Twelve Truths of Everest: Part II

September 28, 2007

I put up a post yesterday about a series that ExplorersWeb is currently running called The Twelve Truths of Everest. Yesterday the first four were discussed, and you can find them here. Today, ExWeb takes a look at the statistics of the famed North Ridge vs. The South Col. Which is better to climb? Which is safer? Which offers the highest level of success?

There are some more surprises to be found in today’s article. As I did yesterday, I will list the next fours facts as stated by ExWeb, but to get to all of the good details, you will have to head on over there and read the article for yourself. Here they are:

Truth #5: Historically, the north side route has been twice as dangerous as the south.
Truth #6: South side guided climbers have had twice the support staff (sherpas and guides) as the north.
Truth #7: Of all Everest mountaineers, independent climbers on Everest’s north have had the highest fatality rate, while independent climbers on the south have had the lowest.
Truth #8: While more climbers overall try Everest’s north side, only 3% try a non standard route.

I think all of these statistics today are quite surprising, not only to myself, but to most others as well.

Here is another interesting note that was buried in the article. All of these stats are coming from the years 2000-2006, but of the 3% of independent climbers taking on the non standard routes, no one has died on their expeditions–but, the good comes with the bad: only 12% of those climbers have actually made a successful summit.

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