The Mystical Forbidden Mountain of the Himalayas

by Monte Aldone
Apparently Apparel

As human civilization advances and our technology progresses, the world is in a sense becoming smaller and smaller. We have poked prodded at, explored, and conquered so much of our planet that there seems to be nowhere humanity has not touched, nowhere that has managed to stay hidden from our gaze. Besides perhaps the deep seas, there is the feeling that few uncharted frontiers remain concealed from us or unconquered by us. It sometimes seems we live in a world where whatever mysteries have long gestated in the remote places of the world have already been brought out for all to see, that the darkest corners of the world have already been illuminated, and that such mysteries have faded from our planet over time as we push ever deeper into the wilderness.

However, even as human progress and exploration inexorably scratches and pounds at the fringes of our world and understanding, there are still some places in the world that have remained mostly untouched and undefeated by man. One such place lies high in the cold remoteness of the Himalayan mountains. In this place of desolate, bitter cold, unforgiving biting winds, and jagged peaks looms a virtually unexplored mountain steeped in myth and magic known as Gangkhar Puensum, located in Bhutan near the border with China. It may seem surprising that despite the fact that humankind had already summited the 20 highest peaks in the world by 1975, Gangkhar Puensum remains even in modern times untouched, unmounted, and indeed at an elevation of 7,570 meters (24,836 ft) the highest unclimbed mountain in the world.

Gangkhar Puensum has always been somewhat of an enigma, and has presented numerous challenges to those who would climb it. When the elevation of the mountain was first measured in 1922, the maps of the region were shockingly inaccurate. For years, different maps would show the mountain as varying heights and even place it in entirely different locations. It was hard for people to even locate Gankhar Puensum let alone climb it, and some of the first expeditions to the mountain were unable to even find it at all. In addition, there are disputes even to this day over which country the mountain lies in, with Bhutan claiming the entirety of it and China claiming a border that cuts through its northern half.
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