Mount Kailash, Tibet: The Unclimbable Mountain

Mount Kailash, Tibet, has the reputation of being an unclimable mountain. Located in the Ngari prefecture in Tibet, it reaches 21,778 feet in elevation. This photogenic mountain isn’t close to the heights of some of the other mountains in the Himalayas, such as Mount Everest at 29,032 feet or K2 at 28,251 feet. So why hasn’t it been climbed? In short, climbing it is prohibited because the mountain is sacred to several religions.

Mount Kailash lies just north of the trijunction of India, China, and Nepal. It has a pretty unique geographical location. Also known as Mount Kangrinboqe, and Gang Rinpoche, the mountain known by those in the English-speaking world as Mount Kailash is considered the wellspring for four of the largest rivers in Asia. The Sutlej, Indus, Brahmaputra, and Karnali rivers bring water to over a billion people. The Karnali is also a tributary of the Ganges, India’s most sacred river.

Soaring above neighboring peaks in western Tibet, this mountain has a unique place in not just one but four different religions. For Tibetan Buddhists, it represents Mount Meru, the mountain believed to be at the heart of the universe. For Hindus, it is the revered resting place of Lord Shiva, and the west face of the mountain contains his face. For adherents of the Bon religion, it is the abode of the sky goddess Sipaimen, and for Jain monks, the mountain has the name Mount Ashtapada and is the place where Rishabhadeva, the creator of their faith, gained freedom from rebirth. This makes the mountain sacred to over a billion people. Devotees of all these religions complete the three-day pilgrimage around it, although in different directions, but still, none have ever climbed it.

The sacred nature of the mountain keeps the local governments from granting permits to climb Mount Kailash. However, the climb itself would not be a simple one either. Although only 21,778 feet tall, the shape of the mountain makes the ascent extremely technical for most of the way up. There are a few reasons why Mount Kailash has not been summited yet, but maybe the main one is that it is just physically unclimbable. Reinhold Messner was once asked to climb it and refused, so the Chinese government decided to say if Messner refused, then no one would be able to climb it. There were a couple of expeditions planned, and an easy route was found by English mountaineers Hugh Ruttledge and Colonel R.C. Wilson in 1926. However, this route was never tried, as unfortunate events and an unpredicted snow event led to the cancellation of the expedition.

It seems that, while it would be difficult but not impossible to climb, Mount Kailash has not been climbed out of respect for its sacred nature.