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    Gangkhar Puensum

    རི་བོ་ཇིཀྲུ་ཌེཀ
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    At 7,570 meters (24,836 feet), Gangkhar Puensum is the highest mountain in Bhutan and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. It stands about halfway along the length of Bhutan's northern border with Tibetan China. Rising 2,995 meters (9,826 feet) above the land at its base, the mountain is classified as an ultra-prominent peak and on clear days is visible from miles away on the Bumthang Owl Trek, the Snowman Trek II, even the Druk Path Trek from Thimphu and Paro in the west. There is a reason why this mountain remains unclimbed while hundreds of lesser mountains around the world have been conquered. Bhutanese traditionally believe that great mountains are inspirited by local protector deities who demand obeisance and abhor being disturbed. Gangkhar Puensum, as a great mountain, is held to be home to three spirits; its name translates literally as “Mountain of the Three Brothers” in Dzongkha, the local tongue. The government has so little interest in disturbing the brothers that it has never surveyed the peak. The government did, however, cave for a time to pressure from the international mountaineering community in 1983, when it opened up Gangkhar to climbing. Four separate expeditions tried to summit between then and 1994; all four failed. Reports surfaced of strange lig...

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