Kanchanjunga (8,586m) is the third-highest peak in the world after Mr. K2 in Pakistan and the second-highest of Nepal. It was first climbed by a British team in 1956 A.D. The peak consists of four summits. The west summit, Yalung Kang, is 8420m high and some people classify it as a separate 8000m Peak. The first Westerner to explore Kanchanjunga was the British botanist JD Hooker, who visited the area twice in 1848 and 1849. Exploration of the Sikkim, side of the peak continued with both British and expert explorers mapping and photographing until 1899. In that year a party led by Douglas made a circuit of Kanchanjunga and produced a map which is still one of the most authoritative maps of the region. Exploration continued mostly from the Sikkim side, starting from Darjeeling in British India. One of the major contributors to Western knowledge about the region was Dr AM Kellas, who later died in Tibet during the approach of the 1921 Everest expedition. German expeditions attempt to climb  the peak in 1929, 1930 and again in 1931, but none was successful. After the Sikkim was closed but Nepal still was opened. In 1955 a team led by Dr Charl as Evans approached the peak via the Yalung Glacier. The Japanese then took up the challenge and mounted expeditions in 1967, 1973 and 1974 and they climbed Yalung Kang. A German Expedition group climbed Yalung Kang in 1975, and an Indian army team mounted the second successful expeditions to the main peak of Kanchanjunga.