Pumori

A 7,161-metre peak on the border between Nepal and Tibet, eight kilometres west of Everest. The name was given by George Mallory in 1921, during the British Everest reconnaissance, and means "unmarried daughter" in Sherpa. From Everest base camp, Pumori is the sharp pyramidal peak that dominates the western skyline. It is the mountain that climbers look at while waiting for weather windows on Everest, and many summit it as preparation for the higher mountain.

The first ascent was made in 1962 by a Swiss-German expedition led by Gerhard Lenser. The standard route up the South Ridge is graded technical alpine — sustained snow and ice climbing, some rock, exposed corniced sections near the summit. The climb takes typically three weeks from base camp and is comparable in technical difficulty to the standard route on the Matterhorn at significantly higher altitude.

What Pumori offers as preparation for higher peaks is realism. The summit at 7,161 metres is high enough to require acclimatization and to demonstrate how a climber's body responds to altitude over multiple nights at altitude camps. The technical demands are real but bounded. The descent is straightforward by 7000-metre standards. Climbers who have summited Pumori have a reasonable basis to assess whether they are ready for Everest, Cho Oyu, or other 8000-metre peaks.

The mountain has a moderate fatality rate by Himalayan standards. Avalanche risk on the South Ridge has caused most fatalities. In 2008, two French climbers died near the summit in a fall during descent. Pumori is climbed by serious mountaineers and not generally by the commercial expeditions that have shaped the modern character of Everest. The mountain remains a climber's mountain.