My trip to the top of Everest
Discussion
UTH said:
fatbutt said:
I was thinking of this thread as the family and I had a similarly taxing jaunt up Roseberry Topping, a hellish 'mountain' near where I used to live in Guisborough. I was thinking, assuming helicopters will become electric at some point, would anyone be up for a helicopter ride to the top of Everest? Would that be similar to these millionaires who like going to daft depths in the sea in experimental submarines?
Also wouldn't having electric helicopters seriously reduce the fatalities?
Flying up there in a tricked-out internal combustion helicopter has been done so its not impossible.
As far as I understand it, one helicopter made it up there, with one person in it, and as much weight as humanly possible taken out of it. Also wouldn't having electric helicopters seriously reduce the fatalities?
Flying up there in a tricked-out internal combustion helicopter has been done so its not impossible.
The problem with the thin atmosphere is getting the lift from the blades, so I don't imagine it'll ever be possible to take 'tourists' in a helicopter up there.
Of course someone with more science in their brain might tell me I'm wrong if you can get the blades spinning quick enough or something.
Any update?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Any update?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Any update?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
NuckyThompson said:
Any update?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Everest base camp is very picturesque - especially if you take the less crowded more spectacular Gokyo-RI/Cho-La route. Even so be prepared for a relatively crowded hike, but certainly extraordinary. On this route you will hike up Gokyo-Ri (>5000M), hike over the Cho-La pass (>5000m), see Everest from Kalar-Pathar (>5000m) and visit Everest Base Camp (>5000m). You will stay in the relative luxury of tea houses on routes (sheds).Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
If an expedition style climb but not requiring complex mountaineering skills is more your thing, then obvious ones would be:
Mera and/or Island (Nepal himalya) 6000m - spectacular and beautiful
Aconcagua (argentina) - 6980m - very spectacular in a brutal I am going hurt you kind of way
Lenin (Kyrgyzstan) 7100m - remote, quiet and spectacular - highest you can do without getting into extreme moutaineering skills, extraordinary country and scenery.
Elbrus (Russia) 5800m - brilliant, not too hard, spectacular - its in Russia which is not everyones cup of tea right now
Toubkal (morocco) 4100m - nice walk. Easy to get to. You are unlikely to die.
Zaichik said:
NuckyThompson said:
Any update?
Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
Everest base camp is very picturesque - especially if you take the less crowded more spectacular Gokyo-RI/Cho-La route. Even so be prepared for a relatively crowded hike, but certainly extraordinary. On this route you will hike up Gokyo-Ri (>5000M), hike over the Cho-La pass (>5000m), see Everest from Kalar-Pathar (>5000m) and visit Everest Base Camp (>5000m). You will stay in the relative luxury of tea houses on routes (sheds).Trying to formulate a plan for my 40th in a few years time. Want to do something special. Not Everest as to much risk but I always had Kilimanjaro on my list until I was told it isn’t that picturesque. So any suggestions of a similar height picturesque mountain? Everest base camp is a possibility. What are the easieer over 5000m mountains?
If an expedition style climb but not requiring complex mountaineering skills is more your thing, then obvious ones would be:
Mera and/or Island (Nepal himalya) 6000m - spectacular and beautiful
Aconcagua (argentina) - 6980m - very spectacular in a brutal I am going hurt you kind of way
Lenin (Kyrgyzstan) 7100m - remote, quiet and spectacular - highest you can do without getting into extreme moutaineering skills, extraordinary country and scenery.
Elbrus (Russia) 5800m - brilliant, not too hard, spectacular - its in Russia which is not everyones cup of tea right now
Toubkal (morocco) 4100m - nice walk. Easy to get to. You are unlikely to die.
But, I'd also throw in the mix considering the K2 basecamp trek. Certainly something far less crowded and 'commercialised' than Everest with what I'm told are even more impressive views etc
Even if I never climb a mountain again I'd like to do the K2 BC trip. Although I think there's a chance I might be too gutted to get to see K2 but not actually be climbing it.
So, we'd now done as much acclimatisation as we could elsewhere before there was no other option than to get higher up Everest to gain more altitude, so we'd now be based at Everest BC for the rest of the trip.
A few more generic photos I obviously took after leaving Lobuche
As our next trip would be heading up through the icefall and through camp 1 to camp 2, time to get back in the swing of ladders down at basecamp level:
In order to stay fit an active we did quite a lot of walks up behind basecamp, not really to anywhere of note, but it was our only option to keep moving on the down days. As ever, it always offered slightly different perspectives of the goal
This is us way above basecamp from the other side.....you can just about make out a tiny helicopter in the top right for scale
Pretty good shot of the Khumbu icefall flowing down the valley
Look closely you can see all the tiny dots that make up basecamp - gives you an idea of how big basecamp is and how many people are actually here!
Sorry, but I'll never tire of photos like these, makes looking out of my window at home fairly mundane:
We had our Puja ceremony as we'd be heading up the mountain for the first time soon - blessing of the climbers and some of their gear
Random shot of us having some wines, can't remember exactly when, maybe our last drink before we potentially go and die in the icefall, who knows!
Actually, that must have been a couple of days before we would head off, as this day we took a walk up basecamp (we were at the very bottom end) to check out the icefall up close for the first time. A walk up basecamp took an hour, it's that big!
Hard to imagine the scale of this beast behind me
And a look down on basecamp from the icefall angle
Looks like we took a stroll down to the last village before basecamp, probably just to keep the legs working and have a beer. Pumori behind me
One of the most enjoyable things about being a climber rather than a basecamp trekker is how obvious acclimatisation actually is. On our first trip to basecamp, we were plodding along fairly slowly, not much faster than all of the other tourists on the same route as we hadn't spent much time any higher than anyone else. But after a couple of weeks living at this altitude and going higher to Lobuche etc, what was originally a few hours from Gorak Shep to basecamp, became a 30 minute actual run! We were pretty much dancing around the tourists on the route, going for a couple of beers on our rest days then pretty much running back, passing the same people who were very slowly making their way there. That never got old.
Anyway, up next we really were heading up the mountain......
A few more generic photos I obviously took after leaving Lobuche
As our next trip would be heading up through the icefall and through camp 1 to camp 2, time to get back in the swing of ladders down at basecamp level:
In order to stay fit an active we did quite a lot of walks up behind basecamp, not really to anywhere of note, but it was our only option to keep moving on the down days. As ever, it always offered slightly different perspectives of the goal
This is us way above basecamp from the other side.....you can just about make out a tiny helicopter in the top right for scale
Pretty good shot of the Khumbu icefall flowing down the valley
Look closely you can see all the tiny dots that make up basecamp - gives you an idea of how big basecamp is and how many people are actually here!
Sorry, but I'll never tire of photos like these, makes looking out of my window at home fairly mundane:
We had our Puja ceremony as we'd be heading up the mountain for the first time soon - blessing of the climbers and some of their gear
Random shot of us having some wines, can't remember exactly when, maybe our last drink before we potentially go and die in the icefall, who knows!
Actually, that must have been a couple of days before we would head off, as this day we took a walk up basecamp (we were at the very bottom end) to check out the icefall up close for the first time. A walk up basecamp took an hour, it's that big!
Hard to imagine the scale of this beast behind me
And a look down on basecamp from the icefall angle
Looks like we took a stroll down to the last village before basecamp, probably just to keep the legs working and have a beer. Pumori behind me
One of the most enjoyable things about being a climber rather than a basecamp trekker is how obvious acclimatisation actually is. On our first trip to basecamp, we were plodding along fairly slowly, not much faster than all of the other tourists on the same route as we hadn't spent much time any higher than anyone else. But after a couple of weeks living at this altitude and going higher to Lobuche etc, what was originally a few hours from Gorak Shep to basecamp, became a 30 minute actual run! We were pretty much dancing around the tourists on the route, going for a couple of beers on our rest days then pretty much running back, passing the same people who were very slowly making their way there. That never got old.
Anyway, up next we really were heading up the mountain......
Mabbs9 said:
Great update thanks. The pics are fascinating. It looks so clear looking up to the South Summit and the last bit of the ridge. Did you have any good binoculars to have a look up?
Stupidly, I never even thought to buy/bring any!! Maybe I told myself not to worry as I'd be seeing it all up close with my own eyes at some point haha Having left before dawn and done the hour of plodding up through basecamp, we reached the bottom of the icefall and time to put the crampons on
You're following the one route so you do come across some people, but nothing really holding us up thankfully as you don't really want to be in the icefall with the sun beating down on it, melting it and making it very unstable
Sun starting to rise and hitting Pumori first.
Looking back down towards BC
Pumori looking awesome in the sun, wish I'd been able to climb it on this trip. Turns out the following year 'my' company switched acclimatising on Lobuche to Pumori, which I am a bit gutted about
Fairly small ladder to cross
At the top of the icefall we reach the area that is camp 1, but we weren't going to stay here, just a quick stop, and a brand new perspective on the summit
I forgot that I had my GoPro on my head taking photos every minute or so, so there were quite a few that turned out quite nicely from the icefall trip:
Particularly cool one, as you can imagine most of the crap I had to sort through was GoPro photos of my own feet
You get a vague sense of the sorts of giant ice seracs looming all over the place....one of these falls down and it might be game over
Not too far from the top of the icefall I think
Finally we're through
So, we'd made it to camp 1, and we rested for a short while, then started a very long, tedious plod to camp 2. Lots of people stay at camp 1, but there's a fairly sizeable avalanche risk coming from Nuptse which could in theory wipe out the whole camp, so we never stayed
Good shot of camp 1 behind us as we plod off
So, our next stop was going to be camp 2 for a few nights and then our first experience of the somewhat fearsome Lhotse Face.......
You're following the one route so you do come across some people, but nothing really holding us up thankfully as you don't really want to be in the icefall with the sun beating down on it, melting it and making it very unstable
Sun starting to rise and hitting Pumori first.
Looking back down towards BC
Pumori looking awesome in the sun, wish I'd been able to climb it on this trip. Turns out the following year 'my' company switched acclimatising on Lobuche to Pumori, which I am a bit gutted about
Fairly small ladder to cross
At the top of the icefall we reach the area that is camp 1, but we weren't going to stay here, just a quick stop, and a brand new perspective on the summit
I forgot that I had my GoPro on my head taking photos every minute or so, so there were quite a few that turned out quite nicely from the icefall trip:
Particularly cool one, as you can imagine most of the crap I had to sort through was GoPro photos of my own feet
You get a vague sense of the sorts of giant ice seracs looming all over the place....one of these falls down and it might be game over
Not too far from the top of the icefall I think
Finally we're through
So, we'd made it to camp 1, and we rested for a short while, then started a very long, tedious plod to camp 2. Lots of people stay at camp 1, but there's a fairly sizeable avalanche risk coming from Nuptse which could in theory wipe out the whole camp, so we never stayed
Good shot of camp 1 behind us as we plod off
So, our next stop was going to be camp 2 for a few nights and then our first experience of the somewhat fearsome Lhotse Face.......
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