Annapurna I

It is not the most visually dramatic by the standards of a mountain range that includes Everest and K2.

and Annapurna and Kangchenjunga.

By the metrics that mountaineers typically use to assess a peak, Kailash is notable but not extraordinary.

What makes it extraordinary is something else entirely.

Machapuchare, the fishtail mountain.

A near-perfect double-peaked summit, split into two points that resemble, unmistakably, the forked tail of a fish.

The shape is instantly recognisable, even to people who have never been to Nepal, even to people who could not find Pokhara on a map, because the fishtail silhouette appears on every postcard, every trekking brochure, every tourism poster for the Annapurna region.

It is the icon of the area, the visual signature, the mountain that defines the view from a hundred different angles along a hundred different trails.