An Update from Ang Tshering Sherpa

Ang Tshering Sherpa is the Chairman and Founder of Asian Trekking, one of the oldest expedition companies in Nepal. He is the current President of the Nepal [continue reading]

Comparing the Routes of Everest

After deciding to climb Everest, climbers must choose their route. There are over 18 named routes on Everest and a couple that are still unclimbed. The vast majority of climbers use two routes: South Col or the Northeast Ridge Standard aka North Col route. Let’s look at both route in detail.

Interview with Lei Wang: 7+2 is her Dream

Lei Wang may be about to accomplish something by her calculations only nine other people have done thus far: stand on top of the 7 Summits and ski the last degree to north and south poles – assuming she summits Everest about 3 months from now.
Growing up in China, Lei spent her weekends catching fish [continue reading]

A.C. Sherpa: Everest last of the 7 Summits

Ang Chhiring Sherpa now lives in Mercer Island Washington, just outside Seattle. And this man has a dream of helping those back in his native Nepal. With his hopeful summit of Everest this spring he will have completed the 7 Summits he started with his summit of Denali on June 17, 2009.
His cause is to [continue reading]

Reinhold Messner: Mental Toughness

Most people, even non-climbers, know the name Reinhold Messner. He is arguably the finest Alpinist of all time. His firsts in climbing are legendary and include the first summit of Everest without supplemental oxygen and then he reported the feat on the North side – solo. He was the first climber to summit all [continue reading]

Interview with Mike Farris: Alone on Everest

A constant debate within the climbing community is not what you climb, but how you climb. Style. It is all about style. Mike Farris found himself in the middle of this argument on the summit of Everest last spring.
He climbed with style but paid a price with the removal of portions of seven fingers, both [continue reading]

Interview with Anne-Mari Hyryläinen: The First Finnish Woman on Everest?

Finland is usually associated with Nordic sports like ski jumping and cross country skiing. Now Anne-Mari Hyryläinen wants to make history by being the first Finnish woman to summit Everest.
An accomplished marathoner, she saw Mount Everest for the first time while bicycling from Lhasa to Kathmandu. She stopped at the north side base camp and [continue reading]

South Side Update from IMG’s Eric Simonson

Last week we looked at the north side of Everest for 2010, now let’s have a quick look at the south for 2010 through the eyes of IMG’s Eric Simonson.
As many know, IMG is one of the largest operators on Everest and the other highest peaks around world. They were featured on the Discovery Channel’s [continue reading]

North Side Update from an Expert: Jamie McGuinness

It is about a month before teams from all around the world pack their duffel bags for the flights to Kathmandu. Thus far the south looks like business as usual with about 16 teams already announced. To put this in perspective, in 2007, when we saw a record number of Everest summits, there were about [continue reading]

Interview with Ellen Miller – the Quiet Climber

Ellen Miller is a quiet climber. She is so quiet that many people would never know the achievements of this accomplished athlete and mountaineer. For example, she is the only woman to summit Everest from both sides within the span of one year.
I first met Ellen in 2002 on the expedition where she summited from [continue reading]