{"id":8731,"date":"2012-03-19T16:05:41","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T22:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/?p=8731"},"modified":"2016-05-27T17:16:10","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T23:16:10","slug":"a-crowded-everest-west-ridge-and-pr-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alanarnette.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/19\/a-crowded-everest-west-ridge-and-pr-battle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Crowded Everest West Ridge and PR Battle – Updated"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Everest<\/a>
Everest West Ridge from Tibet (courtesy research)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After over 20 years of inactivity, the West Ridge of Everest is going to be crowded in 2012. While the climbers battle the elements of the very harsh West Ridge, back at the sponsors’ headquarters, the marketing people will be battling a high tech publicity war spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hopes they will sell more gear, magazines and attract more viewers.<\/p>\n

There will be two major efforts with four sponsored teams climbing this year with virtually identical goals. Both will have West Ridge and Southeast Ridge teams climbing simultaneously, all staffed with world-class climbers.<\/p>\n

Everest West Ridge<\/h3>\n

There are 19 named routes on Everest with 97% of the activity happening on the South Col (Southeast Ridge) or North Col (Northeast Ridge) routes. In recent years, there are 300 to 500 summits via those routes annually.<\/p>\n

The West Ridge of Everest is the highly visible ridge forming the north side of the Western Cwm and also very prominent when viewed from the Tibet side. According this excellent article on ExWeb<\/a>, there have been about 17 summits using either the West Ridge Direct (10), from the Western Cwm (5) or from Tibet (2). There have been 11 deaths, including 6 French climbers from an avalanche in 1974.\u00a0 It was last climbed in 1989 and attempted by 21 teams over the years.<\/p>\n

For background on the West Ridge route, Croatian mountaineer, Stipe Bo\u017ei?’s documented his 1979 climb on this link<\/a>. It is a great story with some amazing photos.<\/p>\n

First used in 1963, 2013 marks the 50 year anniversary of the first ascent via the West Ridge by the American Mount Everest Expedition<\/a> (AMEE) who was sponsored in part by National Geographic and climbers using Eddie Bauer<\/a> clothing. This is the basis for the broad interest in climbing the West Ridge for publicity throughout 2013. Look for a similar fever for the 100 year anniversary of Mallory & Irvine North side climb in 2024!<\/p>\n

National Geographic: A nod to history<\/h3>\n

National Geographic<\/a> and The North Face<\/a> announced their plans for a West Ridge climb lead by none other than Conrad Anker. It was in 2007 when we last heard about Conrad and Everest as he was filming, \u201cThe Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest\u201d<\/a>. There Anker re-enacted Mallory’s (assumed) unaided climb of the 2nd Step on the north side of Everest and then Anker went on to summit.<\/p>\n

This time his objective is to climb the difficult West Ridge, alpine style which means carrying all the gear as you climb. This is the purest, and most difficult, style of high altitude climbing. Cory Richards will be his partner and film the entire climb. They will be climbing without supplemental oxygen. There will no doubt be a NatGeo film out of this.<\/p>\n

A second team will climb the Southeast Ridge in standard expedition style with Sherpas, and stocked camps. They hope to meet the West Ridge team on the summit as nearly happened in 1963.\u00a0 Joining the expedition will be researchers from the Mayo Clinic<\/a> and geologists from Montana State University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eddie Bauer\/First Ascent: A father’s footsteps<\/h3>\n

As I previously reported<\/a>, a team from Eddie Bauer\/First Ascent will also be taking this route in their re-enactment of the 1963 feat where on the expedition Jim Whittaker became the first American to summit, then a second team of Willi Unsoeld and Tom Hornbein, climbing the West Ridge, met up with a team from the South Col route, descending together thus making the first West Ridge summit and first traverse of Everest and the highest overnight bivy at the time.<\/p>\n

In their announcement, they mentioned two different climbs, on different routes. First will be a standard South Col effort with Dave Hahn, Leif Whittaker and Melissa Arnot. Then the climb of the West Ridge by Jake Norton, Brent Bishop, Charley Mace and David Morton. Brent’s father, Barry Bishop was on the 1963 American Mount Everest Expedition<\/a> and summited via the Southeast Ridge route.<\/p>\n

Technology and PR<\/h3>\n

Both of these expeditions have invested quite a bit in covering their climbs. NatGeo has a nice website<\/a> and, as you would expect, many excellent pictures<\/a> of previous expeditions. Another interesting section is on gear<\/a>, with a focus on TNF, that has been used over the years.<\/p>\n

The NatGeo West Ridge climb will be the basis of a 2013 for a feature in National Geographic magazine. In addition to coverage on their website, they have an iPad app<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For their part, Eddie Bauer’s website<\/a> featuring the First Ascent gear, has been an excellent production over the years standing out in the 2009 Everest season with outstanding videos and well written dispatches, especially from Dave Hahn who always does a great job. Serac Adventure Films<\/a> has been an important partner in their coverage. This video by Michael Brown is an excellent look at what it takes to cover an expedition<\/p>\n