Api is the highest peak in the Yoka Pahar Section of Gurans Himal

Gurans Himal

The Gurans Himal is a small subrange of the Himalaya in far western Nepal. It is little-known, since it does not contain any 8000 metre peaks, or even any peaks above 7,200 metres. Its highest peak is Api, , which, despite its relatively low height compared to the major Himalayan peaks, rises...

, part of the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalaya Mountains Sanskrit: Devanagari: हिमालय, literally "abode of snow"), usually called the Himalayas or Himalaya for short, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...

 in the extreme northwest corner of Nepal, near the borders of India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 and Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

. It is a little-known peak in a rarely visited part of the Himalayas, but it rises dramatically over the low surrounding terrain.

Notable features

Although low in elevation among the major mountains of Nepal, Api is exceptional in its rise above local terrain; the surrounding valleys are significantly lower than those surrounding most higher Himalayan peaks.

Climbing history

The Api region was visited by Westerners in 1899, 1905, and 1936, but the peak was not attempted until 1953. This attempt was unsuccessful, as was another, by Italians

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

, in 1954 which resulted in the death of two expedition members.

The first ascent of Api occurred in 1960. The Doshisha Alpine Society of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

successfully
completed the Northwest Face route attempted by the 1954 party.

The Himalayan Index lists four more ascents of the peak, in 1978, 1983, 1996, and 2001.