The Climb

Click the image or link below it for a larger image (you will be redirected to 7summits-club.com).

New: 7summits Everest Webcam!

Another first of our 7summits.com team, of which our SightOnEverest.com team is a part: live images from the mountain (from BC) and the basecamp itself at 5200m.We will alternate the 2 cameras, the BC camera will be changed to different positions to give you an idea of what is going on. Check the archives for some interesting images :-)

Read full expedition reports, see many images and leave comments here on the special

SightOnEverest.com Blog

Route and plan

We will climb Mt Everest, also known as Sagarmatha (Nepal) or Chomolungma/Qomolongma (Tibet/China) from the Tibet side, also known as the North East Ridge or Mallory Route. We will be part of a larger expedition: 7summits.com/7summits-club.com Everest 2006, which has more than 20 climbers, supplies all the food and cooks, shower & toilet facilities etc.

After leaving Kathmandu around April 10th, we will drive to Everest BC in 6 days, spending one night in the bordertown Zhangmu, 1 or 2 nights in Nyalam and 2 nights in Xigar/New Tingri. Then we will start the climbing process: going up to ABC at 6400m, and then trying to acclimatize by repeatedly going  up (till 7700m) and down (to BC and a small town at 4200m) before going up for the summit attempt. See the detailed itinerary here on the 7summits.com Everest pages. 

Kevin & Milan will go as far as the North Col, which is located at 7060m. Thomas, Harry and the 2 Sherpas will try to go all the way to the summit, 8850m above sealevel.
From BC the mountain looks like this. Note that the mountain is more than 16km away as the crow flies.

Everything above the dotted line is called the Death Zone: you cannot stay alive if you stay here too long, even if you do nothing. Your body will simply give up due to lack of oxygen & digestion.

So we will try to spend not more time there than needed! 
This detail of the first picture show the biggest problems for us: the 3 'Steps'. These are rock climbs of moderate to severe difficulty. That is, at sealevel, above 8500m, this is simply very tough.

This section will be the crux for our team, even sighted persons have problems here, without vision, Thomas will have to rely on his team totally in order to conserve energy to get down again.

But after the 3 steps also the final slow slopes have to be gained before the summit is reached.