Could You Climb Everest?

A Beginner's Guide To The World's Highest Mountain

Two things happened recently that made me think again about Everest. Not just think mind, but completely re-evaluate the way I looked at the roof of the world. The first was reading an article we received from a guy called Mick Crosthwaite. Mick had just got back from an attempt on the big bump with the '1998 British Everest Expedition'.

Sounds kind of big and exclusive doesn't it? 'The British Everest Expedition', the sort of jape reserved for serious high altitude mountaineers with years of hard, technical climbing experience tucked under their harnesses. Except that three months before Mick first pitched his tent at base camp, he was a self-confessed mountaineering novice with barely any snow and ice expertise and just a few informal scrambles up to about 6500 metres in Tibet to his name.I have to admit that my initial reaction was along the lines of, just how dumb is that? In fact you could leave the question mark out. I just thought, 'dumb'.

The second thing that made me question my assumptions was talking to Steve Bell of Jagged Globe. Jagged Globe are one of several British companies currently offering guided ascents of Everest and Steve was outlining the basic capabilities he'd demand from a prospective client who wanted to summit the big one.

What's more, according to Bell, a committed, fit, walker could go from zero, yes, absolute zilch experience to the point where they stood a reasonable chance of topping out in as little as a year, although two years would be more reasonable.

We're not saying that climbing to over 29,000 feet is a holiday - anyone who's read Jon Krakauer's book 'Into Thin Air' should have no illusions about that - but here, without the moral, ethical and emotional judgments, are most of the basic facts you need to know about taking on Everest. We're not, by the way, telling you that there aren't such judgments to be made, but here at AT, we reckon that they're down to the individual.

The Altitude

Of the major obstacles to climbing Everest, altitude, along with cold, is the one that affects everyone, novice or Himalayan veteran. The reduced pressure at altitude means that although the concentration of Oxygen is the same as at sea level, each breath you take effectively contains less. Acclimatisation is the process by which the human body adapts to this situation by producing more red blood cells. The highest altitude where people live permanently is around 5000 metres and, according to Steve Bell, this is the crucial point. If you can acclimatise above this point, you'll almost certainly be okay even higher up.

You could write a book on the effects of high altitude, but in essence, everything from thought to breathing becomes massively harder. Nearly all climbers use supplementary oxygen high on the mountain, but the effects are still debilitating.

The Technical Difficulty

Everest from the South - the usual approach - isn't technically difficult in mountaineering parlance. What this means is that there's very little serious, steep climbing involved. Most of the route is moderate snow and ice - around Scottish Grade I or II - and even the renowned Hillary Step is, says Bell, only around Scottish grade III. That's probably within the physical capability of anyone reading this magazine. The difference is that Scotland isn't yet at an altitude of 8,000 metres plus, where even breathing takes a conscious effort and even easy technical climbing feels desperate. It's usual to install a permanent rope on The Step to safeguard climbers.

What this simple analysis ignores is that the harder you climb, the more you should have in reserve on easy terrain, and the faster and more safely you should be able to move if the weather turns or you find yourself in a crisis situation. As a beginner you'll almost certainly be on a guided trip where someone else is making the bigger mountaineering decisions, but you're always going to be responsible for your own immediate actions on the mountain, so ideally Jagged Globe want clients who've climbed harder than the minimum.

Arguably, just as important as technical competence is bad weather climbing experience. At over 8,000 metres you need to be able to look after your personal safety if the weather does close in. Scotland in winter is, as Alan Hinkes has said, excellent training for this.

The Brain and Motivation

Guides, Sherpas and modern equipment may have made Everest easier than it used to be, but says Bell, climbing Everest is 'still amazing even with oxygen.' Part of that is down to the huge mental commitment needed to succeed. 'It is,' he says, 'like taking a step out of the real world. For ten weeks you live in a strange dream-world where experiences are heightened … On Everest there are constant reminders that you're on borrowed time. There are bodies and you climb past them.' There is, he says, no place to hide from yourself, no facade.

Without huge determination and mental toughness you won't get to the top and even with them, there are no guarantees. Then there's coming home; after the harsh simplicities of life on Everest, 'real life' can seem dull and unexciting. It'll change you for sure, but that's travel for you.

Fitness

You don't need rock climbing-type upper body strength for Everest, but excellent cardiovascular fitness and strong legs are essential. Running, cycling or swimming are all good training, but humping big sacks up steep slopes is probably the best. Fitness and acclimatisation have no obvious relationship, though often older, steadier climbers tend to go better at altitude than frantic young tigers.

The Financial Cost

With Jagged Globe, you're looking at an overall cost of $39,000 including flights, transport, sherpas, communal equipment and food etc. On top of this you'll probably need to spend around £1500 on personal equipment, though if you're a keen trekker, you'll already own a surprising portion of what you need.

The total includes a share of the peak fee levied by the Nepalese government,which, in Mick Crosthwaite's case came to around $10,000 of his £19,000 total cost. Insurance arranged through Jagged Globe would cost £797.

According to Steve Bell, clients range from the seriously rich to those who have scrimped, saved and scraped to raise the money through sponsorship. You don't have to be loaded, though it helps.

The Nuts and Bolts

On the lower slopes of the mountain you're looking at a standard layering system, much as you'd use trekking - base layer, fleece, shell etc. Temperatures in the Khumbu ice fall can rise to 30-degrees or more, so a sun-hat is vital. You'll also need two pairs of glacier glasses to prevent snow blindness and permanent eye damage.

Other basic kit includes a one-litre pee bottle so you don't have to leave your tent to take a leak at night, plastic cutlery to prevent sticking to lips in sub-zero temperatures, a five-season down sleeping bag, inflatable sleeping mat for insulation from the snow, water bottle with insulating cover and a metal vacuum flask to prevent drinks from freezing on summit day.

On top of all this, you'll need special, high altitude plastic double boots together with an insulated over boot. Because feet swell at altitude and tight boots can restrict circulation and contribute to frostbite, Jagged Globe advise two sizes bigger than standard size. To combat the extreme cold - in the Western Cwm temperatures can fall from 30-degrees to minus 30-degrees in an hour - either a down romper suit or down trousers and jacket are needed, together with down mitts, together with Gore-Tex overmitts.

An alternative to a full Gore-Tex jacket and salopette combo is a light one-piece windproof, highly breathable wind-suit that saves vital ounces. Other altitude accoutrements include a neoprene face mask to protect face and nose from extreme windchill and vapour-barrier socks. The latter are thin, waterproof and non-breathable and worn between a liner and outer sock to keep the outer sock dry and consequently help to keep feet warmer.

If there's a surprise here, it's how little specialised personal kit is required to climb Everest, though on top of this you need to add a lightweight oxygen set and cylinder for summit day.

Food and Drink

You wouldn't get Keith Floyd on Everest, even if you can't keep Brian Blessed off it. One of the effects of altitude is to depress appetites and deaden the taste of all but the spiciest food. This is a double problem as an Everest climber burns a massive 6000 calories per day. This'd be hard to make up at sea level, high on the mountain it's impossible. At base camp you live a life of relative luxury with food prepared from local ingredients by sherpas, higher up climbers usually use rations brought from home, though often even the tastiest delicacies are impossible to force down. Mick Crosthwaite speaks fondly of the stinkiest, smelliest salami he could find, but would pass over delicacies like treacle pudding. An extreme dislike of porridge is a recognised characteristic of high altitude mountaineering, or at least it ought to be.

Fluid is the other major requirement of life high up. Altitude has a diuretic effect and all that panting and exertion doesn't help, so life on the mountain is one long battle to stay hydrated, which means melting snow, making brews, drinking them, while more snow's melting and so on. Ditto with food. Even so, Steve Bell reckons to lose two stone from his greyhound-like eleven and a half stone, six foot frame over the course of an Everest expedition. It's simply impossible to take 6000 calories a day at altitude, which isn't helped by the digestive system's reduced efficiency when dumped unceremoniously on big mountains. It's surely only a matter of time before someone launches the high altitude mountaineering diet - the pounds just fall off and so do you…

The Route and Timing

If there's a 'normal route' on Everest it's from the south and this is the usual approach followed by guided expeditions. Base Camp -5400 metres - is set up below the vast Khumbu icefall. From here the route wends its way through the towering seracs of the icefall, a potentially deadly river of slowly moving ice, riven by huge crevasses and fed by ice pouring over the lip of the vast Western Cwm above. The icefall is crossed using fixed ropes and ladders, but ice cliffs the size of houses are always poised to collapse so it's a dangerous place.

Camp 1 is usually at about 6100 metres above the icefall and from here the route climbs up the Western Cwm- a huge, high valley - to Camp 2 at about 6400 metres. From here you carry on towards Lhotse for about four to five hours and 800 vertical metres to Camp 3 at around 7200 metres. From Camp 3, low down on the steep Lhotse Face, if you carried on straight ahead you'd reach the summit of Lhotse, but for Everest you need to head left across the steep, icy 55-degree slope, climbing up through the so-called Yellow Band, named for obvious reasons before climbing up the Geneva Spur towards the South Col. From the top of the Spur, you traverse again over to the flat, high plateau which is the site for Camp 4 and the jumping off point for the summit at 7986 metres.

The South Col is about the size of three football pitches and has an unfortunate reputation as the highest garbage tip in the world, being littered with abandoned tents, sleeping bags and - notoriously - several bodies. Climbers can only survive at this height for a couple of days, meaning that the window for summit attempts is a narrow one. This is one of the main reasons Everest is so hard to climb, cop some foul weather at this point and you're scuppered.

Summit Day begins before midnight and, effectively has three legs. The first climbs about 600 metres from the Col up to the Balcony (8600 metres), a bump on the SE Ridge about the size of two pub tables. Here most climbers will switch to a fresh oxygen cylinder carried up by a sherpa for the summit attempt. From here the ridge climbs more gently to the South Summit at 8760 metres, some 100 metres below the top. Then comes a section of narrow ridge to the infamous Hillary Step, a short, moderately hard step that's usually climbed with the aid of fixed ropes. Once above that it's a haul along a narrow snow arrete to the roof of the world. The final ridge isn't particularly difficult, but is very exposed and climbers on it are vulnerable to wind, so this too is usually roped. Fall off to your left and you're in Nepal and to your right, Tibet.

The need to acclimatise means that climbers operate on a sort of snakes and ladders system, moving up the mountain then returning to Base Camp before heading up again, rather than climbing in one push.

When To Go

There are two narrow windows of opportunity on Everest, pre-monsoon in mid to late May and post-monsoon in mid-October. During the winter the mountain's upper slopes are lashed by unfeasibly violent winds - the jetstream - and it's also extremely cold, during the monsoon, huge dumps of snow make climbing impossible.

Books

If there's one book anyone considering climbing Everest should read it's Jon Krakauer's 'Into Thin Air', his first-hand account of the disastrous 1996 season when 15 people died on the mountain. 'That book,' says Steve Bell, 'imparts what it feels like to be on an 8000 metre peak. It's essential. If it puts you off then you shouldn't be there.' Far from discouraging people, he says, Krakauer's harrowing account of the disaster has actually made more people aware of the feasibility of guided ascents. Another quite different first hand account worth a look is Matt Dickinson's 'Death Zone'.

For a climber's perspective on the commercialisation of Everest have a look at Joe Simpson's 'Dark Shadows Falling', which articulates the doubts many mountaineers have about guided expeditions and their morality.

For general technical climbing information, Fyffe and Peters 'Handbook of Climbing' is an excellent reference book.

Yes, I want to climb Everest and claim my free kitbag - who do I contact?

Jagged Globe

Contact: tel: 0114 276 3322
expeditions@jagged-globe.co.uk
www.jagged-globe.co.uk

Jagged Globe (previously Himalayan Kingdoms Expeditions) were the first UK outfit to guide Everest and have now been there four times with some 23 successful summiteers, though even they couldn't get Brain Blessed up top.

Alpine Mountaineering

Contact: tel: 0114 258 8508
andy@ottexpd.demon.co.uk
www.ottexpeditions.co.uk

Also run guided climbs on Everest.

Trekking:

There are numerous companies organising treks to Everest Base Camp, but indendent trekking is straightforward and cheap.

Websites

www.everestnews.com carries lots of, well, Everest news.
www.mountainzone.com always a good helping of Everest stuff in there.
www.mteverest.com all the Everest links a chap could possibly want.

Everest Facts

Local Names: in Nepal: Sagarmatha (means: goddess of the sky). In Tibet: Chomolungma (means: mother goddess of the universe)

First Ascent: 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, Nepal, via the South Col Route. Neither ever said who stepped on the summit first.

Named After: Mt. Everest was named in 1859 for Sir George Everest, the British surveyor-general of India. Once known as Peak 15.

Best and Worst Years on Everest: in 1993, 129 summited and eight died (a ratio of 16:1); in 1996, 98 summited and 15 died (a ratio of 6:1).

Summit/Death Ratio: Statistically for every five climbers that reach the summit, one dies.

First Oxygenless Ascent: 1978, Reinhold Messner, ITL, and Peter Habeler, AUT, via the South-East Ridge.

First Solo Ascent: 1980, Reinhold Messner, via the North Col to North Face.

First Ascent by a Woman: 1975, Junko Tabei, JAP, via the South-East Ridge.