Everest 2012: A look at the Costs

How much does it cost to climb Mt. Everest? This is probably the most popular question second only to “Did you summit?”  Well the short answer to question one is – a car. Selecting a guide is often personal, controversial and highly based on a last experience. This article strives to be objective and not make specific recommendations other than to carefully research your choices, ask questions, get references and go in with your eyes wide open. The Big Picture I am always receiving emails asking how to climb Everest as inexpensively as possible. My short answer is stop trying. continue reading

Profile of an Everest Sherpa

Sherpas are the backbone of Everest. But who are these people and what motivates them? I have now climbed with Sherpas multiple times and my admiration increase with each experience. That said, Sherpas are real people with all the strengths and weaknesses of everyone else. They get altitude sickness, have bad days, bad moods and sometimes make mistakes. And, to climb with a Sherpa is a honor. The Sherpa People First, a bit of historical background. Sherpa is the name of a people and also used as a last name. They mostly live in western Nepal today but migrated from continue reading

Lhotse – the Other Everest

Every Everest climber, actual or armchair, recognizes the term “Lhotse Face” as a difficult section leading to the Death Zone at 8,000 meters. What some people often miss is that the Face is part of the 4th highest mountain on Earth, Lhotse standing 27,940 feet or 8516 meters. Sitting in the fake Starbucks in Lukla after my successful Everest summit, I overheard a middle-aged climber talking to a group of trekkers, ” I just summited Lhotse, it is a lot harder than Everest.” The group began to grill him on the details and he rewarded them with tales of “real” continue reading

Everest 2012:: Interview with Cian O’Brolchain

This interview with Cian O’Brolchain is part of an ongoing series of interviews I do each season with Everest climbers. Not the famous, sponsored ones who get plenty of publicity but the regular people, who have full time jobs, full time families in many cases and climb for the love of climb. Please send me your suggestion for an interview. Now here’s Cian: So what does professional tennis have to do with mountain climbing? Well, a lot it appears from my conversation with now retried Irish tennis professional Cian O’Brolchain. I first met Cian on Denali last summer. We shared continue reading

Everest 2012 Interview with the Axe

This interview with Grant Rawlinson is part of an ongoing series of interviews I do each season with Everest climbers. Not the famous, sponsored ones who get plenty of publicity but the regular people, who have full time jobs, full time families in many cases and climb for the love of climb. Please send me your suggestion for an interview. Now here’s Grant: Climbing Everest is never easy. Sometimes you hear people dismiss a route as a Tourist Route; or pay your $65,000 then tie yourself to a Sherpa and get hauled to the summit. I respectfully disagree and suggest continue reading

Everest Base Camp – Himex Style

I’ve been in many base camps but I knew I was somewhere special when I was told “… and this is our garbage tent.” Welcome to Everest Base Camp, Russell Brice style. In 2011 while climbing Everest, I spent the afternoon with Brice getting to know this man and how he runs his expedition base camps. Let’s just say, it’s different. Most expeditions will promote their excellent base camp facilities and talk of gourmet food, individual tents, and clean kitchens. Today, this is the ante to play the game and let me say from the start that many operators take continue reading

Everest 2012: Interview with Bill Burke

This interview with Bill Burke is part of an ongoing series of interviews I do each season with Everest climbers. Not the famous, sponsored ones who get plenty of publicity but the regular people, who have full time jobs, full time families in many cases and climb for the love of climb. Please send me your suggestion for an interview. Now here’s Bill: I have come to know and admire one Everest climber for several years now, Bill Burke. He epitomizes determination and optimism like few other climbers. Here are some stats: 69-years old, has been to Everest every year continue reading

Everest 2012: The Summit Routes

Along with my annual coverage of Everest,  I always update information on the climbing routes on Everest. I am surprised that there is always something new. For Everest 2012 season, I want to discuss an acclimatization technique that is becoming more common on Nepal expeditions,  the climb of nearby Lobuche Peak. Lobuche Acclimatization Lobuche is often classified as a Trekking peak due to the lack of technical difficulty and the relatively mild altitude;  it is “only” 20,075ft/6119m . Teams like to use Lobuche for acclimatization because the summit is the same altitude as Camp 1 and it eliminates at least one continue reading