Annapurna II: the eastern sentinel of the Annapurna range

The confusion is understandable. The two share a name, a massif, and a reputation for seriousness, and casual sources often blur them together. But conflating the two produces real errors: Annapurna II has never carried the statistical death toll of Annapurna I, and it is a different climbing problem with a different route history. This page treats Annapurna II strictly as itself, the second-highest and easternmost of the great Annapurna peaks, and points to the Annapurna I guide for the eight-thousander and its fatality record.

Annapurna II was first climbed on May 17, 1960, by a British-Indian-Nepalese Combined Services Expedition led by Lieutenant Colonel J.O.M. (Jimmy) Roberts, a towering figure in the history of Nepalese mountaineering and trekking. The team worked its way up the north face and northwest ridge of Annapurna IV, established a high camp on the shoulder where the long west ridge branches toward Annapurna II, and placed a final camp near the base of the summit pyramid at about 7,200 m. From there, Richard Grant, Chris Bonington, and Ang Nyima Sherpa climbed the steep final rib to the summit, reaching the top at 4:30 in the afternoon. At the time, Annapurna II was one of the highest unclimbed peaks in the world. For Bonington, then a young army officer, it was one of his first major Himalayan expeditions, the start of a career that would include the 1970 Annapurna South Face and 1975 Everest Southwest Face climbs. The route has been repeated only a few times since, including a Slovenian ascent in 1969 and a later winter ascent, underlining how seldom the mountain is climbed.

Annapurna II earns its reputation for seriousness on the ground rather than in a statistic. The standard West Ridge is long and complex, with sustained snow, ice, and mixed climbing, a demanding summit pyramid, and objective hazards that include avalanche-prone faces, unstable ice, and rockfall exposure. Modern parties often favour the connecting ridge from Annapurna IV precisely to avoid the worst of these dangers, which itself tells you how serious the more direct ground is. The mountain has had only a handful of confirmed ascents, a scarcity that reflects both its difficulty and the logistical effort of reaching it.

Serious attempts on Annapurna II fall in the standard Nepal Himalayan windows: the pre-monsoon spring (roughly April to May, the season of the 1960 first ascent) and the post-monsoon autumn (roughly late September to November), when weather is most settled and the monsoon snow has stabilised or cleared. Winter and monsoon attempts are extraordinarily rare and far more dangerous. Climbing requires a Nepal peak permit and the usual expedition logistics arranged through a Nepali operator, with a liaison officer and local staff, but because so few teams attempt the mountain there is no off-the-shelf guided program the way there is for the trekking peaks or the commercial eight-thousanders. Any expedition here is effectively a bespoke undertaking for an experienced team.

Annapurna II stands as the eastern sentinel of the range, and it is one of the defining skyline peaks of the Annapurna Circuit, one of Nepal’s most celebrated treks. From the Manang side and the eastern approaches, the mountain dominates the horizon, and no technical climbing is required to stand beneath it and take in its full height. If your goal is to experience Annapurna II rather than to climb it, the Circuit is the answer, and it pairs the mountain with the wider spectacle of the Annapurna and Manaslu skylines. See our broader best hiking regions guide for how the Annapurna region compares.