Chomolungma

[Smiling End]

Did anyone see the show on the Discovery channel last year about a group climbing Everest?  I can't remember what it was called, I think it might have been Beyond the Limit, but it was a very interesting show.  Very gripping and somewhat chilling especially when a climber basically sat with someone while they died because it was too dangerous to bring him down the mountain.

[TiNi]

i read somewhere that there aren't any photo's of hilary on the summit from his first expedition,
norga didn't know how to use the camera  bummer!

[Popeye the Sailor]

I wouldn't climb it. It's become a bit too commercialized. Which in of itself isn't so bad, but no one takes their trash off the mountain. There's been decades of empty oxygen bottles and other trash strewn about.


Let's go see nature and deface it. Kind of not the point, IMO.

[Bick]

I wouldn't climb it. It's become a bit too commercialized. Which in of itself isn't so bad, but no one takes their trash off the mountain. There's been decades of empty oxygen bottles and other trash strewn about.


Let's go see nature and deface it. Kind of not the point, IMO.

Part of the reason I enjoy climbing the 12's & 13's around here.  Most of the 14's have very well established trails, so they are nothing more than long hikes.

[TiNi]

let's not forget the others... WaY earlier than Hilary and Norga

George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 â€" 8 June/9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. On the third expedition, in June of 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine both disappeared somewhere high on the North-East ridge during (or perhaps after completing) the final stage of their attempt to make the first ascent of the world's highest mountain. The pair's last known sighting was only a few hundred metres from the summit. Mallory's ultimate fate was unknown for 75 years, until his body was finally discovered in 1999. Whether or not they reached the summit before they died remains a subject of speculation and continuing research.

[akmnstr]

Except one, perhaps, relative rise:  McKinley does rise higher above the surrounding plane, higher above the permanent snow line and higher above the usual base camps than Everest or any other peak. 

Tommy T.

True Tommy T.  A pic of it is below.  But the name of the Mountain is Denali!!!  Had that name for thousands of years until some nut case thought
he'd change it to that of Pres. McKinley.  Damn

[mangeldbug]

I rock climb but Im not into mountaineering.  I just really dislike being cold.  And Im one of those girls who are always cold.

There was a show called Everest: Beyond the Limit on Discovery.  I dont have cable so I only saw one episode at my parents'.  There was one Japanese guy who was going to lose probably all his toes and another French guy who had fallen down a while ago within sight of camp, but it was too cold for anyone to go get him so he was likely not going to survive.  That episode ended as a cliffhanger (no pun intended) as one climber and his sherpa were going to attempt to set a new route down the North face and conditions were iffy.

Um, no thanks.

[roy-nexus-6]

i read somewhere that there aren't any photo's of hilary on the summit from his first expedition,
norga didn't know how to use the camera  bummer!

But Norga was a photoshop whiz, so it was all good 

[TiNi]

But Norga was a photoshop whiz, so it was all good 

i greatly admire the early mountaineers...
...so very brave and adventurous
and their gear is a riot 

[trenner]

if you were physically capable, would you do it?

I'm just not sure how to get the Duc across the Khumbu Icefall, or I'd do it.

[Tommy T.]

But the name of the Mountain is Denali!!! 

Actually, the mountain had/has a different name in each of the various languages spoken by the many ethnic groups resident in Alaska -- my ethnic group calls it Mt. McKinley and calls the park in which it is located Denali National Park.

Tommy T.

[akmnstr]

Actually, the mountain had/has a different name in each of the various languages spoken by the many ethnic groups resident in Alaska -- my ethnic group calls it Mt. McKinley and calls the park in which it is located Denali National Park.

Tommy T.

Not true Tommy T.  It is the Athabaskan people that live in the region that gave it it's true name.  I also live in the region and respect and honor the old name.  The Alaska delegation has tried to change the name several time.  The delegation from Ohio has succeeded and foiling our attempts.  Now who at the people in Ohio to tell us what the hell to call our Mountain. 

[Sinister]

let's not forget the others... WaY earlier than Hilary and Norga

Sorry, nobody forgot them but this is a day to celebrate the late Sir Edmund Hilary and the accomplishments of his team and Tenzing Norgay. 

Tommy T. - If you were on the Polish Route, you must be quite accomplished .  As someone who realized his balls weren't as big as his goals were, my hat is off to you.  Thanks for exporting crack climbing technique from Yos to the PNW. 

[Tommy T.]

Tommy T. - If you were on the Polish Route, you must be quite accomplished . 

Thanks for the comment.   Just to be clear, I did not summit on that route but it remains a major event in my experience.  We did the line direct, without the high camp on the ridge itself which the Poles has used and which was so much trouble for other parties that had done the route.

We had established a camp just below the glacier at around 21,000 feet without much trouble but then a week-long wind storm with consistent speeds over 100mph blew through.  We had several tents destroyed and a number of our climbers got sick staying at the altitude or got sick and tired of struggling just to maintain camp or never master the trick of peeing in that kind of wind and went down.

From an original 10 climbers, we were left with four climbers and one tent and only two more possible climbing days before we had to go down.  The wind stopped.  We decided that two would go for the summit and two would stay in support.  I woke up at 1am, melted water, prepared a meal and roused the others.  The two of us who would not be climbing, carried the packs of the summit pair and accompanied them up the glacier to the ice fall area, 500 or 600 feet up the glacier, and left them at around dawn.  We expected them to be gone at least 24He  hours.

Next night, around 3:00am, my partner went out of the tent and flashed a light up the glacier.  He came back in and said that he had gotten a return signal.  The signal was an SOS.

We packed water, food, extra bivoac gear, resuce equipment and headed up.  At the ice fall we found the technically stronger of the two sitting in the snow, roped to the other climber who was at top of the ice fall and refusing to descend.  It turns out that the strong climber had lead the ice fall and both reached the summit ridge.  At that point the stronger climber reported that he was wasted and could not go on.  The other climber left his pack and summitted.  He photographed sunrise on the ridge as went up and photographed the summit.  He self-timed a picture of himself at the little cache that is there.  Then he returned down the ridge and the two started back.  At the ice fall, the stronger climber, now rested, led down but slipped and took a fairly long fall, losing his pack in the process.  He wasn't injured, just shaken, but the summiteer was really tired and the fall completely spooked him. 

The two of us who were in support, got him down.  We fed them both, tucked them into a bivy, found the dropped pack and went back to the tent to wait for morning.  In a few hours, they both wandered in after a 34 hour summit day.

While I did not summit, I felt really good about having been in close support and fully involved in the summit effort.  As a team, we had made the first American acsent of the Polish Glacier and pioneered a more direct line which is the current route of choice on the East side today and I had played an important part in the event.

Tommy T.