Mardi Himal is a trekking peak standing at 5,587 metres (18,330 ft) in the Annapurna region of Nepal.
Practical guides to trekking in Nepal — permits, costs, seasons, altitude and packing — written by the guides who walk these trails.
The mountain that closes the western side of the Annapurna Sanctuary and fills the view from Ghandruk. Climbed remarkably little since 1964 — a grade D route with base camp beneath the three-kilometre south face of Annapurna I.
The mountain everyone in Manang looks at and almost nobody climbs. A grade D route with sustained 50 to 55 degree ice, a corniced ridge, and serac hazard from the icefall that makes it photogenic. Dozens of ascents since 1965, not hundreds.
The long white wall closing the western side of the Barun, and one of the least-climbed 7,000 m peaks in Nepal. Not harder than Ama Dablam in any single move — harder as a whole, because there is more of it and nobody has fixed it for you.
The elegant pyramid over Everest Base Camp that Mallory named for his daughter. Every trekker photographs it; every climber who has been on it knows it is a great deal harder than its neighbours suggest. Grade D, and avalanche-prone.
The standard 7,000 m proving ground in Nepal — an AD route with no crux, a generous acclimatisation profile and a 70 to 80 percent success rate, reached through the Nar Phu gorge and the medieval Tibetan village of Phu.
The mountain most often recommended as the step between a 6,000 m peak and an 8,000 m one. An AD+ route at the head of the uninhabited Hongu valley, reached over two passes, with a base camp a week from the nearest road.
The first 8,000 m peak ever climbed, and by a wide margin the most dangerous of the fourteen. We say that first because anyone considering this deserves to hear it before the marketing. A grade D route where objective hazard, not difficulty, governs.
The fifth-highest mountain on earth and the hardest of Nepal's 8,000 m peaks by its normal route — a final pyramid of steep mixed rock and ice above 8,000 m, and a base camp eight days' walk from the nearest road.
The fourth-highest mountain on earth and the quietest 8,000 m peak in Nepal. It shares Everest's base camp, Icefall, Cwm and Face — and then goes straight up the Lhotse Couloir, which is steeper than anything on Everest's normal route.
A clean PD+ on the Tibetan plateau behind Upper Mustang, reached by a week through the restricted area and a camp above 4,800 m for the best part of a week. One of the strangest trips in the catalogue, and for some climbers the most memorable.
A genuine first 6,000 m peak attached to one of the most extraordinary journeys in Nepal — a week through the restricted area of Upper Mustang to the sacred lakes at Damodar Kunda, then a straightforward PD snow climb above them.
Thousands of trekkers walk beneath it each season and almost nobody climbs it. A clean PD+ snow and ice route directly above the Larkya La, with a summit that looks down a thousand metres onto the pass and its prayer flags.