Kanchenjunga

Kanchenjunga (also called Kangchenjunga, Kangchen Dz�-nga, Kachendzonga, or Kangchanfanga) is a mountain at 27�42' N, 88�08' E in the Himalayas on the Nepal-Sikkim border in the Taplejung district.

Kanchenjunga is the third highest mountain in the world and the second highest in Nepal. Kanchenjunga is translated along the lines of "Five Treasures of the Snow" as it contains five peaks over 8,000 metres with the main peak at 8,586 metres (28,169 feet). Up until 1852, Kanchenjunga was believed to be the highest mountain in the world. Calculations made from the British 1849 Great Trigonometric Survey makes Mount Everest the highest and Kanchenjunga third highest.

Kanchenjunga was first climbed in 1955 by George Band and Joe Brown of a British expedition. The British expedition honored the beliefs of the Sikkimese who believe the summit sacred, by stopping a few feet short of the actual summit. All successful summit parties since then have followed this tradition until recently.

Climbing History

1905 First attempt but four members of that party were killed in an avalanche.
1929 A German expedition reaches 7400m/24,300' before being turned back by a 5 day storm.
1978 A Polish team makes the first successful ascent of the south summit (Kangchenjunga II).
1983 Pierre Beghin makes the first solo ascent and without oxygen.
1986 On January 11, two Polish climbers make the first winter ascent.
1991 Marija Frantor and Joze Rozman attempt the first ascent by a woman but their bodies are later found below the summit headwall.
1992 Wanda Rutkiewicz perished on a summit attempt after she refused to descend in an approaching storm.
1998 Ginette Harrison becomes the first and only woman to summit. She died in an avalanche while attempting Dhaulagiri in 1999.

See Kangchenjunga History for a more detailed account.

The Kanchanjunga Conservation Area (KCA) covers 2035 km² surrounding the mountain on the Nepalese side.

As Kanchenjungha a film directed by Satyajit Ray in 1962, his first original screenplay and colour film. The film is about a group of rich Bengalis on vacation near Kanchenjunga.

Kanchenjunga is a visual RAD tool for producing Java client applications for use with Postgres95.