Everest Trek | Videos

South Col Expeditions treks the Everest region every year. This post shows two videos shot on our Everest  trek. The first one is a panorama view from the high point of Gokyo Ri above the Gokyo lakes with a view of four 8000 metre peaks - Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu. The second shows the view just outside Namche Bazar on the trail to Kyanjuma.

For more information on our treks do visit www.southcol.com and for more photographs on the Himalaya visit www.sujoydas.com

Apa Sherpa | 21 Everest Summits

The certificates and awards for Apa Sherpa

On the way back to Namche Bazaar after crossing the Rhenjo La pass on the Everest trek,  we stopped for lunch at Thami at the lodge of the famous Everest sumitteer Apa Sherpa who has 21 Everest summits to his credit. Apa was away in the USA but his brother and their family were present. They showed us around the lodge and we had a pleasant lunch with them in the sun. Here are some photographs and memorablia of Apa Sherpa from the lodge:

Apa's lodge in Thami

Apa's brother and his family in front of the lodge

Kangetga, Thamserku and Kusum Kangaru seen from the lodge

Nepal Himalaya | A Journey Through Time | Book Launch New Delhi

Nepal Himalaya - A Journey Through Time will be launched in New Delhi on Sunday December 4th 2016 at the India Habitat Centre, Gulmohar Hall at 7 pm. On that occasion, a presentation through photographs titled The Lure of Everest will be made. All are welcome. The details are below:

Mallory of Everest | June 8th 1924

"And yet as I gazed again another mood appeared to creep over her haunting features. There seemed to be something alluring in that towering presence. I was almost fascinated. I realized that no mere mountaineer alone could but be fascinated, that he who approaches close must ever be led on, and oblivious of all obstacles seek to reach that most sacred and highest place of all." 

Noel Odell gazing at the North Ridge of Everest June 1924 after Mallory and Irvine were lost.

View from the Kharta valley 1921 Reconnaissance expedition

"Higher in the sky than imagination had ventured to dream, the top of Everest itself appeared"

On 8th June 1924, two men left  Camp VI (26,700 feet)  to make an attempt on the summit of Everest. Camp VI  was the highest camp of the British 1924 Everest expedition.

On the same morning, another British climber, Noel Odell, was making his way up from Camp IV to Camp VI. Odell was a geologist and he was collecting fossils from the slopes of Mount Everest. Odell recalls that it was not the perfect morning to climb Everest. " Rolling banks of mist" were sweeping  across the mountain and covering the north face. Neither the face nor the summit ridge could be seen by Odell. There was also a sharp wind which was making climbing very difficult.

Suddenly at 12.50 pm the mist cleared and Odell spotted high above on the ridge, a black dot climbing a rock step, which Odell at that point identified as the Second Step. Soon after Odell saw another black dot following the first black dot. But before Odell could be sure that the second black dot had joined the first,  the mist rolled in and blanketed the mountain and this fantastic vision was lost forever.

The two dots that Odell saw were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine "going strongly for the summit of Everest". Mallory and Irvine were never seen again.

But even today, ninety two years after the disappearance of Mallory and Irvine, the legend of Mallory is still alive. Books are being written about Mallory, expeditions are being planned to find Andrew Irvine and his camera because Everest experts believe that the camera will unlock the secret of Mallory's last climb.

In this post we take a look at some photographs and other memorabilia from the Everest expeditions of 1921, 1922 and 1924.

“It was a prodigious white fang, an excrescence from the jaw of the world.”

Everest view from the Pang La pass in Tibet

The 1924 Everest expedition members

Andrew Irvine working on oxygen cylinders

"I cannot tell you how it possesses me"

Mallory's watch found in  1999 by Conrad Anker and the team

"Again and for the last time we advance up the Rongbuk glacier for victory or final defeat "

Letter from George Mallory to his daughter

1924 oxygen cylinders at the Planters Club Darjeeling


"...some day you will hear a different story..."

Everest | May 29th 1953

Tenzing and Hillary after the successful climb at Thyangboche monastery

Today is sixty three years since the first ascent of Everest.

On 29th May 1953 at 11.30 am, a Sherpa and a New Zealander became the first men to stand on top of the highest peak on this planet.  However the intervening years has seen a sea change as far as Everest is concerned. The mountain, enshrined in controversy, has now become a playground for guided expeditions, with clients paying between  twenty five to sixty thousand dollars or more to stand on the highest point on earth. The South Col route climbed in 1953 is now disdainfully referred to as the “yak trail”. The dangerous icefall below the Western Cwm is maintained by a team of sherpas right through the season led by a senior “Icefall Doctor.” In order to make it possible for inexperienced clients to summit Everest, the entire mountain has fixed rope from bottom to top. This year 2016 the first ascent of the mountain was made by a team of nine sherpas from different expeditions who fixed  the rope right to the summit.

2014 and 2015 were both a  "lost season" for Everest due to the great Nepal earthquake which caused an enormous avalanche at Everest Base Camp on 25th April 2015.  In 2014 the loss of sixteen sherpas in the Everest icefall effectively ended the Everest season from the south side.

However, this post recounts through photographs,  the 1953 climb, the historic ascent of the first two men to summit Everest and the team of climbers and sherpas who supported them through this endeavour.

Tenzing and Hillary at Advance Base after the successful climb

Charles Evans and Tom Bourdillon at the South Col after coming back from the South Summit on 26th May 1953, a decision which Bourdillon regretted for the rest of his life

Returning from the South Col: Evans, Hillay, Tenzing, Bourdillon and George Band

From left: John Hunt, Hillary, Tenzing and Ang Nyima. Standing : Alfred Gregory and George Lowe at Advanced Base after the return of Tenzing and Hillary from the summit

Telegram sent by Hunt in code which meant "Hillary and Tenzing reached summit on May 29th"

The team of climbers and sherpas at Base  Camp after the successful climb

The Everest Region in Black and White

Ama Dablam and Kangtega on the trail from Dingboche to Dugla

Thamserku from Luza on the Gokyo trail

Setting moon behind Kwangde, Namche Bazar

Pumori and Kala Pattar

Everest

Thamserku on the Gokyo trail

The Scott Fischer memorial above Dugla

Kangtega and Thamserku last light from the lodges of Kyanjuma

Join South Col Expeditions on the Everest trek in October 2016.  For details do visit
http://www.southcol.com/treks-nepal/the-everest-trek-to-kala-pattar/

Everest Trek: Peakfinder Screenshots 2 Dingboche and Imja Valley

This is the second post on the Peakfinder screen shots from the Everest region covering Dingboche, Chukung and the Imja Valley.

Dingboche looking south east

Dingboche looking north east

Dingboche looking south west

Dingboche looking west

Above Chukung looking south east

Above Chukung looking south west

Above Chukung looking south

Above Chukung looking north east

Everest Trek: Peakfinder Screenshots 1 Kala Pattar and Khumbu valley

As mentioned in some of my earlier posts, I have started using the Peakfinder app extensively on my treks to identify the peaks and have been saving the screenshots on my Ipad. Here are the screen shots from that iconic view point Kala Pattar and lower down the Khumbu valley.

Kala Pattar looking north 

Kala Pattar looking south west

Kala Pattar looking south

Approaching Lobuche 

From Dugla looking south

From Dugla looking south west

From the memorials above Dugla looking south