Kangshung Face
The Kangshung wall is the 3350 m high east face of Mount Everest. The base of the wall is located on the Kangshung glacier. The other great mountain walls of the mountain are also located in Tibet North wall and the location in Nepal southwest wall.
The Kangshung wall is crowned on the right side of the upper northeast ridge and on the left side of the southeast ridge to the South Col (English: South Col ), who leads on the Lhotse, another eight-thousanders. The largest part of the upper wall is composed of hanging glaciers, together with overhanging cornices.
History
The east side of the mountain was relatively unknown in the West until the 1920s due to the complex and inaccessible terrain of Tibet. 1921 were George Mallory and Guy Bullock became the first western people who came up closer than 100 kilometers to the mountain and also the Kangshung flank visited to seek as part of the reconnaissance expedition, the easiest access for a possible ascent. This expedition of 1921 was the first ever, which the Dalai Lama of Tibet granted permission to travel to the area of Everest.
In the exploration and mapping of this side of the Himalayas, there was to be read by the famous mountaineer George Mallory later in the 1920s that this east face of Everest because of its steepness and the avalanche does not allow any opportunity to reach the top of the mountain. The expedition of 1921, which sought Ersteigungsmöglichkeiten the highest mountain on earth in the common order of the English Alpine Club and the Royal Geographic Society, therefore, moved on in an effort to a simpler way of ascent to discover; and they found out about the North Col, the so-called North Col.
Mallory and Bullock were accompanied by local Yaktreibern on the east side of the mountain. They crossed the high pass Langma La and the rhododendron forests of the Kama Chu or Kharta Valley. At that time there were there in August wildflower meadows and a rich vegetation in the valleys before Kangshung wall. 1980 explored Andy Harvard, a young American climber, with modern means the east side of Everest.
Mountaineering requirements
The lower part of the wall consists of steep rock sections and wall - pillars or ridges with gullies between them. The wall is far more dangerous for held as the standard rises from Nepal via the South Col or from Tibet via the North Col. It is the most remote face of the mountain, with a correspondingly long and difficult arrival, without any logistics.
The first successful ascent of the wall Kangshung happened in 1983 by an American expedition headed by James D. Morrissay, under participation of Louis Reichardt, after Reichardt in 1981 an exploration carried out. 1988 an expedition climbed a new route on the south pillar to reach the South Col. ( The route from there to the classic south-east ). The only member of the expedition, which reached the summit was, Stephen Venables, who thus become the first Briton was, who reached the summit without oxygen.
In two walls, in the north wall and the south-west wall, direct paths have already been climbed (so-called Direttissima ) - in the Kangshung face this has been neither able nor ever been tried before. The northernmost of the four pilasters in the Kangshung wall comes the previously held to be impossible Direttissima the east wall the next. To him, a saying of Mallory is hands down, was name-giving: " Only in fantasy can be done about this pillar a climb. " Since then, the name of this ridge Phantasy Ridge - and this ridge is still (as of autumn 2008), over 85 years after his sighting, nor unerstiegen.
Climbing the wall Kangshung
George Mallory wrote in his expedition book: " Other men, less wise, might also attempt this way If They would, but, emphatically, what it not for us. " ( Other men, less wise like, try this route if they wish. But, emphatically, for us, this is nothing. )
In order to climb the wall, you have to approach the 3 kilometers wide wall by either increases by deep, avalanche prone cuts, or embarks on steep, sometimes overhanging rocky ridges in the wall, the tricky full of potentially deadly icicles and with unstable snow cover is. Because the real difficulties lie in the upper wall portion, and the withdrawal from the wall is highly problematic, making it even more challenging and difficult the climb. There is also the loneliness, that is, the absence of other climbers, which is very difficult for the possibility of a bailout. Expeditions consistently reported that they were on weeks the only people in the upper valley.
The hanging glacier create a high risk of avalanches, especially in deteriorating weather conditions, the objective dangers of this route extremely enlarged. One is by preparing the route for at least three consecutive days in the wall to climb through it. Hardly a weather forecast on Everest reaches reliably over such a long time period.
About the Kangshung wall of the well over 4000 ascents of the highest mountain of the earth are only a few people come to the summit. In a first expedition succeeded in 1983 Americans about the so-called American Buttress, a pillar in the middle east wall to ascend below the South Summit and then continue on the classic Hillary route to reach the summit.
1988 made a second mixed American-English, expedition planning, over the next south direction Lhotse extending pilaster a climb to the South Col and went over the classic southeast ridge route on the south summit and the Hillary Step - also this expedition was successful if even with a single Gipfelersteiger, the Englishman Stephen Venables.
Since 1988 no one has seriously tried the east wall; an attempt by Americans in 1995 failed in fairly low altitude. At her adopted among others, Sandy Hill Pittman in part, a socialite lady from New York, which tried to climb the Seven Summits and reached until the following year in 1996 while that described by Jon Krakauer disaster on Mount Everest to their destination.
Weather
The Kangshung wall is essentially the steepest and also the rigors of the weather most exposed face of Mount Everest.
The weather in the Kangshung Valley and in the wall is determined by the jet stream. Essentially there is wind from the west, go down into the South East and Northeast ridges east into Kangshung Valley. In the few " free days " to Climb Mount Everest can be seen on the vane, which is mixed with ice crystals, see how high the wind speed in the upper regions of the mountain ( and in the lower regions of the stratosphere ) is. In a horizontal flag of the wind was blowing at about 60 to 80 miles per hour ( 90-120 km / h), just borderline to still dare to climb. Rises the flag higher from the summit ridge, the wind is moderate, the weather kind - and then to transform themselves under certain circumstances, in the descent to hell when the wind picks up then in the afternoon from about 14 or 15 clock and storms, blizzards and whiteouts can make the descent from the highest regions to a game for life. Now if a wind vane behind a ridge right down so the wind speeds are higher than 80 mph - and it may, there is the so-called "Freak Weather" means weather conditions that add to the already low oxygen content of the air on the mountain to a vacuum or suction effect, with a dynamic effect due to the air movement causes even less filling of the lungs with life-giving oxygen; one of the factors that have been blamed for the disaster on Mount Everest 1996. The entire east or Kangshungwand is like the " dumping ground " for all the snow and the resulting avalanches, which are unloaded at the prevailing westerly winds on the east side. In addition, the east wall is random with a total increase in angle of between 60 and 80 degrees steeper than the North and the South walls of the mountain, both of which were already climbed several routes, also in a direct line.
Cathy O'Dowd and Ian Woodall, climbers from South Africa, via the two classic routes climbed the Everest twice failed in 2003 at the " Phantasy Ridge " - they came on the ridge not half up to the point of union with the northeast ridge below the Three Pinnacles, which mark a further difficulty of a potential increase in the east and have been climbed (on lighter route along the entire Nordostgrates ) of two expeditions.