Sherpa
The high-altitude people of Khumbu — Tibetan-origin, Buddhist, and the civilisation that makes Himalayan travel possible: the trails, the lodges, the yak trains, the fixed lines on Everest itself.
NEPAL
28°N / 84°E
THE
HIMALAYAS
You are not browsing Nepal.
You are entering the mountains.
↓ Scroll to ascend
WHERE EARTH
TOUCHES THE SKY
02 — Nepal at a Glance
The greatest concentration of high ground on Earth.
0 m
Highest point on Earth
Everest, 2020 revised survey height
0
Eight-thousanders, of 14 worldwide
Nepal's share of the planet's 8,000 m peaks
0 km
The Himalayan arc
From Afghanistan to Myanmar, five countries
0 m
Annual uplift of the range
The Himalaya is still rising
1,400 m
altitude
1,400 m — The capital
Kathmandu
Brass bells, temple dust, and the last traffic jam before the trailhead. Every expedition begins in a city of a thousand gods.
2,000 m — Mahabharat ridges
The Foothills
Terraces cut like contour lines, villages on every ridge, orange trees in every yard. The mid-hills are Nepal's heartland — 40% of the population lives on these slopes.
3,400 m — Namche & the forests
Alpine Country
Rhododendron the size of oaks, and the first sight of the great wall. The tree line is close now; villages turn to stone.
4,400 m — Above the trees
The High Country
The map changes language: Dingboche, Lobuche, Gorak Shep. Moraine, glacier, yak. The lodges burn yak-dung and sunshine.
5,364 m — The glacier city
Base Camp
A city of yellow tents on the icefall's threshold. The air is half-finished. Everything that matters in high mountaineering happens here first.
8,849 m — The death zone
The Summit
The jet stream's front porch. Here, the human body deteriorates by the hour, and the world below arranges itself into weather.
05 — The Database
Every major summit,
measured honestly.
Fourteen of the world's fourteen 8,000-metre peaks stand in Nepal or on its borders. These are the mountains that make the map. Hover to survey; open to study the route.
EverestSagarmatha
8,848.86 mMahalangur HimalSolukhumbu
“The roof of the world.”
- EverestTechnical/Extreme8,848.86 m
- KanchenjungaTechnical/Extreme8,586 m
- LhotseTechnical/Extreme8,516 m
- MakaluTechnical/Extreme8,485 m
- Cho OyuTechnical8,188 m
- Dhaulagiri ITechnical/Extreme8,167 m
- ManasluTechnical/Extreme8,163 m
- Annapurna ITechnical/Extreme8,091 m
- Annapurna IITechnical7,937 m
- NuptseTechnical7,861 m
- Ganesh HimalTechnical7,422 m
- BaruntseTechnical7,129 m
- MachhapuchhreTechnical6,993 m
- Ama DablamTechnical6,812 m
- Mera PeakModerate6,476 m
- Island PeakModerate6,189 m
- Open the full mountain index →
06 — The Cartography
Plan like an
expedition surveyor.
Every peak plotted from its real coordinates, every range drawn as its own territory. Select a summit to zoom the survey to it.
6,000 m 8,000 m+Stylised cartography — not for navigation
The higher you go,
the quieter the world becomes.
5,364 M
04 — The Ranges
Open the map →Sagarmatha
Khumbu
The high Sherpa homeland under Everest — glaciers, alpine villages and the world's most storied trailhead.
The Sanctuary
Annapurna
A vast wall of eight-thousanders wrapped around the deepest valley on earth — subtropical gorge to Tibetan plateau in one walk.
Kutang
Manaslu
A restricted-circuit around the 'mountain of the spirit' — the wildest of Nepal's great traverses.
The Five Treasures
Kanchenjunga
Nepal's far-east wall on the Sikkim border — remote, glaciated, expedition-grade trekking.
The Great Black
Makalu–Barun
A lone pyramid above the Barun gorge — the deepest valley corridor in the Himalaya.
Valley of Glaciers
Langtang
The nearest Himalayan valley to Kathmandu — Tamang villages, yak pastures and a 7,000m skyline.
Lo
Mustang
The former kingdom of Lo — a rain-shadow desert of cave dwellings, a walled city and sky cliffs.
The White Mountain
Dhaulagiri
A colossal ice-mountain rising straight off the subtropical valley floor — Nepal's serious high circuit.
13 — The Decision
Find your peak.
The website is the expedition. Your scroll was the climb. The summit is the moment you decide to go — and the mountains have been ready for you all along.
09 — The Expeditions
Choose your
mountain honestly.
11 — The People
The mountains have
always had keepers.
Nepal's high valleys are not empty scenery. They are working landscapes — terraced, prayed over, and lived in by communities who engineered civilisation at the ceiling of the habitable world. This is their story as much as the peaks'.
Gompas & monasteries
Tengboche, Thame, Pangboche — the spiritual anchors of the high valleys. Nyingma-Pa Buddhist, red-robed, centuries old, and the social heart of every village festival.
Lungta — prayer flags
Five colours for the elements, printed with mantras, sent into the wind at every pass and summit. The wind, not the person, does the recitation.
Mani Rimdu & Losar
Masked cham dances at Tengboche's Mani Rimdu (autumn) and the Tibetan New Year of Losar (spring) structure the high year — calendars older than the trekking trade.
High villages
Stone houses with ship-hull curves to shed the wind, potato fields terraced into moraine, and kitchens that are the warmest rooms on the planet at any altitude.
Dal Bhat & yak butter
The national power meal: lentils, rice, greens — twice a day on trek, endlessly varied by altitude and season. Above the tree line, the diet shifts to tsampa, yak butter tea and the legendary high-altitude apple pie.
12 — The Journal
