovenian mountaineer and photographer. Prezelj received four Piolet d'Or awards. He won the inaugural "Oscar of mountaineering" in 1992 with Andrej Štremfelj for their new route on the south ridge of ...

and

Andrej Štremfelj Andrej Štremfelj (born 17 December 1956) is a Slovenian mountaineer, and in 2019, became the 10th recipient of the Piolet d'Or ''Lifetime Achievement Award''. Life and work Štremfelj was born in Kranj and got involved in mountaineeri ...

ascended the dangerous, 2000m southeast face in less than two and a half days up and down and reached the summit on October 23. An attempt via the North Face in 1999 reached a spot on the eastern end about below the summit. However, an ensuing nine day storm dumped too much snow on the upper route and the attempt was aborted. The expedition leader attempted the North Face again in 2005 along with two Russian climbers but aborted the attempt at around after one of the Russians was unable to continue due to injury.

References

Sources

* Jill Neate, ''High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7000 Metre Peaks'', * Andy Fanshawe and

Stephen Venables Stephen Venables (born 2 May 1954) is a British mountaineer and writer, and is a past president of the South Georgia Association and of the Alpine Club (UK), Alpine Club. He is the first Briton to ascend the summit of Mount Everest without bottle ...

, ''Himalaya Alpine-Style'', Hodder and Stoughton, 1995. * Koichiro Ohmori, ''Over the Himalaya''. Cloudcap/The Mountaineers, 1994.
American Alpine Journal

Himalayan Index

(Corrected versions of SRTM data)

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