April 10: Flight from Denver -> LA -> Bangkok -> Kathmandu
April 12: Arrival at Kathmandu and transfer to Hotel Yak & Yeti
April 12-14: In Katmandu, arranging for Tibet visa and coordinating any additional supplies
April 15?: Flight from Katmandu to Lhasa (3,650m or 11,975ft) and transfer to hotel
April 16?: Sightseeing in Lhasa: Potala Palace, Norbulinka Summer Palace & Metzekhang
April 17?: Driving to Xigatse (3,900m or 12,800 ft), visiting Shalu Monastery and Tashilunpo in Xigatse en route
April 18?: Driving to Xegar (4,200m or 13,780ft)
April 19?: Day of acclimatization and rest in Xegar
April 20?: Driving to Everest BC (5,100m or 17,000ft)
April 21-23?: Rest/ acclimatization at the Base Camp
April 24?: Trek from Base Camp to the Interim Base Camp (5,900m or 19,350ft)
April 25?: Move to Advanced Base Camp (6,100m or 20,000ft)
April 26-June 1?: Move to and acclimatization at Camp 1 (6,500m or 21,300ft), Camp 2 (7,000m or 23,000ft), Camp 3 (7,775m or 25,500ft), Camp 4 (8,230m or 27,000ft), and Summit Attempt (8,848m or 29,029ft)
- Descent from ABC
- Descent from BC
- Travel to Zangmu
- Travel to Katmandu
- Depart Katmandu and arrive back in Denver around June 10
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| Courtesy of http://www.mteverest.co.uk/ |
Managing Risk:Climbing Everest and other risky activities have evolved dramatically in terms of safety and the ability to manage risk. In general, things are not as dangerous or sensational as TV and movies make them out to be. There are risks that can be managed (fitness, acclimatization, maintaining equipment, understanding weather patterns), and objective risks that can't be managed (avalanche, ice fall, crevasse danger, etc.). I've seen mortality rates on Everest in the 5%-8% range, but I've always felt this was a misleading statistic because it takes into account deaths vs. successful summits, instead of deaths vs all attempted summits. The link below is to a good statistical analysis by BMJ that puts the true figure closer to 1.3%:
BMJ Study of Mortality on Everest: 1921-2006
History of the Northeast Ridge Route (via the North Ridge and North Col) and Map:
Greg Healey's Web Site - Greg has a great site, check it out
Route Description:
On his web site, Alan Arnette provides a much better sample itinerary and route description than I ever could:
Alan Arnette Everest Web Site
His sample itinerary shows arrival in Kathmandu on March 29th, whereas I will not be arriving until April 12th. So keeping that adjustment in mind, I strongly recommend you use his site as a reference.
Wikipedia Entry for Everest:
