MOUNT KANCHENJUNGA

It is India’s highest mountain peak and the most beautiful mountain of all mountains. Mount Kanchenjunga lies in the Taplejung district straddling the frontiers of India and Nepal. The Kanchenjunga massif is in the form of a gigantic cross, the arms of which lie north, south, east and west.  The individual summits connect to neighboring peaks by four main ridges, from which four glaciers flow. The rough translation of Kanchenjunga is ‘Five Treasures of the Snow’, as it contains five peaks, four of them over 8,450 meters. Until 1852 Kanchenjunga was regarded as the highest mountain in the world, but calculations made by the British 1849 Great Trigonometric survey showed Mount Everest to be the highest and Kanchenjunga as the third highest. There are five peaks of Kanchenjunga. Three peaks are on the India-Nepal border while the other two are in Nepal. In 1955 a Britisher Charles Evans climbed the mountain but in difference to local religious belief stopped a few yards from the summit. Permission to climb the mountain from the Indian side is not allowed because of its remote location in Nepal the Kanchenjunga region is not explored by trekkers. It has therefore retained its pristine beauty.

In Sikkim trekking in the Kanchenjunga region has just been started.  The trek is gaining popularity among tourists. It goes to the Goecha La Pass which is located right in front of the huge south east of Kanchenjunga. Another trek to Green Lake basin takes up to northeast side of Kanchenjunga.

In the winter months the sky is usually clear almost every morning. It presents an image of a white wall hanging from the sky. The camera is never able to do full justice to the view. The mighty Kanchenjunga shows its majestic profile from the mall in Darjeeling. The visitors get their best gift at the dawn of a new sunny day. It is from Tiger Hill at an altitude of 2590m you get to see the famed sunrise over the Kanchenjunga and the Eastern Himalayas. Even Mount Everest is visible from here. The beautiful state of Sikkim is situated in the eastern Himalayas, in the lap of the Mt Kanchenjunga. The Sikkimese revere it as there protective deity. The breathtaking peak guards its valley, turquoise lakes, streams and gorges. A friend suggested Pelling, a town in Sikkim for best view of the Kanchenjunga. The mountain glows in the light of the full moon against an inky violet blue sky, looming so high that it seems to fill up the firmament.