Molamenqing, also known asPhola Gangchen, is an eastern outlier ofShishapangma, the14th-highest peak in the world. Both are in theJugal Himal, a subrange of theHimalaya inTibet. (This range is contiguous with, and often considered a part of, theLangtang Himal.) Its elevation is also given as 7,661 m (25,135 ft); the elevation given here is from a Chinese survey.[2] Molamenqing is little-known, partly since it does not have much independent stature. Itstopographic prominence, i.e. its rise above the saddle connecting it with Shishapangma, is only 430 metres, which is relatively small for a Himalayan peak, although large enough for it to qualify in some reckonings as an independent peak.
Molamenqing did enjoy a temporary fame in the early 1980s. At the time it was one of the highest unclimbed peaks in the world (using a prominence cutoff low enough to qualify it as a separate summit). A team fromNew Zealand applied to theChinese authorities to climb the peak, and became one of the first Western teams to be allowed to climb in Tibet since beforeWorld War II. The team succeeded in making the first, and so far the only, ascent of the mountain. They started from the east side of the peak, but their long route went via the north side of Shishapangma and approached the summit from the west.
The Himalayan Index lists no other attempts on this peak.[4]
