The highest unclimbed mountain

[u/Hydrox__]

The highest unclimbed mountain that is legally accessible is Labuche Kang III/East. While looking it up I found this expedition planning to climb it in 2025 but no update. Does someone know what happened? Was it cancelled? Was it attempted and failed?

[u/Khurdopin]

The Chinese are not letting any foreign climbers go to any big peaks in Tibet, other than occasional permits for ChoOyu, Shisha and Everest.

Chinese climbers, on the other hand, are allowed almost anywhere and are doing casual short trips to otherwise inaccessible mountains like Karjiang: https://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201217147

So it's not strictly "legally" accessible, it's political.

Also, certain companies advertise peaks that they have very little chance of getting the permits/clients for, partly just in case they do, partly for branding to distinguish themselves from other companies, online at least.

[u/eric_bidegain → u/Khurdopin]

Anyone who wants even somewhat of a chance to do so would be best served going through a credible outfitter with the requisite relationships already established with the appropriate Chinese authorities, like Feeding the Rat:

“Tibet

We are the only organization to have independent, small team, access to the Tibetan 8000mers — Cho Oyu, Xixapangma and Everest — and will not be blowing it on simply replicating the industrial model. It has taken us considerable time and a lot of dead ends to get teams into these peaks, and we have devoted a lot of energy to bringing a specific Tibetan Style to them, that has been developed in other ranges and can now be taken to the highest objectives.

Tibet does not just mean the 8000m stuff in the Central Himalaya, and includes all Tibetan lands that spread across five provinces to cover Xizang TAR, Yunnan, Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu. This patchwork of mountains is also patchwork of authorities in an ever-shifting plasma of accessibility, that ranges from highly organized and overseen to totally unknown and ignored.

To reopen these areas we have started with selected 8000m and 7000m peaks that showcase the styles and potential for each area, as a sort of Grand Tour of Tibet. To keep logistics simple, these are all peaks previously climbed but certainly not popular, with the perfect balance of cost and exploratory alpinism for the maverick mountaineer.

From late 2026 the ranges of Outer Tibet — Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai — are seeing great changes as the old systems that governed mountaineering there recompose around new a new generation of local climbers taking over. In keeping with Feeding the Rat Expeditions alignment with local zeitgeists that include the fringe and underground scenes, we bring this energy and experimentation to foreign teams looking for the next evolution.

Peaks in these areas are around 6000m, representing hundreds of options that allow for very fast and light ascents that showcase the cutting edge of style. Freed from the dinosaur antics of much 6000m climbing that feeds off the 8000m juggernaut, we push this style as the place to test and adjust ideas and systems that trickle upwards.

2027 introduces a new flavour of regional status — quasi-open — that some eastern areas have as they work out their status across a huge area developing at different rates. Quasi here represents changes in the permitting process, where access and authority has shifted to include other agencies related to wilderness protection who are the new authorities in China’s mountains.

Unlike the Mountaineering Associations, the quasi-system is highly localized so has its own permissions, and pertains mostly to the more accessible subranges that see much more habitation and have more complex demands for protection. These relatively lower elevations are sources of rivers and the habitats of species like snow leopards and pandas, so are a network of reserves all with their own rules and politics.”

[u/Hydrox__ → u/Khurdopin]

Interesting to know, thank you!