Mount Everest

Dette er en internasjonal ekspedisjon, hvor Hvitserk & Eventyrreiser formidler kontakt mellom arrangøren av ekspedisjonen og norske deltakere. Ekspedisjonen i 2010 går fra sør-siden, Nepal.

Everest North or South?
Just a causal referral to the statistics shows that the South Col route gives the best chance of reaching the summit, and of returning fit and well. This is mainly because the time spent at over 8,000 metres is less, as the last camp on the way to the top is on the South Col, at just under 8,000 metres. On the North Ridge (which we have also climbed, so this comes from experience) the top camp is at 8,400 metres, which means being exposed to the extremes of altitude for appreciably longer, spending at least one night there on the way up and, more than likely, one there on the way down. It is also a long distance from this camp to the top, along an increasingly narrow ridge, exposed to the prevailing winds, and all the time above 8,600 metres. Using the South Col, however, you go from under 8,000 metres to the top and back all in one go. This means you will not be exposed to the harshness and physiologically debilitating need to sleep at over 8,000 metres.
The North Ridge has become more accessible in recent years, simply because it attracts people on the basis of cost, as it is cheaper than to climb from Nepal. This is largely for two reasons. The permit prices are considerably less in Tibet, and all equipment can be delivered directly to base camp by lorry, which is far cheaper than using porters to load carry. Nevertheless, with a reduced probability of reaching the top and the dangers invoked by the altitude profile of summit day, the South Col is more cost-effective and probably safer on balance (albeit never safe, in any meaningful sense). That is, you are more likely to reach the top via the South Col, even if it has cost more to participate in an Everest climb.

In terms of climbing, technical interest is similar, if not more sustained on the North Ridge, as longer passages are on rock with a series of "Steps" to be negotiated on the way to the summit. Nevertheless, you won't be disappointed by the climbing on the Lhotse Face and of reaching the South Summit, or by the steep passage up the Hillary Step, although it doesn't warrant the use of a ladder, as does the Second Step on the North Ridge.

Of course, the big technical and physical obstacle that exists for you, should you chose "South" in preference to "North", is the Ice-fall. To tame that, it helps to be in the company of Leaders and Sherpas who have many years of experience of negotiating its maze.
 

How will you reach the top?

The Trek
Firstly, we take a long leisurely trek to base camp during which we spend 2 nights in Namche Bazaar then 5 nights, (4 full days) in Dingboche (4,300 metres) to acclimatise. Each day, we take a walk from our lodge and increase the altitude of our daily objectives, until everyone can cruise to heights of about 5,400 metres without undue difficulty. When everyone feels well adjusted, then we finish the walk to base camp.

Base Camp Training and Preparations
Once in base camp, we set about acclimatising and learning the specialist skills needed for the mountain, such as how to use the oxygen and the radios. We will also hone our equipment and clothing requirements for the mountain, and set aside the food we want to eat in the upper camps (as this will be pre-placed for us by the Sherpas.)
In between times, we rest and get used to the altitude without undue exertion, as experience has shown this is the best way to prepare. We aim to make base camp as comfortable as is reasonably possible, with a heated, triple-skin mess tent, individual tents for each climber to sleep in, broadband internet connection and satellite telephones. Unfortunately, the potential for espionage means I can't reveal all of our "secrets" here!

Before venturing into the Khumbu Icefall, we will practise secure movement through complex ice terrain including the use of the ladders and fixed rope. We do this locally, in base camp and on the ice columns found at the lower edge of the icefall. As soon as the route through the Icefall is prepared and after the training in base camp, we will have our first go at the icefall, with the aim of getting halfway through and back in time for mid-morning in base camp. Then, we will progress higher until we know we can get through the icefall and all the way to Camp 1 in a reasonable time.

Whilst we are getting accustomed to the ropes, ladders and altitude, the Sherpas will be running loads through the icefall, into the Western Cwm and beyond.

The Climb
From base camp, the route to the summit can be divided into four separate sections:

• The Khumbu Icefall
• The Western Cwm
• The Lhotse Face
• The Summit (South East) Ridge

These distinct sections give the climb tremendous variety, although they do have their individual challenges and hazards. Being able to divide the mountain into four parts also has psychological benefits, enabling climbers to focus on each section and to measure their progress up the mountain more easily.

The Khumbu Icefall

The Khumbu Icefall, the highest ice-bouldering obstacle course in the world, deserves respect.
The icefall is a jumbled morass of ice-blocks, ice towers, and centuries old ice, riven by crevasses, all moving inexorably downwards from the Western Cwm to the Khumbu Valley, below. It's dangerous, as the ice is constantly moving and ice towers can collapse without warning. It is not a place for the uninitiated, except in the company of experienced leaders and Sherpas, who have negotiated its labyrinth many times before. Even then, safety is far from absolute and speed is important, as is an intricate knowledge of the ways of the icefall that can only have been gained by many passages up and down. Although the exact route changes each year, and throughout the season as we move from hard winter to softer spring, it retains the same essential features and direction from bottom to top.

Climbing in the icefall, or entering the Western Cwm in the heat of the day, is akin to being in a blast-furnace, so our rate of ascent slows a great deal after the sun rises. So whenever we do go through the icefall, we will do it as early as is practicable in the morning and aim to get to Camp 1 just as the sun reaches us.

The Western Cwm

A walk into the Western Cwm is to walk into the hall of the mountain gods. It is an awesomely impressive and inspiring place. Gigantic walls tower over you as you move from Camp 1 towards the full expanse of the Cwm above, with the West Ridge of Everest to the left, and the North Face of Nuptse to the right. Here, the Cwm is at its narrowest, and you will find some gaping crevasses across the floor even though the ground is relatively flat. They're so big everyone measures these holes in terms of double-decker buses! But that either means the crevasses need to have ladders stretched across them, which gives easy access (if not goggled-eyed) to their upper sides, or they have to be walked around. Either way, they add to the sense that having passed through the labyrinth of the icefall, the gods have set one more task for you to pass, before they'll let you into their inner sanctum. This final test usually includes at least one steep wall of ice, which rises straight from the floor to give a vertical step of about 30m/100ft and so to the hallowed ground of the upper Western Cwm.
From here, with the gods gazing down from the mountain's upper ramparts, easy (but perhaps exhausting) progress is made to reach Camp 2, nestled below the West Ridge, just short of the foot of the South West Face.

The Lhotse Face

An early start from Camp 2 will see you crossing the upper Cwm to the base of Everest's most impressive wall, the Lhotse Face.
Early in the season, when the face is still unfettered by human steps, this steep section makes for the most grueling and technically intricate day on the mountain. Gusting winds, snow plumes, and the sight of the steep face above greet you at the base of Lhotse after a steady morning walk to the very end of the Cwm, above Camp 2. Careful footwork will have you ascending this section confidently where the laser-straight ascent, which rises on a slope that seems to touch your nose is in stark contrast to the zigzag maze of the icefall below.

Arrival in Camp 3, halfway up the Lhotse Face, gives you a truly rugged, high mountain experience. Platforms, cut just wide enough for the tents, will have been hewn out of the bullet-hard ice by the Sherpas ahead of your arrival. But once that work has been done, it's a mass exodus of our Sherpas back down to the comforts below. The Sherpas play by Sagarmatha's rules and for them, a night on these exposed ledges is frowned upon by the mountain gods. Well that's what they say, but if it only takes an hour or so to get back here, and you can be ready for work before the team's climbers have even risen for breakfast, why wouldn't you take your rest lower down? For those with slower legs (but seemingly normal hearts and lungs), we settle here on our ledge for one of the most glorious sunsets seen by any human in all time (save the Apollo Astronauts, perhaps!)

Typically, our camp is pitched in the lower neighborhood of camp 3 (which can sprawl over several hundred metres up the slope) affording us better shelter from the wind than some of the tents perched above. And, after a night of re-hydration and an initial round of oxygen-rich sleep, it's a return to base camp and then all the way off the mountain to Dingboche before you return here just once more, on the way to the top.

Next time, when we leave Camp 3 at 7,400 meters, you will be gripped by the first flush of true summit fever; down-suits donned, TopOut masks fitted, the first hiss of oxygen spreads from tent to tent as valves are cracked open. This marks the first day of climbing on "gas" and the first stage of your ascent into the "death zone".

The view does not disappoint either. The Nuptse Wall forms one half of the crescent bowl surrounding us, and the West Shoulder of Everest the other. Down the valley, the towering peaks of Pumori and Lingtren, which stand with grand presence above base camp, now look like anonymous ridges in the vast sea of Himalayan Giants stretching as far away as the eye can see. The village of base camp is long out of sight and registers now only by crackling radio transmissions during early morning calls.

The climb from camp 3 launches another adrenaline-pumping attack on your senses as you inch-up the steep Lhotse Face. Using an ascender on fixed line, you grind up, slowly and steadily. After a hard, enduring early morning, the effort is rewarded by a left-hand turn and a traverse across Lhotse toward the famous landmark of the Yellow Band. It's no small relief at this point, as you will have ascended some 1,200-m/3,700-ft from Camp 2. When you look down the sweep of the Lhotse Face, our tents will appear as tiny dots, like peppercorns scattered at your feet.

A second section rears up and onto the rocky Geneva Spur adding exciting scrambling to the mix. The exhilaration of scrambling in such a sensational setting, combined with the apprehension of approaching 8,000-metres and the anxiety of catching your breath on top of the Spur, drawing heavily through the mask, needs first-hand experience to comprehend. Turning the corner here, you will be heading across the home stretch to our highest camp at the South Col on what seems to be flat ground. Now the fixed-line disappears briefly, which lends an enticing sense of freedom, even though the wind usually picks up speed here to whisper caution. The last few metres of walking to the South Col inevitably brings with it a whole flood of emotions, since you've made all but the very last leap en route to the highest point on earth.

After a few moments of contemplation, it's down to business. Navigating to the relative shelter of our tents it is then an immediate dash to remove damp socks, arrange boots to dry, tying down crampons and ice axes outside, and diving into warm sleeping bags while setting to work on sparking up the stoves.

South Col to Summit
After an afternoon of drinking and eating, as well as attempts to sleep (thwarted by excitement and adrenalin), the summit push begins between 10 pm and midnight. Typically the howling winds which will accompany the team in the first hours of climbing die down as the night continues.
At 27,700 feet we arrive at the small platform of snow known as the Balcony. Here, we change over oxygen bottles, steal a few minutes rest and make contact with Mara at base camp, who is on stand-by, maintaining a watchful vigil whilst we reach out for the top.

The route then turns to a sustained 300-m/1,000-ft climb up the South-East Ridge towards the South Summit. The climbing remains similar to the earlier sections: step, pause, breathe, repeat. Across some rocky steps at the top of the ridge, we reach the South Summit and from here the view opens up to the Hilary Step and all the way up to the top. Depending on whether we have changed oxygen bottles at the Balcony, we may switch again here.

Above the tangle of fixed lines on the 40 foot Hilary Step, it's about 100-m/330 vertical feet between here and the summit. But the sheer drop down the Kangshung Face on one side and the South West Face on the other makes this a section of breathtaking climbing both physically and emotionally hard. And the reward, of course, opens up at 8,848-m/29,028 feet where there's no higher step in the world.

We hope to be on the summit in the early morning, with plenty of time to make the long descent to the South Col. Before starting out for the top, you will have agreed a turn-around time with David, who will ensure that should you not have reached the top by this time, you will go down to the relative safety of Camp 4. After spending another night sleeping with oxygen, the team will descend from camp 4, on the South Col, directly to camp 2 and then, the next day, to base camp.

The Everest expeditions are professionally-led teams of competent mountaineers who each have enough experience to climb the world's highest mountain, under the supervision and leadership of one of Britain's most accomplished and experienced high-altitude leaders.

Our Everest expeditions are not "guided" because this is not a realistic proposition in the high-altitude realm of 8,000 metres and above. "Guiding" and being "guided" implies the intimate supervision and care of a "client" by a "Guide" who can be responsible for the direct and immediate control of safety, as is normally and traditionally practised in the Alps. On Everest, such a direct duty-of-care, implicit in the traditional guide-client relationship, is not possible.

Dette er en ekspedisjon i regi av et profesjonelt internasjonalt selskap. Hvitserk & Eventyrreisers rolle er kun som formidler av kontakt/kontrakt mellom arrangør og deltaker. Hvitserk & Eventyrreiser har ingen mulighet til å påvirke ekspedisjonen og har heller ikke noe ansvar for deltakerne på ekspedisjonen.