Mt. Everest

Mt Everest at 8848 M is the highest peak in the world.

Being the ‘highest’ tag has made it well known and desired by one and all. It is located on the border of Nepal and Tibet autonomous region of China. It was first climbed by its South East ridge from Nepal in 1953 and since then it is being regularly climbed from SE ridge in Nepal and North ridge in China. 

I got my chance to visit this fabled land and climb the dream peak in 2001. We climbed from Nepal side.
 
It was sort of dream come true when I got included in the team after a selection trials conducted in the form of a mountaineering expedition to Mt Mana in Garhwal Himalayas.
 
We drove in trucks from Delhi to Kathmandu and thereafter by bus to the road head at Jiri (about 180 kms from Kathmandu) in North east Nepal. From Jiri, our loads of approx. 10 tons was airlifted by helicopter to Namche Bazar and the team members trekked over 9 days from Jiri to Namche Bazar with a view to tone up the body and to acclimatise gradually. Namche Bazaar at around 10500 ft is the nerve centre of the Everest expeditions. Lukla airfield is also located close to it. All administrative arrangements, porter handling, last minute shopping, acclimatisation walks etc is done at Namche Bazaar by all the teams. Hereafter, it’s a five day serene and scenic trek to Everest Base camp located at around 17500 ft over the lower fringes of Khumbu Glacier. All along the trek, local Sherpa community has established guest houses with basic facilities as the region is not only frequented by climbers but also the trekkers going upto the Base camp.  
 
Base Camp is like a mini town with on an average 40 odd teams strewn around 2 kms area. The average strength of Base camp hovers around 3000 people during Apr-May season. 
 
The climb involves establishment of four camps with average height differential of 2000 ft between each camp. The climb to Camp I goes through the notorious Khumbu icefall which is a jumbled mass of ice dropping down over steep gradient resulting in huge seracs and deep crevasses. On an average, any climber goes through it 6-8 times during an expedition. 

 Opening of route through this maze is difficult, time consuming and requires lot of  equipment like ropes, aluminium ladders, Ice pitons etc. For quite sometime now, the Nepal government has instituted a team of sherpas who open the route at the start of the climbing season and maintain it every day for all climbers. They charge a lump sum amount from each climber for the expenses incurred in Sherpa wages and purchase of equipment.  
 
The route between Camp I and II goes over the relatively less steep snow slopes littered with both open and hidden crevasses. The  climber has to cover larger distance to avoid crossing crevasses by going along it and crossing at its narrowest portion, wherever feasible. Camp II is quite windy and surrounded by crevasses.
 
Camp III is located on a steep slope of blue ice. The climb is done over fixed rope and icy slope makes use of crampons mandatory.  It’s the most uncomfortable camp as at the height of almost 24000 ft, it is difficult to breathe without artificial oxygen and digging a flat base of icy slope is quite tiresome and exhausting. Thereafter, its becomes difficult to rest due to both altitude, tiredness and discomfort.
 
Camp IV is on the South Col which is the highest and the last camp before the summit attempt. Being higher than 26000 ft, it is also termed as ‘Death Zone’ due to unviability of human beings to survive at very low oxygen at such heights. One is never comfortable here and does not even feel like eating anything. After few hours of rest in the tents being held in place by a web of rope nets, due to very high winds, climbers leave at night for a non stop climb of on an average 8-10 hours to reach the summit. The climb is steep, its awfully cold and human body behaves differently and unpredictably at these heights and cold conditions. But thankfully, 10 members of our team made it to the top without much damage to limbs. 
 
It was simply an awesome experience of life and both the affects and after affects are life long experiences and memories.