by Aliya Whiteley
Just when you opine there ’s nothing unexampled to be see , done , or explored upon this terra firma , you get reminded how Brobdingnagian and unconquerable the planet actually is . For instance , no matter what the Mother SuperiorsingsinThe Sound Of Music , we are far from rise every deal . There are plenty of unclimbed mountains in the Earth for a number of reasons ; we do n’t even know for indisputable how many , since the diachronic record is obscure .
But there ’s general agreement that Gangkhar Puensum , the mellow mass in Bhutan at 24,836 feet and the 40th highest mountain in the world , can probably be describe as thehighest unclimbed mickle . Why has n’t it been climbed ? That ’s partly due to its incredibly remote nature , and the fact that despite its size , it was , for quite some time , hard to find . It was first represent in 1922 , but afterward maps marked it in different position , and at various height . Bhutan has never carry on its own prescribed view .
But now we have satellites and GPS — so sure as shooting it should be easy to track down and climb , correct ? Well , Gangkhar Puensum also lies in argufy political territory , on the edge between Bhutan and Tibet . Bhutan say the mountain is entirely within its territorial dominion , but China claim that one-half of it lie in Tibet , and is therefore Chinese .
Add to this divergence the fact that in 1994 Bhutanbannedthe climb of all mountains higher than 19,800 groundwork out of respect for local religious notion — and in 2003 forbid mountaineering altogether — and you have a lot of reason why Gangkhar Puensum remains unclimbed . It ’s not that people have n’t tried ; for instance , there were four expeditions in the eighties that were all unsuccessful .
The last endeavour made on the mountain did n’t even reach it ; China gave permission for a Japanese junket to attempt Gangkhar Puensum in 1998 , and Bhutan then repeal the permit . Eventually the expedition get going off and climb a nearby peck instead . It ’s call Liankang Kangri , lies in Tibetan territory , and is a supplementary peak of Gangkhar Puensum that is only a few hundred fundament smaller . Guess what ? Before the Japanese jaunt was successful in its climb , that lot was unclimbed too .
