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Archive for the ‘Nepal Trekking’ Category
If you’re looking into Annapurna Circuit treks the best piece of advice that we can give you is to plan your trip properly before leaving the UK. Many people make silly mistakes like waiting until they reach Kathmandu to book their Annapurna Circuit treks or packing so much stuff that walking becomes a struggle. Here are some tips that will help to make your trip easier and therefore more enjoyable:
Tip One – Go Now!
We don’t mean literally now, as in this instant, but rather that you should go soon. Annapurna Circuit treks take in some of the most naturally beautiful landscapes in the world, but in some places work has started, chipping away at the cliff in order to build roads through the valley. As a result the Annapurna Circuit is going to change in the next three years and although it will, of course, still be a magical place to visit, it is even more special now in its unspoilt form.
Tip Two – Book Your Trip in the UK
Whatever you do, don’t wait until you reach Kathmandu in order to book your Annapurna Circuit treks. Some backpackers may tell you that it’s much cheaper to wait until you get to Kathmandu to book your trek, and while in some instances that may be true, treks purchased in Kathmandu don’t offer the financial protection that UK-based holiday companies provide. In the event that they go wrong, you may find that the English-speaking tour guide you’ve paid for just doesn’t speak as much of your native tongue as you would have hoped.
Tip Three – Don’t Camp Out
Camping is a great budget option, but on Annapurna circuit treks it really isn’t necessary. There are teahouses all over the route and the price of accommodation is often extremely cheap. For less than the cost of a hot meal in the UK, you can buy yourself a night’s accommodation and a home-cooked meal. Staying in a teahouse is often the best way to get a feel for local culture and experience the traditional Nepalese way of life.
Tip Four – Buy some gear in Kathmandu
It goes without saying that people on Annapurna circuit treks need the best walking kit that they can get their hands on. However, best does not necessarily mean most expensive. It can be tempting to spend loads of money buying high-tech walking gear, but it really isn’t necessary. There are walking shops all around Kathmandu selling everything that you need at a fraction of the cost you’d pay in the UK. From sleeping bags to iodine tablets and trekking poles, there’s everything that you could possibly need for your trip in Nepal, and what’s better is that it doesn’t count towards your baggage allowance. The one thing that we don’t recommend purchasing in Kathmandu is your hiking boots, as these need to be broken in before you start your trek. Make sure though, that if you’re going to buy gear in Kathmandu rather than take it with you, that you have a couple of free days in the city before you head off on trek. You’ll also need to have ample dollars or Nepalese rupees to cover your purchases as not all shops take credit cards and ATMs don’t always work.
Tip Five – Go in the Spring
There’s no hard and fast right or wrong time of the year to take your Annapurna circuit treks (except in the rainy season during the summer months) but to avoid the crowds you’re better off travelling in the spring. Late April to early May is less busy then the peak season of October/November and as such the routes are relatively quiet. Some guidebooks cite that the weather isn’t as good during this period. However, while you’ll find some clouds around the highest peaks, there are generally crystal clear views between first light and11am, when a lot of your walking takes place.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run classic Annapurna Circuit treks for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
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Everyone has their own favourite part of the Annapurna Circuit, but for many people their favourite part of the trek is the charming ‘apple capital’ of Nepal – Marpha. Known worldwide for its delicious apples, you’re likely to find trekkers in this part of the circuit tucking into delicious apple pies and drinking the local liqueur made from fermented apples. Of course, Marpha isn’t just about the delicious food and drink; this part of the Annapurna Circuit is steeped in history and was once an important part of the old salt route.
Marpha manages to take many trekkers on the Annapurna Circuit completely by surprise, as it is very different from the rest of Nepal. The buildings in Marpha are not the typical Nepalese teahouses that you’ll encounter throughout your trek, but are instead pristine white, with burnt red-trimmed doors. The white buildings are the reason why Marpha is dubbed the “Santorini of the Circuit” by many trekkers in the know.
As the town is located towards the end of the route, many companies recommend that you save your souvenir shopping until you reach Marpha. If you manage to drag yourself away from the bakeries for a few minutes, you’ll find a fantastic range of traditional souvenirs that range from Ghurkha’s knives to tiger balm. Of course, it may be that you can’t bear to leave the bakeries, and if that’s the case then who can blame you? Crunchy apple crumble, chewy apple Danishes, and crisp apple pies are all sold in abundance, and you won’t be able to resist glass after glass of the wonderfully fresh apple juice.
If, after days trekking the Annapurna Circuit, you need something a little stronger than apple juice, then a visit to the Marpha Apple Brandy Distillery is a must. The distillery is a government-run factory that employs all the traditional methods when making brandy, and a bottle of the liqueur will set you back just 70 rupees. Although the apple brandy has a strong herby taste, the alcohol content is quite low.
If you’re looking to do something rewarding at the end of your Annapurna Circuit trek, or just want to visit somewhere incredibly humbling, then Marpha is the home of the Tibetan Refugee Camp. This government-funded project has been in operation for many years and the children love to see foreign visitors. How you choose to help is entirely up to you; it may be by teaching English to a class of enthusiastic school children, or helping out with the restoration projects that are currently being carried out at the centre’s Buddhist temple.
Marpha has its own Buddhist monastery and this plays host to several important festivals throughout the year. If you choose to trek the Annapurna Circuit during April, then you may be lucky enough to pass through the area during the Buddhist New Year celebrations. However, whatever the time of year that you choose to visit, the monks will go out of their way to make you feel welcome – you’ll even find that photos are encouraged!
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run a classic Annapurna Circuit trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
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Hillary’s Last Chance to Depart From Everest Base Camp
Willi Unsoeld, a member of the first American expedition to conquer Mount Everest in 1963 once maintained, “You’ve climbed the highest mountain in the world. What’s left?” However, it seems there is a Sherpa who would strongly disagree with this sentiment, having made the journey from Everest base camp to the mountain’s summit a record-breaking nineteen times.
49-Year Old Nepalese Sherpa, Apa, is known only by a single name as is often the tradition for Sherpas. However, as he now holds the record for number of ascents of the highest mountain in the world, this does not seem to have hindered his reputation. Having grown up in the foothills, he began carrying equipment and supplies for climbers at the age of twelve, and completed his first Everest climb in 1990 at the age of 28. He has since made the climb from Everest base camp, which stands at 5,360 metres, to the summit which towers at 8,848 metres, almost every year.
Apa had recently made plans to make an astounding twentieth climb this spring, however this expedition would have been quite different as he had set a goal for himself and his team to collect and remove 15,430 lbs of rubbish from the mountainside as they climbed. The team of 17 Sherpas and 12 others would not have been working alone, but had plans to recruit porters who would assist them in getting the bags of litter from the side of the mountain back to Everest base camp.
However, this would have been more than just an Environmental expedition; Apa was also using the monumental occasion afforded by his twentieth climb as a way to contribute to Nepal’s tourist campaign. Nepal opened its borders to tourists in the 1950s but the industry has suffered during years of instability. A new target has now been set that aims to attract half a million tourists to the country in the year 2011; whether this be achieved by people visiting Everest base camp and the Himalayas, those wishing to trek the Annapurna Circuit, or those who might be fascinated by more remote places such as the Kingdom of Mustang. For Sherpas such as Apa, who relied on mountain trading and yak herding prior to the introduction of tourism into Nepal, this is a particularly important goal.
Apa had one final goal to add to this celebratory climb, as he intended to carry the remains of the ashes of Sir Edmund Hillary to the top of Everest with him in order to scatter them at the peak. Hillary was one of the first men to conquer the journey from Everest base camp to summit in 1953, and passed away in his home country New Zealand just two years ago. Whilst most of his ashes were scattered in Auckland Harbour, the rest were donated to the Sherpa community. The memory of Sir Edmund remains important to many of the Nepalese, for as stated by Apa, “without him we would have no clinics and we would have no schools.”
Unfortunately, Hillary’s final journey is not to take place, due to the predictions of Buddhist Lamas. The Lamas warned that the plan to scatter the ashes would bring bad luck, as they considered it to be a holy place. However, whilst Hillary’s final resting place may not be Everest itself, or even Everest Base Camp, it is not far away. The ashes are currently kept in a monastery not far from the mountain, whilst plans are being formulated for the building of a park that will commemorate the mountaineer.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the classic trek to Everest Base Camp for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
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With one of the world’s iconic mountains under her belt, film star Jessica Biel already has her sights set on visiting another. Everest Base Camp is next on her list, having just reached the summit of Kilimanjaro as part of a charity trek. Biel was the international star among a group of celebrities, largely of American fame, taking part in a televised expedition to Tanzania’s popular trekking venue.
“I’d love to trek to Everest Base Camp,” said Jessica following her Mount Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) expedition. “It’s my next goal,” she said. Biel was accompanied by Grammy-nominated singer, Kenna, Lupe Fiasco and others on a 6-day trek to the Uhuru Peak, Kilimanjaro’s highest point on the volcanic cone known as Kibo, and the highest point on the African continent.
Like Kilimanjaro, Jessica’s next target is no stranger to famous faces. Mount Everest (8,848 m) has attracted a number of well-known visitors to its southern slopes over the decades since the Everest Base Camp (5,360 metres) was made accessible to trekkers. Well-known explorers such as Ranulph Fiennes and Bear Grylls have spent months on the world’s mightiest mountain. Likewise, actor Brian Blessed made the staging area his home as he prepared for repeated summit-bids in a determined and painful struggle to reach the highest point on the globe, 3,488 metres above the camp.
When American President Jimmy Carter visited Everest with his wife, Rosalynn, his circumstances were much more comfortable. President Carter had the rare privilege of seeing Mount Everest from the air, as he opted for a helicopter ride to Everest Base Camp. The same mode of transport was chartered by Nepalese ministers in 2009 for the staging of a cabinet meeting and press conference. Despite their intentions for the meeting to highlight environmental issues in the Himalaya, they were subsequently criticised for their disregard of carbon footprint concerns because of the helicopters used.
Robert Redford’s visit to the Khumbu was more low-key and unassuming. While he was trekking in Nepal, he stayed in the tea houses which provide tourists food and accommodation along the route of the celebrated Everest Base Camp Trek. The approachable actor, producer and director, was there to enjoy the scenery, and not to garner publicity.
The opposite is true of Biel and co on Kilimanjaro. Their entourage included an MTV documentary crew, and over 300 porters, guides and climbers whose progress was updated online with Twitter posts during their ascent. The aim of the trek was to raise awareness of the worldwide shortage of clean water in developing nations.
Water is an equally important issue in the Himalaya as it is in Africa since global warming has begun to endanger the ice caps and glaciers there. The populations that live along the Yangtze, Ganges and Indus rivers all rely on Himalayan meltwater to live.
“Globally, every 15 seconds a child dies of a waterborne illness” reported Jessica Biel on the ‘Summit on the Summit’ website, explaining her reasons for joining the Kilimanjaro trek. She also confessed that despite her high level of fitness she found the going “really, really hard.” But she was optimistic about her next challenge. “I can handle [trekking] for a longer period of time” said Jessica. She recognised that the trek to Everest Base Camp, which is a more gradual ascent to an altitude only 535 metres shy of Uhuru Peak, may be an easier prospect and provide better opportunities for acclimatisation.
It’s not only public figures with fame and privilege that get to experience the majesty of Africa and Asia’s highest peaks. Trekking companies run a variety of expeditions in Tanzania and Nepal. There are eight established routes converging on the summits of Kilimanjaro, ranging from the popular and well-worn ‘Coca-Cola’ route, to the longer more rewarding Lemosho trail. In Nepal, the Everest Base Camp Trek is the cornerstone of Nepal’s trekking tourism, culminating in an unforgettable view of the world’s highest mountain.
About The Author:
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the classic trek to Everest Base Camp for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
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From Mallory’s heroic and tragic attempt on Mount Everest to Hillary and Tenzing’s triumphant conquest in 1953, many expeditions to Everest have already become mountaineering legends. Read more about five of the most famous expeditions in the history of Everest.
Treks to Everest continue to captivate the imagination of climbers and walkers all around the world. Ever since its discovery, hundreds of expeditions have been made to the world’s highest mountain. Some have ended in disaster, others have discovered new routes to the top or achieved significant records. Here are five of the most famous Everest expeditions…
1924 – The Mallory Expedition
The famed British explorer and mountaineer George Mallory had made a previous attempt on the summit in 1922, an expedition that met with disaster when seven porters died in an avalanche. In 1924, he returned to Everest Base Camp determined to make it to the top, resulting in one of the most famous and tragic expeditions in the history of the mountain.
On 8th June 1924, George Mallory, alongside his climbing partner Andrew Irvine, made his second and ultimately ill-fated attempt on the summit of Everest. Trekking and climbing up the hazardous terrain, they were spotted by Noel Odell (another member of the expedition) on what appeared to be the Second Step, a few hours climb away from the summit itself. Neither Mallory nor Irvine made it down. Mallory’s body was finally discovered in 1999, but Irvine’s has never been found. Debate continues to rage in the mountaineering community as to whether or not either of them made it to the summit before they died.
1953 – First Successful Ascent
29 years after the Mallory Expedition, Edmund Hillary (a New Zealand climber) and Tenzing Norgay (a Nepalese Sherpa) finally made the first confirmed ascent of Mount Everest. Their trek to Everest was part of a British expedition in March 1953 that was determined to finally conquer the world’s highest mountain. After settling in Everest Base Camp, two members of the expedition (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) made the first attempt, but were driven back 300 metres from the summit due to bad weather and a malfunctioning oxygen system. Two days later, on the 29 May 1953, Hillary and Tenzing made it to the top, becoming the first men to stand on the highest point on Earth. On his return from the summit, Hillary met his companion George Lowe and simply said: “Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.”
1980 – First Solo Ascent
By 1980, the veteran Italian climber Reinhold Messner had set one Everest trekking record already; in 1978, he and his climbing partner Peter Habeler became the first climbers to make an ascent of Everest without using bottled oxygen, refuting the claims of a large number of mountaineers and doctors at the time who thought this was impossible. In 1980 he set another record, making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest (also without oxygen).
1996 – The Everest Disaster
1996 was a tragic year for Everest trekking – fifteen people died, eight of them in a single day, in what is the worst disaster on Everest to date.
On May 10 1996, over 30 climbers set off from Everest Base Camp to make their attempts on the summit. A number of delays and the sheer number of climbers making the ascent meant that many achieved the summit after 2pm, much later than is considered safe. On the way down, a sudden blizzard hit the mountain, burying the fixed ropes used in the climb and concealing the path back to Everest Base Camp. Due to the poor visibility, the climbers were quickly separated and disoriented, and eight of them died of exposure. Most poignant was the case of Rob Hall – having stayed behind to try and help another member of the expedition, he was stranded on the South Summit. He managed to speak to his wife on satellite phone, saying “Sleep well, my sweetheart. Please don’t worry too much,” before dying soon after.
2004 – Fastest Ever Ascent
There are all kinds of climbing records associated with Mount Everest, and in 2004 Pemba Dorjie (a Nepalese Sherpa) set an impressive one – the fastest ever successful ascent and descent of Everest, making it there and back over the southeast ridge in eight hours and ten minutes.
With plenty of records still to break and hundreds of climbers each year determined to make it to the top, trekking to Everest will continue to generate new heroes (and new tragedies) for years to come.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run Everest Base Camp treks for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
Places on the 1953 Royal Geographic Society expedition to Mount Everest (8848 m) were in great demand, so Edmund Hillary was extremely pleased to be part of it. In those days access to the Khumbu was restricted for political reasons so the Everest Trek and summit bid of British team lead by Colonel Hunt carried the hopes of the nation and had a high profile in the press.
After months of preparation, and one failed summit bid, the team made its second attempt at the summit on the morning of May 29th 1953. Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were chosen to continue up the south east ridge while Colonel Hunt went down to wait for them at camp four at the base of the South Col, and the rest of the team (including Tenzing’s fellow Sherpas) waited for news at Everest Base Camp. The entire expedition team consisted of a dozen climbers, 35 Sherpa guides, and 350 porters with 18 tonnes of food and equipment.
The First Successful Trek to Everest’s Peak
It was a beautiful, clear day, but Hillary and Tenzing could not start out until Hillary’s boots had defrosted, having frozen solid overnight. The final stint of their Everest trek to the summit took two and a half hours, and was hard going. They had to cut careful steps in a snow incline working diagonally upwards. Eventually, they reached a rock step which seemed impossible to overcome until Hillary found a crack to for them to wriggle up.
Their Everest trek could have finished with calamity. After they had been climbing for a while Tenzing had difficulty with his oxygen set. Its exhaust port had clogged with ice, and they found that Hillary’s was having the same problem. If they had not fixed it they would have been forced to abandon the summit bid.
Because of the steepness of the ridge, Hillary and Tenzing could not see the summit as they climbed, and only saw it when they were just thirty or forty feet away. As well as joy, the pair felt a sense of relief when they reached the very top, especially as Tenzing had been very close to summiting on an Everest Trek the year before.
In an interview a few weeks after their Everest Trek, Hillary recounted how the view from the summit was clear: “there weren’t any clouds at all.” They could see “long-range into Tibet and Nepal.” He also mentioned how the foreshortening effect of the great height they had achieved made everything below “look rather flat, very similar to the view from an aircraft.” They could also see the fifth largest mountain in the world, Mount Makalu (8,462m). Hillary realised that they were in a privileged position being able to see at that peak from above. “Makalu was a great sight below us.”
Looking down the northern side of the mountain, Tenzing was able to see the Rombuk monastery, and being a Buddhist, this was special for him. Hillary commented on how difficult the route up the northern face looked for an Everest trek.
They stayed on the summit for about fifteen minutes and then they set off down the mountain again. Hillary and Tenzing returned to Everest Base Camp as the first people to reach the highest peak in the world and get back safely.
The news of the successful Everest Trek took several days to reach Britain, and was announced the day before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In the early fifties Britain was still enduring a period of austerity following the war, and rationing was set to continue a further year. Together with the coronation, the accomplishment of the British team buoyed-up the morale of the nation. On his return to England, the new queen knighted the mountaineer from New Zealand as Sir Edmund Hillary, in recognition of his fine achievement on Everest with Tenzing Norgay.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run Everest treks for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
Sir George Everest may never have even set foot on the mountain, let alone attempted the Everest base camp trek, but yet he was granted the honor of having the world’s highest mountain named after him. This came about as it was his line of work, refining and perfecting trigonometrical equipment for the Great Survey of India, which he led as Surveyor General. This enabled the first accurate measurement of the true height of the mountain by his successor Andrew Waugh who named the highest peak in the world in honor of Everest’s work.
Over a century later in 1952, Sir Edmund Hillary extended the Welsh connection by choosing the Pen-y-gwryd Hotel in the Snowdonia Mountains as the base to prepare him for his Everest trekking mission. The hotel is still functioning to date, as both a popular pub and resting place for walkers attempting to climb the famous Mount Snowdon. In fact, if you visit the Pen-y-gwryd Hotel, you will even see a pair of Sir Edmund’s famous hiking boots on prominent display in the bar. As the pub was the center of the Everest trek expedition for six months it is now a Mecca for Everest trekking memorabilia, with newspaper cuttings featuring pictures of the 1953 expedition.
Charles Evans, a surgeon, continues Everest’s Welsh connection. Raised in Wales and a fluent Welsh speaker, he was the designated lead climber of the 1953 Everest trekking expedition and set to be the first man to reach the summit of the mountain. However, just 300 meters short of the peak, he and his climbing partner, Tom Bourdillon, had trouble with their oxygen equipment and sadly had to return back to Everest base camp.
Although many British have successfully completed an Everest trek, it wasn’t actually until 1995 that the first Welshman reached the peak of the mountain. The man in question was Caradog Jones, who later told the press that his team had been under a lot of pressure to persuade those below them that they had the strength to continue with their Everest trekking mission.
However, whilst only a couple of Welshman have ever made it to the peak of Mount Everest, many more have trekked as far as Everest Base Camp. One of the most interesting of these tales is of the Cardiff cricket captain, David Kirtley, who was the organizer of a team that played a 20-over cricket match at the Everest Base Camp and successfully raised £250,000 for charity. The 31-year old first flouted the idea over two years ago after discovering that the flat plateau of the Everest Base Camp bore close resemblance to the Oval stadium in Twickenham.
The mountain has been successfully climbed by people of all nationalities, but it is still clear that Wales holds a special place in its heart. After all, the country not only provided the mountain with its name, but also with the training ground for one of the most successful Everest trekking missions to date.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the Everest Base Camp Trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
Trekking to Everest Base Camp is an essential part of the route for every Everest summit attempt. There are various Everest Base Camp treks and most begin with a flight into Lukla airport at a height of 2860 metres. Each of these trekking routes provides a picturesque and rewarding way to tackle the rise in altitude of 2500 metres to Everest Base Camp on the Nepal side, situated at 5360 metres in elevation. Importantly, these Everest treks incorporate rest days to provide trekkers and mountaineers with a chance to get used to the thinner air while enjoying the scenery on the route.
For mountaineers, the trek to Everest Base Camp is just the start of their adventure. When they reach the head of the Khumbu Valley, they establish their Everest Base Camp on the Khumbu glacier as they launch into the final stages of their training and acclimatisation that comes before any summit attempt. It is a gradual process that can take months, and often years, of preparation and planning.
For the famous television survival expert, Bear Grylls, his 1998 expedition to Everest’s summit took three months to complete. At that time, he was the youngest Briton to safely reach the peak. The following year, his British record was then eclipsed by Rob Gauntlett from Sussex, aged just nineteen.
But in nine years later, Bear Grylls returned to the Everest trekking region and made an even more audacious and dangerous venture. He attempted to fly a paraglider to an altitude exceeding the summit of Mount Everest. Bear would fly in a supercharged vehicle designed by his friend Giles “Gilo” Cardozo, trying to exceed the existing altitude record for paragliding of 20,017 feet (6101 metres).
In May 2007, the team set up their “Mission Everest” Base Camp having trekked with their heavy equipment to an altitude of 4400 metres in Nepal. On the day of the flight, with three hours’ worth of good weather, fuel and oxygen, Bear and Gilo launched themselves into the air strapped to what looked to be little more than a chair with a motor and parachute attached.
Soon they were spiralling up to a height further than that capable by the camera helicopter that was following their progress. However, the cameras onboard the paragliders showed a spectacular sight of a ribbon of blue sky merging into the blackness of space above, which at the heights they reached they could see even though it was daytime.
After seventy two minutes of flying upwards, when he was sure he had succeeded, Bear turned off his engine and glided down through the stunning mountain landscape that makes Everest trekking so special. The plan was to corroborate their altitude with a global positioning system and altimeters; unfortunately, they found in the thin air and sub-zero temperatures, their instruments froze when they were about four miles above the Mission Everest Base Camp.
Although the reading the instruments took before they froze showed that Bear, at 7621 metres, had surpassed the existing paragliding record by 1524 metres and was still climbing, the record cannot be official without a valid reading from the altimeter. Nonetheless, is clear what Bear had achieved in Gilo’s machine. The images from the onboard cameras showed Bear had cleared the height of Mount Everest, and the team estimated he had reached about 150 metres higher. This took him to above 3640 metres higher than the Everest Base Camp (that’s more than two miles) and almost five miles above sea level.
So as you embark on your Everest Base Camp Trek, spare a thought to the complex preparations, activities and adventures that may be going on ahead of you at the high end of the trail.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run the Everest Base Camp Trek for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
The online travel writing provided by Travel Content Online is free to take, providing you take the links in the text, too. Use it to add fresh online content to your website. Thank you for visiting us – hopefully our travel content will bring more visitors to your site, too.
Conquering the Eight-thousanders – Everest, K2, and Beyond…
The fourteen highest mountains in the world – the so-called eight-thousanders – have challenged climbers throughout the history of mountaineering. Learn more about the quest to conquer the eight-thousanders…
There are fourteen mountains that present the ultimate challenge to the world’s most experienced climbers. They are the so-called eight-thousanders, the fourteen mountains on Earth that are over eight thousand metres in height, all of them to be found in the Himalaya and the Karakoram mountain range. They are:
- Everest (8848m)
- K2 (8611m)
- Kangchenjunga (8586m)
- Lhotse (8516m)
- Makalu (8463m)
- Cho Oyu (8201m)
- Dhaulagiri (8167m)
- Manaslu (8163m)
- Nanga Parbat (8125m)
- Annapurna I (8091m)
- Gasherbrum I (8068m)
- Broad Peak (8047m)
- Gasherbrum II (8035m)
- Shisapangma (8027m)
Anyone who goes trekking in Nepal is likely to see at least one of these mountains. Treks to Everest Base Camp, the Annapurna Sanctuary and Kangchenjunga Base Camp are common routes for trekking in Nepal, but only the very best mountaineers can make it to the summit of any of the peaks that these treks visit.
The Race to the Top
After trekking through Nepal and scouting base camps and climbing routes for these great mountains, expedition after expedition was defeated many years. Aside from the severity of the weather and the extreme technical challenges presented by these fourteen peaks, climbers also faced an even more serious challenge – altitude. Above eight-thousand metres, climbers enter “The Death Zone”, where the air is so thin that prolonged exposure is fatal and the physical exertion required for climbing becomes almost impossible.
It wasn’t until the use of bottled oxygen, which began in the 1920’s, that making it to the top of these summits seemed to be possible. The portable oxygen helped to counter the effects of altitude, but the mountains continued to defeat all attempts to conquer them for almost thirty years.
In 1950, Maurice Herzog stunned the world with a successful ascent of Annapurna I (8,091m) now regarded as one of the most dangerous mountains in the world. In a single expedition, his climbing team made a trek through Nepal to the mountain itself, planned the route, established their camps and made a push for the summit. Despite severe weather that almost killed them, Maurice and his climbing partner Louis Lachenal became the first people to summit an eight-thousand metre peak.
Throughout the 1950s, most of the other peaks were conquered one by one, most notable Everest in 1953 which was successfully climbed by Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. But it wasn’t until 1964 that the final peak was successfully climbed – Shispangma, the smallest of the fourteen.
The Climbing Elite
Climbing just one of the eight-thousanders is a feat that takes skill, experience, training, and no short supply of luck. Making the summit of all fourteen would seem to be beyond the capabilities of most mortals, yet there is a small group of mountaineers who have achieved precisely that. The legendary Italian climber Reinhold Messner was the first person to make it to the top of all fourteen, beginning with Nanga Parbat in 1970 and completing the final summit of Lhotse in 1986, sixteen years and 115,948 metres of climbing later. Even more remarkably, he made it to the top of all fourteen without the use of bottled oxygen, a feat which the medical establishment and climbing community believed to be impossible.
Many others have tried to emulate his success, but few have succeeded. Only a handful of the very best climbers have made it to the summit of all fourteen of these mountains. Strangely enough, these climbers also number fourteen.
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have provided Nepal trekking holidays for over 20 years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and Southeast Asia.
With some of the most striking scenery and the finest trekking routes in Nepal, the Annapurna mountains have been a trekking Mecca for many years. Learn more about the best sights and trekking routes in and around the Annapurnas.
The Annapurna mountains
Commonly regarded as the most beautiful mountain range in the Himalayas, the Annapurna massif consists of six major peaks, including the towering majesty of Annapurna I, one of the fourteen peaks in the world that is over eight thousand meters high. The main Annapurna trekking routes are rated as some of the best in the world by veteran hikers – they showcase the best scenery the Himalayas have to offer, from high alpine passes to rolling grasslands and traditional Nepalese villages, and offer a range of challenges for new and experienced trekkers alike.
Highlights of the region
In the walking country surrounding the Annapurna mountains, there are numerous spectacular sights to be enjoyed from the lush terraced fields of the Marshyangdi Valley to the breathtaking views from the Thorong La Pass. There are also many Nepalese villages to be seen while trekking in the Annapurnas such as the colourful bazaar town of Bagarchhap or the pretty village of Marpha with its whitewashed buildings and narrow cobbled roads.
At the centre of the mountains themselves is the Annapurna Sanctuary, a glacial basin ringed by the major peaks which is reached through a narrow mountain pass. The astonishing view of the south face of Annapurna I from inside the Sanctuary is one of the most striking mountain views in the region. A trek to the Annapurna Base Camp is often a highlight of visits to the Sanctuary, offering trekkers the chance to stand at the staging point for ascents to the world’s tenth highest mountain.
The best routes
The classic route is the Annapurna Circuit, an epic trek around the Annapurna massif that begins and ends in Pokhara, taking in an astonishing variety of scenery along the way. It takes about two and a half weeks to walk, and is regarded as the best trekking route in Nepal, if not the world – if you go on one trek in the region, the Annapurna Circuit is the one to take.
The other popular Annapurna trekking route is a walk into the Annapurna Sanctuary at the heart of the mountain range, typically including a visit to the Annapurna Base Camp. It is shorter, less strenuous and at a lower altitude than the Annapurna Circuit, and is perfect for first-time trekkers to the Himalaya who want to get a little closer to these mighty mountains without going dramatically high.
Aside from these two major Annapurna trekking routes, most tour operators and independent guides will have their own customised or tailor made itineraries – shorter circuits of the mountains, family treks and luxury hiking holidays are all available from a number of different tour operators.
However you choose to go trekking in the Annapurnas, the region promises an unforgettable experience. With spectacular mountain vistas and superb walking, it is no surprise that keen walkers and climbers travel from all over the world to explore the Annapurna mountains – and you should to!
Jude Limburn Turner is the Marketing Manager for Mountain Kingdoms, an adventure tour company who have run a number of Annapurna trekking holidays, including the Annapurna Circuit for many years. They now offer treks and tours worldwide, including destinations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Central and South East Asia.
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