Highest Peaks in Uttarakhand: 60 Peaks, Listed & Explained

Mountains of India › Highest Peaks in Uttarakhand

Last verified 4 Nov 2026

Which is the highest peak in Uttarakhand?

Uttarakhand holds two Himalayan regions. Garhwal, in the west, carries the Gangotri glacier peaks above the source of the Ganga, the Badrinath and Kamet group near Tibet and most of the Nanda Devi group. Kumaon, in the east, holds Panchachuli, Nanda Kot and the Kuti valley on the Nepal and Tibet borders. Most of the big summits stand in four districts: Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Pithoragarh and Bageshwar.

There is no single official count of the state’s peaks; Wikipedia’s list has about 200 above 6,000 m. Our table covers the 60 notable ones in the dataset behind our Indian Himalaya guide, each with its height, district, first recorded ascent, grade and status. Where sources differ by a metre or two, as for Nanda Devi (7,816 m or 7,817 m), we use the most-cited figure.

Three climbing firsts happened here. Trisul I (7,120 m) in 1907 was the first 7,000 m summit ever climbed. Kamet in 1931 was the first summit above 25,000 ft. Nanda Devi in 1936 was the highest summit climbed until 1950. More in our climbing records timeline.

Permits for climbing in Uttarakhand

Indian climbers apply on the state’s UKMPS portal (mountaineering.uk.gov.in/ApplyPermit) and pay no state fees in 2026. The IMF rules for Indian teams, such as a qualified leader and members with basic or advanced mountaineering courses, still apply.

Foreign nationals need IMF permission, applied for at least 90 days ahead, with a liaison officer and insurance. The IMF base fee for a team of two is US$500 for peaks up to 6,500 m, US$700 for 6,501–7,000 m and US$1,000 above 7,000 m, plus US$500 for liaison-officer equipment; per-member charges apply (IMF, checked 1 Oct 2026). Details in our IMF permit and fees guide.

Border areas. The valleys near Tibet need an Inner Line Permit: in Chamoli this covers the Mana, Niti and Rimkhim areas (issued by the SDM Joshimath, with an online pass announced in February 2025), and Uttarkashi’s Nelong valley and the Pithoragarh border areas need one too. Foreigners need a Protected Area Permit. Gangotri National Park needs its own permit, online or from the Uttarkashi forest office.

Mountaineering in Uttarakhand: the 2026 opening

On 3–4 February 2026, on the direction of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board and the Forest Department opened 83 peaks between 5,700 m and 7,756 m across Garhwal and Kumaon. News reports named Kamet, Nanda Devi East, Chaukhamba, Trishul, Shivling, Satopanth, Changabang, Panchachuli and Neelkanth among them.

It builds on two earlier steps. In August 2019 the Ministry of Home Affairs opened 137 peaks to foreign climbers, 51 of them in Uttarakhand. In July 2022 the state ended the “dual fee” charged by both the IMF and the Forest Department since 2004, and opened 30 unclimbed peaks and 10 trekking peaks.

Want to climb? Where to start

Uttarakhand’s open peaks are mostly technical expeditions of 6,500–7,800 m: 12 in our table are above 7,000 m and 29 more are between 6,501 m and 7,000 m. Most climbers build up to them over several seasons.

• Learn the basicsThe Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi runs 28-day basic and advanced courses, with 2026 batches in March–June and September–November. See our mountaineering courses guide.
• First summitFriendship Peak (5,289 m) above Manali in Himachal, the classic first snow climb.
• First 6,000 m peakYunam (6,111 m) in Lahaul, or Deo Tibba (6,001 m) for a glacier expedition.
• Bigger objectivesReo Purgyil (6,816 m), Himachal’s highest, before a 7,000 m peak like Kamet.

Keep exploring

Sources

1. Wikipedia — List of mountain peaks of Uttarakhand
2. Uttarakhand Forest Department — Mountaineering Permission System (UKMPS)
3. Uttarakhand Forest Department — Kamet peak page
4. ETV Bharat, Feb 2026 — Uttarakhand opens 83 Himalayan peaks, waives fees for Indian climbers
5. The News Mill, Feb 2026 — Uttarakhand opens 83 Himalayan peaks for mountaineering expeditions
6. eUttaranchal — Uttarakhand opens 83 Himalayan peaks for mountaineering
7. Indian Mountaineering Foundation — peak fees for foreign expeditions
8. PIB (Ministry of Home Affairs), Aug 2019 — 137 peaks opened to foreign expeditions
9. American Alpine Journal — Uttarakhand rule changes and the Draupadi ka Danda avalanche
10. Outlook Traveller — Gangotri National Park reopens: dates and permits
11. The Statesman — Online ILPs for tourist places on the Indo-China border in Uttarakhand
12. Nehru Institute of Mountaineering — 2026 course programme (PDF)