User:Viewfinder/everestascents

I propose that the material that I have put into italics be transferred to the Timeline article. Other editors should feel free to edit this.

Source article: Mount Everest

Destination article: Timeline of climbing Mount Everest

Ascents


On June 8, 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, both of the United Kingdom, made an attempt on the summit from which they never returned.  Noel Odell, the expedition's geologist, wrote in his diary that he "saw M&I on the ridge, nearing base of final pyramid" at 12:50 p.m. that day. Later in his life, he said that what he believed were Mallory and Irvine were actually just rocks and that he only thought they had been moving. His statements and what he really saw are still being debated today. In 1979 climber Wang Hongbao of China revealed to a companion that he had discovered a body in 1975 thought at the time to be Irvine's, but he was killed in a fall the next day before he could provide precise details to anyone else.

In 1999, however, the Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition found Mallory's body in the predicted search area near the old Chinese camp. Controversy has raged in the mountaineering community as to whether the duo may have summited 29 years before the confirmed ascent (and of course, safe descent) of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The general consensus among climbers has been that they did not, though recent findings may indicate otherwise. Though there is no physical evidence of either man above the Second Step, there is speculation that if Mallory had made it that far he likely summitted, as there are no difficult technical climbs further up. The leading theory amongst those supporting the summit theory has Mallory tackling the sheer face of the Second Step by standing on Irvine's shoulders. Armed with Irvine's spare oxygen tanks he could have summitted late in the day. Descending in darkness he may have decided to take the Norton Couloir rather than attempt down-climbing the Second Step in the dark. Almost everyone agrees Mallory died in a short fall during his descent through the couloir, where his body was found. Irvine probably briefly survived him as he awaited his companion's return, at the foot of the Second Step, but died later of exposure. Irvine's body was probably found by another Chinese climber in 1960 (nowhere near Mallory's, proving the two had separated) but has not been rediscovered since, despite several searches in 2004.

Mallory had gone on a speaking tour of the United States the year before in 1923; it was then that he exasperatedly gave the famous reply, "Because it is there," to a New York journalist in response to hearing the question, "Why climb Everest?" for seemingly the thousandth time. Comprehensive information is available at Mallory and Irvine: The Final Chapter including critical opposing viewpoints.

In 1995, George Mallory II of South Africa (his grandson) reached the summit of Everest.

1933-1953
In 1933, Lady Houston, a British millionaire ex-showgirl, funded the Houston Everest Flight of 1933, which saw a formation of airplanes led by the Marquess of Clydesdale fly over the summit in an effort to deploy the British Union Jack flag at the top.

In 1934, Maurice Wilson, a British eccentric, stated his intention to summit Everest by himself. Extraordinarily, after only a few flying lessons, Wilson flew illegally from Britain to India, hiking through Darjeeling and into Tibet and with the help of a couple of Sherpa guides began his attempt. Maurice Wilson's body was found one year later, in 1935, by another expedition. The fates of Wilson's Sherpa guides are unknown and it is generally accepted that Wilson and his group made it above 8,000 meters before succumbing to the altitude. In 1960, a Chinese expedition on the North-Col, North-East ridge route claimed to have found the remains of an "old tent" at approx. 8,500 meters, just 300 meters from the summit. In 1960 the highest known camp on Everest Tibetan-side was at 8,300 meters. A Tibetan native named Gombu, himself a summiteer on the 1960 expedition confirmed the find, when in 1985, he emphatically answered in the affirmative after being asked the question twice. It must however be noted that whilst climbers from the Chinese expedition are on record, no such camp has ever been seen or found in the years since and most climbers are known to be somewhat skeptical.

After taking part in the 1935 reconnaissance expedition, the prolific British mountaineering explorer Bill Tilman was appointed leader of the 1938 Everest expedition which attempted the ascent via the north west ridge. They reached over 27,000 ft (8,200 m) without supplemental oxygen before being forced down due to bad weather and sickness.

Early expeditions ascended the mountain from Tibet, via the north face. However, this access was closed to western expeditions in 1950, after the Chinese reasserted control over Tibet. However, in 1950, Bill Tilman and a small party which included Charles Houston, Oscar Houston and Betsy Cowles undertook an exploratory expedition to Everest through Nepal along the route which has now become the standard approach to Everest from the south.

Tenzing and Hillary
During 1951, a British expedition led by Eric Shipton and including Edmund Hillary, travelled into Nepal to survey a new route via the southern face.

Taking their cue from the British, in 1952 a Swiss expedition attempted to climb via the southern face, but the assault team of Raymond Lambert and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay turned back 200 meters short of the summit. The Swiss attempted another expedition in the autumn of 1952; this time a team including Lambert and Tenzing turned back at an earlier stage in the climb.

In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair turned back after becoming exhausted high on the mountain. The next day, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its fittest and most determined climbing pair. The summit was eventually reached at 11:30 am local time on May 29, 1953 by the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay from Nepal climbing the South Col Route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first. They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending. News of the expedition's success reached London on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. Returning to Kathmandu a few days later, Hillary and Hunt discovered that they had been promptly knighted for their efforts.

1996 disaster
During the 1996 climbing season, fifteen people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest single year in Everest history. That year, on May 10th a storm stranded several climbers between the summit and the safety of Camp IV, killing five on the south side (Rob Hall, Scott Fischer, Yasuko Namba, Doug Hansen and guide Andy Harris) and three Indian (Ladakhi) climbers on the north (Tsewang Paljor, Dorje Morup, Tsewang Smanla). Hall and Fischer were both highly experienced climbers who were leading paid expeditions to the summit.</I> The disaster gained wide publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.

Journalist Jon Krakauer, on assignment from Outside magazine, was also in Hall's party, and afterwards published the bestseller Into Thin Air which related his experience. Anatoli Boukreev, a guide who felt impugned by Krakauer's book, co-authored a rebuttal book called The Climb. The dispute sparked a large debate within the climbing community. In May 2004, Kent Moore, a physicist, and John L. Semple, a surgeon, both researchers from the University of Toronto, told New Scientist magazine that an analysis of weather conditions on that day suggested that freak weather caused oxygen levels to plunge by around 14%.

<I>During the same season, climber and filmmaker David Breashears and his team filmed the IMAX feature Everest on the mountain (some climbing scenes were later recreated for the film in British Columbia, Canada). The 70 mm IMAX camera was specially modified to be lightweight enough to carry up the mountain, and to function in the extreme cold with the use of particular greases on the mechanical parts, plastic bearings and special batteries. Production was halted as Breashears and his team assisted the survivors of the May 10 disaster, but the team eventually reached the top on May 23 and filmed the first large format footage of the summit. On Breashears' team was Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of Tenzing Norgay, following in his father's footsteps for the first time. Also on his team was Ed Viesturs of Seattle, WA, who summited without the use of supplemental oxygen, and Araceli Seqarra, who became the first woman from Spain to summit Everest.</I>

The storm's impact on climbers on the mountain's other side, the North Ridge, where several climbers also died, was detailed in a first hand account by British filmmaker and writer Matt Dickinson in his book The Other Side of Everest.

2003 - 50th Anniversary of First Ascent
2003 marked the 50th anniversary of the first ascent, and a record number of teams, and some very distinguished climbers, attempted to climb the mountain this year. Several record attempts were attempted, and achieved:

<I>Dick Bass - the first person to climb the seven summits, and who first stood atop Everest in 1985 at 55 years old (making him the oldest person at that time to do so) returned in 2003 to attempt to reclaim his title. At 73 he would have reclaimed this honor, but he made it to ABC only. Dick's team mates included the renowned American climbers Jim Wickwire and John Roskelley.</I>

<I>Outdoor Life Network Expendition - OLN staged a high profile survivor style show where the winners got the chance to climb Everest. Conrad Anker and David Breashears were commentators on this expedition.</I>

<I>Adventure Peaks Expedition - Walid Abuhaidar and Philip James attempted to become the youngest American and British climbers to climb the North Face, but their expeditions were cut short when Conan Harrod, one of their team mates, fell and broke his leg on the summit ridge at a height of approximately 8,600m. The ensuing rescue was claimed to be the highest altitude rescue. A documentary is currently being produced on this expedition.</I>

2005 - Helicopter landing
On 14 May 2005, pilot Didier Delsalle of France landed a Eurocopter AS 350 B3 Helicopter on the summit of Mount Everest and remained there for two minutes. (His rotors were continually engaged; this is known as a "hover landing".) His subsequent take-off set the world record for highest take-off of a rotorcraft — a record that of course cannot be beaten. Delsalle had also performed a take-off two days earlier from the South Col, leading to some confusion in the press about the validity of the summit claim. This event does not count as an "ascent" in the usual fashion.

David Sharp controversy
Double-amputee climber Mark Inglis revealed in an interview with the press on May 23, 2006, that his climbing party, and many others, had passed a distressed climber, David Sharp, on May 15, sheltering under a rock overhang 450 meters below the summit, without attempting a rescue. The revelation sparked wide debate on climbing ethics, especially as applied to Everest. The climbers who left him said that the rescue efforts would be useless and only cause more deaths because of how many people it would have taken to pull him off. Much of this controversy was captured by the Discovery Channel while filming the television program Everest: Beyond the Limit.

As this debate raged, on May 26, Australian climber Lincoln Hall was found alive, after being declared dead the day before. He was found by a party of four climbers (Dan Mazur, Andrew Brash, Myles Osborne and Jangbu Sherpa) who, giving up their own summit attempt, stayed with Hall and descended with him and a party of 11 Sherpas sent up to carry him down. Hall later fully recovered.

Facts

 * As of the end of the 2004 climbing season, 2,238 people had reached the summit (1,148 of them since 1998) and 186 people died while summitting. The conditions on the mountain are so difficult that most of the corpses have been left where they fell; some of them are easily visible from the standard climbing routes.
 * Most expeditions use oxygen masks and tanks above 26,246 feet (8,000 m); this region is known as the death zone. Everest can be climbed without supplementary oxygen but this increases the risk to the climber. Humans do not think clearly with low oxygen, and the combination of severe weather, low temperatures, and steep slopes often require quick, accurate decisions.
 * Mountain climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal; they range from experienced mountaineers to relative novices who count on their paid guides to get them to the top. The Nepalese government also requires a permit from all prospective climbers; this carries a heavy fee, often more than $25,000 per person.