Posts Tagged ‘Mount Everest’

We are turning our attention today to the sixth of the seven summits – the grand daddy of them all – Asia’s highest mountain – the world’s highest mountain – the iconic Mount Everest, the roof of the world.

It is the mountain that we have all heard of – commanding more column inches than any other, more stories, more tragedies more deaths. The Tibetans call it Chomolungma or Qomolangma meaning mother goddess of the earth, the Sherpas call it Sagarmatha – goddess of the sky and the British called it Everest after a gentleman who had conducted a survey of India in the 1830s!

Well whatever your take it is an ultimate challenge and you will have to be very well prepared and very professional if you are to have any chance of success. Don’t forget the whole expedition could take the best part of 10 weeks.

Below are some pointers which may or may not encourage you to make further enquiries.

The cost

A ball park figure from a commercial guide service will be somewhere in the region of $50,000 but be aware that there can be a lot of extras. Below is a list of what might appear on your expenses list and this does not include clothing, insurance or flights.

• Climbing permits and fees – prorated per person, $25,000 for 1 person;$56,000 for 4 people; $70,000 for 7 people, etc.
• Sagarmatha National Park Entrance Fee – $100 per team
• Khumbu Icefall Fee (paid to Sagarmatha Park for route maintenance) – $2,375 per team
• Satellite Phone permit (paid to Nepalese Ministry of Communications) – $2,300 per phone
• Garbage and Human Waste Disposal (A comprehensive clean-up and recycling effort is underway on Mount Everest, to counteract decades of environmental abuse. This fee is paid to Sagarmatha Park officials.) –$4,000
• Oxygen (High quality oxygen and oxygen canisters are essential to the success and safety of climbers.) – $30,000
• Lead guide – $25,000 Note: The more famous your guide, the more he or she will cost you. For instance, for $125,000, you may be able to hire Ed Viesturs, the first American to summit all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks without the use of supplemental oxygen.
• 2 Assistant guides – $10,000 to $15,000 each
• Liaison Officer (ensures that your expedition meets all local regulation requirements) – $3,000
• Doctor (Some doctors will volunteer their services in exchange for a Himalayan experience.) – $4,000
• 7 Climbing Sherpas – $5,000 each
• 3 – 4 Cooks – $3,500 each
• 3 Helicopter charters from Kathmandu to Lukla – $16,500
• 150 Yaks (transport 120 lbs. of gear each, from Lukla to Basecamp) –$7,500
• Ritual expenses. (Sherpas perform many rituals along the way, to honor and appease the mountain, which they call Sagarmatha – goddess of the sky. Donations are made to the local monastery; there are daily rituals performed; prayer flags are flown at Base Camp; and finally, a Lama leads a day-long ceremony to mark the beginning of the ascent.) – $300
• Helicopter evacuation from Base Camp (in case of emergencies) –$5,000

So it is very expensive and you are strongly advised to check the small print of any company which offers a guided service up the mountain to be absolutely sure that you know what you can and cannot expect from your contract.

When to climb

There is little argument in when to go, you have a relatively narrow window of opportunity. And with more and more demand and one mountain with limited access then demand outweighs supply. Plan this expedition – probably two years before you attempt the summit. You will be going there in March, April, May – when the jet stream winds move to a more northerly latitude before the summer monsoon so making the weather on the mountain a tad more forgiving.

The mountain can also be climbed after the monsoon in October but it is considered very difficult because of the fresh snow that has fallen on the mountain during the monsoon.

Routes

Mt. Everest has two main climbing routes, the southeast ridge from Nepal and the northeast ridge from Tibet. There are other less frequently climbed routes but of the two main routes, the southeast ridge is technically easier and is the more frequently-used route. It was the route used by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay who were the first people to successfully summit Everest in 1953.

The south east ridge – to climb Everest is a true expedition normally requiring 5 weeks on the mountain.The ascent via the southeast ridge begins with a trek to Base Camp at 5,380 m (17,700 ft) on the south side of Everest in Nepal which can take up to a week. Climbers will spend a couple of weeks in Base Camp, acclimatizing to the altitude.

From the Base Camp climbers make their way up the Western Cwm to the Lhotse  face, where the Advanced Base Camp is established at 6,500 m (21,300 ft).

Climbers then ascend the Lhotse face on fixed ropes up to Camp III, located on a small ledge at 7,470 m (24,500 ft). From there, it is another 500 metres to Camp IV on the South Col at 7,920 m (26,000 ft).

On the South Col, climbers enter the death zone where you have to wait for good weather before attempting the final push to the summit. It is not possible to stay at that altitude for more than two days and so if there is no break in the weather a climber may well have to about turn and make his or her way back down the mountain.

The  north east ridge - you start  from the north side of Everest in Tibet and trek to the Rongbuk Glacier and Base Camp at 5,180 m (16,990 ft) on a gravel plain just below the glacier. To reach Camp II, climbers ascend the medial moraine of the east Rongbuk Glacier up to the base of Changtse at 6,100 m (20,000 ft).

Camp III (ABC – Advanced Base Camp) is situated below the North Col at 6,500 m (21,300 ft). You have to then ascend the glacier to the foot of the col where fixed ropes are used to reach Camp IV and the North Col at 7,010 m (23,000 ft).

From the North Col, climbers ascend the rocky north ridge to set up Camp V at around 7,775 m (25,500 ft). The route crosses the North Face in a diagonal climb to Camp VI at 8,230 m (27,000 ft). From Camp VI, climbers will make their final summit push.

Above – the north east ridge – photo courtesy of Philippe Gatta

Everest is a must for every serious mountaineer but you must be well prepared. The video below from rexpem shows Rex Pemberton’s successful summit of Everest in 2006 when he became at the age of 21 the youngest Australian to summit Everest. What is very evident from the video is that even for a fit young man this is a very tough climb.

So having blogged about 6 of the 7 summits there must only be one left………..we shall see.

We were interested to learn from the Earth’s most extreme summit , that Mount Everest, (29,035 feet or 8,850 metres) had in June been conquered for a record 19 times.

On Wednesday, June 10, Apa Sherpa reached the summit of Everest,  for his 19th time—more than anyone else in the world. The 49-year-old Sherpa, originally from the village of Thame in Nepal and a resident of Salt Lake City since 2006, has climbed Everest for eight straight years and 19 of the last 20 years.

Apa also carried a sacred two-pound vase, called a Bhumpa, to the summit. The high monk Ngawang Tenzin Zangpo, Rinpoche of the monastery of Tengboche below the mountain, asked Apa to take the Bhumpa, which was filled with 400 different ingredients, relics, plants, and elements, to the summit as an offering to Chomolangma, Mother Goddess of the World, to protect humanity and help deal with climate change.

A wonderful achievement and we send Apa laudable messages of  respect – and so we started thinking about these extraordinary people – the Sherpas. We googled them and found this fascinating article – thanks to www.mounteverest.net  – from which we have made a precis.

‘Sherpas are the inhabitants of the Khumbu-valley, the national park surrounding Everest. Living at altitude for generations, they have developed a genetic natural allowance for it. If you are well trained yourself, you might find in Kathmandu that the Sherpas do substantially fewer push-ups than you do. Don’t get too excited. Once you go above 3,000 metres/10,000 ft most of them will easily outrun you. Their natural advantage is strongest up to 8,000-metres/23,000 ft, there after they too will face problems. Most sherpas will consequently require oxygen above camp 4 in order to perform at their best…………….

Since Sherpas are stronger than us at altitude, they are very well suited for alpine style expeditions in the Himalayas. You will need them to carry the oxygen, the gear and as a safety on the summit push. Many “solo” climbers actually bring sherpas with them all the way up.’

The summitting of Everest is without doubt an extrem feat, but to do that 19 times – well – is there a word beyond extreme?

Apa Sherpa photographed in May 2009 shortly before he achieved his record 19th summit of Mount Everest.

Here’s another one for our extreme sports personalities – Ranulph Fiennes, or, more correctly, Sir Ranulph Twistleton-Wykeham-Fiennes – a British explorer extroadinaire and the holder of several endurance records. According to the Guinness Book of Records he is the greatest living adventurer.

This is what this extroadinary man has accomplished in his 65 years:

• 1969 Travels the length of the White Nile by hovercraft
• 1970 Traverses Norway’s Jostedalsbreen Glacier
• 1979 to 1982 Travels globe on its polar axis by land transport
• 1992 Discovers lost city of Ubar
• 1993 Attempts to cross the Antarctic unaided
• 2000 On solo walk to North Pole his sleds fall through ice
• 2003 Four months after double heart bypass, he does seven marathons in seven days
• 2005 Attempt on Everest ends when he has a heart attack
• 2007 Climbs north face of Eiger
• 2008 Exhaustion ends a second attempt on Everest
• 2009 Reaches Everest summit

He attempted Everest 3 times. The first time, in 2005, he had a heart attack 300m from the summit. The second time he was forced back at 8,400 metres, suffering from exhaustion. Afterwards he declared: “I won’t be returning to Everest.”

But defeat is simply not in his vocabulary, and despite everything he set off again. Just before 1 a.m. Thursday, 21st May, he became the oldest Briton and first UK pensioner to climb the 8,850 metre peak.

It is hard to believe, after his conquest of Everest and the north face of the Eiger, that this is a man who is morbidly afraid of heights.

Fiennes continues to compete in UK based endurance events and has seen recent success in the Veteran categories of some Mountain marathon races. His training nowadays consists of regular two hour runs around Exmoor.

He’s also an accomplished author. If you’re looking for a REALLY good read, try ‘The Feathermen’ – it’ll keep you spellbound.

Described by the organisers as “a feast for those who seek to stimulate all their senses to the point of near overload” the Mount Everest skydive took the participants breath away – literally.

After becoming the first woman from her country to skydive over the world’s highest mountain, Scottish born Jane Dougall was asked if she would ever do it again?

“Absolutely not,” speaking from Nepal she told TODAY’s Ann Curry, “It was the most phenomenal chance of a lifetime; I really did appreciate doing it at the time. But I’m gonna admit, hands up, I’m a coward, I’m scared, and no, I don’t think I’d like to do it again.”

However she did admit that it had been the most incredible experience, absolutely spetacular views and the experience of a lifetime.

A trio from Britain, New Zealand, and Canada were the first people to accomplish the feat and so get their names into the records books – Holly Budge, Wendy Smith and Neil James respectively.

Holly Budge, 29, a Winchester-born extreme sports enthusiast, said, after making a safe landing at a site 12,350 feet (3,765 metres) above sea level — the highest “drop zone” achieved by a parachutist, that “It was amazing, just spectacular. We had one minute of freefall and while we were above the clouds you could see Everest and the other high mountains popping out of the top,”

Before making her leap into the record books, Holly Budge, an experienced skydiver, explained that the unprecedented project was “first and foremost a challenge to myself. It’s all about taking yourself out of your comfortable norm.”

They fell at speeds reaching 140mph, hurtling past the highest ridges of the snow-laden Himalayas, before each released a parachute, made three times the size of a normal canopy to cope with the thin air. The jumpers wore oxygen masks to prevent their lungs from collapsing as they fell. Wearing neoprene underwear was compulsory — to prevent them from being frozen to death!

To Holly this experience was the most perfect 30th birthday present!

High and Wild, the British adventure travel company behind the project, is offering this unique experience to any interested extreme adrenaline seekers …

“Combine the visual impact of looking onto the summit of Mt. Everest and some of the other highest mountains in the world and freefalling past them; this adventure is a feast for those who seek to stimulate all their senses to the point of near overload. The 8,000ft wall of Nuptse and Lhotse which has an average height of 26,000ft are dwarfed by Mt. Everest behind at 29,035ft. The picture is taken from 25,000ft. This is 4,500ft below our jump altitude,” they say.

Yesterday, the name Mount Everest seemed to pop up everywhere.

First of all I watched the film ‘Touch the Top of the World’ which was the documentary film of Erik Weihenmayer’s journey to Everest from his youth when he started going blind, to his family’s battle that he have a normal childhood and not be packed off to a blind school, through the wrestling days and the beginning of his love of climbing, the teaching, and meeting his wife-to-be, meeting P.V. Scaturro, the team leader, and the actual ascent of Everest.

The film showed eloquently the difficulties he had and the amazing support he had from his team of good friends. I mean, imagine going up one of the climbing ladders with crampons on your boots, holding onto ropes with both hands and not being able to see the next rung… Being told that he has to jump a crevice and that he has to take a run and jump as far as he can because if he doesn’t make it he will definitely fall to his death – and not even being able to see exactly how wide the gap is and where exactly to take off.

It beggars belief. It is an amazing story. Did you know that only one in six people who try to conquer Everest actually summit and get down alive? There are two dominating factors when attempting Everest – “ambition and fear. Ambition is the overwhelming desire to get you to the top, and fear is what keeps you alive”.

This was advice that P.V. gave Erik in the early days when he was struggling in the ice fields. Because of Erik it had taken them 13 hours to get over the ice fields on one of the practice days – when in reality they HAD to do it in 6 to get to the next base camp.

There is an old Tibetan saying: “The nature of mind is like water; if you do not disturb it, it will become clear.” In other words, when taking on a challenge, clear your mind of expectation and take it one step at a time and this is what Erik did.

You need 6 – 10 weeks on Everest doing practice climbs, getting to base camp 2 and back, base camp 3 and back, base camp 4 and back before you make the final challenge. This is absolutely vital to help you acclimatize. Technically Everest is not as challenging as some of the other Seven Summits, but it is the altitude that can kill you.

25,000ft is called The Death Zone. When asked what he felt like when he reached this stage, Erik said “I feel like I’ve run a marathon with a plastic bag over my head.” The reply was something like “it’s alright dude, you’re supposed to feel miserable!”

As you all know from my previous article, Erik summited and got down in one piece.

… and then I heard about Jane Dougall. Who is Jane Dougall? She is a reporter for Channel 5 News amongst other things.

Right at this minute she is trekking up through the foothills of the Himalayas to acclimatize – a 6-day trek. And what is she up to? She is about to cover a story about skydivers jumping over Everest for the first time…

However, there was a snag. To cover the story she, too, has to jump and they, the news channel, magnanimously gave her a practice tandem jump over Oxfordshire to see what it was like before “the big one.”

They have had to have suits especially made with the capability to attach oxygen masks because the air is so thin at 29,500ft. It will be -45* when they jump out of the plane so not only will the air be very thin but they will need to be protected from the extreme cold.

They are expecting to jump early next week – I will keep you posted, but you can google her yourself and read her blog.

Thanks to seracfilms for the video.

Have you seen this? Not quite an extreme sport when going in by air, but an extreme endeavour and an extreme helicopter perhaps.

On 14th May 2005 history was made when, at 07h08 (local time), a serial Ecureuil/AStar AS 350 B3 piloted by the Eurocopter X-test pilot Didier Delsalle; landed at 8,850m (29,035ft) on the top of Mount Everest. This achievement breaks the record for the highest altitude landing and take-off ever. It was done as a kind of publicity stunt by Eurocopter, the maker of the helicopter, but it has huge implications for future ascents of the highest peaks.

Stepping out of his helicopter; Didier Delsalle commented “To reach this mythical summit definitively seemed to be a dream, despite the obvious difficulties of the target to be reached; the aircraft demonstrated its capability to cope with the situation…. sublimated by the magic of the place.”

Thanks to bajarunner for the video.

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This is the other, hitherto and still more normal way to do it, shanks pony, thanks to rahulrathan for this video of an immensely satisfying achievement:

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And finally, and remembering that this is an extreme sport site, here’s a video of the ultimate extreme adventurer, the Japanese alpinist, Yuichiro Miura, attempting to ski down Everest. It’s not only the ski-ing that’s an achievement… bear in mind he had to carry his skies up initially to be able to ski down! Thanks to YummyDVD for the video:

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However, since Yuichiro Miura made the attempt, Everest has been successfully skied by Slovenian climber Davo Karnicar It took Karnicar four days to reach the summit of 29,035-foot Mount Everest, but only five hours to come down – on skis.

With a camera on his helmet and without ever taking off his skis, the 38-year-old ski instructor made it from the summit to the base camp at 17,500 feet on Oct. 7, 2000, becoming the first person to complete the whole trip in one run.

Karnicar put his skis on at the summit, 29,028 feet above sea level, before heading for the base camp, more than two miles below. The 38-year-old Slovenian skier made three stops on his way down: one to fix the camera on his helmet, one to meet other members of the climbing expedition and one before skiing down the Icefall – a journey under ice blocks that can unexpectedly break and fall at any time.

“I want to celebrate and feel the success for the rest of my life. This is just great,” Karnicar told The Associated Press on Monday after returning from the mountain.

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Thanks to bvirc for putting this video on youtube.