Comments on: Khumbu Icefall and the Valley of Silence http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/ Fri, 24 May 2013 14:37:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: John Baez http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-23179 Thu, 20 Dec 2012 17:38:28 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-23179 Tour the southern approach to Mount Everest in this 2-gigapixel image created by David Brashears.

]]> By: John Baez http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-18690 Thu, 23 Aug 2012 03:17:28 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-18690 Interesting! Thanks!

]]> By: Patrick Powers http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-18664 Wed, 22 Aug 2012 08:58:44 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-18664 It is harder to get a permit from the Chinese. The mountain is made of limestone, and the strata are slanted so that they rise from south to north. This means that the cliffs on the north side are more daunting.

Reinhold Messner climbed the north side solo during the monsoon, which still seems impossible to me. He bypassed the cliffs by climbing a couloir.

]]> By: John Baez http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-16856 Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:15:46 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-16856 Hi! Thanks, that links this post to one of our more serious themes on Azimuth – global warming! Are you a ‘Microsoft Faculty’ member?

An example of the pictures on that website…

Godwin-Austen & Upper Baltoro Glaciers, 1909:

Godwin-Austen & Upper Baltoro Glaciers, 2009:

]]> By: Yunhyong Kim http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-16854 Wed, 18 Jul 2012 00:09:59 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-16854 Today David Breashears (who climbed the Everest several times) gave a presentation about the melting glaciers at the Microsoft Faculty Summit 2012. JUst thought you might be interested. The images documenting some of the changes are on this website: http://www.glacierworks.org/

]]> By: arch1 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-15802 Fri, 08 Jun 2012 14:55:12 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-15802 Thanks, this *was* very interesting. It also starts to quantify the icefall danger, and it also suggests a partial answer to my Q (people may elect not to bypass Khumbu *on the left* because of the avalanche risk).

]]> By: Frederik De Roo http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-15733 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 21:11:29 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-15733 Here’s a nice comparison of the two main routes.

]]> By: John Baez http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-15731 Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:20:02 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-15731 arch1 wrote:

Pardon the dilletante-ish nature of the Q…

Sure! It was a dilletante-ish post. It’s not like I’m a mountain climber or something.

I can only guess that the Khumbu Icefall is the least bad of alternative ways to get up from the southeast.

I think there are also routes from the north, but there you have to go through Tibet, which is an administrative hassle… I don’t know how much easier or harder those climbs are. If anyone knows, I’d like to hear. (I know this isn’t arch1′s question.)

]]> By: arch1 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-15715 Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:48:13 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-15715 (Just to clarify – the Q isn’t asking about an alternative global route, but rather about the possibility of “skirting around” Khumbu, by climbing a bit up one side or the other of the Western Cwm, on the way to Camp 1)

]]> By: arch1 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/khumbu-icefall-and-the-valley-of-silence/#comment-15714 Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:41:47 +0000 http://johncarlosbaez.wordpress.com/?p=9233#comment-15714 Pardon the dilletante-ish nature of the Q, but for anyone who knows..

If Khumbu icefall is so dangerous, why do people elect to go through it rather than skirting it by either climbing up the S side of the W ridge, or the N side of the Lhotse/Nuptse ridge?

Would bypassing Khumbu be even more dangerous for some reason? Or is the immediate danger of Khumbu (most of which may(?) be borne by the route setters) being traded off for time/convenience/energy (which come to think of it might pose dangers of its own, and not just to route setters)?

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