Gauri Sankar, Mountain peak in Rolwaling Himal, Nepal and Tibet Autonomous Region

Gauri Sankar is a massif in the Rolwaling Himal with two summits: the northern, higher Shankar peak at 7,134 m and the southern Gauri peak at 7,010 m. Grey rock with pale vertical streaks rises from dark lower ridges, and snow and ice fill the gullies and cover the upper slopes. The two summits are joined by long, corniced ridges, and the massif rises above the Bhote Kosi valley only 5 km to the west.

Attempts in the 1950s and 1960s failed due to weather, avalanches and difficult ice faces, and the mountain was closed to climbing from 1965 to 1979. In 1979 an American-Nepalese expedition reached the main summit via the west face, with John Roskelley and Dorje Sherpa fulfilling a permit rule requiring equal numbers from both nations. That same year a British-Nepalese team led by Peter Boardman climbed the southwest ridge to the 7,010 m southern Gauri summit on November 8.

The name pairs Gauri, a form of Parvati, with her consort Shankar, a form of Shiva; the northern summit is Shankar and the southern is Gauri. Sherpa people call the mountain Jomo Tseringma. The peak is held sacred by people in Nepal and Tibet, and the poet Johannes V. Jensen mentions it in "Som dreng skar jeg skibe".

The peak rises above the Bhote Kosi valley, about 100 km northeast of Kathmandu, and is visible from the city. The Rolwaling Chu to the south leads to the Tesi Lapcha pass, the route into the Khumbu region. The mountain was closed to climbing from 1965 to 1979; permits now require an equal number of Nepalese and foreign climbers on the summit team.

The meridian of this peak determines Nepal's standard time and establishes the GMT+05:45 time zone for the entire country. This geographic role creates an unexpected link between a remote mountain and the timekeeping of an entire nation.