The Himals of Nepal: A Guide to the Himalayan Sub-Ranges

In Nepali the word himal (from Sanskrit hima, 'snow') means a snow mountain or a group of snow mountains, and it is the standard geographic term for a Himalayan sub-range. Rather than treating the Nepal Himalaya as one continuous wall, the Survey Department of Nepal and international references such as the Himalayan Index and the Alpine Club divide it into around twenty named himals. Each himal is a cluster of peaks that share a common massif, are drained by the same river systems, and are usually named after their highest or most prominent summit.

The himals are separated from one another mainly by deep transverse river gorges cut by rivers that predate the mountains and kept pace with their uplift. The Kali Gandaki Gorge, often described as the world's deepest, separates the Dhaulagiri Himal from the Annapurna Himal; the Arun River bounds the Mahalangur Himal on the east; and passes such as the Nangpa La divide the Rolwaling Himal from the Khumbu. These natural boundaries are why a range name in a peaks table (for example 'Mahalangur' or 'Annapurna') is a precise geographic label, not just a marketing term.

This directory covers the seven himals most searched by students, trekkers and geography learners: Mahalangur, Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, Kanjiroba, Kumbhakarna, Ganesh and Langtang. Along the way it ties in the neighbouring Kanchenjunga (Kangchenjunga) and Mansiri (Manaslu) himals so that all eight of Nepal's eight-thousanders are placed in their parent range. Peak heights follow the figures used by the Survey Department and standard Himalayan classifications; where sources differ by a few metres, the common value is given.

The Mahalangur Himal, in the far northeast along the Nepal-Tibet border, is the highest sub-range on Earth. It holds four of the world's six highest mountains: Mount Everest (Sagarmatha) at 8,848.86 m, Lhotse at 8,516 m (4th), Makalu at 8,463 m (5th) and Cho Oyu at 8,201 m (6th), together with Nuptse (7,855 m) and Changtse (7,580 m). Everest's height of 8,848.86 m is the joint figure announced by Nepal and China on 8 December 2020 (Mangsir 2077 BS), replacing the long-used 8,848 m.

Geographers divide the Mahalangur into three subsections: the Khumbu group around Everest on the western international border, the Barun group entirely inside Nepal to the south, and the Makalu group nearest the Arun River in the east. Its glaciers, including the Khumbu, Ngozumpa and Barun on the Nepali side, feed the Dudh Koshi and Arun, which are tributaries of the great Koshi (Saptakoshi) river system.

The range spans Solukhumbu and Sankhuwasabha districts in Koshi Province. It is protected by two national parks: Sagarmatha National Park, established in 1976 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, and Makalu Barun National Park, established in 1992 as the eastern extension of Sagarmatha. Because it contains Everest and the Khumbu trekking region, Mahalangur is by far Nepal's most globally famous himal.

At Nepal's extreme eastern edge, in Taplejung district of Koshi Province, rise the Kanchenjunga (Kangchenjunga) and Kumbhakarna himals. Kanchenjunga Main, at 8,586 m, is the world's third-highest mountain and the highest point in India-Nepal border geography of the eastern Himalaya. The massif also carries several subsidiary 8,000 m and 7,000 m summits and marks the eastern end of the high Nepal Himalaya.

Immediately west of Kanchenjunga stands the Kumbhakarna Himal, whose dominant peak is Kumbhakarna, better known internationally as Jannu, at 7,710 m (about the 32nd highest in the world). Local Limbu people call it Phoktanglungma. Jannu is renowned among mountaineers for its sheer north face, one of the most technically difficult big-wall climbs in the Himalaya. It is a distinct named himal even though it belongs to the greater Kanchenjunga massif.

Both himals lie within the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area, gazetted in 1997 and covering roughly 2,035 sq km of Taplejung. The area is managed with strong community involvement and protects habitat for snow leopard and red panda, linking Nepal's eastern parks into the wider Sacred Himalayan Landscape.

The Annapurna Himal is a 55 km-long massif in north-central Nepal, bounded by the Kali Gandaki Gorge on the west, the Marshyangdi River on the north and east, and the Pokhara Valley to the south. Its high peak, Annapurna I Main at 8,091 m, is the world's tenth-highest mountain and was the first eight-thousander ever climbed, by Maurice Herzog's French expedition on 3 June 1950. Annapurna I remains notorious for one of the highest fatality-to-summit ratios of any 8,000 m peak.

Beyond the main summit the range packs an extraordinary density of high peaks: Annapurna II (7,937 m), Annapurna III (7,555 m), Annapurna IV (7,525 m), the Annapurna Fang (7,647 m) and Gangapurna (7,455 m). On its southern rim stands the sacred, unclimbed fishtail peak Machapuchare (Machhapuchhre, 6,993 m), which is closed to mountaineering. The range overlooks Pokhara and forms the backdrop to the Annapurna Base Camp and Annapurna Circuit treks.

Annapurna sits across Kaski, Lamjung, Manang and Mustang districts in Gandaki Province and lies entirely within the Annapurna Conservation Area. Managed by the National Trust for Nature Conservation and covering 7,629 sq km, it is Nepal's first and largest conservation area, making the Annapurna Himal both a mountaineering and a conservation landmark.

West across the Kali Gandaki Gorge from Annapurna rises the Dhaulagiri Himal, named from the Sanskrit dhawala giri, 'dazzling white mountain'. Its summit, Dhaulagiri I at 8,167 m, is the world's seventh-highest peak and the highest mountain lying wholly within a single country's borders. Dhaulagiri I and Annapurna I face each other across the gorge only 34 km apart, with a vertical difference of more than 6,500 m between summit and river, one of the most dramatic reliefs on Earth.

The Dhaulagiri range is really a chain of high summits running west from the main peak: Dhaulagiri II (7,751 m), Dhaulagiri III (7,715 m), Dhaulagiri IV (7,661 m) and Dhaulagiri V (7,618 m), continuing to Churen Himal (about 7,385 m), Putha Hiunchuli (about 7,246 m) and Gurja Himal (7,193 m), with Tukuche Peak (about 6,920 m) near the Kali Gandaki. This makes 'Dhaulagiri range peaks' a genuine cluster of seven-thousanders, not a single mountain.

The himal spreads across Myagdi, Mustang and Dolpa districts, straddling Gandaki and Karnali provinces. Unlike Annapurna it has no single dedicated national park, though the Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve, Nepal's only hunting reserve, adjoins it to the south and the western peaks border the Dolpa protected landscape.

North of the Kathmandu Valley in Bagmati Province lie three closely grouped himals. The Ganesh Himal, named after the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh, straddles the Dhading, Gorkha, Nuwakot and Rasuwa districts along the Tibet border. Its main peaks are Yangra (Ganesh I) at 7,422 m, Ganesh II (7,118 m), Pabil (Ganesh IV, 7,104 m) and Salasungo (Ganesh III, 7,043 m). The range is prized for its unspoiled, low-traffic trekking trails.

Immediately east is the Langtang Himal, the closest major himal to Kathmandu, roughly 60 km north of the capital. It is crowned by Langtang Lirung at about 7,227 m (some surveys give 7,234 m), with peaks such as Langshisa Ri and Dorje Lakpa nearby. The range lies within Langtang National Park, gazetted in 1976 as Nepal's first Himalayan national park, spanning Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Sindhupalchowk. Adjoining it to the southeast is the compact Jugal Himal, topped by Dorje Lakpa (about 6,966 m).

Because they are reachable in a day or two from Kathmandu, Ganesh, Langtang and Jugal are central to Nepal's domestic and near-capital trekking, and Langtang National Park protects red panda and Himalayan forest habitat right at the doorstep of the country's largest city.

Far to the west, in the remote Dolpa region of Karnali Province, rises the Kanjiroba Himal (Kanjirowa). Its highest summit, Kanjiroba, reaches 6,883 m, making it the tallest peak of Nepal's western interior himals. The range sits at the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and forms the high heart of the trans-Himalayan Dolpo landscape made famous by the turquoise Phoksundo Lake.

The Kanjiroba Himal lies within Shey Phoksundo National Park, established in 1984 as Nepal's largest and only trans-Himalayan national park, covering about 3,555 sq km across Dolpa and Mugu. The dry, rain-shadowed valleys here support snow leopard, blue sheep and a living Bon and Tibetan-Buddhist culture, giving the range as much cultural as mountaineering importance.

Beyond Kanjiroba, Nepal's far west holds several more named himals for the complete list: the Saipal Himal (Saipal, 7,031 m) in Bajhang and Humla, and the Byas Rishi Himal on the Darchula-Bajhang border, whose peak Api (7,132 m) is the highest in far-western Nepal within Api Nampa Conservation Area. These Sudurpashchim ranges close the country's Himalayan chain at its western end.

The clearest way to read the himals is to trace each of Nepal's eight 8,000 m peaks to its parent range. Four of the eight sit in a single sub-range, the Mahalangur, which is why that himal is spoken of as the roof of the world. The remaining four are spread one each across the Kanchenjunga, Dhaulagiri, Mansiri (Manaslu) and Annapurna himals, running roughly east to west along the spine of the country.

The same logic organises the many seven-thousanders: Jannu belongs to Kumbhakarna, the Ganesh and Langtang peaks to their namesake himals, and the Dhaulagiri II-V chain and Churen-Gurja peaks to the Dhaulagiri Himal. Understanding this parentage turns a flat list of Nepali peaks into a map of coherent, named mountain groups, which is exactly how the Survey Department and climbing registers record them.