FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADVENTURE MAGAZINE
APRIL 2003

50 YEARS ON EVEREST

Nowhere else on Earth do ambition, folly, risk and heroism collide as they do on Mount Everest. Now, five decades after the first ascent, Adventure magazine contributing editor David Roberts revisits the boldest climbs, the continuing controversies and the mountaineers who made history. This feature celebrates the golden age of Everest, not only the first ascent but four other awe-inspiring, groundbreaking climbs as well. Page 54.

• 1953: Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay take the summit. Neither man anticipated how much, in the wake of their success, the appeal of that patch of snow more than five miles in the sky would grow. "Both Tenzing and I thought that once we'd climbed the mountain, it was unlikely anyone would ever make another attempt," Sir Edmund admits today. "We couldn't have been more wrong."
  
  
• 1963: On a bold new route, Americans set a high standard in daring. By late May of 1963, only eight men had summited Everest—all by the South Col route pioneered 10 years earlier by Hillary and Tenzing. Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld were struggling to establish a challenging new line up the mountain's unexplored West Ridge. On May 22 they set out from their high camp. By midday they recognized that they had passed a point of no return. Because the poor rock afforded not a single rappel anchor, they wouldn't be able to descend their route on the West Ridge; their only option was to reach the summit and then make their way down the South Col route. It was up and over or die.
  
  
• 1975: Never before had so many climbed so high. Chris Bonington, the era's greatest expedition leader, assembled a team of seven climbers to make the first ascent of the Southwest Face, the most cherished prize on Everest. This massive operation would be the high-water mark of the era of expedition-style climbing. "One couldn't conceive of doing such a huge expedition now, but it was appropriate then," Bonington says today. "The Czechs [in 1988] eventually climbed the Southwest Face alpine-style," he concedes, "but then they all died."
  
  
• 1980: Going solo, seeing double, Reinhold Messner does the unthinkable. At that time, the notion of an alpine-style ascent of Everest—minimal camps, no fixed ropes, a quick push to the top and back—was utterly radical. And the idea of climbing without oxygen seemed nothing short of suicidal. To intensify the purism of his solo Everest climb, Messner eschewed all support from porters or Sherpas. "Being alone in such bad conditions, we become schizophrenic," says Messner. "I didn't know who the other one was. But this is easier—for a few days, schizophrenia was my answer. It is the only solution to survive—to have another with whom to divide the fear and the joy."
  
  
• 1983: Americans tackle the most fearsome flank. By the 1980s just one major aspect of Everest remained unexplored: the massive East, or Kangshung, Face. In the fall of 1983 a strong team made a second attempt on the face [the first was in 1981]. By now the climbers had recognized that the problem of the Kangshung line was unique among Everest routes: 3,500 feet of difficult climbing, straight off the glacier, just to reach the perch from which a long snow trudge leads to the summit. Taken as a whole, "the Kangshung was much more difficult than K2," Lou Reichardt concludes. "It was a stunning achievement," says historian Peter Gillman. “Yet today, it's so underappreciated. It's virtually unrecognized—even by Americans."
  
  
• What's Next? With the ascent of the Kangshung, all the major features of Everest had now been climbed. Although the subsequent 20 years would witness a number of dazzling and innovative deeds, these would mostly amount to variations on existing routes or refinements in climbing style. Perhaps the greatest remaining challenge is one that climbers are just beginning to contemplate: The complete traverse of the ridge joining Lhotse, Everest and Nuptse. "I can’t think of anything more difficult to do," says Greg Child, who has climbed both Everest and K2. "It's beyond the pale."
  
  THE HIGHEST TABOO—Of all the Everest no-nos, perhaps the one that most exasperates climbers is the taboo against having sex—"making sauce," in Sherpa parlance. In the zero-privacy zone of Everest, the Sherpas aren't shy about reprimanding those who cross the line. "Oh, I got reamed," says photographer Didrik Johnck, whose amorous escapades with his visiting girlfriend earned a rebuke from a disapproving Sherpa. "He says, 'I've got something serious to talk to you about. The weather is bad and I think you are adding to it. No taki-taki on the mountain.'" Page 71.
  
  ALSO… A pullout mega-map detailing a climber's-eye view of the three faces of Everest, the biggest expedition mysteries, a roundup of the media surrounding the mountain and an exclusive book excerpt from National Geographic's new biography of Tenzing Norgay, "Tenzing: Hero of Everest," by Ed Douglas.
  
  Adventure magazine, winner of two 2002 National Magazine Awards, for General Excellence and Personal Service, was launched in spring 1999 to serve an audience of active, adventurous readers and to propel the National Geographic Society's mission of exploration and discovery into the new century. Published 10 times a year, the magazine is available by subscription (800-NGS-LINE) and on newsstands in the United States ($3.95) and Canada ($5.95).
  
  Adventure's Web site is at www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure; AOL Keyword: NatGeo.
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  CONTACT: Caryn Davidson
  +1 212 790 9032
  cdavidso@ngs.org