The Himalaya by the Numbers- A Statistical Analysis of Mountaineering in the Nepal Himalaya

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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 Kanchenjunga 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 cover 60 years of the history of climbing in Nepal divided: into four parts:

19.00-1949 - the exploratory period

1950-1969 - the expeditionary period

1970-1989 - the transitional period

1990-2009 - the commercial period

The earl)! exploratory period is comprised primarily of expeditions to Everest in the 1920s and 1930s by the British and to the Kanchenjunga 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.

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 Kanchenjunga.

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 Kanchenjunga 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 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 peaks without oxygen became the ultimate goal of many elite climbers. Expeditionary-style climbing continued on Everest as many of the largest expeditions were organized and funded for a nation's first attempt (the Japanese in 1970, the Yugoslavs in 1979, the Canadians and Soviets in 1982, and the Czechs in 1984). But 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 southeast face of Cho Oyu in 1978, the Kangachung 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 summated Makalu and Lhotse in the autumn of 1986. The 1980s was a very bold period that included .many difficult climbs even during the cold and windy winter seasons, but with the result that many of the most talented climbers also perished.

The commercial era began in the early 1980s, when the German DAV (Deutscher Alpenverein) 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 commercial 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 International (1990 Todd Burleson), Adventure Consultants (1990 Rob Hall & Gary Ball), Mountain Madness (1991 Scott Fischer), International Mountain Guides (IMG) (1991 Eric Simonson), Arnical Alpin (1992 Ralf Dujmovits), and Himalayan Experience (1994 Russell Brice) 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 increasing 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 600 summated.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages