Hillary Step, Mount Everest slope: description and history

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

What is the Hillary Step, every climber who dreams of conquering Everest knows. Some say that this is a terrible place, littered with the corpses of the failed conquerors of the "Top of the World". Others - that the comb is nothing special and dangerous. In the Alps, for example, there are more complex walls. And if the weather conditions are favorable, and there is a sufficient amount of oxygen in the cylinders, then it is easy for an organism adapted to the height to overcome the Hillary slope. Sherpas do this several times a season. They also hang ropes, which climbers and commercial tourists then cling to. But this article is not intended to answer the question of whether it is easy or hard to overcome the Hillary stage. We'll just tell you what it is. And according to this information and photos, you can get an impression of the complexity of the hike.

Everest

In the middle of the nineteenth century, the Britishthe geodetic service has determined with the help of instruments the highest peak of the Himalayas. It turned out to be Peak 15 located on the border of Tibet and Nepal. The peak at a height of 8848 meters above sea level was named after the head of the service, geodesist George Everest. The British had no idea that the mountain already had a name. The Nepalese called her the Mother of the Gods - Sagarmatha. And the Tibetans called the mountain Chomolungma. For them, the shining peak symbolized the Great Mother of Life. This area was considered sacred. Only in 1920 did the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama allow the Europeans to try to storm it. However, Chomolungma was conquered only by the eleventh expedition, which came to the Hillary Step on Everest. It is named after one of its members, who, in conjunction with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, was the first to climb the "Top of the World".

What is the Hillary Stage

Climbing Everest is not technically very difficult. There are no vertical ledges along the way, which can only be climbed by a trained rock climber. The problems faced by the conquerors of Everest are associated only with the huge height of the mountain. At 8000 meters above sea level, the so-called death zone begins. There is too little oxygen in the rarefied atmosphere to support life. Low temperature and pressure do the most nasty things to the human consciousness, expose base instincts. In such a situation, each step is given with difficulty. And here, not far from the cherished peak, at an altitude of 8790 meters, the Hillary Step rises - a vertical ledge consisting of ice andcompressed snow. There is no way around it. Sheer cliffs surround it on both sides. There is only one thing left - to climb an almost vertical thirteen-meter ledge.

Hillary Climbing Everest

The 1953 expedition, the eleventh in a row, consisted of more than four hundred people. The lion's share was made up of porters and guides - Sherpas. This people has long lived at high altitudes. As a result of adaptation, Sherpas have voluminous lungs and a strong heart, as well as amazing adaptability to frost. The expedition progressed slowly. The rise and adaptation took two months. The group set up camp at an altitude of 7900 meters. The first to storm the summit were two British climbers Ch. Evans and T. Bordillon. But since they had problems with their oxygen masks, they were forced to return. The next day, May 29, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay went to try their luck. After the South Col, a huge firn step blocked their path. Hillary tied himself with a rope and began to climb an almost sheer slope. So he reached the snow ledge. Soon, Norgay also climbed up the rope to him. This pair of climbers reached the summit at 11.30 am.

Climbing difficulties associated with the Hillary step

The first conquerors of Everest reached their goal before noon, and therefore were able to leave the "death zone" before sunset. This is a very important circumstance. 'Cause the sleepover is above eight thousandmeters above sea level means certain death. Now the conquest of Chomolungma has been put on a commercial basis. Many rich and ambitious tourists of varying degrees of training go to storm Everest. But both they and enthusiastic climbers have the same daily routine. Rise in the dark, forced march up, photographing at the Top of the World for about 15-20 minutes and a quick descent to the camp. But the Hillary Step is too narrow a slope for two people to pass on it. As a result, queues often form around it and even fights break out. After all, commercial tourists who have paid several thousand dollars to climb Everest do not want to put up with the idea that they need to turn back because the time is late. Some refuse guides, go to the top and die on the way.

Commercial Travel Plans

There are several ideas on how to make Everest more accessible. Hillary's steps can no longer take so many victims. It no longer seems like such an insurmountable obstacle. In early April, a team of Sherpas arrives at a stationary camp, equips its buildings, and then goes to the top. There, these courageous people hang ropes on the steps of Hillary, which thousands of Europeans and Americans will climb during the season. These we althy tourists will be followed by Sherpas with luggage and oxygen tanks. That is why the idea of building on Everest … an elevator is being seriously considered. Of course, the top of the mountain will have to be dressed in a dome, which will be pumped with air,like the cabin of an airplane. But even if this bold idea is put into practice, still thousands of people will storm the slopes of the mountain, rushing to the snowy peak.

Sherpa plan

Guides, who also don't want to lose their earnings, came up with a less expensive idea than an Everest lift. It consists in laying several stationary stairs along the Hillary step. This plan does not look so unrealistic. Sherpas are already setting up structures in the base camp at an altitude of 5300 meters. They lay metal stairs across the constantly moving Khumbu glacier and equip a route to the Valley of Silence (6500 m). Previously, they hung two ropes at the narrowest point of the ledge. Now they are proposing to install wide metal stairs on the Hillary Steps. Everest will become more accessible thanks to them, because this rock will not have queues.