The mountains don’t give you a second chance. Either you conquer your fear and scale their virgin summits, or you let fear conquer you and stick to what you know best – being a tourist with a backpack and a bewildered expression at every new sight or sound.

Mount Everest, the ‘Mother of the Universe’ is known as Sagarmatha in Nepal. Towering egotistically heavenwards, it is 8850 metres above sea level. Kanchenjunga, the third highest in the world, is slightly less formidable at 8586 metres. Although credited with the first ascent, the mighty summit has been proclaimed the “Untrodden Peak” – thereby challenging posterity to prove otherwise.

Cho Oyu (8210 metres) is known as the “Goddess of Turquoise”. Its majestic summit is best described in the words of Dr. Herbert Tichy, the Viennese author who led an expedition in 1954 and felt “an almost unearthly sense of joy – worth far more than a few frozen fingers.”