EVEREST CLIMBING ROUTES
There are 18 different climbing routes to the top of Mt. Everest with the South Col in Nepal or the Northeast Ridge Standard in Tibet being the most popular. With the rise of guided climbing the most ascents are made only on two aforementioned routes. There are various camps at different elevations which serve as depots for supplies and weigh stations for climbers during ascents and descents. There are five established camps on the South Col Route. Everest base camp at the end of the Khumbu glacier in Nepal lies at 5300 meters.
Mark Jenkins wrote in National Geographic: Although there are numerous established climbing routes on Everest, which straddles the Nepal-China (Tibet) border, two routes see 99 percent of the traffic. The North Col route, which originates on the Tibetan side, is regulated by the Chinese government. It costs about one-third the Nepal price but requires more technical climbing near the summit and is attempted by far fewer climbers than the Southeast Ridge route, which rises from the Nepalese side. [Source: Mark Jenkins, National Geographic, February 20, 2014]
One of the most difficult challenges of mountain climbing and a much lesser used route is the East Face of Mt. Everest on the Tibetan side. In 1983 six American climbers made it to the top of Everest following this route. Their most dangerous obstacle was a 1067-meter (3,500-foot) rock wall, which the climbers said was the equivalent of taking a rock face in Yosemite Park and covering part of it with ice, jacking it up to 6070 meters (20,000 feet) and immersing it in snowstorms with 50 mile-per-hour winds. Above the rock wall was 2,346 meters (7,700 feet) of avalanche-prone slopes. [Source: Andrew Harvard, National Geographic, July 1984 ♦].
It took the American climbers 28 days to climb the rock wall, but only ten days to cover the remaining 2,346 meters to the summit. The last camp before the top of the wall was set up on an ice ledge, barely wide enough for a two man tent. During their ascent of the 1,067-meter cliff, the climbers wore eight kilogram (30 pound) packs and relayed their supplies using pulleys, 1220 meters (4000) feet of rope and 80-pound supply bags propelled upwards by rockets normally used to launch lines between ships on the open sea. ♦
One camp was set in place the climbers nicknamed the Bowling Alley because of the rock and ice that fell on them. At the summit the Americans met two Japanese and Sherpa who had come up from the Nepalese side. On the way down these three climbers plunged to their death and the Sherpa fell right in front of one of the Americans.♦
Everest Climb and Ferrying Supplies
It generally takes about two months to climb Mt. Everest. Most of that time is spent waiting around various camps to get acclimated to the altitude and waiting for good weather conditions. The Everest Base Camp (BC) area — on the Nepalese side anyway — is like a high-tech refugee camp, with kitchen tents, dining tents, satellite dishes, boom boxes, video equipment, portable generators and even makeshift restaurants, bars and partying areas. Altogether climbers often spend about three months in Everest area. It takes about 10 days to three weeks to trek to and from Everest Base Camp from Lukla, the nearest airstrip. Once at Everest Base Camp it takes an average of 40 days to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest.
Above Everest Base Camp on the Nepalese side of the most-used climbing route to the summit of Everest — the South Col Route — are four camps: Camp One (C1), Camp Two (C2), Camp Three (C3) and Camp Four (C4). In the old days a greater part of an expedition was spent ferry supplies up to the camps, and going back down and repeating the process. There is still of this done today to some degree but a lot of this kind of work is done by Sherpas and porters. A lot of time is spent just sitting in the camp getting used to the altitude. The going up and down and acclimatizing generally takes a couple of weeks up to a month. When weather conditions are right climbers make their final assault from Camp Four, try to make the summit, and return to Camp Four for the night. The next day climbers can usually descend all the way Everest Base Camp.
Safety worries due to carelessness and poor judgment are increasingly becoming a concern. Omkar Khandekar wrote in the South China Morning Post: Although the Nepalese government fixes support ropes all the way to the summit at the beginning of every climbing season, every ascent is fraught with risks. It can still be a chore getting supplies up the mountain. Climbers traverse the section between base camp and Camp 1 as many as 10 times to ferry supplies.
Hillary and Tenzing’s Everest Expedition
The expedition that Hillary and Tenzing were part of included more than 400 people, including team of a half dozen climbers as well as a brain surgeon, a doctor, a physicist, a photographer, a physiologist, an agricultural statistician, a schoolmaster, an oil company executive, oxygen tank technicians and a poet and 35 Sherpa guides and climbers and 362 Sherpa and Nepalese porters, many of them veterans of previous British expeditions. The porters carried a total of 18 tons of equipment, food and supplies. Altogether nine camps were set up on Everest.
Morris wrote in Smithsonian magazine: The expedition “had a strong military element — most of its climbers had served in the armed forces. Most had been to the well-known English private schools. Several were at Oxford or Cambridge. Two were citizens of the most loyally British of the British dominions, New Zealand. One was from Nepal, and therefore seemed a sort of honorary Briton. Nearly all had previous Himalayan experience.”
The expedition spent more than three months on Mt. Everest. Morris wrote: “The expedition went like clockwork. It was rather like a military campaign. Hunt took few chances in his organization and tested everything first. He’d brought two kinds of oxygen equipment , for instance, and climbers tried them both. Camps established on the mountain flanks enabled men to haul equipment up in stages, and when they were sick or overtired...they went down to the valleys to rest.”
After the arriving at Everest Base Camp, much of the expedition involved sending coordinated teams up the mountain, carrying supplies to increasingly higher camps on the icy slopes and dangerous rock ledges. The ten tons of supplies was ferried up and down the mountain with everyone doing their share. Hillary estimated that by the time he reached the summit the had climbed Mt. Everest three and a half times: Between Base Camp and Camp I he went back and forth four times over four days in mid April. During the process of moving 1.5 ton of stuff to Camp II Tenzing prevented Hillary from falling in a crevasse. After Camp VI was established at 24,000 feet, Hillary and Tenzing brought up supplies from base camp. They also moved supplies between Camp V at 21,000 feet and Camp VII on the South Col at 26,000 feet.
Tibetan Side of Mt. Everest
The Tibetan side of Mt. Everest (on the Nepalese border near the Tibetan monastery of Rongbuk) looks like a completely different mountain than the naked black peak visitors see from the Nepalese side.
The route that most Everest mountain climbers have taken on the Tibetan side is on the northeast Ridge. This was the route taken by Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb Everest solo, and George Mallory who got within 2000 feet of the summit in 1922 before he disappeared.
The Tibetan east face is a massive wall of ice rising out of the desolate Tibetan plateau. This side of the mountain, scaled first by an American expedition in July 1984, can be reached from the village of Kharta.
Qomolangma National Park was established in 1989. It covers 13,000 square miles and is home to around 80,000 people. It stretches northward from Mt. Everest onto the Tibetan plateau..
Tibetan Climbing Route on Mt. Everest
The Tibetan Route on Mt. Everest avoids the dangerous traversal of the Khumbu Icefall but involves more climbing skill and more time above 25,000 feet. The base camp is located at 17,000 feet. From there the ascent is relatively easy and gentle to Camp I at 18.300 feet and Camp II at 20,000 feet. To reach Camp III at 21,300 feet and Camp IV at 23,100 feet requires traversing glaciers and snowfields.
One of the most difficult parts of the climb is up the somewhat technically demanding rock face to Camp V at 25,600 feet. From here mountaineers follow a ridge crest all the way to the summit. Camp VI is located at 27,200 feat. The last section entails getting past the First Step and the Second Step, a 90-foot-high rock wall at 28,300 feet which now can be traversed using a ladder placed there by a Chinese team.
Alan Arnette wrote: “On the Tibet side, a dedicated team of Tibetan climbers perform the same duties” as Sherpas fixing rope on the main route. They set the route from Advanced Base Camp to the summit and the commercial teams do not participate in the effort. The ladder at the 2nd Step, installed in 1975 is attached permanently but has been replaced a couple of times. [Source: alanarnette.com, April 21, 2017]
Chinese First Ascent from the Tibetan Side of Mt. Everest
The Chinese made the first successful conquest of the summit — and third overall — from the north in 1960 using this route, Mallory and Messner also used it. Led by Shih Chan-Chun, the team reached the summit on May 25, 1960. No teams from other countries tried from this side until 1980 because Tibet was closed from 1950 to 1980. Three Chinese climbers — Wang Fuzhou, Gong Bu and Qu Yinhua — reached the summit. Before the climb the team were told by Zhou El Lai before the ascent: “Get to the top, or die trying."
There biggest obstacle for the Chinese Everest team was a sheer face of ice-covered rock called the Second Step. Qu said, “We made three attempts at the 30-meter cliff. We went this way and that way, but it was no use. We were exhausted and night was falling...The English had said that not even a bird could fly across the Second Step. But then we noticed a crevice of 20-30 centimeters in width." Unable to get a good grip, Qu took off his four-kilogram boots and sock and climbed the crevice in -40̊C barefoot. Qu said, “I could just hear Premier Zhou words in my head. I knew that greater things than one man's feet were at stake — it was a question of national honor." It took more than five hours for Qu to get over the Second Step and help Wang and Gong. Just after midnight they began the final ascent," reaching the summit at 4: 25am.
At the summit the scribbled the time and date on a piece of paper and placed a statue of Mao and a Chinese flag in a canister which they buried at the summit and picked up a rock which the presented to Mao (the rock now sits in the National History Museum in Tiananmen Square). The team spent less than a minute at the summit. Because it was dark they took no photographs. Because not photos were taken there have been allegations that the feat was faked and was not recognized by the international climbing community until 1975, when another Chinese team made it the summit using the same route, bringing along a 25-meter ladder to get over the Second Step.
South Col Route
The South Col Route on the Nepalese-side of Mt. Everest is the most heavily traveled route up the mountain. The route begins at the 5,400-meter (17,700-foot) -high base camp, which is accessible to helicopters and trekkers, and traverse the Khumbu Icefall and Western Cwm (a Welsh for “Valley,” pronounced “koom”) to the South Col, a small saddle between 8,516-meter (27,840-foot) -high Lhotse and the summit of Everest. From the South Col, climbers ascend a ridge called the cornice to the summit.
The South Col route is not technically demanding. There are routes in the Alps and the Cascades that are much more difficult in terms of climbing walls of ice and rock and getting across crevasses. What makes Mt. Everest so dangerous is the weather and altitude.
John Branch wrote in the New York Times: “Every spring, as hopeful climbers from around the world trek to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, an elevation of about 17,500 feet, to begin acclimating for a summit push in May, a team of local Sherpas is hired to create the season’s route up the mountain. They establish the course up more than two vertical miles that hundreds of others will follow. First, the “icefall doctors” set ropes, ladders and makeshift bridges through the notoriously dangerous, ever-shifting Khumbu Icefall immediately above Base Camp. Others keep moving upward, setting anchors and stringing ropes until they reach the summit. The process can take weeks, and is often delayed by bad weather. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
The route to the summit of Everest changes slightly each year, depending on variable conditions, like the snowpack or snow slides. In 2017, it opened on May 15, later than usual. The new route was strung near previous ones, and the worn, faded ropes of past seasons could be seen threaded among the rocks and through the snow.“Only when the ropes are fixed to the top does the Everest climbing season open. It usually lasts only a few weeks, squeezed between the route opening in early May and the projected start of the monsoon at the end of the month.”
Mt. Everest Climb According to Guinness World Records
According to Guinness World Records: Want to join the Five Mile High Club? Want to reach the highest point on earth? Well, if you have 60 days (and around £40,000 ($62,000)) to spare, here is a typical route – one of many – to the top of the highest mountain on Earth, via the south-east ridge:
BASE CAMP 5,380 meters (17,700 feet): Acclimatize here for two weeks. When you’re ready, begin your hike to Camp I at 3 a.m., before dawn, when the ice is at its most solid.
CAMP I 6,056 meters (19,900 feet): Garden step-ladders are used to cross deep crevasses in the Khumbu Icefall; if you survive the treacherous terrain, Camp I will provide much-needed relief.
CAMP II 6,500 meters (21,300 feet): Temperatures between Camps I and II can get blisteringly hot; beware of thin snow bridges spanning 60-m (100-ft) drops.
CAMP III 7,470 meters (24,500 feet): A fixed-rope climb leads to a small ridge and Camp III; high risk of avalanche here; and beware of traffic jams with other climbers!
CAMP IV 7,920 meters (26,000 feet): It might be time to crack open the bottled oxygen after conquering the “Yellow Band” and “Geneva Spur” – the two energy-sapping barriers between Camp III and IV.
SOUTH SUMMIT 8,690 meters (28,500 feet): You will see your first proper view of the top from this rest point; it may be only a mile (1.5 km) away, but it can take a further 12 hours to get there.
EVEREST SUMMIT 8,848 meters (29,029 feet): Beyond the “Balcony” you tackle the “Hillary Step” and the “Summit Ridge”... then you’ve made it – the highest point on Earth, from which point you'll be treated to great views
Camps on the South Col Route
Base Camp is located at 5,400 meters (17,700 feet). There are four camps on the South Col route, three of them between the base camp and the South Col. Camp 1 is located at 5,821 meters (19,100 feet), Camp 2 at 6,492 meters (21,300 feet) and Camp 3 at 7,467 meters (24,500 feet). Camp 4, the last camp before the summit, is situated at about 8,000 meters (26,246 feet).
Climbers usually traverse the distance between each camp in one day and wait at the camp and climb around in vicinity of it a couple of days, getting used to the altitude, before moving on to the next one. They also move back in forth between the camps ferrying up supplies in stages (most of this work is now done by the Sherpas and porters).
After spending at least a week at the Base Camp, climbers usually climb to Camp 2 and spend two nights there. Then they go to Camp III and spend one night there and advance to Camp IV and spend one night there. On the fifth day after leaving the Base Camp, climbers attempt to reach the summit and return to Camp IV, where the spend the night. Then the next day they descend to Camp II, spend the night there, and descend to the Base Camp.
Base Camp
The Everest Base Camp (BC) area — on the Nepalese side anyway — is like a high-tech refugee camp, with kitchen tents, dining tents, satellite dishes, boom boxes, video equipment, portable generators and even makeshift restaurants, bars and partying areas. Altogether climbers often spend about three months in Everest area. It takes about 10 days to three weeks to trek to and from Everest Base Camp from Lukla, the nearest airstrip. Once at Everest Base Camp it takes an average of 40 days to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest.
Everest Base Camp is located at an elevation of 5400 meters (17700 feet). According to mounteverest.net: “The worlds languages mix in thrilling accounts of the latest adventures. Journalists, families and climbers exchange news and emotions between the mountain and the world. For no alpine peak fires imagination like Mount Everest. [Source: mounteverest.net mounteverest.net]
“You handle the latest tech gear, but wash your clothes in frozen lakes, where you crush the ice and work quickly before it freezes over again. Drying up, the damp clothes freeze into strange ice formations at night. The same happens to your wet hair. And your toothpaste. You finish your meal quickly for it immediately cools on your plate. You eat buffalo meat. It's fresh until it starts to smell. Then you wait. After a few weeks the odour vanish. At that point your Everest Base Camp sherpa-cook start to include it in your diet again, as a very special buffalo jerky.
“You listen to the frequent avalanches coming down Nuptse, Lho La and Pumori. You throw silent glances at the icefall and listen as it collapses with a horrendous crash. Base Camp is a place of hope, fear, frustration, conflicts and life-long friendships. Some climbers will experience their dream fulfilled, others will have to return home with an unfinished task. You'll look around you and try to guess. But only destiny will know which fate is to be yours.”
Khumbu Icefall
The Khumbu Glacier is located between Mt. Everest and the Lhotse-Nuptse ridge. The terminus is at an elevation of 4,900 meters (16,100 feet). The source is at 7,600 meters (24,900 feet), making it the world's highest glacier. It is also the largest glacier of Nepal. The final part of the trail to Everest Base Camp on the Nepal side follows Khumbu Glacier. The start of the glacier is in the Western Cwm near Everest. The glacier has a large icefall, the Khumbu Icefall, at the west end of the lower Western Cwm.
The Khumbu Icefall is the first major obstacle on South Col Route to the summit of Everest. Situated between 5500 and 6100 meters (18000 and 20000 feet), it used to be regarded as most technically demanding and dangerous part of the ascent up Everest (excluding weather and latitude). It still is very dangerous but ladders and fixed ropes set up each year make it much easier to negotiate than when Hillary and Tensing and early Everest pioneers did it.
The Khumbu Ice Fall was created by the collapse of a large part of the Khumbu glacier. It is prone to avalanches, sudden shifts of blocks of ice and the sudden breaks of the ice that can produce crevasses and collapse 30-meter-high ice walls. A shifting, constantly-moving cataract of ice about a two kilometers (a mile and a half) long, the ice fall rises 610 meters (2000 feet) above the base camp and is hemmed in by shear cliffs on both sides. There is no way get around this jumbled, groaning mass of ice except to traverse it or take a completely different route. Dozens have died in avalanches and falls in crevasses.
According to mounteverest.net: “Luckily enough, it has at least become standard that the icefall is fixed by a sherpa "icefall doctor" and all expeditions have to pay. The cost for each expedition for the Icefall is about US$300 per person.” In the late 1990s and early 2000s “costs rose and service fell, for a few years. The reliable Icefall doctor sherpa from earlier years was replaced by a new (probably cheaper) not so reliable one, hired by a commercial expedition leader new to the task. The icefall doctor in 1999 actually left the icefall unmaintained on several occasions, causing us to pull as many as every second screw at times. The abandonned ice fall even caused a few sherpas to fall from ladders. After that, a reliable sherpa team was assigned by the Ministry to do the icefall and we have not heard complaints since. [Source: mounteverest.net mounteverest.net]
“There are countless scary things that can happen” at the Khumbu Icefall. “A crevasse might open under you. An ice-pinnacle can fall on top of you. The entire area can collapse. It's simply not a place for a picnic and most of us just concentrate on getting out of there as quickly as we possibly can. Be sure to always clip in to the ropes. But also to unclip fast if an avalanche strikes. Should that happen, take cover behind a wall or a pinnacle. Jump into a crevasse as a last resort. The avalanche could be small, but hurl huge ice boulders at you. Watch carefully for ice pinnacles posing in a nasty angle. Do definitely not have your snack brake below one of these. They snap in a second.
The climb take 5-8 hours if not acclimatized; 3-5 hours after acclimatization. Set off for the icefall early in the morning. Climbers usually head out at 4-5 AM. Don't leave Everest Base Camp later than 6 AM. The icefall thaws later in the day and avalanches become more frequent. Plus you'll boil. Occasionally, you will encounter a large wall of ice. Those walls are usually roped, use your jumars. Climb the ropes by kicking your crampons into the ice and then lean on your legs. Don't hang on the rope, it is exhausting and dangerous.
Ladders on the Khumbu Icefall
Alan Arnette wrote in his blog: One of the famous features of climbing Everest are the ladders used to cross crevasses. In the Khumbu Icefall, there are between 20 and 30 crevasses. In the Western Cwm, there can be a few more and finally a couple at the base of the Lhotse Face. One the north side, there are several near crampon point as climbers ascend to the North Col. Most Nepal side climbers will make at least four round trips through the Icefall meaning they will cross over 200 crevasses. [Source: alanarnette.com, 2013]
“The ladders are not always straight across a crevasse, in fact almost never. They can go down, straight up, be positioned at an angle, anything but horizontal. There can be dual ladders in high traffic areas. Sometimes an up ladder and a down ladder. Most teams will practice crossing ladders with their full size 8000 meter boots and crampons on while at Base Camp just to get the feel for it.
“Approaching the ladder, you pause for an inspection. How many ladders are lashed together? Not too bad if only one, but three, four or more, it sinks in the middle, it bounces. Watching a Sherpa crossing ahead, you see the wobble – left, right, up, down. The safety lines are in place so you look at the anchors, the place where they are secured to the ground, or more accurately, the snow or ice. The thin nylon line is tied in a squirrelly knot through a hole in an piece of bent aluminum – a picket. That’s all? Looking across the crevasse you see the rope tied to an ice screw, but in the hot sunlight the hole has melted out and the ice screw bobs freely.
“Knowing you have little choice, you approach the ladder. Carefully, slowly, you move your feet towards the edge. Bending over, you grab the right hand safety line, then with your other hand you press the locking mechanism of your carabiner inwards and clip onto the line. Your ‘biner is tied to your harness with a short piece of nylon webbing. Repeating this procedure, you are now hooked on both safety lines. Your life is now in the hands of the makers of nylon.
“Your crampon’s front points jut out from your boot as you focus your eyes on the first rung. The question is whether to put the mid part of your sole on the rung or to gingerly put your front points on one rung and the back of your boot on the trailing rung. The latter runs the risk of being caught when you lean forward, forcing the rung tightly against your crampons. Only a Cirque du Soleil move would allow you to free yourself. Seeing the Sherpas make this move gives you confidence so you move forward. The right boot settles on the ladder, then your left foot moves quickly in place. You hold onto the ropes with a grip so tight that if you fell, your shoulder would dislocate before your grip would release.
“Your hands are slightly behind you to pull the line taught. All of a sudden, the line goes tight from both sides. Teammates have squatted at both ends of the ladder to pull the rope tight making it more of a rail. You appreciate this and return the favor at the next crossing. One step is followed by the next and then a third. Your eyes focused on the ladder, your boot, your knee – anything other than the seemingly bottomless pit below you....A few more steps, your foot reaches the snow covered ground.... Looking around you feel good. Only 199 more ladder crossing to go.
According to mounteverest.net: “Check the ropes and the screws before entering a ladder. Cross the ladders slowly and carefully. Try to fit your crampon between two rails. Sometimes, a nearby avalanche or heavy wind sets the ladder in motion. Just stay calm and focus on each step and you'll be fine. It helps to lean on the ropes, either backwards or forward, depending on the angle of the ladder. The ropes are slack, so leaning on them stretches them and provides a better balance. Even more helpful is if your climbing buddy stretch the ropes for you while you cross the ladder.” [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
Camp 1 and Camp 2 of the Southern Col Everest Route
Camp 1 is located in an area called the Valley of Silence at 6100-6400 meters (20000-21000 feet) . According to mounteverest.net: “This is a vast, flat area of endless snow, deep crevasses and mountain walls frequently washed by avalanches. Here we set up camp 1. At night we listen to the deep, murmuring cracking sounds under our tents. It is the crevasses opening and closing deep down in the glacier beneath. You keep your fingers crossed that it won't happen right under your tent. At least not just now, while you are in it. Be sure to set camp away from tiny cracks, those possibly hiding the mouths of large crevasses. Pounding headaches torture you. But it is here that for the first time, just a few steps around a corner, we gain first close sight of Everest. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
The climb take 4-7 hours if not acclimatized; 3-5 hours after acclimatization. Climb this area clipped to the fixed ropes, since crevasses lay hidden everywhere under the snow. You could remove your crampons on this climb. Sometimes, weather can turn this usually easy part into a difficult one, due to deep snow and whiteout. Always start out in good time. Stay away from the walls, they avalanche frequently. Later in the season (end of May) this snowy area starts to turn rotten and can turn quite nasty.
Camp 2 sits ar 6400 meters (21000 feet). After an endless, slow march through the silent valley, you reach at last a rocky patch, at the foot of the icy Lhotse wall. This marks camp 2. This place is absolutely stunning. Clouds roll in from the lower ranges of the Himalayas, up the valley and into the camp. While acclimatizing, we spend time looking for cool old climbing gear; left here by all of Everest's climbing history. This is also the last chance to get a decent, prepared meal. We eat all we are handed because soon we'll be surviving on instants only. Don't camp too close to the Everest face, since it avalanches once in a while. Although tempted to idly hang around camp, bring yourself to take walks to the Lhotse face. It will speed acclimatization and relive altitude problems. The walks force you to breathe deeper and faster, thus saturating your body with more oxygen.
Describing the part of the climb above Camp 2 by a Sherpa team in a hurry, John Branch wrote in the New York Times: “It was late May, the tail end of the Everest climbing season, when five hired Sherpas quietly left Camp 2 at 1 a.m. Into the dark they carried ropes and oxygen canisters, but no food, only a little bit of water and a plastic half-liter bottle of Coke. The Coke froze quickly in the bitter temperatures, even inside their packs. When they wanted a sip, they used a small stove to melt ice and put the bottle in the warm water to turn it back to liquid. They turned their oxygen on low at what they called the “crampon point,” an hour above Camp 2, where the trail becomes predominantly ice and climbers attach crampons, with fang-like spikes, to the soles of their boots. Sherpas typically use oxygen only in the death zone, at Camp 4 and above, but they wanted to move quickly. Oxygen was fuel, feeding the lungs and the blood, and it allowed them to keep a brisker pace than usual. Each man had two bottles, enough to last about 24 hours, they figured. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
Camp 3 and the Climb at Lhotse Wall
Camp 3 is situated near Lhotse Wall which stretches from 6800 to 8000 meters (22300 to 26300 feet). According to mounteverest.net: The camp here is a true eagle's nest, placed right out of the wall. Going to the toilet at night is a tedious task to dress and secure oneself. In addition, just to find a spot for it on this narrow platform is tricky enough. But the view is grand and by now you are well on your way to the summit. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
The climb towards the wall is a flat walk that gets you nicely warmed up. At the wall, you will step in to the ropes and the icy incline begins immediately. After an hour or so, you will reach the "Ice bulge", an icy, bumpy part. After that, it is a pretty uneventful, steep ice climb to Camp Three. Occasionally, you will hear a howling sound and watch rocks catapult down the wall. Blocks of ice sometimes come falling behind climbers. Watch your head, lean on your legs (not the rope) and rest on the lines only occasionally.
The climb take 5-8 hours if not acclimatized; 4-6 hours after acclimatization. It will be either easy or hard, depending on weather. A dry, cold season means sheer, blue ice. Maintain your crampons sharp. Deep snow makes the climb easier, but increase the risk of avalanche. The dangerous part is to hang on to rope of dubious strength and to change carabiners between the ropes. You might feel not too clear in your head, especially upon coming down, but it's crucial to concentrate. One slip and you are gone, far higher up than you had intended really.
After Camp Three, you will traverse the wall towards the Yellow Band and the Black Turtle. These are rocky sections on the wall, secured by a tangle of old and new ropes. Check the ropes well and watch for rock falls from climbers above you. Another traverse takes you to the foot of the last wall to Camp Four. This part is steep but not very high and soon you'll put your nose above it's edge, thus entering the land of the spirits ' the Death zone.
Camp 4, at the Death Zone
Camp lies at about 8000 meters (26000 feet), at the edge of what is called the Death Zone. Camp 4 is the last camp before the summit. Climbers wait here for the right weather condition to launch their assault on the summit. The amount of time they can wait is limited by the amount of supplies they have, particularly dear oxygen.
According to mounteverest.net: Camp 4 sits on a plateau resembling a moonscape. You are at the edge of the atmosphere and the sky owns a strange, dark blue color. It is surely the closest you can get to space on earth. Only a small climb above camp, you look down on the Tibetan plateau with it's vast brown plains, white glaciers and the other alpine giants — Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu -in the distance. It's all magic and unreal.” The circus atmosphere of Everest Base Camp is far away. Only fear remains on everyone's face. People don't talk a lot. Resting in your tent, feeling weak already, you try to get some sleep as night falls outside. In a couple of hours you will start to put on your gear for the final part of the adventure — the summit push. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
“The wall towards the summit is steep and dark, you are in the death zone and you can't help thinking that within the next 48 hours, there is a very real risk that you might not live. Go over your gear in daylight. Have everything neatly organized. Drink at least 3 liters of fluid or more if you can. Bring another 2 liters of hot fluid on the climb. Get your axe ready, prepare the Hot Tronics. You will feel great as long as the day is bright but lose spirit fast when night falls. The cold, scary darkness outside is anything but inviting. The wind rustle the tent canvas. You will probably not be able to sleep a wink. Take it easy. As soon as you start out on the climb you will feel much better. Fear is always worse than reality.
John Branch wrote in the New York Times: In the area above 8,000 meters from Camp 4 to the summit, a dearth of oxygen and brutal weather kill those who dare stay exposed too long. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases, and with the thin air comes less oxygen for the lungs and the bloodstream. The body tries to overcome it by sending more blood to the brain, which can cause swelling, leading to symptoms like headaches, nausea and exhaustion. At extreme heights, a condition known as high-altitude cerebral edema can also cause a lack of muscle coordination, impaired speech, confusion and hallucinations. As the body continues to fight for equilibrium, it sends blood to the lungs. High-altitude pulmonary edema results in coughing and major breathing problems. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
“The sun’s strong rays at high altitudes can burn the skin and eyes, causing snow blindness. The subfreezing temperatures, exacerbated by perpetually strong winds, cause frostbite, killing the skin and the underlying tissue, especially in the extremities. Confused and numb, climbers sometimes react to the onset of hypothermia by shedding their clothes, believing they are burning up, not freezing to death. It is why those who die in extreme conditions, like the ones on the slopes of Everest, are often discovered in a state of undress.
Assault of Mt. Everest's Summit from Camp 4
Camp 4 is the last camp before the summit. Climbers wait here for the right weather condition to launch their assault on the summit. The amount of time they can wait is limited by the amount of supplies they have, particularly dear oxygen. When the weather is right the climbers begin their ascent at six or seven hours before sunrise so they have enough time to reach the summit and get down. Even though the summit is only about a kilometers and half (a mile) away and 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) higher on the narrow Southeast Ridge, the journey can take 10 hours because the difficulty of exerting oneself at such a high elevation.
John Branch wrote in the New York Times: “The summit of Everest cannot be seen from Camp 4, but much of the route can. It leads up a series of ropes, used by every Everest climber, that are tied to anchors drilled into the rock and ice and set by Sherpas at the start of the season. The route leads across a barren ice field, sliced with deep crevasses, and shoots up a steep and rocky slope until it reaches a small flat spot, a burr on the side of the mountain. The landing is known as the Balcony, and from there it is two hours or more along the exposed, knife-edged Southeast Ridge to the South Summit — at 28,700 feet, it would be the world’s second-highest peak, if it were considered separate from Everest. From the South Summit, the top of Everest finally emerges in full view, tantalizingly close up a serrated ridge. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
“The round-trip journey from Camp 4 takes some people less than 12 hours, and experienced guides and climbers know that it should take no more than about 18 — 12 hours up, six hours back. Most follow a rule that at a predetermined time — rarely later than noon — all climbers still moving up should retreat. Prolonged exposure is dangerous, and sometimes deadly, because of the unpredictability of afternoon weather, the limited number of oxygen bottles that can be carried and the toll caused by extreme elevation and temperatures.
According to mounteverest.net: “Finally, the hour is come. At about 11 PM we put on the final gear and step out in the night. There, in the distance, we can see a worm of light slowly moving up a dark wall. It's climbers head torches flickering in the dark. It's completely silent. Nobody talks. If you do, you whisper. It is absolutely terrifying and you climb and climb, awaiting fthe first ray of dawn. It's desperately cold. It's steep and at parts very icy. The ice axe and the crampons barely cut into the ice. You need to pee. Forget it. Someone turns around. "Can't go on, good luck". [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
“A cold, white moon rises from below, but you hardly glance at it or even the bright twinkle of Universe above. The adrenaline keeps your body moving. And then, suddenly, after hours and hours of despair, you notice a thin blue beam of light at the horizon. Sunrise! If you are lucky, now is the time for the fabled mountain ghost. The mountain projects itself onto the morning fog. The shadow towers in front of you like a giant mirage. Beneath lies the world in all its glory, glowing in the rising sun. You feel the warmth and all hope returning.
Describing the final assault climber and filmmaker David Breashears wrote in National Geographic, "A dozen of us set off from the South Col, climbing by out head lamps and the dim light of the stars. Ed broke the trail for us in the knee-deep snow, a herculean effort. Because we were suffering from the physical effects of the thin air at high altitude, we hadn't slept for more than a few hours in the past three days or eaten more than a few crackers. "Our bodies were dehydrated. Our fingers and toes went numb as precious oxygen was diverted to our brains, hearts and other vital organs. Climbing above 26,000 feet, even with bottled oxygen, is like running on a treadmill and breathing through a straw. [Source: David Breadshears, National Geographic, September 1997]
Deadly, Tardy Everest Summitting Attempt in 2016
John Branch wrote in the New York Times: On the afternoon of May 20, 2016, four climbers from West Bengal, India — Goutam Ghosh, Subhas Paul, Paresh Nath and Sunita Hazra — anxiously rested inside a tent at Camp 4. They wore oxygen masks and bright, bulky snowsuits filled with down. They sipped tea and munched crackers. There was little chatter. Now, finally, after weeks at Base Camp and on the lower slopes of Everest, they were within reach of the summit. If all went well, they would be back at Camp 4 within 24 hours, on their way home to India, where Everest summiters are revered as conquering heroes. “Everesters,” they are called. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
“In the early evening, after dark and later than they had planned, they emerged from the tent, each with a guide. The sky was clear and the moon was full. A line of headlamps slinked up the face of the mountain above them. A woman and two guides were the first of 74 people to reach the summit that day, at 3: 36 a.m., according to the Himalayan Database. The last recorded time for climbers reaching the summit was 11 a.m. The West Bengal expedition stood at the Balcony well after dawn, resting and taking in the majestic views of snow-covered peaks and cloud-shrouded valleys. There were four clients and only three guides because Nath’s guide appeared to stay behind at Camp 4, for reasons never understood. Other climbers were already coming down, having reached the summit hours before.
“The Base Camp manager for the Indian expedition received a radio call from Bishnu Gurung, the only one of the group’s guides with experience reaching the summit of Everest. He said he recommended to the clients that they turn back, but they refused. “I told them, ‘If we are still on the Balcony at 10 in the morning, how can we reach the top?’ ” Gurung said. Ghosh cried at the prospect of giving up, Gurung later said. Paul began ascending on his own. “I stopped there just to check if he will return back if I didn’t continue,” Lakpa Sherpa, Paul’s guide, said. “I thought he would listen to me. Sherpas can’t use force or hit him in that situation. They are our guest. All we could do is convince. As he wasn’t convinced, I followed him.”
“Only Nath was persuaded to turn back to Camp 4. The three other Indian climbers persisted. The three guides joined them, carrying a dwindling amount of oxygen and a growing sense of dread. “I thought that I won’t return back,” Lakpa Sherpa recalled. Throughout the late morning and early afternoon, dozens who had reached the summit descended past the Indian climbers. Paul Pottinger, a Seattle doctor, reached the summit at 7: 48 that morning. He wore a camera on his head to record much of his daylight descent on the rope, a one-way lane used by both those going up and coming down. Negotiating past oncoming climbers can be a slow, clumsy and dangerous exercise.
“Pottinger passed Paul and his guide, Lakpa Sherpa, well below the South Summit. Lakpa Sherpa asked for the time. Pottinger lifted the sleeve of his jacket to expose his watch, visible to the camera. It was 10: 23. He repeatedly told the guide that it was 10: 20. He later speculated that the guide wanted Paul, his client, to hear how late it was. “Who climbs Everest without a watch?” Pottinger said months later. “Now I wonder if he had a watch. And I wonder if he was really saying, ‘Please tell my guy to stop because I can’t.’ ”
“Minutes later, Pottinger passed Pasang Sherpa, Hazra’s guide, climbing alone. At 10: 45, on a particularly steep pitch at an anchor tangled in a knot of ropes, Pottinger passed a group of three: Ghosh, Gurung and Hazra. “The timing could scarcely have been worse for all of us, jammed together at the steepest section of the day,” Pottinger wrote in an online diary of his expedition. “But they made it by and continued up. How many more people will be headed up at this time of day? Damn it’s late. But, as before, I said nothing to them about this. And, as before, it haunts me to this day.” Paul and Lakpa Sherpa reached the summit at 1: 45 p.m., according to the camera later recovered from Paul’s body. There were 31 photographs taken at the summit over 16 minutes.
Knife Edge of Everest
Perhaps the scariest part of the final assault is a cornice ridge with a 3,000 meter (10,000) drop into Tibet on one side and an equally precipitous drop into Nepal on the other side. Crossing this section is particularly difficult when the Mt. Everest is buffeted by 60 and 70 mile per hour winds. Here at 8,550 meters (28,050 meters) climbers have to walk along a 60 meter (180-foot) -long knife edge ride that is only 8 to 12 inches wide.
According to mounteverest.net: “You kick your feet to beat the oncoming frostbite. You are at the Balcony, having a short rest, changing to a new oxygen bottle. A ridge lay ahead, and just above you, not far at all, is the South Summit. You begin to enjoy the view, and the possibility of success. Finally, you step up onto the small plateau of the South Summit, and there — just around the corner — is the Everest summit itself! You have watched it so many times from the distance, and suddenly it is so strangely close. Just right there, only 95 meters (310 feet) away. You can almost touch the white tail of snow. When you reach the South Summit you are just a couple of hours from your dream come true. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
“But there is one more obstacle in your way. The Knife Ridge. You will gasp upon seeing it. It is steep and looks truly nasty. The ridge towers almost freely over Nepal and Tibet, it's sharp and very steep. Hillary Step is in the middle somewhere, a rock climb in the sky. You step onto the ridge via a small, half open tunnel from South Summit. You climb with your crampons at a sharp, crooked angle towards the side of the ridge. Occasionally, the snow gives way and you slide down for a hairy second. This is not a place to climb without fixing ropes. Clip in carefully, focus on each step and keep moving. If there is a lot of snow, the ridge could be almost wide and quite nice. We had a dry, sharp climb.
Ignoring a Dying Climber to Reach the Summit
John Branch wrote in the New York Times:“The last time anyone saw” Goutam Ghosh “alive was on the evening of May 21, 2016, when it was obvious that he would become another fatality statistic, soon frozen and as inanimate as the boulders around him. Ghosh was a 50-year-old police officer from Kolkata, part of a doomed eight-person expedition — four climbers from the Indian state of West Bengal and four Sherpa guides from Nepal — that ran out of time and oxygen near the top of Everest. The four Bengali climbers were eventually abandoned by their guides and left to die. [Source: John Branch, New York Times, December 19, 2017]
“To get around him, climbers and their guides, sucking oxygen through masks and double-clipped to a rope for safety, stripped off their puffy mittens. They untethered the clips one at a time, stepped over and reached around Ghosh’s body, and clipped themselves to the rope above him. Some numbly treated the body as an obstacle. Others paused to make sense of what they saw — a twisted man still affixed to the rope, reclined on the slope as if he might continue climbing after waking from his awkward slumber.
“Apparently abandoned at his time of greatest need, he was a mute embodiment of their worst fears. One climber stepped on the dead man and apologized profusely. Another saw the body and nearly turned around, spooked by the thought of his own worried family back home. Another paused on his descent to hold a one-sided conversation with the corpse stretched across the route. “Who are you? Who left you here? And is anyone coming to take you home?”
Hillary Step
The most difficult part of the final assault is Hillary Step, a sheer, near-vertical rock outcropping that is about 13 meters (40 feet) high and located at an elevation of 87,90 meters (28,839 feet), 61 meters (200 feet) below Everest’s summit. It is named after Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to summit Everest. Hillary called it “the most formidable obstacle on the ridge.” He managed to climb it using a crack to one side. Tenzing Norgay, the other first Everest sumitteer, followed and the pair continued to the summit. [Source: Jason Burke in Khumjung, The Guardian., May 27, 2013]
Hillary and Tenzing managed to climb the vertical crack it by bracing their feet against one side and backs against the other. Hillary later wrote in National Geographic: “Tenzing and I faced the icy, narrow final ridge to the summit. Some on our team predicted the ridge would be impossible to climb, but it didn’t look so bad to us. After attaching fresh oxygen bottles to our masks, we set off. I led the way, hacking a line of steps with my ice ax. After about an hour we came to a 40-foot-high rock buttress [Hillary Step] barring our path — quite a problem at nearly 29,000 feet. An ice cornice was overhanging the rock on the right with a long crack inside it. Beneath the cornice the mountains fell away at lowest 10,000 feet to Kangshung Glacier... Would the cornice hold if I tried to go up? There was only one way to find out.”
“Jamming my crampons into the ice behind me, I somehow wriggled my way to the top of the crack, using every handhold I could find. For the first time I felt confident we were going to make it all the way. To the right I saw a rounded snow dome and kept cutting steps upward...We were starting to tire. I had been cutting steps continuously for almost two hours and wondered, rather dully, if we would has strength enough left to get through. I cut around the back of another hump and saw that the ridge ahead dropped away and that we could see far into Tibet.”
According to mounteverest.net: “The Hillary step was, in our opinion, not too bad. Although very exposed at parts, the climb is fast and feels safe, given the conditions. The danger is to get tangled in the ropes. Bring a good knife. Check the ropes well for strength. After the step, you will spot white, strange wave-formations of frozen snow pointing out from the summit. Keep climbing towards them. This section is usually unroped, yet not too steep. Still, be careful and use your axe. You might eagerly look for the summit now, yet all you'll see is a white edge on the horizon. You will not know how far you have left and feel frustrated and tired. Then you reach another white edge, but this time ' it doesn't continue. Behind it, there is instead a slope down. You are peeking down at the North side of Everest. You have reached the summit, friend. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
Hillary Step Gone?
Hillary Step was significantly changed — some say destroyed — apparently by the massive earthquake that struck the Everest region of Nepal in 2015. Jay Bouchard wrote in Outside Online: “Ascending Everest may be easier now that one of the most difficult features en route to the summit has crumbled, veteran mountaineers say. American climbers Garrett Madison and Ben Jones, both of whom summited Everest in the final weeks of May, 2017 tell Outside that the Hillary Step has been significantly altered. In its previous form, the step was comprised of four large boulders and several smaller rocks stacked on top of each other. But both Madison and Jones tell Outside that the main boulder — the largest and highest rock in the feature — is gone. Both join other observers in speculating that the boulder was shaken loose during the massive earthquake that hit the region in 2015. [Source: Jay Bouchard, Outside Online, June 12, 2017]
“The consensus is that the Hillary Step is a shell of its former self. “The boulder formally know as the Hillary Step is gone,” Madison says. “It’s pretty obvious that the boulder fell off and has been replaced by snow. You can see some of the rocks below it that were there before, but the gigantic boulder is missing now. Now, instead of the Hillary Step, you have some snow steps on a 45-degree angle. And it actually makes the climbing much easier because instead of ascending this pure vertical rock face, it’s just walking up some snow steps with a fixed line.”
“Madison, who completed his eighth summit of Everest on May 23, sent Outside before and after photos of the Hillary Step—one image from 2011 and another from 2017—that show where the boulder is missing. Dave Hahn, an experienced guide who has summited Everest 15 times (more than any non-Sherpa climber), reviewed the images at Outside’s request. “The photos show pretty conclusively that a large mass of rock is missing. I’d say that [main] boulder is absolutely gone,” he says. Hahn also noted that there are “scars” of lighter rock exposed that didn’t exist before, but he hopes to examine higher resolution photos in the future.
“Speculation regarding the Hillary Step’s condition began in 2016 when climbers summited Everest for the first time since the earthquake. But there was so much snow near the summit in 2016 that mountaineers couldn’t determine whether the step was gone or just buried. The debate ignited in mid-May, when British mountaineer Tim Mosedale posted a picture of the step on Twitter with a caption that read, in part, “The Hillary Step is no more.” However, soon after his post, Nepalese officials disputed Mosedale’s claim, telling CNN it was a “false rumor.”
Summit of Mt. Everest
The summit of Mt. Everest is about the size of a living room. A Sherpa once stayed there for 21 hours but otherwise no one has stayed there for more than a few hours. After the making his goal after 57 hours with no sleep, Jon Krakauer wrote, "I just couldn't summon the energy to care." After reaching the summit it takes about 8 to 10 hours to descend to Camp.4
Some become so become so enraptured by the vista they stay too long and put their lives in danger. Buck Weathers, a climber who lost his hands and nose and nearly died wrote, "There was something about being up there, sitting alone with that incredible panorama and knowing that once you took that first step to go down, it was over. You had worked so many years to be there. I wanted to hold on to it. Unfortunately, as you do that, what you don't recognize as happening is, you're not moving and you begin to get very cold, and you start to get apathetic."
According to mounteverest.net: When leaving for the summit, you should calculate for at least 18 hours, to be on the safe side. Head out at around 11 PM, arrive at South Summit by 7 AM and the main summit at 9 AM. This is considered a very good time. If the snow is just little deeper and the wind just a little higher, you could just as easily summit at 12 or even 2 PM. Never ever summit later than 2 PM! Allow 4 to 6 hours for descent. If staying one hour at the summit, we are looking at a time span of 15 to 21 hours. If your average use of oxygen is 2,5 l/m, you'll need at least 4-5 POISK bottles to be sure. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
Coming Down from the Summit of Everest
It takes about four to eight hours to descend from the summit to Camp 4. According to mounteverest.net: “Most accidents occur upon climbing down. Be sure to have enough oxygen to come back. Don't relax for one moment. The climb is tricky all the way down to the Balcony ' the final ridge before the wall back down to camp 4 and the South Col. Even the wall after the Balcony is dangerous if unroped. You will encounter a couple of bodies of deceased climbers here. [Source: Tom Sjogren, mounteverest.net]
“In 1998, the last part of the wall towards Camp Four was not fixed and 8 people took pretty bad falls. Luckily enough, all climbers survived that time. We climb this part roped to each other if the fixed ropes aren't there. If the weather turns bad, the fixed ropes might get buried or you won't be able to see them. Make memory maps on you climb up for this situation. Bring a compass.
“A blue ice bulge will mark the last obstacle back to camp. There are some crevasses there, usually recognizable as streaks of white snow. Avoid them. Finally, you will stumble back down onto the flat, rocky South Col. And take the last exhausted steps towards your tent, throwing yourself into it. And now ' after almost 30 hours of strenuous climb, terror and doubts ' you'll fall into the deepest and happiest sleep of your life. Exceeded only by your awakening in the morning; the suns rays softly warming you, as you slowly come to a wonderful, triumphant realization; that you actually, really, really made it. You are an Everest summiteer!
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Nepal Tourism Board (ntb.gov.np), Nepal Government National Portal (nepal.gov.np), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022