Friday, 23 October 2026
International edition · English
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Everything about himalayas on Altavia: 15 articles including news, guides, routes and features.
15 articles
Mountains seem eternal, but they move. India keeps pushing against Asia and the Himalaya gains a few millimetres every year, while ice, water and earthquakes shape it in the opposite direction.
Hidesuke Taneishi and Tetsu Hashimoto were attempting the first ascent of Gangapurna West (7,140 m), next to the Annapurna massif. Their last contact was on 15 October. A helicopter and a drone made it possible to find them on the south face.
Three Russian climbers are attempting one of Everest's hardest and least repeated routes this autumn. After two days of struggle above the Lho La, coughing, fatigue and harder terrain than expected have forced them back down to Base Camp.
His best so far is 7,537 metres. This autumn he is acclimatising in the Annapurna region, wants to reach 8,000 m before winter and plans to start on Everest on 22 December. He puts his own chances at 20%.
A wall of water more than 100 metres high swept through 60 kilometres of valley in seconds. Two months on, the UN's project services agency calls it one of the most destructive and deadliest climate-related disasters and urges rich countries to keep their promises.
Today is International Snow Leopard Day, created to protect the great cat of Asia's mountains. We look at how many are left, what threatens them and what works to protect them.
The permit for the south side rose from 11,000 to 15,000 dollars, climbers must carry down their own waste and experience requirements are being discussed. We review the measures trying to bring order to the world's most famous mountain.
Not all dangerous mountains are dangerous for the same reason. Some kill with avalanches, others with altitude, unpredictable weather or because they look easier than they are. Fifteen summits and their reasons.
Where a human struggles to breathe, some animals live, hunt and breed. A mouse on the summit of an Andean volcano, a spider above 6,000 metres and a goose that can fly over the Himalaya.
At 3,000 metres every breath carries around 30% less oxygen than at sea level. Your body reacts within minutes, adapts within days… and sometimes fails. This is what happens and what to do.
Some rise on a glacier in Tibet, others at a lost spring in the Andes whose title two mountains dispute. Ten rivers that are still wild, told from their source.
A glacier is a balance between the snow it gains and the ice it loses. When the books come out in the red year after year, it retreats. We explain why this is happening almost everywhere and what it means for us.
Snow is not just scenery: it is a natural reservoir that releases water when it is needed most. When it snows less or melts earlier, rivers, forests, wildlife and the economy of entire valleys change.
It lives in twelve countries, roams huge territories above 3,000 metres and is so elusive that many researchers study it for years without seeing it. This is how the snow leopard survives.
Polyester fibres above 8,000 metres, particles raining from the sky in remote Pyrenean valleys, plastic in Antarctic snow. The mountains are not safe from plastic, and part of the problem is what we wear.
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