Saturday, September 13, 2008

De-mystifying Himalayas - Fourteen 8K Peaks

As we are scheduling more treks in the Himalayas, and are looking at doing the basecamp treks to the major peaks, thought we will keep sharing information related to Himalayas in our series named “De-mystifying Himalayas”

“If any foreigner says ‘Namasthe’ instead of a hello then he/she has to be a mountaineer” is an old joke in the mountaineering fraternity. There is no place on earth that is as challenging as the Himalayas for a mountaineer or an adventure freak.

The world’s youngest mountain range stretches from Karakoram in Pakistan to Assam in India covering a distance of 2400 kms and a width of 160 kms. Himalayas have over 1000 peaks, ranging from 5500 - 8848 meters, the 14 highest peak range from 8027-8848 meters and are nick named “14 8K’ers”.

The first of the 8K + meter peak that was scaled/ascended is Annapurna in the year 1950, followed by the Everest in 1953.

Reinhold Messener an Italian national is the first person to have climbed all the 14 8K’ers, followed by as other 13 people who have climbed all the 14 K’ers till date.

- BASECAMPer


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