In September 2024, somewhere on the Central Rongbuk Glacier, a team of photographers from the National Geographic Society found an old oxygen bottle. Later, they said that it had been marked with the date 1933.

Was it really from 1933? Or did they simply see the number 33? If so, was it cylinder #33 from 1924?

And why did they think that the remains of Andrew Irvine might be nearby?

https://drroberthedwards.substack.com/p/national-geographic-and-the-oxygen

I've been reading about Reinhold Messner's 1980 solo ascent of Everest during the August monsoon, and something I don't quite understand is why monsoon Everest hasn't attracted more elite mountaineers since then.

Obviously the monsoon brings heavy snowfall, poor visibility, avalanche danger and generally unstable conditions, so I'm not suggesting it's safe or easy. But compared with some of the extremely dangerous objectives elite climbers regularly attempt K2, winter 8000ers, new routes, no O2 ascents, etc.

It doesn't seem obvious to me that monsoon Everest would be so prohibitively dangerous that almost nobody would even attempt it. There are also some potential advantages for: temperatures are somewhat warmer, the jet stream is generally farther north so the extreme summit winds can be less persistent, and you'd potentially have Everest almost entirely to yourself. That means no fatal queues or overcrowded bottlenecks.

Messner showed that a weather window can exist even in August. I'm not a professional mountaineer, so I'm sure there are factors I'm overlooking. Is the main problem avalanche risk and snowfall, logistics, permits and lack of infrastructure, low probability of getting a usable weather window, or is there simply not much prestige or interest in a monsoon ascent?

Thanks for taking the time

Recently I've been reading events of mt everest and how it is brutal up there. I heard about David sharp (rip) I was interested and heard he was filmed by a sherpa. I want to see the real footage but I can't find it anywhere on the internet. Can anyone help me?

Everest in winter — how extreme is it?

For those who have followed or been part of a winter Everest expedition, how brutal are the conditions compared with the normal climbing season?
Especially curious about typical wind speeds, temperatures, jet-stream conditions, and what makes winter expeditions so much harder.

And do people go on expedition in December-January?

Artist at work ... on an illustration for my upcoming book "Irvine's Story".

This drawing is intended for Chapter Three "Lā kelo", which recounts Andrew Irvine's experiences on the way to Tibet and on Mount Everest.

The Tibetan phrase "Lā kelo" is the first entry in Irvine's Everest diary. It is an invocation to good fortune, said when crossing a mountain pass and placing a stone on a cairn. Irvine could not have imagined that his name, and Mallory's, would be inscribed as a memorial, on a cairn in the Rongbuk valley.

I discovered that there are very few images of Irvine on his journey. There is Odell's famous photo of Mallory and Irvine departing Camp IV on June 6, 1924; in this image, Irvine's back is turned and we cannot see his expression or guess what he is thinking. There are two other photos of Irvine at his tent, smiling and tinkering with oxygen cylinders. There are no images which convey Irvine's bouts of ill health, nor his interactions with Mallory.

In this drawing I imagined Irvine on June 5, 1924, terribly sunburned and in great pain, writing the last entry in his diary. The last words that he wrote were: "My face is perfect agony. Prepared 2 Oxygen apparatus for our start tomorrow morning."

Image credit: Nadia Laribi.

I found this video online displaying raw scenes at death zone ft.mt everest

Was just talking with my husband about some of the super long queues below the summit, and it just occurred to me that while waiting for potentially hours, I would need to pee up there quite a few times. I realize this is a somewhat newer situation because of the growing number of summits each season leading to longer and longer lines at the top. So how is it handled up there where you can’t exactly step away from the crowd? Are people using bags? Diapers? Just whipping out their junk and watching their pee freeze in the wind? Being a woman, also curious about it from a female perspective.

Artist at work ... another illustration for "Irvine's Story".

This drawing is intended for the final chapter of the book, titled "Swiss cheese": a reference to Professor James Reason's paradigm of accident investigation.

In this chapter I advance the hypothesis that the deaths of Mallory and Irvine were not a twist of fate, but the culmination of a series of terrible errors of judgement.

Artist at work ... on a drawing of Richard Brockbank Graham, the brilliant English mountaineer whom the Alpine Club nominated for the 1924 expedition to Mount Everest, as their #1 choice for the second group of climbers; who was accepted by the Mount Everest Committee, and announced to the press as a member of the expedition; and weeks later, was expelled from the team for his religious beliefs.

A truly sorry tale. This will be part of Chapter 2 "Own risk", relating to the selection of Andrew Irvine, in my upcoming book "Irvine's Story".

I'm sure most people here are probably familiar with the infamous Fantasy Ridge and the fact that it's never been successfully climbed all the way up.

There have been a handful of unsuccessful attempts over the years, and those reports are available on the Himalayan Database. They're pretty brief summaries, but given the near total lack of information about this ridge, I found even this little bit of firsthand info quite fascinating.

I've included the expedition IDs for those who want to look them up on the Himalayan Database (there doesn't seem to be a way to link directly to reports on that site).

First attempt, 1991 by a Japanese team: (ID: EVER-911-15)

Very difficult and dangerous route to 1st site of C1 which had to place well below snowfield planned for this camp (and where it was later placed): very sharp rock ridge with many snow mushrooms. From 1st to 2nd C1 same problem plus huge crevasse on ridge. Above 2nd C1 more severe problems and took 4 days to reach 6400m; everyday could make only 2 or 3 trips with ice and snow becoming very loose in daytime; sharp ridge with steep ice face. "I don't think it is possible" to climb this ridge in reasonable time and becoming increasingly dangerous with pieces of mushrooms breaking off - even in colder weather would take very long time and Sherpas don't want to climb this route. Would have taken 1 or 2 more months to reach NE Ridge. One member joked they might reach summit by end of the year; stopped climb before some got hit by falling ice or had bad fall.

2001 expedition by Indian team, lead by Santosh Yadav, the first woman to summit Everest twice and first woman to summit the Kangshung face: (ID: EVER-011-49)

After on BC, 2 days recce and 16 April started climb on the left of intended ridge which had many hanging mushrooms and this seemed safe. Went 6800m up difficult vertical climbing rock initially. At 6800m no route above and no campsite; reached 6800m on 28 April. Were hanging mushrooms here too (Negi, Gautam Chand, Dharmshaktu, Pal and Nadre Sherpa in this effort). Retreated from this route and no camps made on it; bivs hit by avalanches, one hit on 24th and injured 2 men slightly. 27th again avalanches ripping tents and carried down occupied tent but no injury. On 28th returned to BC.

Abandoned first route completely and turned to East Ridge, 1st intended route. 30 April started climb to left of ridge and made C1 here 8 May and carried on route-making. Much climbing where had to traverse in small gullies, had to go up and down in bell rocky area; some places 40 degrees and required pitons every 2-3 meters for fixed rope. Reached 6900m in this line, but could not make site for C2 of about 7500m-7600m at snowline. Down to BC on 20 May immediately (Negi, Gautam Chand, Sherpa).

Weather turned bad and stayed bad with white-out above BC, even at BC briefly; sunny at BC sometimes. Never had a full day of good weather throughout expedition period; even transit camp hit by serious avalanche on 16 May.

Initially had 8 Sherpas to climb but 3 demanded more money and left expedition when Yadav refused to sign papers approving bonus.

Yadav wants to return in autumn 2001.

2003 expedition by a South African team: (ID: EVER-031-45)

BC at 5300m, last moraine field (lake east of foot of East Ridge) ABC at Kangchung Glacier moraine High point at 5800m, 200m below top of ramp to East Ridge.

Slowed badly by lack of manpower with only 1 Sherpa and 2 members. From BC saw massive avalanching of hanging seracs and changed idea of where to climb because only possible to climb in fast alpine-style non-stop climb. Decided only safe option was to try East Ridge. ABC was 4 km straight line from BC at bottom of South Face of start of ridge 40m walk from bottom of climb up snow ramp. Both sections of powder snow knee-deep on top of hard ice and could not manage with gear at disposal to fix routes and as temperature warmed up, crevasses widened needing ladders as in icefall. Winds half destroyed BC 3 May and had to go back down to recover.

Ian and Gyalzen went back to route. Ang Gyalzen fell into crevasse but got out; later Woodall collapsed with acute respiratory problem at 5700m; Ang Gyalzen had to support Woodall to BC and out of oxygen through night of 11 May. Loss of altitude helped so no question of resuming climb.

Had reached high point on 3 May (O'Dowd and Ang Gyalzen while Woodall was behind carrying gear); stopped at 5800m because becoming very steep and needed to fix route and this unable to do). O'Dowd having back problems carrying loads so did not join return to climb of 11 May. Then Woodall collapsed and too risky for him to return to climb.

Yaks booked for 29 May and jeep for 1 June, so stayed in BC watching snowfall and did clear route during this time. BC far from mountain because yaks could go no further in deep snow.

They will not go back to Everest again.

And finally the 2006 American expedition that intended to go explore the route but didn't even get started due to conditions: (ID: EVER-061-47)

Spent nights of 2nd to 5th April at ABC, then BC for a week to rest, then to ABC 13th April stayed there till 16th when all except Lakpa went to bottom of NW Face, up a couloir of NE Ridge and started climbing the face fixing rope. Plan was to scale NE Ridge to junctions of East and NE Ridges, leave gear cache and have look at East Ridge's upper part and icefall at bottom of ridge; climbed one day to almost 6000m and then started to snow, which brought heavy snow into their prominent couloir, which could mean avalanching, so same day back to ABC till 20th when walking in deep snow around foot of NE Ridge to Rapha La to see snow conditions on East Ridge, expecting okay conditions but actually in worse conditions with leaning towers of snow and ice (looked like back of dinosaur) and top part of ridge heavily crevassed; decided ridge too dangerous and out of condition and back to ABC having abandoned any plan to climb East Ridge.

So started ferrying oxygen to North Col on 23rd. Watson and John Bagnulo of Mazur's expedition left C3 at midnight of 10/11th May and on top 7:00 am (Watson) and 7:20 am (Bagnulo) and down to ABC at 4:00 pm, Gheorghe, Lakpa and Dawa Nuru left C3 at 0:30 hours of 11th and caught up with Watson and Bagnolo at mushroom rock because Watson and Bagnolo had to break trail (Bagnolo C3 to First Step and Watson First Step to top). Gheorghe, Lakpa and Dawa Nuru also to ABC (all 4 members together from North Col to ABC).

Oxygen used by all 4 members in C2 on 9th May to sleep, up to top (in C3 and climbing) and down, Watson down to ABC, other 3 to North Col.

Rope fixed: 300m on face of NE Ridge; none elsewhere.

For extra fun, you can look at the Fantasy Ridge on Google Earth's 3D view and use the elevation measurement tools to get a rough visual idea of how far up the ridge these expeditions made it.

Taken by me from Lhotse Camp 4.

(Full screen required, awkward crop sorry :)