Everest climber left to die alone

Washington Times ^ | 5/23/06

[IslandJeff]

Holy crap - you have, in that shot, mile-wide glaciers emptying into sparse forests.

No way you do a North Side assault, unless you have a suicide pact with "Gaia".

[spunkets]

Thanks. I'm gettin' there.

[eddie willers]

Great pictures of the North Face.

The first one looks like the photographer lay on his/her belly on the Rongbuk Glacier to get the shot.

In the Twenties, when Expeditions began, Nepal was a forbidden country and would allow no outsiders, so the explorers would start in Darjeeling, India and trek straight north into Tibet, turn left and make their way over to the Rongbuk Monastery.

The situation reversed after China took control of Tibet and closed off the country to the West. Nepal then opened up and that is the reason why Hillary's expedition went up from the Kathmandu side.

Politics....LOL!

[eddie willers]

BTW....in the satellite picture, your photographer stood in the glacier flow just to the left of the top left corner on the photo.

Very few people will try a direct assault on the North Face (usually up and through the Great Couloir...the deep ravine you see on the left side of the summit down. The other depression on the right is called the Hornbein Couloir....even tricker)

They actually turn left into what looks like a little "creek" but actually is the end where the East Rongbuk Glacier meets the main.

They then go around the mountains you see on the left of your picture and curl around to a 2000 ft saddle that connects Changtse (the mountain that obscures the left base on Everest in the shot) to Everest and is known as the North Col.

From there up the North Ridge to meet with the skyline Northeast ridge and on to the top.

[eddie willers]

Map showing both main routes:

[IslandJeff]

More, more, more! Looks like suicide on the installment plan.

Still, I wonder where Base Camp is on the Chinese side. Probably about from where that shot is taken.

Great thread, BTW.

[eddie willers]

Still, I wonder where Base Camp is on the Chinese side. Probably about from where that shot is taken.

Yep....somewhere between the Monastery and where the rocky top on the Glacier peters out.

Since the distance is so long, they set up what they call Advance Base Camp near the base of the North Col.

Another camp then on the Col, then one or two more up along the Northeast Ridge....then the dash through the Yellow Band to the First Step/Mushroom Rock/Second Step/Third Step/Snow Pyramid/Summit.

Much of it on edge with a 14,000 foot drop down the Kangshung Face.

[IslandJeff]

Ugh. No thanks. I'd be glad to go up Gibraltar or Emmons, summit Rainier, then get down in time for steak and potatoes.

No one deserves cerebral edema, unless they ask for it. Supplemental oxygen should tell a homo sapiens they have no bidness up there.

[spunkets]

Thanks. Yes those pics were taken from around the N. route ABC on the Rongbuk. That directional stamp is one of the things I was looking for.

[spunkets]

I don't suppose this is a common site there.

The pic is a link to an account of some Sherpa's zen.

[IslandJeff]

Not likely, though you do get some freaks who insist on summitting Rainier via the Willis Wall (north face).

At the Paradise Visitor Center, you can catch climbing parties through a touristy telescope. I just wish they had a scale model of Everest somewhere - downloadable would be even better.

[spunkets]

"freaks who insist on summitting Rainier via the Willis Wall (north face). "

[IslandJeff]

Holy Moley - is that you?

Certainly, that party had a more peaceful time than the Paradise/Muir crowd.

[spunkets]

No. The highest I ever went over was ~300ft free hand on sedimentary rock, after a fifth of johnny walker black. I was younger then. It wasn't ecactly a hold my beer sort of thing. More like the bottle's empty, now what do I do.

This guy is on granite, about that high and on his way up El Capitan at 3300'. He's very good. There's more at rockclimbing.com

[IslandJeff]

Nuts. Save your energy and muletrain yourself to the top, Johnny Walker in tow.

Simply amazing, regardless. 300-feet freehand is quite the "circular fortitude".

[eddie willers]

The highest I ever went over was ~300ft free hand on sedimentary rock

You know....from that height I believe you'd be just as dead as if you dropped off the 14,000 ft. Kangshung Face.

But at least you wouldn't be as cold on the way down. :o)