Kanchenjunga, 8,586 m (28,170 ft)
Seen from Pelling at dawn, Kanchenjunga is a mountain with a promise attached. The men who first climbed it, in 1955, stopped just short of its highest point.
Photo: Soumik Ghosh
25 May 1955
On 25 May 1955 Joe Brown and George Band reached the top of Kanchenjunga and stopped just short of the true summit, as they had promised the Chogyal Tashi Namgyal, Sikkim's king.
Photo: Sounak Mukherjee / Unsplash
The name
The Schlagintweit brothers read the name as the five treasures of the high snow. Lhopo families still name the five: salt; gold; turquoise and precious stones; the scriptures; and armor with grain and medicine. They hold that the treasures stay hidden until the world is in peril.
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Pang Lhabsol
On the 15th day of the seventh Tibetan month, in late August or early September, Sikkim honors Kanchenjunga as its guardian. In Gangtok the royal chapel dances the Pangtoed, a warrior dance; in West Sikkim you simply look north at the deity itself.
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Kabi Lungchok
The same festival keeps an oath sworn at Kabi Lungchok between the Lepcha chief Thekong Tek and the Bhutia Khye Bumsa, with Kanchenjunga standing witness. Lepcha, Bhutia, Limbu and Nepali families still farm the slopes that face it.
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Pelling ridge, 05:20
Between October and December, set an alarm for 05:20 and open the curtains before you dress. The summits turn rose, then gold, while the valleys below are still blue. Across the trees, Pemayangtse is already lit for its morning prayer.
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Plan for cloud
Cloud often climbs to meet the summit by mid-morning, and some dawns it never clears at all. That is why a stay on the Pelling ridge is planned around at least two dawns, and three when the mountain is the reason you came.
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