KATHMANDU - Nepal's mountains, including Everest, have long drawn climbers from across the world, but a growing community is exploring hidden summits promising solitude and the chance to be first to the top.
The Himalayan nation is home to eight of the world's 10 highest peaks and welcomes hundreds of climbers every year, making mountaineering a lucrative business.
While commercial expeditions dominate on Everest and other 8,000-metre (26,246-foot) giants, a new generation of adventurers is looking sideways rather than upward -- towards the countless 6,000- and 7,000m summits studding Nepal.
The country has 462 peaks open for climbing and around a hundred have never been summited.
"If you are only interested in the height of the peak then there are limited mountains to climb," French alpinist and veteran expedition leader Paulo Grobel told AFP.
"But if you open your interest to 7,900 metres there is a lot of potential. If you go to 6,900 metres you have many more peaks waiting."
This autumn Nepal has issued 1,323 climbing permits.
While most climbers are part of large commercial expeditions on popular peaks, small, independent teams are dispersed across remote and lesser-known mountains.
Many of these expeditions, including French, Japanese and Swiss teams, are tackling summits in true alpine style: minimal support, no supplementary oxygen, no fixed ropes and carrying all their own gear.
The concept is not new but it is rapidly gaining momentum.