Melungtse is the highest mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 of the Rolwaling Himal

Rolwaling Himal

Rolwāling Himāl is a section of the Himalaya in east-central Nepal along the Tibet border. It lies west of the Mahalangur section and east of the Langtang section. Melungtse 7181m and Melungtse II 7023m are inside Tibet and Gauri Shankar 7134m is on the border...

 in the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

.

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

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

/China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

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

Tingri County

Tingri County or Dhringgri County , is a county of the Xigazê Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region.The county comprises the upper valley of the Bum-chu or Arun River, with the valleys of its tributaries plus the valleys of the Rongshar Tsangpo and the Lapchi Gang Tsanpo which flow south into...

, Xigazê Prefecture of Tibet

Tibet Autonomous Region

The Tibet Autonomous Region , Tibet or Xizang for short, also called the Xizang Autonomous Region is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China , created in 1965....

. To the southwest, across the Menlung Chu, lies Gauri Sankar

Gauri Sankar

Gauri Sankar is a mountain in the Himalayas, the second highest peak of the Rolwaling Himal, behind Melungtse...

, 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

Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...

.

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 South East 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 led two expeditions, with the second one succeeding in putting Andy Fanshawe

Andy Fanshawe

Andy Fanshawe was a British mountaineer.-Biography:He started climbing as a student at Wilmslow Grammar School...

 and Alan Hinkes

Alan Hinkes

Alan Hinkes OBE is an English mountaineer from Northallerton in North Yorkshire. Hinkes is the first British mountaineer to have summited all 14 mountains with elevations greater than 8000 metres, the so-called Eight-thousanders; however, this claim is disputed.He was awarded an Honorary...

 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, and was an alpine style

Alpine style

Alpine style refers to mountaineering in a self-sufficient manner, thereby carrying all of one's food, shelter, equipment etc. as one climbs, as opposed to expedition style mountaineering which involves setting up a fixed line of stocked camps on the mountain which can be accessed at one's leisure...

 tour de force. Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

ns Marko Prezelj and Andrej Stremfelj ascended the dangerous, 2000m Southeast Face in less than two and a half days up and down.

The Himalayan Index lists only one other attempt on Melungtse, a failed attempt via the North Face in 1999.

Sources

• Jill Neate, High Asia: An Illustrated History of the 7000 Metre Peaks, ISBN 0-89886-238-8
• Andy Fanshawe and Stephen Venables
  Stephen Venables
  Stephen Venables is a British mountaineer and writer, and is a past president of the South Georgia Association and of the Alpine Club.-Mountaineer:...
  
  , Himalaya Alpine-Style, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.
• Koichiro Ohmori, Over the Himalaya. Cloudcap/The Mountaineers, 1994.
• American Alpine Journal
• Himalayan Index
• DEM files for the Himalaya (Corrected versions of SRTM data)
• Tibet Ultra-Prominences on peaklist.org