The Himalaya by the Numbers: A Statistical Analysis - Himalayan ...

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