Nilkantha, Mountain peak in Uttarakhand, India

Nilkantha is a peak in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand, rising 3,474 metres above Badrinath, 9 km to the east. Its upper section is snow and ice broken by dark rock ridges, with a 2,500-metre face above the Satopanth Glacier on the northwest side.

The first documented ascent took place in 1974 when an Indo-Tibetan Border Police team reached the summit via the north face. Since then, only a handful of expeditions have successfully climbed the mountain, keeping it a rarely achieved objective for serious mountaineers.

Nilkantha means "blue throat" in Sanskrit, an epithet of Shiva. A myth tells that a route once let the Purahita worship at Kedarnath and Badrinath in one day; when Shiva grew displeased with the worshipper's sins, he rose as this sky-kissing mountain to block the way.

Visitors should expect extreme altitude conditions and difficult terrain, so only experienced climbers with proper gear should attempt the ascent. Access typically starts from Badrinath, a pilgrimage site about 9 kilometers to the east, from where multi-day expeditions begin.

The glacier system around the mountain shows clear signs of climate change, as both the Satopanth and Panpatia Glaciers have visibly retreated over recent decades. These shifts are directly observable to climbers when routes are repeated.