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Know Your Himals
| FROM ISSUE # 146 (February 2008) | IN THIS ISSUE | |||
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From this issue onwards WAVE will launch a Mountain Quiz. A photograph of a mountain in Nepal will be printed which readers will have to identify. There will a short writeup of the mountain peak from the previous issue and more pictures of the mountain from various angles. 
FEBRUARY MOUNTAIN
Machapuchre
The most awe-inspiring mountain in the Nepal Himalaya: the symbol of Vishnu, regarded as holy by all ethnic groups living in its shadow.
It's striking and near-pyramidal silhouette from Pokhara has struck every visitor who
has visited central Nepal since the Swiss geologist Toni Hagen compared it to Matterhorn (only three times bigger) in 1952. Machapuchre is so named because when seen from the west and east, the summit becomes two peaks and looks distinctively like a fish tail. From the Annapurna Sanctuary to the north, the mountain isn't pyramidal anymore but has a snowy 'head' with a huge overhang near the top.
From every which way, the mountain is difficult to climb. Legend has it that Colonel Jimmy Roberts climbed it in the 1950s, but had to keep quiet about it because he didn't have permission. The mountain has been closed to climbing expeditions because it is said to be holy, and the government also wants to keep the sanctity and mystery of some of the mountains in Nepal.
But it's not just the shape of the mountain that is distinctive. Topographically, at 6993m, Machapuchre is only 30km on a straight line from Pokhara, which is located at only 850m above sea level. Such a sheer difference in altitude exists in only a few places on earth and that is what makes this mountain so prominent and dramatic.
Almost everyone knows what Machapuchre looks like from Pokhara like this photo that shows one of the ultralights from Avia Club Pokhara (left) look like it is sitting on the summit. But did you know that these other pictures are also of Machapuchre from different directions from the east (right) and from the north (middle).
MARCH MOUNTAIN QUIZ
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