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Last of 1953 Everest Team Dies, George Lowe

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Mar 222013
 
Last of 1953 Everest Team Dies, George Lowe

The last surviving member of the historic 1953 Everest team has died in the UK at age 89. George Wallace Lowe was a key part of the first Everest summit showing uncommon strength by establishing the route up the Lhotse Face and the final camp at 28,035 feet, only 1,000 feet below the summit on May 27, 1953. The next day Hillary and Norgay summited. Lowe returned to the South Col to await the summiters and went out to meet them with hot lemonade where upon Hillary said the famous line “Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.” Lowe also continue reading


Everest 2013: The Ethics of Everest Reporting

 10 Responses »
Mar 122013
 
Everest 2013: The Ethics of Everest Reporting

Some teams are leaving home this week for Kathmandu to start their journeys hoping to reach the top of the world in mid May. This will mark my 12th year of either climbing or covering Everest on my website. Each year, I begin to get the same nervous feelings of excitement and uncertainty about what the season will bring. As I report on Everest, I feel a strong responsibility to be accurate, sensitive and informative. My coverage is based on my own experiences, research, sources, and public information. I try to provide insight and interpretation of the activities ranging from continue reading


A Different View of Everest: 3.82 billion pixels

 8 Responses »
Jan 312013
 
A Different View of Everest: 3.82 billion pixels

David Breashears now runs GlacierWorks to bring awareness to receding glaciers. You may know Breashears’ name as the filmmaker behind the Everest Imax film and his rescue role in the 1996 disaster.  The story of a huge picture of Everest has been running in the press for the last couple of months but I wanted to highlight it here given the unique nature of the cause and the images. Also, I wanted to add additional background on how it was made. Breashears recently published on their website a series of images of the Himalayan glaciers around Everest, Cho Oyu, Kangchenjunga and K2 taken since 2007 on 10 expeditions. They are also showing the images at exhibitions with continue reading


Preparing for Everest – 6 Months Out

 18 Responses »
Nov 012012
 
Preparing for Everest - 6 Months Out

On April 1, 2013, only six months away, Kathmandu will be teaming with aspiring climbers preparing to head towards base camp on the north and south sides of Mt. Everest. I would love to be there climbing the north side, but alas (sigh) not in 2013; thus I will be covering the action from Colorado once again. Most operators are now sending emails titled “Everest 2013” and starts with the sentence “Welcome to our spring climb of the world’s highest mountain …” The heart skips a beat. It will be here in a blink so let’s take a look at continue reading


Everest Deserves Respect

 19 Responses »
Oct 292012
 
Everest Deserves Respect

Over four days in May 2012, around 250 Westerners and 270 Sherpas and Tibetans support climbers summited Mt. Everest. For many, attaining highest point on Earth was the culmination of endless training, personal sacrifices and hard work to achieve a meaningful and fulfilling lifelong dream. Yet it is common within the greater climbing community to bash Everest climbers, for using ladders in the Khumbu ice fall, for relying on bottled oxygen up higher, for having Sherpas carry their gear, fix their ropes and establish their camps. For the critics on the sidelines, Everest has become a joke. I am disturbed continue reading


Japanese Climber Evac’d off Everest after Abandoned West Ridge Attempt

 4 Responses »
Oct 212012
 
Japanese Climber Evac'd off Everest after Abandoned West Ridge Attempt

Nobukazu Kuriki who was climbing Everest’s West Ridge alone, no supplemental O’s, was evacuated from Camp 2 in the Western Cwm to a Kathmandu hospital with severe frostbite today. He experienced high winds, and extreme cold on his summit attempt while on the Ridge. Frostbite is one of the risk of climbing without supplemental oxygen at extreme altitude in harsh conditions. A Rare Attempt The 30 year-old Japanese was attempting something almost unheard of in modern times doing a solo climb, without supplemental oxygen of the West Ridge on Everest in the Fall. Any of those characteristics would be impressive; continue reading


What is Wrong with Everest

 24 Responses »
Oct 162012
 
What is Wrong with Everest

An opinion piece … Everest is not for the inexperienced, the novice or someone looking for a walk-up. There, I stated the obvious, or did I? OK, so much for the drama! But as the 2013 season gets closer, I have noticed a few disturbing trends. You would think that after 10 deaths on Everest this spring, the operators would be hypersensitive to qualifying clients, setting expectations and focusing on improving safety. Most of the deaths had nothing to do with crowds but everything to do with personal responsibility and inexperienced guides. Setting High Expectations I recently read Alpenglow‘s promotion continue reading


Dramatic Increase for Everest North Permits

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Nov 102011
 
Dramatic Increase for Everest North Permits

In a dramatic increase, the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) has notified operators that they will increase the permit costs for climbers, Sherpa and cooks. The net impact is that a permit to climb Everest from the north is now more expensive than from the south for most climbers. This according to Phil Crampton of Altitude Junkies. The north side of Everest has long been the ‘bargain’ side primarily based on a lower cost permit from the Chinese then Nepal’s permit of $10,000 per climber.  This is turn had attracted the lowest budget operators, and independent climbers. But this had a continue reading


Update: Lama Geshe back in Pangaboche

 5 Responses »
Mar 052011
 
Update: Lama Geshe back in Pangaboche

I am very pleased to pass on this note from Lama Geshe’s son, Jigme, on the condition of his father, Lama Geshe. As I have previously reported, Lama Geshe suffered a stroke around September 20, 2010. He was flown to Kathmandu, paralyzed and in poor condition.  He  had surgery and spent many months recovering in Kathmandu. If you do not know Lama Geshe, he lives in the Nepalese village of Pangboche with his wife and family. He is the highest ranking Buddhist Lama in the area. Almost every climber to the Everest region visits him to receive a blessing before continue reading


A Visual Tour of Everest

 4 Responses »
Mar 032011
 
A Visual Tour of Everest

I often write about Everest but it takes a lot of words and sometimes, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. So here are two “pictures” you might find interesting. The first is a short animation I created a while back showing the typical Everest south side expedition schedule. There is no sound, just watch the moving ball! The “ZZZZ’s” indicate nights climbers sleep at each camp and the rest is pretty self explanatory. But for those new to Everest, the reason for so many trips up and down the mountain is to condition the body to continue reading


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