Who’s done it? Who’s planning in doing it? I set a goal to reach the summit in 7 years. I’m 26 now. If you have summited it, what kind of training did you put in? What experience did you have prior? Is 7 years reasonable?
I have no desire to ever do Everest, but I have always wanted to to a two to three week trek in Nepal, perhaps Everest base camp even…So I will be interested in the responses to this thread, so anyone that has done the treks there please chime in…And I know the country there is in a state of turmoil, but who has been there recently and knows what the real situation is??? I hear politically it is a mess, but that the tourist trekkers are pretty much left alone…Doesnt matter who is in power I guess, tourism is going to fuel the economy…
Haven’t climbed it but wanted to point out a great series on the Discovery Channel: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/everestbeyond/everestbeyond.html
Really amazing look at a team of climbers over 2 different seasons.
Interesting goal. Just curious about why Everest? What other high altitude climbs have you done? For some reason the more climbing and hiking I do the less Everest appeals to me. Denali and Mt. Logan are certainly very intriguing and some other peaks in South America are much more appealing right now.
What climbs are you doing this year to work towards your goal? I am thinking about taking a 7 day mountaineering course in the Sierra’s this summer and then going for my second CA 14er. Not sure how much closer this gets me to Denali, but I am not in a rush.
Who’s done it? Who’s planning in doing it? I set a goal to reach the summit in 7 years. I’m 26 now. If you have summited it, what kind of training did you put in? What experience did you have prior? Is 7 years reasonable?
I want to badly. I’m 19 so I have lots of time.
I stopped mountaineering and got into tris, I did climb lots of other cool peaks, never everest though.
sometimes I think that I should go for it.
If you are serious, I would take a mounaineering course and start climbing, rock climbing, hiking peaks etc etc.
as far as trainiing, lots of the good climbers I know mountainbike tons.
I’ve been there, haven’t climbed it. Don’t know where your goal came from, but forget it. It’s the greatest of goals, but in the end pointless given the death rate coming down of those that have summited. You need to read Into Thin Air by Krakauer for some perspective.
Any reasonably fit person with a high tolerance for cold and low oxygen has a good shot at summiting… it’s coming down that’s hard. Don’t forget technical mountaineering skills too… hard to pick those up in a summer.
If your really serious, and not some Mdot tattoo poser type, you’ll summit K2 instead.
I saw the first season on Netflix, it was pretty amazing. I also read Into Thin Air, and saw Touching the Void, so between all these things, I am totally a climbing expert.
I’m always curious about the people that climb Everest. Maybe it’s the same as the people who want to tell their friends they did an Ironman. The mountain is littered with oxygen bottles, ropes, underqualified climbers, and dead bodies. Yes, dead bodies.
I have a friend at 12,000 ft on Aconcagua (one of the seven summits) as I write this, hoping to summit on or about the 15th. She gave me a book I can recommend to you… “Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer. I highly recommend it, gives a fantastic account of what it takes to attempt Everest and what can go wrong. There is also a movie by the same name… book much better. Sorry, I have no climbing experience so can’t help with any advice.
Good Luck, it’s a great goal !
Your prerequisite should be Mt. McKinley the long south buttress route.Before you even take that bite there are alot of baby steps.
Monty,
I hiked for a few weeks in Nepal, doing the standard Everest base camp out and back hike that everybody does. It was an amazing experience, so beautiful, rugged, austere, and full of life all at the same time. The Everest summit circus was also a good side show once I got up to base camp. The Sherpa people are an amazing and interesting culture.
Once you get past the ticket to Kathmandu, and then the turboprop and helicopter hops to Lukla, the economy is all local, and day to day. Nobody’s getting rich up there, and you’re not paying alot for your nightly chipati, tea, and a place to sleep along your hiking route.
If I had it over again, I’d do the Annapurna circuit… more beauty without the Everest hype.
Luckily, I was there in 2001 when things were more stable. Everything I’m telling you is 8 years old, so better bone up on the interwebnets.
I’ve got a big collection of high altitude mountaineering books that has completely convinced me I have NO desire to do it but am also fascinated by those who do.
Read:
Boys of Everest
Mountain Madness
Eiger Dreams
The Climb - Gives an alternate account of the Everest disaster
Savage Summit: The Life and Death of the First Women of K2
No Shortcut to the Top - self serving and not well written but still a good book to have read.
I’ve got others but these are the ones I remember
One of my co workers who’s a very experienced climber got airlifted off McKinley for frostbite and another oxygen related illness (dont remember which one).
Even Denali is quite a risk, good luck.
I have read into thin air, and for some reason it wanted me to do it even more. I have had a fascination with that mountain since I was 14 when I did a report on Sir Edmund Hillary.
I have no mountain climbing experience. Which is why I set my goal to attempt it in 7 years. I was hoping some one who has actually done it would chime in and tell me if that is not enough time to prepare.
I do plan on doing K2 prior to Everest. As to why I want to do it?? Same reason we all joined this sport…to test ourselves. Now I understand Everest and an Ironman are drastically different. Something about being on the top of the world really gets me going.
And as Sir Edmund Hillary said “We climb mountains for the hell of it.”
I would climb Everest in a heartbeat. It does cost upwards of 100k. That is what is currently preventing me. Also, the fact that the summit season is only 3 weeks with about 50 teams waiting to summit make it very risky. Unless you have a disability you will be waiting in a long line of rich novice climbers.
“Addicted to Danger” is another good book about climbing death. I am the same as you, the more people tell me it is too dangerous the more I want to do it.
My assumption is that you are one of two basic types–1. A hardcore, experienced adventure guy who in addtion to lots of cool tri/adventure races you’ve also climbed extensively, both technical and alpine. You have summitted a number of peaks–certainly 14ers and perhaps some of the 18k+ peaks in South american or Denali. If this is you, ST is not the right place to look for advice. 2. You are a gung-ho bring it on guy who has kicked some butt in tris but has no legit experience in alpine mountaineering. If this is you then you should either do a mountaineering course and climb a serious low altitude mountain like Rainier (I would strongluy recommend RMI and their 4 or 5 day programs) or you should forget about it. Everest or anything above 6000 meters is no place for novice gung ho types–people, especially people like you die there.
Check out my 2009 Rainier, Shasta summit posts (on my websire under the 2009 season tab) if you want some detailed beta on the experience.
It costs around 25k-60k including permits from what I understand. I hardly doubt that the people attempting this are novice. I don’t even think you can get the proper permits if you don’t have a good resume showing you can climb.
I heard the permit was 60k. And I have watched the Discovery channel “Everest Challenge” and they were all novice. Read the books listed above. There are countless stories of people with very limited mountaineering experience buying their way to the top of Everest. It is not a technical climb. If you want to impress your friends and neighbors go to K2. It is cheaper and it very well may kill you.
Climbed Denali in '97. An experience of a life time!! If you seriously want to persue mountaineering, I would suggest that you contact American Alpine Institue (http://www.aai.cc/) and begin with one of their basic Alpine courses (http://www.aai.cc/ProgramDetail/alpinism1/) on Mt Baker. You will begin to learn how to properly move in that type of enviro. and that’s where you need to start.
From there you can move on to some intermediate climbs like Denali if the fire is still burning. Impossible to describe the experience, but I can tell you that it is well worth the investment of time and $$$$.
Good luck!!
you obviously haven’t read any of the books on Everest… most ALL of the people doing the attempts are novices, led by guides which is why it costs so much. You could probably do it for free if you did it solo.
you’re sounding like many first time IM attempters… my advice is to read some of the books, familiarize yourself with the situation, and then head to a climbing gym.
Everest is the Disneyland of 8000m peaks, kind of like IM Florida. If your really an athlete, you’ll do K2 (Silverman, that one in Norway, etc.)