A seven-member team from the Korean Alpine Federation (KAF) is attempting what may be the first ascent of Sato Peak, a little-known summit in Nepal’s Kangchenjunga region. Led by veteran climber An Chi-young, the expedition includes Euijoon Lee, Hyungwook Choi, Jiho Choi, Jongmin Baek, Sangkug Lee and Seoyeong Bae.
Nepal’s tourism authorities said the team plans to climb in alpine style, without the support of Sherpas, making the expedition a technically demanding and self-sufficient ascent. The KAF said its members had undergone extensive training, but did not provide details of their preparations, climbing route or summit strategy.
Sato Peak — also referred to in some records as Sat Peak — remains one of the more confusing summits in the wider Kangchenjunga area. Its height is inconsistently recorded, with different sources placing it between 6,164m and 6,220m. The South Korean embassy in Kathmandu welcomed the climbers before departure, saying it hoped the expedition would help strengthen ties between Nepal and South Korea.
Questions over whether the peak is truly unclimbed
Sato Peak lies in the Janak Himal range, northwest of Kangchenjunga, close to the six Sharphu peaks, all of which rise above 6,000m. The mountains were first opened to climbers in the 1960s, before being closed for decades and reopened only in 2022. Since then, several teams have attempted climbs in the area, with some first ascents recorded on neighbouring Sharphu summits.
However, confusion over summit locations and altitudes has led to repeated errors among expeditions and has complicated the work of mountaineering record keepers, including The Himalayan Database and 8000ers.com. In 2022, Italian climbers Stefano Ragazzo and Silvia Loreggian attempted Sato Peak and reached a foresummit known as Sato Pyramide, at around 6,100m. A separate Japanese expedition led by Yasuhiro Hanatani, winner of the Piolet d’Or, made another attempt in 2023.
Despite those efforts, The Himalayan Database still marks the summit as “unclimbed?”, suggesting a Japanese team in the 1960s may have unknowingly reached the true summit while believing they were on Nupchu Peak.
