Once upon a time, it was thought to be the highest mountain the world. Further calculations (triangulations, as such exercises were called in those days) caused that baton to pass over to Mt Everest. Further studies relegated it even further down to the third position which it currently holds. While it may have lost the battle of height, but to the locals inhabiting its fringes, it retains its stature of a deity. It continues to inspire awe from ordinary as well as the exemplary. It is a group of mountains, the highest of which reaches up to 8,586 m, collectively known as Kangchenjunga (derived from a group of Tibetan words that means “The five treasures of the high snow”). The group lies on the border between Koshi province of Nepal and the Sikkim state of India. The West (Yalung Kang, 8,505 m) and Kangbachen (7,903 m) peaks lie in Nepal and the Main (8,586 m), Central (8,482 m) and South (8,494 m) lie on the border between the two blessed countries. All of them belong to Kangchenjunga Himal, which is a section of the Himalayas bounded by the Tamur river (also called Tamor nadi in Nepal) in the west, the Lhonak river and the Jongsang La in the north and by the Teesta river in the east. India could lay claim to the mountain only in 1975, when Sikkim merged as the 22nd state of the Indian union. As a part of that merger, Kangchenjunga also attained the title of the highest mountain of India, which was earlier held by Mt Nanda Devi (7,817 m). The flora and fauna of the area attracted tourists as well as scientists alike. The forests that line its slopes are home to the largest varieties Rhododendrons. The forests in the lower areas are also the home to the illusive Red Panda.
Explorations and reconnoisances started very early in this area with multiple expeditions exploring for different reasons ranging from scentific, commercial, political as well as strategic reasons. Some were official, others unofficial or even illegal (especially ones that traversed the region to enter the then “forbidden” kingdom of Tibet). As early as 1848-49, sceintists like Joseph Dalton Hooker explored parts of Sikkim and Nepal to collect samples for studying the Himalayan flora of the region. Others like the German explorer Hermann von Schlagintweit went for meteorological survey. In 1879, Babu Sarat Chandra Das went to Tibet via Eastern Nepal on their journey to Lhasa and returned by the same route. All of these journeys started from the Indian town of Darjeeling. Many other expeditions were conducted for exploring the slopes and the glaciers. As part of these, some attempts were also made towards climbing the peaks. Climbers started scaling higher heights as years went by. In 1905, an expedition led by Aleister Crowley reached an approximate height of 6,500 m along the southwest slope before turning back due to avalanche risks. The Norweigians surpassed it in 1907 in their attempt to climb jongri via the Kabru glacier, when they reached 6,900 m. In 1929, Paul Bauer led an expedition which scaled the height of 7400 m along the northeast spur before being thwarted by a storm. Successive years saw other expeditions scaling similar or higher heights.
The story about the first successful ascent of the mountain is as interesting as the mountain itself. It was made on 25th May, 1955, by a British expedition team. That day, Joe Brown and George Band ascended to the summit followed by Norman Hardie and Tony Streather on the next day. Just like others, this expedition also started from Darjeeling, treaded along the Sikkim-Nepal border and then crossed into Nepal to reach the Yalung valley. The climbers stopped five feet short of the actual summit, honoring the commitment given to Tashi Namgyal, the Sikkimese monarch (or Chogyal, as monarchs were called in the Kingdom of Sikkim). When the expedition leader met the communicated the same to the Monarch after returning from the expedition, he hoped for a pleasant welcome. He still ended up enraging the king. The fact that the climbers stood five feet below the actual summit implied that their heads still reached above the top of the mountain (since most of them were taller than five feet)! Ever since, members of all of the successful expedtion teams have stood below the actual summit, keeping in line with the promise made before the first ever successful expedition.
From time immemorial, humans have been driven mad by the colors of the rising as well as setting sun on its slopes. People from both India as well as Nepal have been enamoured by it. Depending on where you look at it from India (which includes the Tiger hill in Darjeeling, numerous tourist spots in and around it, places in Sikkim and omn clear days, even from the distant plains of North Bengal), it reveals different forms. From these places, the group appears in a form that resembles a sleeping giant, which the people fondly call “The sleeping Budhha”. Some of my friends reached closest to it (as is possible from India) by reaching the Goecha La view point back in 2021. Weather wasn’t kind to us on that ocassion and I, in particular, had to return much earlier. From there on, it continued to haunt me that the other country, Nepal, would certainly offer magnificent views of the massif that were unique only to those places. The fact that it can only be climbed from Nepal (as it has been prohibited to do so from India since 2000), meant that the only accessible base camps lay in the former country. There are two of them lying at it’s northern and southern bases at Pangpema (5,140 m) and Oktang (4,780 m) respectively. Both of these trails lie in far-eastern corner of Nepal in the Taplejung district of the Koshi province. Nepal has famous treks that lead to the bases of or circumnavigates some of the highest mountains in the world. Many of these trails are well established, well-trodden and comes with fantastic facilities (considering their remoteness). Their starting points are easy to reach (in fact, they’re getting easier by the year with rapidly progressing road construction). They are also relatively safer and offer reasonably predictable success rates. In fact, quite disappointingly, the trails are getting shorter over the years. For example, the Manaslu circuit trek has shortened by at least two days from what it was when we embarked on it in 2019. All these routes are also much more crowded. Since we’ve covered most of these, our attention has turned to less trodden areas of Nepal. One such route was to the Barun valley where we traveled to the base of Mt Makalu in October, 2025. It was only a matter of time, that our sights were trained on the base camps of Kangchenjunga. Ideally, one should target both the base camps, but that requires almost three weeks, an ill-affordable luxury for working people like me. Hence, we fixed out sights on one of the base camps. After some deliberations, I chose Pangpema (the north base camp). However, all of this was decided few years back when I started following the itineraries on the internet. Even in this part of the world, duration kept getting shorter. Initially, even a single base camp would have taken more than two weeks. Over the years, it came down to a fortnight and that’s when we started thinking seriously about it. Over the years, our core group of trekkers too, kept reducing as members kept dropping with every successive trek. Some dropped out due to age, others because of the difficulty of the trail, yet others because of health problems. This time around, we dropped to just two, me and Dhananjoy Dey.
Unlike Makalu, this time we reverted back to Nepal Alternative Treks & Expeditions, our tried and tested partner for most of our treks in Nepal. A few conversations with Tej Bahadur Gurung, the proprietor nailed down the itinerary. Unlike other treks, this required jeep rides for two full days only to reach the starting point. But even before that, one needed to reach the road head by either taking a flight from Kathmandu (as I did from Delhi) or by taking a train from India to reach Siliguri/New Jalpaiguri and crossover to the nearest road head in Nepal. After much deliberation, I chose to go via flight to Kathmandu from Delhi, followed by a domestic flight on the following day to reach Bhadrapur. From there, a jeep ride should take us to the town of Taplejung. We would pick up Dhananjoy from Kanyam on the route. After a night’s stay at Taplejung, we’d take a shared jeep ride on the following day to reach Sekathum. For the next thirteen days, we would reach Amjilosa (2,498 m), Gyabla (2,725 m), Ghunsa (3,415 m) and Khambachen (4,145 m). After an extra acclimitatization day there, we would reach Lhonak (4,792 m) and Pangpema (the north base camp 5,143 m) and retrace back to Lhonak. We also planned to go to Drohmo Ri (5,990 m) and had an extra day at Lhonak for that. The next two days would see us descending to Ghunsa and Amjilosa respectively.
The thirteenth day would take us down to Sekathum, followed by a jeep ride to Taplejung. On the fourteenth day, we would drive down to Bhadrapur (dropping Dhananjoy, once again, at Kanyam, en-route) to board a flight to Kathmandu. Tej assured that the trail was better than the area of Makalu, we could expect better tea houses and even charging and Wifi facilities. After some careful thought, I kept an extra day to account for unplanned delays before my return flight from Kathmandu. Much of the latter half of the plan was to change for multiple reasons, but that’s a story to be told later. One risk I saw for this plan was having to rely on Nepal’s domestic flights to and from Bhadrapur. Domestic flights in Nepal are notorious when it came to punctuality and reliability. Weather often holds the trump card. One two ocassions earlier (once in Lukla and another in Tumlingtar), our flights got cancelled and we had to return using alternative transport, adding to the delay. Tej Gurung reassured this time, that flights to Bhadrapur were more reliable (as it was in plains unlike the earlier locations where the air strips were located in the higher hills) and were less likely to be cancelled. For a moment, I pondered entering and exiting via India (by taking flights to & from Bagdogra) as many suggested doing the same. They did so because the Kangchenjunga area was very close to North Bengal and Sikkim. Somehow, I decided otherwise and stuck to Kathmandu (assurance about Bhadrapur flights from Tej Gurung was a crucial factor in that decision). I regret that decision for multiple reasons to this date (I’ll reveal the reasons later in this series).
For the moment though, things looked settled and I went about planning the logistics. Everything went smooth (a bit too smooth than I thought). Flight tickets were bought, hotels were booked in Kathmandu. Rest was taken care of by Tej Gurung’s agency. Our guide was to be Dilal (who had been to the area multiple times before). This was something I insisted with Tej. Tej would also supply an ice axe (which apparently might be needed during our hike to Drohmo Ri). The height of the place made me a bit skeptical, but Dhnanjoy was ecstatic about the prospects of hiking nearly 6,000 m (something we’ve never attempted before) and Tej too, was confident about us being able to accomplish the feat. He suggested taking the decision on the route and if we couldn’t scale it for some reason, we could always use the extra day during our descent. All of it sounded quite rational and I was quite satisfied with the proceedings. The anxious wait started. The Himalayas were souding the bugles again. This time, all the more exciting as it was Kangchenjunga, the far-eastern corner of Nepal!
Break shackles 