Jannu

Jannu, officially Kumbhakarna, stands west of Kangchenjunga in eastern Nepal. Height lists put it around 7,710 m. The number is not why the mountain matters. The structure is: a complicated massif, huge vertical relief, and steep climbing that continues almost to the summit. It is one of the most technical independent 7000ers in the Himalaya.

A French party led by Lionel Terray made the first ascent in April 1962. René Desmaison, Paul Keller, Robert Paragot, and Gyalzen Mitchung Sherpa reached the top on the 27th; Terray and six others followed on the 28th. They came from the Yamatari Glacier, onto the hanging plateau called the Throne, then the southeast ridge. A 1959 French attempt had already shown the mountain would not go as a snow plod.

The north face — the Wall of Shadows — is the page people read. A New Zealand team climbed the face in 1975 but stopped short of the summit. A Japanese expedition finished the first complete north-face ascent in 1976. Later parties added alpine-style repeats, a contested 1989 solo claim, a 2004 Russian big-wall line on the headwall, and a 2023 American alpine-style route. Summit counts on Jannu stay low compared with neighboring trade peaks. This is a climbers’ 7000er, not a guided one. en.wikipedia.org