Q: Where is Everest?

A: It is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet (now part of China). It is North-East of Kathmandu and South-West of Lhasa. It is also known by the Nepalese name of Sagarmatha (Mother of the Universe) and the Tibetan name of Chomolangma (Goddess Mother of the Snows). It was given the name Everest by the British in 1865 as their surveyors could not find a local name that was agreed on. It was named after Sir George Everest, the Surveyor-General of India. Prior to that it was simply known as Peak 15. It was first climbed by Edmund Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (Nepal) via the South Col Route on the 29th May 1953 in the course of the British 1953 Everest Expedition led by John Hunt.

A: It's generally accepted as being 8848m but may be as high as 8850m (I guess it depends how much snow fell in the monsoon). It is the highest mountain in the world, and one of only 14 that are over 8000m.

Q: I only want to look at it, how do I get to Base Camp?

A: Most people who go on Everest Base Camp treks fly to Lukla and then trek north through the Khumbu valley. This can be done either independently as a tea house trek or as part of an organised group where you may be tea housing it or camping. Everest is at the northern end of the Khumbu and pokes its head up from behind the Nuptse/Lhotse wall. You'll eventually arrive at a village called Gorak Shep and Everest Base Camp is another 3 to 5 hours walk from there (depending upon how well acclimatised you are and how fast you are walking). Some of the groups at Base Camp may not want you to visit them as a way of avoiding any potential bugs and illnesses (they have paid a LOT of money and don't want their trip jeopardised in any way) so don't take it personally.

From the north side Everest is a far more impressive looking peak as it dominates the surrounding area. Base Camp is South of the Rongbuk monastery and is at 5,200m. You will either need to go overland from Kathmandu or fly in to Lhasa and then go overland from there. Either way you are looking at around 5 to 8 days to allow you to safely cope with the altitude.

There are numerous commercial adventure travel companies arranging treks to both Everest Base Camps.

The route to the North Col is up steep snow and ice slopes with a couple of hard sections along the way. There are usually a couple of horizontal ladders to negotiate but nowhere on the scale of the Khumbu Icefall.

The North Col camp is at around 7,100m and after that it is straightforward crampon terrain to get to Camp 2 (which is generally spread out on platforms on the rocky terrain from 7,500m to 7,900m - some teams make a Camp 2 at 7,500m and a Camp 3 at 7,900m). From Camp 2 to Camp 3 (Camp 4 for some) is a mixture of straightforward cramponing and trekking through scree and rubble - except you are going up to 8,300m and the going is real s l o w.

From 8,300m the route follows a couple of diagonal snow gullies through the Yellow Band to gain access to the NE ridge. It's then quite an easy trail for a while until the steps are reached. These are no pushover and require competent footwork and a good head for heights. The First Step is a short scramble / climb. The Second Step is the (justifiably) infamous one with a scramble / climb to get to the ladder in the first place and then a few tenuous moves to get across the ledges off the top of the ladder. After that the route levels out again until the Third Step which is another short section of scrambling. This is followed by a reasonably steep snow slope which is crossed diagonally to the Dihedral. This is taken on the right hand side across some ledges that slope the wrong way and soon leads to a diagonal ramp back left, from the top of which you can then see the summit, which is a further 5 minutes away.

But you are only half way there and it's time to get down, ideally to Camp 2 or even the North Col so that you are below 'The Death Zone'. People do return to Camp 3 and sleep there (on oxygen preferably) but it is far better and much safer to drop down as far as you can. It makes the day a lot longer but if you have enough oxygen (ideally you should plan to have some left over at the end anyway) then you can crank up the flow rate to remain compus mentus and drop down to Camp 2 or the North Col, safe in the knowledge that you are probably out of harm's way.

Claggy conditions at Camp 3 (8300m)

Q: When is it usually climbed?

A: Pre-monsoon is when most expeditions take place. The weather is generally getting warmer and there are usually 2 or 3 windows of more settled weather for summit attempts in May and at the beginning of June. The mountain generates its own weather with high winds and freezing temperatures above Camp 2, while ABC can be bathed in sunshine - which can prove to be very frustrating when you have been there for 6 weeks and want a crack at it.

People do climb it post-monsoon. It is generally a lot quieter then but the season is getting progressively colder and you will be far more likely to suffer with frostbite or hypothermia.

Alternatively, if you are Russian, you may want to do it in winter.

Q: How should I prepare myself for this mountain?

A: It's massive.

You are going to be spending a lot of time sitting around trying to acclimatise. For a lot of people this is just too much - they feel that because they have been running and climbing in preparation that they should be able to start getting high earlier and are itching to get up there and invest time in sleeping at the North Col.

It's not quite how it works.

Fitness is undoubtedly very important but it won't get you up very far to start with. Your body needs to acclimatise to the extreme altitude before you can start forays up and down the mountain without being at risk of High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (HAPE) or High Altitude Cerebral Oedema (HACE).
This is the mountain of a lifetime and it's going to cost a L O T of money so make sure that you are adequately prepared.

A good grounding in Scottish winter climbing and mountaineering will go a long way to getting you ready for long arduous days on the hill (a friend of mine even described Everest as 'good training for Scottish winter'!). The weather can turn pretty nasty pretty quickly up there so if you are in the habit of being out in ALL conditions then you will be able to cope with whatever the mountain throws at you. Remember that losing a glove up there is a potentially life threatening situation (for your pals as well as you) and will undoubtedly jeopardise your summit bid. That is an expensive glove.

Previous experience at altitude has got to be a good investment. Cho Oyu and Shishapangma have both become benchmark 8,000m peaks for people to try prior to their Everest attempt. Alternatively a technical lower peak may be the answer and many folk see Ama Dablam as a benchmark.

You won't benefit from being acclimatised unless you are do a trip immediately prior to your Everest foray, but you will benefit from the psychological aspect of knowing what you are like at altitude. A lot of folk who want to be acclimatised are now doing Aconcagua in January/February as a training climb prior to their Everest trip. For something a bit closer to the Everest expedition season another alternative would be to do Island or Mera Peak in March and that way you are benefiting from having kick started the acclimatisation process in to action. This is what I managed to do and it meant that I arrived at Base Camp without so much as even a headache, whilst there were other folk in other groups who were laid low for almost a week with Acute Mountain Sickness.

Since it is reasonably technical, you will need to focus on aerobic capacity (I used a PowerBreathe for a couple of months prior to going away), muscular strength and mental attitude. The altitude will be trying and will stress your lung capacity as you try to provide oxygen to your muscles. You will probably end up carrying quite heavy loads down the mountain after the summit, so make sure you have good stamina too.

To try and aid acclimatisation I started using cellfood which apparently increases the oxygen levels in your blood. It is made from totally natural substances and has no performance enhancing properties. I am uncertain whether it made a difference or not, but of the three in our group who summited two of us were using it. Apart from this I managed to be totally drug free (apart from antibiotics).

Fortunately DMM have introduced the Super Couloir which is a very good buy. It's light, easy to put on and has one big easy to thread buckle.

Helmet: optional - partly depends on the route you are doing.

Belay/Abseil Device: a belay device with big slots to ease rope threading and a big retaining loop to lessen the drop factor - Petzl Reverso recommended.

Alternatively a Figure of 8 which can be used as follows - have the LARGE hole hooked on to your abseiling karabiner. Thread the rope through the Large hole and over the top of the fig 8. You can then remove the fig 8 from your abseil karabiner safe in the knowledge that it is now attached to the rope. Invert the fig 8 and clip the small hole back in to the karabiner and abseil as normal. You could even miss out the inverting stage BUT this is not as safe as there is a possibility that the rope could potentially come unlooped if you brushed against some rocks whilst the rope is unweighted.

Cow's Tails - I use a 4 metre section of 9mm dynamic rope. I put an overhand knot on the bight in the middle to allow me to larksfoot the cow's tail on to my harness at the tie in area thereby dispensing with the need for a karabiner (less weight) and I know that once it is on it can't come undone (this is not an issue as the larksfoot is on the harness - but it is the only time I use a larksfoot. They are generally best avoided in any other application). I then have a knot tied in to each arm of the cow's tail to allow me to have a karabiner permanently attached, one of which I then have the jumar on. That way I have 2 attachment points which allows me to jumar up and pass rebelays along the way.

On one of the 'arms' I have an additional loop (created by another overhand knot on the bight) about 6 to 8 inches from the end. This I then use for my abseil device when coming down. Why not use the belay loop you may well ask? Well there are 2 reasons - firstly is that with all that down clothing on it can get a bit busy and difficult to visually make sure that everything is attached correctly and secondly it means that if I want to back up the abseil with a prussik then I have a high attachment point to stop inverting and I can put the prussik on the belay loop rather than the leg loop.

Ascenders (jumars): I would recommend handled ascenders. You need to make sure that you can get a gloved mitt in to the handle area though so don't go overboard with the mitts. Some of the fixed ropes that you come across on these big mountains are quite thin so it is best to steer clear of the likes of Petzl Tiblocs. The dropability of small devices like the Wild Country Ropeman makes them unsuitable too.

Q: What kind of clothing do I need for base camp?

A: Just regular trekking clothing will do the trick here. Most days I was wearing a wicking t shirt, a fleece or artificial fibre top for when it was a bit breezey and then a down jacket for when the sun went down. Legs-wise I usually had on some tough quick-drying climbing pants which were great for knocking around in as well as acclimatisation walks. I spent most of my time in approach shoes although a pair of some lightweight boots comes in handy for walks and when going up to ABC. And lastly you'll need a warm but lightweight hat, something comfortable for sleeping in as well as for more normal use.

Q: What kind of clothing do I need for ABC?

A: It's a tad colder up there so it's time to get the thermals out. Go for the best that you can buy and invest in wool. There are plenty of other wicky thermals out there (and some have silver ions in there to stop the pong) but you won't go wrong with soft natural fibres. Both companies Icebreaker and Smartwool do thin and thick tops and bottoms in wool and I'd recommend a selection of all of them.

Again it's down jacket time for when the sun goes down and you'll be needing hats and gloves for warmth and comfort. You are going to be at ABC for quite a while and it is a desolate spot so make sure that it doesn't become too much of an arduous environment for you.

Q: What kind of clothing do I need for further up the mountain?

A: It's even colder up there so it's time to get the warm gear on. Again, go for the best that you can buy. For forays up and down to Camp 1 and Camp 2 you need to be ready for changeable conditions and you need a waterproof jacket and over trousers as well as gloves, hat, wicking layers and maybe a synthetic insulating top.

Q: How long will it take? A: You are looking at around a 7 or 8 week trip. You shouldn't really try it in less time unless you are fresh off another 8000er. And even then you have to be careful you don't get re-emergence High Altitude Pulmonary Oedema (from going back to altitude after a rest of a week to 10 days). Q: What kind of weather conditions will I experience? A: Generally in Spring the season starts quite bitterly cold and gets progressively warmer (at Base Camp and ABC). On the mountain you'll experience high winds and desperately cold temperatures if you go up too early. And even as the trip progresses there will be a mixture of weather

Take a Pillow.

And a Thermarest inflatable cushion to sit on in the mess tent.

Name EVERYTHING with marker pen to prevent temptation, as you'll be leaving heaps of stuff on the mountain.

Generally speaking a lot of the stuff sacs that come with down jackets, sleeping bags etc are all black which makes for confusing times when looking for specific items in your kitbag. Take LOADS of the Exped stuffsacs (a variety of different sizes and colours) and mark them with marker pen so you now what the contents are.

And lots of moisturizer and Lipsalve (again with SPF)

And two pairs of Goggles (Julbo Enak Excel Brown recommended as your main pair as they have Cat 4 lenses and a great field of view).

Also - don't get too focused on the top because that's when people start compromising their safety, and therefore the safety of those around them. One key factor is to have FUN. If you are with a group of people who don't get on then, even if you get to the top, you won't necessarily have fond memories of the trip. If you are with a great bunch of folk, and having a cool time, then the summit will just be the cherry on the icing on the cake. Photo Right: Stuart Holmes, Ian Wade, and Tim Mosedale safely back at Base Camp after successfully summitting Everest via the North Ridge.

Q: How much will it cost me?

A: If you are going on a commercial trip DO NOT go for the cheapest. Your life is worth far more than skimping on the cost. If you are paying what you consider to be a bargain then you have got to ask yourself what you aren't getting. So you are looking from US$30,000 to US$45,000

© Tim Mosedale 2005
All photos © Tim Mosedale 2005