Mt. Everest

May 26, 2008
Dan Mallory, Adam Mallory, Alan Mallory,

May 27, 2008
Laura Mallory

Elevation

29,029 ft (8,848 meters)

Location

Nepal, China

Range

Mahalangur Himal, Himalaya

Coordinates

27°59’17″N 86°55’31″E

First ascent

1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay

Our route

South Col route, Nepal

In late March and early April, 2008, the Mallorys, Dan & Barbara both age 56, Adam, age 25, Alan, age 23 and Laura, age 20 flew from Toronto to Kathmandu, Nepal. After some last minute provisioning in Kathmandu, we flew to Lukla 9,400 ft (2,850 meters) where we started our trek to base camp 17,400 ft (5,300 meters).

 Over the next two weeks we hiked along trails cut into the sides of mountains where a misplaced step or a nudge from a yak would lead to a deadly fall. Along the way, we stayed in teahouses, visited several monasteries and enjoyed spectacular snow capped mountain vistas.

 

After reaching Base Camp, Barbara tore her Achilles tendon on an acclimatization climb and had to return to Canada. The rest of the family spent the next month alternating between climbing to and from camps 1, 2, 3 & 4 and resting in Base Camp in preparation for their summit push.

The ascent from Base Camp to Camp I 19,000 ft (5,800 meters) was through the infamous Khumbu Icefall which is essentially a glacier waterfall. The ice moves about 4 ft (1.2 meters) per day and with apartment sized ice blocks on the move, there was always the risk of falling ice. During the acclimatization process, we passed through this icefall 6 times.

En route to Camp II 19,700 ft (6,000 meters) we crossed the “flattish” Western Cwm. We had to climb around or walk on ladders tied together over seemingly bottomless crevasses. On sunny days, this area was like an oven and any exposed skin was quickly burnt.

Camp III 23,600 ft (7,200 meters) was on the head wall of the Lhotse face – a steep, shiny wall of ice. Our tents were lashed down and we had to be tied in and wear crampons when moving around outside our tents. In 2005, a climber neglected to do this, slipped and fell off the mountain to his death.

Camp IV was the highest camp located on the South Col at 26,200 ft (8,000 meters). It is known as the Death Zone because it lacks sufficient oxygen to sustain life for long. It was windy and cold and we spent only a few hours resting in a tent before beginning our summit attempt in the wee hours of the morning.

On summit day, the four of us prepared our gear and oxygen cylinders ready to depart in the dark in a frigid strong wind for the 12 hour climb to the summit followed by the 6-8 hour descent (more dangerous descending) back to Camp IV. Laura had health problems and returned to Camp IV early in the climb. Dan, Adam and Alan pushed on across and up very technical steep snow, ice and rock faces. After ascending the high rocky Hillary Step, we were on the top of the world 29,029 feet (8,848 meters).

Laura rested in Camp IV that day and the next day she and her Sherpa reached the summit.

2008 Everest statistics:

  • In 2008 Everest has been attempted 11,000 times
  • 3,000 attempts had been successful (reached the summit)
  • Success rate was 29%
  • 207 climbers had died on Everest
  • Fatality rate was 2.05% 54 of the summiteers died
  • Summit to Fatality rate was 1.82%