Himalaya / Garhwal · India
Nanda Devi
7816 m·Independent peak·first ascent 1936
- Elevation
- 7816 m
- Prominence
- —
- Class
- Independent peak
- Range
- Himalaya / Garhwal
- Countries
- India
- Coordinates
- 30.3758° N / 79.9708° E
- First ascent
- 1936
- Climbed
- Yes
Overview
Nanda Devi is the highest mountain wholly in India and the high point of the Garhwal Himalaya. It sits inside a ring of 6,000–7,000 m peaks so complete that the inner basin is still called the Sanctuary. The only practical walk-in is the Rishi Ganga gorge. Explorers failed to force that gorge for decades. Eric Shipton and H. W. Tilman, with Angtharkay, Pasang, and Kusang, found a way through in 1934. Two years later a small British–American party climbed the mountain.
On 29 August 1936 Tilman and Noel Odell reached the main summit by the south ridge, the Coxcomb. The party used no fixed ropes and no Sherpa support above about 6,200 m. Until the first ascent of Annapurna in 1950, Nanda Devi was the highest summit that had been climbed. The east summit, Sunanda Devi, is a named subsidiary on this site.
The Sanctuary was declared a game reserve in 1939, a national park in 1982, and a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988. Access to the inner basin has been tightly restricted for decades. Nanda Devi is therefore both a historic 7000er and a peak most climbers cannot currently approach. The page is about that combination: a mountain defined as much by the ring around it as by the summit. en.wikipedia.org