Sacred Summits: Kangchenjunga, the Carstensz Pyramid, and Gauri Sankar

Mountaintops have long been seen as sacred places, home to gods and dreams. In one climbing year Peter Boardman visited three very different sacred mountains. He began on the South Face of the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea. This is the highest point between the Andes and the Himalaya, and one of the most inaccessible, rising above thick jungle inhabited by warring Stone Age tribes.

During the spring Boardman made a four-man, oxygen-free attempt on the world's third highest peak, Kangchenju...