원정 개요

Conrad Anker - 22 June 2007

The point of this expedition was to discover whether the Second Step can be surmounted without using its ladder. Before the summiters reached the Step, the ladder and fixed ropes were removed by the expedition's Sherpas [and Tibetans].

The summit team of Anker, Houlding, Moffatt, Thaw, Mingma Dorje, Nima, Mingma Tshering, Jangbu and Karsang Namgyal left C4 at 3:00 am NST and were on the summit from 9:55 to 10:45 am on 14 June. Snow conditions were good: "everything was completely filled in" said Anker.

Anker and Houlding scaled the Second Step to its top at 8600m in 20 minutes. "It is more difficult with the ladder than without it," Anker said, because the best area to climb is the rock normally behind the ladders. Its difficulty is between 5.9 and 5.10 (US rating). They used two No. 4 cams and one No. 3 cam here; they did not use bottled oxygen while climbing the Step because of its weight and because a mask obstructs one's view of where to place one's feet.

They ascended different lines on the Step: Houlding, the rock expert, moved to the left and up the "wide crack" to its exit and then up the rest of the Step; most of the line he took did not cross the area behind the ladders. But Anker climbed to the right of the "crack", and traversed across the Step in the area which is normally behind the ladders, then up the rest of the Step.

Anker and Houlding descended from summit to ABC at 7:00 or 7:30 pm. Anker said he didn't mind being very tired from the day's climb because "I'm so elated to have finished it successfully."

Anker and Houlding (as Mallory and Irvine) wore 1924-type clothing to be filmed in them at BC, ABC, C1 and C2, but did not climb in them.

Russell Brice's large expedition came to Everest a month earlier than this team. Brice's people fixed all the ropes to the top (which Anker's team -- like all other expeditions were using except at the Second Step), set up all the camps, which Anker's group could use, and had everything in place for them. Five of Brice's Sherpas helped remove the ladders and ropes at the Second Step (and then summited), and two of his deputy leaders, Staples and Woodward, were also involved in making Anker's effort a success by filling in for Anker's film-makers who could not tolerate the high altitudes, and they summited with this expedition.

Anker does not believe Mallory or Irvine got to the top. There were no fixed ropes in place for them, their clothes were too thin for the extreme cold at the highest altitudes, and their gear was not so good as today's gear. "Its incredible they got to the Yellow Band" (8100m Anker's altitude, 8250m to 8453m, according to Brice) where Irvine's ice axe was found in 1933.

Non-summiting members
Chin reached 7000m, left expedition on 3 June because of his mother's serious
illness.
Sauls reached 7500m, but persistent serious cough made him stop climbing.

Oxygen: Summit party members: Houlding, Moffatt, and Thaw from 7900m to top to around C3, Anker from 8400m to top to C3 -- but Anker and Houlding did not use it while climbing the Second Step (see the reasons above), nor from "Mark's rock" at 8752m to summit in memory of Mallory and Irvine. Sherpas used it from 7900m to top to 7900m. [Also for sleeping]

Anker's Sherpa summiters:
Jangbu, 22/2/81, Kharikhola
Karsang Namgyal/Namgel, 24/8/71, Thami, Everest X7, Cho Oyu X7
Mingma Tshering, 26/9/82 (10/6/2039), Beding, no 8000ers
Mingmar Dorje, 17/7/79, Tapting-1, Everest 17/5/04
Nima Sherpa, 30/9/75, Tapting-1, no 8000ers

Brice's Sherpas, who helped at Second Step and then summited with this expedition after having already summited with Brice's members, are included in the report of Brice's expedition.
Phurba Tashi
Son Dorje
Dorje Sonam Gyalzen
Lhakpa Nuru
Nuru Gyalzen