Annapurna 2
Annapurna II is the 10th tallest mountain in Nepal. It is also the 17th tallest mountain above sea level in the world. This is my favorite mountain on the Annapurna Circuit Trek because of its prehistoric and dormant volcanic look. It reminds me of Death Mountain from the Legend of Zelda, but with out the death. This article contains informative information about Annapurna 2.
Location
Annapurna 2, as the name suggests, is in the Annapurna mountain range. It is the eastern most mountain of the range and the 2nd tallest. The tallest mountain is Annapurna I. The Annapurna mountain range is about 35 miles north west of Pokhara, as a bird flies. The closest point attainable by car is about 55 miles north west of Pokhara.
How to get to Annapurna 2 to see
It takes about 12 hours to reach Chame from Pokhara by bus with a car transfer. Chame is the most common starting point of the Annapurnna circuit. If you want to start at the beginning of the circuit, you will start trekking in Besisahar, which is about 66 miles and 3 hours away from Pokhara on the Baglung PVT highway. Chame is the first village on the trek where you can see Annapurna 2.
The best place to see Annapurna II is along the secondary trail up to Milarepa’s Cave.
Routes to the summit of Annapurna 2
There are a few different routes to the summit of Annapurna II. Richard Grant, Chris Bonington and Ang Nyima were the first people to officially summit Annapurna 2. They climbed to the summit using the west ridge in 1960.
Katsuyuki Kondo solo climbed the north face then hiked the west ridge to the summit in 1973.
Tim Macartney-Snape mapped out and climbed the south spur of Annapura II in 1983. His team was caught in a blizzard after their summit, which delayed their decent for a week. They were thought to be dead until they were seen having drinks in Pokhara. This created a lot of media attention.