Ama Dablam

A 6,812-metre peak in the Khumbu region of Nepal, on the trail to Everest base camp. Ama Dablam means "mother's necklace" in Sherpa — the long ridges on either side are her arms protecting her child, and the hanging glacier below the summit is the dablam, the double pendant traditionally worn by Sherpa women. The mountain is widely considered the most beautiful peak in the Himalaya, and it has been called the Matterhorn of Asia for its similar architectural form.

The first ascent was made in 1961 by a small expedition that included Edmund Hillary as patron and was led by Mike Gill of New Zealand. The summit team — Gill, Wally Romanes, Mike Ward, and Barry Bishop — climbed the Southwest Ridge, which remains the standard route today. The expedition was unauthorised by the Nepalese government, and the climbers were briefly arrested upon their return to Kathmandu before international intervention freed them.

The Southwest Ridge is technical. The route involves rock climbing up to British severe grade, sustained ice climbing, and exposed knife-edge ridges that demand attention regardless of weather. Most climbers fix ropes on the steepest sections. The summit pyramid above the dablam glacier is the most photographed view in mountaineering — a perfect rock-and-ice spire rising above the Khumbu valley. Trekkers walking to Everest see Ama Dablam every day for a week. Many of them resolve, on the trail, to come back and climb it.

The mountain has a fatality rate substantially lower than the 8000ers but is not a casual undertaking. In 2006, a serac collapse on the standard route killed six climbers. Ama Dablam is climbed by perhaps 200 people each year — far fewer than Everest, far more than most peaks of comparable difficulty. The mountain rewards skill in proportion to what is brought.