The Himalaya by the Numbers A Statistical Analysis of Mountaineering in the Nepal Himalaya Richard Salisbury Elizabeth Hawley September 2007 Cover Photo: Annapurna South Face at sunrise (Richard Salisbury) © Copyright 2007 by Richard Salisbury and Elizabeth Hawley No portion of this book may be reproduced and/or redistributed without the written permission of the authors. 2 Contents Introduction . .5 Analysis of Climbing Activity . 9 Yearly Activity . 9 Regional Activity . .18 Seasonal Activity . .25 Activity by Age and Gender . 33 Activity by Citizenship . 33 Team Composition . 34 Expedition Results . 36 Ascent Analysis . 41 Ascents by Altitude Range . .41 Popular Peaks by Altitude Range . .43 Ascents by Climbing Season . .46 Ascents by Expedition Years . .50 Ascents by Age Groups . 55 Ascents by Citizenship . 60 Ascents by Gender . 62 Ascents by Team Composition . 66 Average Expedition Duration and Days to Summit . .70 Oxygen and the 8000ers . .76 Death Analysis . 81 Deaths by Peak Altitude Ranges . 81 Deaths on Popular Peaks . 84 Deadliest Peaks for Members . 86 Deadliest Peaks for Hired Personnel . 89 Deaths by Geographical Regions . .92 Deaths by Climbing Season . 93 Altitudes of Death . 96 Causes of Death . 97 Avalanche Deaths . 102 Deaths by Falling . 110 Deaths by Physiological Causes . .116 Deaths by Age Groups . 118 Deaths by Expedition Years . .120 Deaths by Citizenship . 121 Deaths by Gender . 123 Deaths by Team Composition . .125 Major Accidents . .129 Appendix A: Peak Summary . .135 Appendix B: Supplemental Charts and Tables . .147 3 4 Introduction The Himalayan Database, published by the American Alpine Club in 2004, is a compilation of records for all expeditions that have climbed in the Nepal Himalaya. The data are based on the expedition archives of Elizabeth Hawley, a longtime journalist living in Kathmandu, and it is supplemented by information gathered from books, alpine journals, magazines, and correspondence with Himalayan climbers. The original data (published in CD format) cover all expeditions from 1905 through 2003 to more than 300 significant Nepalese peaks. Also included are expeditions to both sides of border peaks such as Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga as well as to some smaller border peaks. Updates for the 2004 and subsequent climbing seasons are available free for download at www. himalayandatabase.com and can be applied to the original data set. The analyses in this book draw primarily on information from The Himalayan Database and examine expedition climbing activity, ascents, and fatalities. The seasonal climbing summaries by Elizabeth Hawley written from 1985 to the present also contribute to the narrative portions of the book. The complete texts of these summaries are contained on The Himalayan Database CD. For the analyses in this book, we divide the history of climbing in Nepal into four parts: 1900-1949 – the exploratory period 1950-1969 – the expeditionary period 1970-1989 – the transitional period 1990-2006 – the commercial period The early exploratory period is comprised primarily of expeditions to Everest in the 1920s and 1930s by the British and to the Kangchenjunga region during the 1930s by the Germans. These expeditions were few in number and do not contribute significantly to any meaningful analyses and thus are not included in the analyses in this book. The expeditionary period began in 1950 with the opening of Nepal to foreign expeditions. For the peaks higher than 8000m (the 8000ers), relatively large teams (8 or more members) used a military assault-style of climbing that employed many lowland porters to ferry in large stock-piles of equipment to base camp and then used hired high-altitude assistants or “Sherpas” to establish and cache higher camps until a final summit assault was mounted. Sherpas also accompanied the climbers to the top on all first ascents of the 8000ers in Nepal except for Annapurna, Lhotse, and Kangchenjunga. The expeditionary period was also the beginning of the “super” expedition age that began with the large American and Indian Everest expeditions in 1963 and 1965 (both sent 60+ climbers and high-altitude assistants above base camp), continued into the 1970s with a very contentious international effort on Everest in 1971 (80+ persons) and the 1973 Italian Everest expedition (sending up 150+ persons and one helicopter), and culminating with 1989 USSR traverses of four summits of Kangchenjunga and the “extra-super” 1988 China-Japan-Nepal Friendship expedition that sent over 200 climbers and high-altitude assistants up the mountain from both sides and completed Introduction 5 the first north-south traverses. The Chinese also contributed with two very large expeditions to the north side of Everest in 1960 and 1975 that sent up the mountain hundreds of climbers and porters (or “assistants” as they are called on Chinese expeditions). During the transitional period from 1970 to 1989, alpine-style climbing slowly began to replace expeditionary-style climbing. Highly skilled climbers such as Reinhold Messner and Jerzy Kukuzcka using lightweight gear moved rapidly up and down the mountain with fewer fixed camps and with minimal or no high-altitude assistant support. After Messner and Peter Habeler’s ascent of Everest without supplementary oxygen in 1978, climbing all the high peaks without oxygen became the ultimate goal of many elite climbers. On Everest, many of the largest expeditions were limited to the effort of a nation’s first attempt (the Japanese in 1970, the Yugoslavs in 1979, the Canadians and Soviets in 1982, and the Czechs in 1984). New challenging routes that required greater technical skills were opened up on the great walls of the big peaks (the south face of Annapurna I in 1970, the south-east face of Cho Oyu in 1978, the Kangschung face of Everest in 1983, and finally the tragic efforts on the south face of Lhotse in the late 1980s). Highlighting the mid-1980s was the race to be the first to climb the fourteen 8000ers that was completed by Messner when he summited Makalu and Lhotse in the autumn of 1986. In the early 1980s, the German DAV Summit Club under the leadership of Franz Kroell and Guenther Haerter organized the first commercial teams to Annapurna IV and Baruntse. Other groups soon followed and by the 1990s the commercial era of Himalayan climbing was in full motion. Ama Dablam, Cho Oyu, and Everest (which are referred to as the ACE peaks later in this book) became the prime target of commercial ventures; Ama Dablam because of its majestic splendor overlooking the Khumbu Valley, Cho Oyu being the “easiest” of the 8000m peaks, and Everest being the ultimate goal of many Himalayan mountaineers. Many of the earlier commercial outfitters, Alpine Ascents (1990 Todd Burleson), Adventure Consultants (1990 Rob Hall & Gary Ball), Mountain Madness (1991 Scott Fischer), International Mountain Guides (IMG) (1991 Eric Simonson), Amical Alpin (1992 Ralf Dujmovits), Himalayan Experience (1994 Russell Brice), Himalayan Guides (1995 Henry Todd) are still operating today, although some are under new management due to climbing accidents involving the original founders (Gary Ball died on Dhaulagiri in 1993 and Rob Hall and Scott Fischer on Everest in 1996). The Everest disaster that claimed 8 lives in 1996 did not deter interest in Everest and Himalayan climbing, but had almost the opposite effect of in creasing interest to the point that now hundreds of climbers scramble to reach the summit each spring season. During the spring 2006 season, 480 climbers and high-altitude assistants reached the summit of Everest from both sides, and in the spring 2007 season over 500 summited. The quest for the seven summits (the highest peak on each of the seven continents) for adventure climbers and the 14 8000ers for elite climbers has created a climate of “peak bagging.” This along with the endless quests of “firsts” (being the first ethnic “x”, the oldest or youngest “y”, or overcoming obstacle “z”) has added to the lure and congestion of Everest. All of this has also required some creative fund-raising efforts for those that could not afford to buy themselves a spot on a commercial expedition. 6 Introduction In addition to the “firsts”, innovative and sometimes fatal variations became almost the norm – descents by skiing, snowboarding, and parapenting, speed ascents, a summit bivouac on Everest, etc. The steady increase of climbing activity in Nepal was tempered by the Maoist insurgency that helped to divert many expeditions into the Khumbu and Annapurna regions and across the border to the Tibet while the more remote regions of Nepal experienced a serious decline, especially on the lower peaks. The Nepalese government tried to counter this exodus by opening up over 100 new remote peaks to expeditions, but until Nepal’s political stalemate is completely resolved, these peaks will be considered unsafe to approach. If and when this finally happens, there will be vast number of challenges for those who truly yearn for a unique out of the way adventure. Methodology For all analyses in this book, expeditions since 1950 to peaks open for mountaineering by the Nepal government’s Ministry of Tourism and a few other major peaks not officially open are included. Expeditions to the border peaks such as Everest, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Kangchenjunga are included for both the Nepalese side and the Chinese or Indian sides. Expeditions prior to 1950 are excluded because they were few and far between and mostly originated outside of Nepal from either Tibet or Sikkim. Expeditions to trekking peaks are excluded starting either in 1978 for the first 18 peaks that were designated as such by the Nepal government, or in the year that they were subsequently added to the official list of trekking peaks. For trekking peaks,The Himalayan Database generally records only first ascents or unusual events such as new routes, exceptional climbs, or major accidents.