STUNTS ON MT. EVEREST
People have hang glided and paraglided from the summit of Mt. Everest. A Spanish team rode motorcycles on its slopes. A lone Scotsman was last seen at 7,924 meters (26,000 feet) with a shopping bag and two loaves of bread. The first two people to marry on top of Mount Everest were Pem Dorjee and Moni Mulepati from Nepal, on May 30, 2005. In 1996, Goran Kropp climbed Mt. Everest after biking to the base camp from Sweden. He brought only one pair of underwear for the trip.
Aydin Irmak, a Turkish New Yorker who spends a lot of time in Nepal, tried to summit Mt. Everest with his bicycle, in 2012. Grayson Schaffer wrote in Outside.online: Irmak last year attempted to climb Everest while hauling his touring bicycle with a porter's tumpline. Sagarmatha National Park officials ultimately scuttled that plan, but he did summit and was discovered "sleeping" on May 19 near the feature known as the Balcony... Irmak was widely criticized for attempting Everest with literally no mountaineering experience, and he suffered moderate frostbite that required months of treatment. I had no idea he'd returned to the mountain, this time with Seven Summit Treks. Not only that, he claimed he'd befriended the fixing team which had been involved in the widely publicized skirmish at Camp II on May 1 and that they'd invited him to climb with them to the Summit. "I am a kind of a white Sherpa," explained Irmak. [Source: Grayson Schaffer, Outside.onlline, May 14, 2013]
First to descent on a snowboard: Marco Siffredi from France on May 2001
First twins to climb Mount Everest together: Tashi and Nungshi Malik from India on May 19, 2013
In October 2000, Slovenian Davo Karnicar became the first person to ski uninterrupted all the way from the summit to base camp. He descended more than three vertical kilometers (two vertical miles) in less than five hours without removing his skis. He lost two fingers to frostbite in an unsuccessful attempt in 1996. He attributed his 2000 success to good weather and thick snow cover at Hillary Step.
Everest Ariel Records
Houston-Mount Everest Flight Expedition (overflight of summit): David McIntyre and Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton from the United Kingdom on April 3, 1933
First paraglider descent from summit: Jean-Marc Boivin from France on September 26, 1988
Highest of rotorcraft landing (helicopter) and take-off: from the summit of Everest by Didier Delsalle from France on May, 2005
Highest Number of Solo Jumps by Wendy Elizabeth Smith from New Zealand,October, 2008
First Solo Skydiver by Wendy Elizabeth Smith from New Zealand, October, 2008
First Tandem Jump by Tom Noonan - Lucie Fenton from USA - UK, October, 2008
In 1933, two British Westland biplanes make the first flight over Mt. Everest. Powered by super charged engines designed for thin air, they almost crashed after being caught in violent downdrafts near the summit. The window of the cockpit of one aircraft was broken by ice fragments.
In September 1988, Frenchman Jean-Marc Boivin made the first paraglider descent of Everest, in the process also become recording the fastest descent of the mountain and the highest paraglider flight. Boivin climbed the mountain via the south-east ridge. He said: "I was tired when I reached the top because I had broken much of the trail, and to run at this altitude was quite hard." Boivin ran 18 meter (60 feet) from below the summit on 40-degree slopes to launch his paraglider, reaching Camp II at 5,900 meters (19,400 feet) in 12 minutes. Boivin repeated the feat, but was killed two years later in 1990, base-jumping off Venezuela's Angel Falls. [Source: Wikipedia]
In 1991 four men in two balloons achieved the first hot-air balloon flight over Mount Everest. One balloon was manned by Andy Elson and Eric Jones; the other by Chris Dewhirst and Leo Dickinson. Dickinson wrote a book about the adventure called “Ballooning Over Everest.” The balloons were modified to function at up to 40,000 feet altitude. Climber Reinhold Messner called one of Dickinson's panoramic views of Everest the "best snap on Earth". Dewhirst has offered to take passengers on a repeat of this feat for US$2.6 million per passenger
The first parachute jump over Mt. Everest was made in October 5, 2008. Three skydivers from New Zealand, Britain and Canada, didn’t jump from Everest itself as that is too dangerous. Their plane flew about 150 meters above Everest’s peak when they leapt out. They had to wear oxygen masks and parachutes that were larger than usual to help them in the thin air. The three were in freefall for 30 seconds before their chutes opened and they glided down to land. New Zealander Wendy Smith said: "It was stunning. I had never seen so many mountains before. To be on top of the world was simply stunning.” Britain’s Holly Budge said the jump was “just spectacular”. The jumpers entered the record books for making the highest skydiving freefall a nearly 8,900 meters. They also landed on the world’s highest drop zone at 3,761 meters. The jump was part of the ‘Everest Skydive 2008’ event organized by the British extreme sports company High and Wild.
Landing a Helicopter on the Summit of Everest
It has long been said that helicopter rescues at Everest and in the Himalayas above around 6,000 meters (20,000 feet)were next to impossible because helicopter blades don't catch in the thin air. In May 2005, Didier Delsalle, a former French Air Force fighter pilot, set the world record for highest altitude landing of a helicopter when he maneuvered a Eurocopter AS350 Squirrel on Everest’s 8,848 meter (29,029 foot) summit. The flight and the summit landing was recorded by numerous cameras and other equipment to verify it was for real. After sitting on top of the summit for three minutes and 50 seconds, Delsalle lifted off and flew to Tenzing-Hillary Airport at Lukla, Nepal, where he took off. [Source: Wikipedia]
Delsalle’s achievement required extensive testing on site, especially because of the low atmospheric pressure available for the helicopter rotors, winds over 299 km/h (186 mph) and low oxygen levels that affected both Delsalle and the helicopter's engine. Delsalle had to find areas of downdrafts and updrafts to complete the flight, stating: "I found an updraft so strong that I could rise up with almost no power." Delsalle repeated the Everest summit landing the next day. Delsalle used a virtually standard version of the Eurocopter AS350 Squirrel B3, only removing unnecessary elements, such as passenger seats, to reduce the standard weight by 120 kg (265 lb) and thus extend the 1-hour fuel range.
Delsalle told Vertical magazine the landing was a tricky due to the 65-knot winds and the lack of visual references. “When you reach the summit you reach the updraft point, and of course the updraft winds have enough force to throw you away as soon as you put the collective down,” he said. “I had to stick my skids on the summit and push into the mountain to stay on the summit. Another big problem there is that you have no visual of the summit, and you have no specific cues, because you are on the highest point. You are in free air in fact, and you have to try to find where is the summit exactly.” [Source: Airbus, Verical magazine, November 2, 2017
Not only that, Delsalle had his windows open to keep the windshield from icing up with the humidity of his breath. The temperature was -35 C, and because Delsalle doesn’t like to fly with bulky flight suits, he was wearing only two layers of thermal undergarments, plus his flight suit. “But you know, in these conditions, you forget the cold,” he laughed. “You are so hot inside your mind, the cold is nothing.” His time on the summit nearly double the 2-minute skids-on-ground time required by FAI (Fédération Aéronautique Internationale). After investing so much effort in reducing the weight of the aircraft — and even his own weight through dieting — Delsalle actually found that the helicopter was lighter than he would have preferred in the windy conditions. “It was very easy to take off,” he said. “I had just to pull a little bit on the collective and I went to flying very easily.”
Fastest Ascents of Mt. Everest
Fastest ascent of Everest — from South Base Camp (with supplemental oxygen) is 10 hours 56 minutes and 46 seconds by Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa on May 26, 2003. For a while Pemba Dorje Sherpa was listed as the fastest ascent record holder. He reputedly climbed from South Base Camp (with supplemental oxygen) to the summit of Mt Everest in a time of 8 hours and 10 minutes on May 21, 2004. Pemba Dorje's Everest record has now been rejected by the Nepal Supreme Court, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism, and Guinness World Records. Check “A History of Mt. Everest Speed Climbing Records/Claims” by Dan Howitt,
Hans Kammerlander of Italy completed the fastest ever ascent of Mt Everest on the northern side, making the climb from base camp to the summit in 16 hours 45 minutes on May 23–24 1996 This is also the fastest ascent without supplemental oxygen. The longest stay on the summit: 21 hours by Babu Chiri Sherpa from Nepal on May 6, 1999 [Source: Wikipedia]
Pemba Dorje is a Sherpa from Beding, Rolwaling Valley, Dolkha, Nepal. His claimed speed record beat Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa’s record by two hours and 46 minutes. Pemba Dorje's record was initially confirmed by Nepal's tourism ministry. But in December, 2013, Lakpa Gelu Sherpa claimed that Pemba’s record was valid and took his case to Nepal’s Supreme Court. A commission set up to investigate the matter said that Nepal’s mountaineering association, part of Nepal tourism department, validated Pemba Dorje’s record without strict verification in accordance with the tourism law and mountaineering regulations. In November 2017, the commission ruled that Pemba Dorje’s record was not valid and that Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa’ was the holder of the title of "the world's fastest ascent to the Mt. Everest". Pemba Dorje's Everest record has now been rejected by the Nepal Supreme Court, the Nepal Ministry of Tourism, and the Guinness Book of World Records
Blind and Disabled Everest Summiters
In 2003, a 36-year-old American Gay Guller became the first person with one arm to reach the summit An amputee mountaineer with prosthetic in his right foot got within 470 meters (1,538 feet) of the summit. That year
Disabled Everest sumitters:
Amputated foot: Tom Whittaker from United States on May 27, 1998
Blind: Erik Weihenmayer from United States on May 25, 2001
Cystic fibrosis: Nick Talbot from United Kingdom on May 2016
Left arm amputated: Gary Guller from United States on May 23, 2003
Double leg amputee: Mark Inglis from New Zealand on May 15, 2006
According to Guinness World Records: Erik Weihenmayer was born with retinoschisis, a rare hereditary eye condition that left him totally blind by the age of 13. Despite this, on 25 May 2001, he reached the summit of Mount Everest, the first – and so far only – blind man ever to have done so. Erik’s other notable feats include his 2002 completion of the Seven Summits – climbing the highest peak on each of the seven continents of the world. Erik is also an accomplished rock climber, skier and paraglider.
During the May 2001 climb Weihenmayer fell into a crevasse and had his face cut open with an ice ax before he even reached Camp 1. His climb was the subject of a documentary film Weihenmayer participated as a regular member of the team and for the most part climbed like everyone else except he follows the sound of a bell attached to the pack of a climber in front of him, he is alerted by his team mates of difficult sections ahead and he used custom-made ski poles to feel his way ahead. He scoffed at the idea of special accommodations being made for him. He traversed the Khumbu ice fall like everyone else on his team to carry supplies. He crossed it ten times in all. The first time took him 13 hours, the last time only five. [Source: Karl Taro Greenfeld, Time magazine, June 18, 2001]
Weihenmayer had climbed Mt. McKinley in Alaska and Aconcagua in Chile before tackling Mt. Everest. As neared the summit he had certain advantages over the other climbers. He didn’t have the ski masks and goggles that weighted the other climbers down and obscured their vision.
Double Amputee Everest Summitter Criticized for Not Helping Near-Dead Climber
Pete Thomas wrote in the Los Angeles Times: “Mark Inglis' journey to the top of Mt. Everest appeared to be one for the ages, courageous and inspirational, proof that with enough desire a person can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But the first double-amputee to scale the world's tallest mountain may be remembered more for what he didn't do. May 15, the day the New Zealand climber realized his dream of attaining the Himalayan peak, was also the day that David Sharp, a 34-year-old British climber, was hunkered down in a nearby snow cave, taking his last breaths. [Source: Pete Thomas, Los Angeles Times, June 1, 2006]
“Inglis was the first to reach Sharp and one of an estimated 40 climbers who marched on rather than help as Sharp sat in a daze, deprived of oxygen, disoriented and supposedly near death 1,000 feet beneath the summit. Sharp was making his return after reaching the peak. He died on the mountain and remains there...Since Inglis was the one who disclosed what otherwise might have remained a tight-lipped secret — and such secrets do exist — he received the brunt of criticism, including a harsh condemnation from revered Everest pioneer Edmund Hillary.
It is quite common for climbers to see near-dead or severely-stressed climbers near the summit of Everest. According to the South China Morning Post: Mingma David Sherpa saw a corpse for the first time in 2010 while on his maiden expedition to the summit. He also remembers seeing climbers in distress, waiting to be rescued, but had to walk past them because he had to assist his client. [Source: Omkar Khandekar, South China Morning Post, June 16, 2019]
Inglis, 46, the Los Angeles Times reported, “a former search-and-rescue mountaineer for Mt. Cook National Park in New Zealand, was himself the subject of a spectacular rescue after spending 14 days in a cave on Mt. Cook during a blizzard. He lost both lower legs but, with artificial legs, continued climbing with the ultimate dream of scaling Everest. His 40-day expedition, led by veteran guide Russell Brice, included two teams totaling 22 climbers and six sherpa guides. The weather cooperated except for high winds that delayed the summit attempt a couple of days. It was savagely cold and difficult to breath without supplemental oxygen, which the climbers used while en route. At one point, Inglis had a long fall and broke one of his prosthetic legs, which he repaired with duct tape.
“It was during the summit assault, on a well-traveled route, that the party stumbled upon Sharp, who sat cross-legged in a shallow cave, without oxygen, motionless and barely breathing. One of the sherpas attempted to revive him with oxygen, but it was ultimately determined that he was beyond help. Though details are unclear, Sharp had become separated from teammate Vitor Negrete of Brazil. Negrete, in a solo attempt, reached the summit three days after Sharp's death but became ill and was unable to make a descent. After being taken to one of the high camps by a sherpa, he also died.
Fistfight On Everest: Ueli Steck’s Side of the Story
Ueli Steck, a famous Swiss speed climber broke many records, had many adventures and was a big celebrity in mountaineering circles. He died after falling around 1,000 meters on Nuptse near Everest in 2017. He was also involved in an infamous brawl with Sherpas
Steck’s 2011 attempt at Everest earned him widespread attention when he and professional climbers Simone Moro and Jonathan Griffith got in a confrontation with Sherpas at Camp 2. According to the Washington Post: Steck considered it a near-death experience, recounting the brawl in a Q&A with Outside magazine. He explained that the Sherpas were working to repair rope lines on the mountain, but that he and his fellow climbers didn’t intend to use them. They wanted to climb to Camp 3, where they already had tents, and sleep. [Source: Katie Mettler, Washington Post, May 1, 2017]
The Sherpas became upset that Steck’s group was bypassing their request to keep climbers away while they repaired the ropes. The narrative gets fuzzy after that. The climbers and the Sherpas offer differing accounts, but Steck told Outside that Moro swore at the Sherpas in Nepali during a heated moment, further escalating tensions. Eventually they rappelled back down to Camp 3 to talk things out, Steck said, but were met by a seething crowd of 100 Sherpas with covered faces. “When I saw they had their faces covered, I knew this was going to be really bad,” he said.
“Punches and rocks were thrown, Steck said, claiming the Sherpas tried to kill them. “They said we had one hour to pack up and leave, and that we should not come back to the West Face, West Ridge, or Lhotse,” Steck told Outside. “They said that if we weren’t gone in an hour, they were going to kill all three of us. That was the worst thing.” Both sides later signed a peace treaty and left the mountain. “I’m not saying I’m never coming back, but give me time,” Steck told Outside. “I need to figure it out. There are many other mountains I can climb. Everest is Everest, and Everest lost a lot, but it’s still the highest mountain in the world.”
Outside reported: Climber Melissa Arnot acknowledged that she stepped between the western climbers and a large group of Sherpas, but declined to go into details. Guide Garrett Madison came forward and wrote that, before the altercation, expedition leaders had a meeting and agreed that no climbers would distract or disrupt the Sherpas as they fixed rope above Camp 2, which sits at 23,000 feet. The Sherpas said Moro’s team took them by surprise by climbing above them that day, and claimed that members of the team insulted and threatened them. On Monday, a Nepal army major stood witness as both sides signed a peace agreement and agreed to move on. After that, Steck left the mountain for the season and returned to Kathmandu, where he met with Everest record-keeper Elizabeth Hawley.
Fistfight On Everest: Ueli Steck’s Side of Events Before the Fight
On his version of what happened in the Sherpa face off,Ueli Steck told Tim Neville of Outside.online: “We were going up to sleep at Camp 3, where we already had a tent. There were lots of people going up to the face to walk a little bit. We met one guide—I forget his name—and he said the Sherpas were fixing ropes up there. I told him that we wanted to go up and sleep and we wouldn’t touch their lines. He said, OK, just make sure you don’t get in the way of them. I understand that, because it can be very dangerous if someone hangs on a rope while you’re fixing it. This has happened many times before. But we wouldn’t be touching their ropes or interfering in any way. That’s why we decided to go. [Source: Tim Neville, Outside.online, May 2, 2013]
“There were maybe three Sherpas at the last belay and the leader was another 15 to 20 meters up, fixing rope. The rest of the Sherpas were down below and coming up. We traversed more or less at the belay, because it was in the snow and we would not be knocking any ice down. It was a delicate situation, because of course they would get angry if you knocked ice down.
“Of course. If you pass someone and start knocking ice down on them, then it’s fair to get angry because they were there first. So we were really careful. And I can promise you there was not a single piece of ice falling down and hitting a Sherpa. They just created that story. There was one Sherpa who was bleeding from his face, but he had slipped on his jumars and hit his face. He has now officially said in public that he was not hit by any ice. Besides, they were knocking ice down on each other the whole day. Even the leader was sending down ice. It’s unbelievable.
“Jonathan crossed over the rope first, and I was really watching him to make sure that he didn’t knock down any ice. He traversed about 15 meters beyond the belay and then I came up. In the time it took for me to get there, the leader fixed his rope, got on rappel, and just came down yelling at me. I hadn’t even stepped over the rope yet....I was standing at the belay. Simone wasn’t there yet. The Sherpa comes down really fast above me, and I put my hand to stop him. If he hits me, I fall off the face. He’s screaming the whole way down and then starts yelling about why am I touching him. I was talking in a normal voice, asking what was the problem, but it was impossible to talk. I said we weren’t touching your ropes at all and there’s enough space for everybody to climb this mountain. But he just kept yelling.
“It was cold and they had to be tired. They had spent the whole day the day before fixing ropes up the face via the route used last year. But at the top they hit a big crevasse, which meant they had to pull the whole line and set a new route all over again. I said, “It’s OK, it’s one o’clock in the afternoon and we still have a lot of time. I can help you fix the ropes.” But this made it even worse. I think he thought we were trying to shame him, and that was a big problem.”
Ueli Steck’s Side of Everest the Fight
Ueli Steck told Tim Neville of Outside.online: “They did not leave right away. I was talking with them for a while when Simone came across. He was close to the belay and hadn’t said anything yet when the Sherpa leader starts shouting and waving his ice axe at him, trying to hit him. Simone said to him in Nepali, “What are you doing motherfucker?!” Maybe that wasn’t the best word to use, but I can understand in this moment that Simone would be pissed off. If you are on a 50-degree face and someone is swinging an axe at you, you might get at a little, you know, loud. [Source: Tim Neville, Outside.online, May 2, 2013]
“It went back and forth and I was out of this discussion. Then the leader said they were done fixing ropes. I tried to convince them to stay and finish the job, but they packed up and left. We were like, shit, what do we do now? The commercial expeditions wanted to go up the next day. So we waited until they left and then we started fixing the rope to Camp 3 for them.
“On the way down, Simone was radioing to Greg [Vernovage, leader of IMG’s Everest expedition] that, yes, we are coming down, and we want to discuss this. Greg knew it was not a good situation. He said it’s really bad. So when we got there, we sat down in our tent to discuss it with him. He said the Sherpas were really pissed about Simone swearing. Then Melissa Arnot [an American climber with four Everest summits] comes to our tent and says the Sherpas will be here in 30 seconds. I said, OK, I’ll go out and talk to them. We all three went out and this whole crowd was there, maybe 100 people. When I saw they had their faces covered, I knew this was going to be really bad.
“They had big rocks and I think the leader was in front. I went to say something but couldn’t because I got punched in the face and hit in the head with a rock. By this time, Simone and Jonathan were already running away. After I got hit by the rock, Melissa stepped in between me and them—which was good for me, because otherwise they would have killed me for sure.
“There was no discussion. It was just, No! No! No!...When I got punched, I was like, fuck, do I fight back? But with 100 people, if you fight back it will make it worse. I just hoped they wouldn’t punch too hard. But when you get hit with a rock, you know they’re just trying to kill you....There was absolutely no control. Imagine 17 people, talking some bullshit, I don’t know what they told them, but in two hours there are 100 people trying to kill three people. This is insane and totally unacceptable.
“It went back and forth, and then someone was pushing me into the tent and saying for me to hide. From inside, I could just see Melissa and Greg standing in front of the tent with all these people who were saying to get me out and that they were going to kill me first. In the meantime, they were throwing huge rocks into the tent, the kind that, if they hit you in the head, you’d be dead immediately....Somebody went to go get Simone and brought him back to the tent, because the Sherpas wanted him to apologize. Jonathan was hiding behind a rock. When Simone got there, they immediately punched him, and then someone pushed him back into the tent. They then wanted him to come out on his knees, which he did, saying, “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!” Then they started kicking his face and someone tried to stab him with a pen knife. They used rocks to hit us, crampons even. I tell you, they tried to kill us.
“Simone got back into the tent again and you could hear them saying that we weren’t supposed to be up there, that we didn’t have a permit for Lhotse. But we did. They tried to find a lot of small things to cause us trouble. They said we had one hour to pack up and leave, and that we should not come back to the West Face, West Ridge, or Lhotse. They said that if we weren’t gone in an hour, they were going to kill all three of us. That was the worst thing.
“There were people in the mob who climbed summits with me last year...We had this chance to retreat, and we were thinking, how do we get out of here as fast as possible? We tried to find a way down where no one could see us. We were on a mission, going into deep valleys and crevasses and checking over our shoulders to see if they were coming after us. We crawled on our knees so they couldn’t see us. Then we snuck down the route as far as possible to a big ladder, because if they chased us, I knew we could cross that ladder and then cut it loose so they couldn’t follow. That was the plan....If this had happened on the north side in China, those people would be in jail, no question. But here in Nepal? We made an agreement, and the companies with the Sherpas said they would take action. You just have to trust that they will, but it’s not my problem. I don’t need to come back to Everest.
Japanese on Mt. Everest
Several hundred Japanese have reached the summit of Mt. Everest. The first ascent was in May 1970 by Naomi Uemura and Teruo Matsuura, followed by Katsutoshi Hirabayashi the next day. The first Japanese expedition on a mountain over 8,000 meters reached the top of 8,163-meter Mt. Manaslu in Nepal in 1956.
In 1983, Horoshi Yoshini made the highest bivouac ever by a mountaineer, overnighting with a tent just below the summit of Mt. Everest at 8,830 meters. He survived the bivouac but fell to his death the next morning during his descent.
In 1998, Japanese climbers participated on the expedition that climbed the North Cole east ridge of Mt. Everest. A team from Nihon University climbed the mountains's northeast ridge — a climb called historic and described as a very long and arduous climb at high altitude." Former Japanese Prime Minister Hashmito led two unsuccessful ascents of Everest. Japanese have tried to fly a hot air balloon over Mt. Everest and scoured eastern Nepal in search of the yeti.
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