Mount Everest has been the ultimate choice for climbers for decades now. Millions of people have attempted to ascend to Mount Everest and most of them are successful too. However, this is mostly on the Southern side of Mount Everest, in Nepal. The North face of Mt. Everest which can be accessed through Tibet doesn’t get as much credit. Despite this, the Northern face is as incredible and mesmerizing as other parts of Mount Everest, if not more.
What does the North face of Mount Everest look like?
Rocketing from the Tibetan plateau, the North face of Mount Everest appears to be more dramatic and massive, with a rugged and snowy summit. The North face of Mt. Everest is surrounded by enormous glaciers, cavernous crevasses, and cliffs. The three steps are more deadly and scary when looked up close. The vertically falling exposed part of the mountain seems menacing.
During sunrise and sunset, the mountains look ethereal and unreal, as they reflect the sunlight to appear the surrounding and Everest itself to be bright red/orange. The white and blue ridges and glaciers down there, with the chilling wind, are mesmerizing. From the top, the sky appears deep blue which seems imaginative. All in all, the North face of Mount Everest, is the most exposed and dangerous part of the mountain which appears as a huge vertical block of icy rocks, rather than the inclined steeps.
North face vs South face of Mount Everest
Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa were the first to conquer the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953 via the South Col route. Want to know detailed route to the summit via South Col? Read it in our other blog .
Whereas, the first successful attempt to climb the summit from the North Face of Mount Everest was on 25 May 1960 by the Chinese Expedition. Their climbers, Wang Fuzhou, Qu Yinhua, and Gongbu established the legacy by reaching the summit via the Northern face of Mt. Everest. The ladders installed by the Chinese Expedition team in the second step of the mountain are used by climbers to date. Some also say that one of the climbers, Qu Yinhua lost his gloves on the second step and climbed the mountain with bare hands leaving him in frostbite.
The route toward the summit from the North face of Mount Everest is way harder although it appears straighter. It involves steep ways, rock climbing, harsh winds, avalanches, and extreme winter conditions. The base camps are however more advanced and accessible than in Nepal. The North Base Camp can be reached via vehicle allowing you to cut the length of your climbing. You can also bring more amenities without being a hassle up to the Northern Base Camp, unlike the southern face where everything needs to be flown from Lukla. The base camp is at 5150 meters, a lower elevation than the South face.
Now talking about the actual climb, the North Face has seen more death and miserable conditions than the South. The crowds are way smaller in the north face. Also, the south face has a more gradual climbing route and fixed ropes and ladders, but in the North face of Mount Everest, the widely known ‘Three steps’ and lack of ropes and gears have been the reason for the climb being deadly. Guides and support are also not easily available. The rescue operation is nearly impossible in the North face of Mt. Everest and hence even a small slip means being closer to death. Meanwhile the cost might be a little cheaper while ascending through the North route than the South route. Here is a quick breakdown of what it can cost you to reach the summit.
The North Face Snowboarder – Marco Siffredi
What do you think of snowboarding in Everest? Sounds treacherous right? Well, some people tried it. The legendary snowboarder – Macro Siffredi, was born on 22 May 1979, in France. He was the first person to succeed in snowboarding down Mt. Everest. Before attempting Mt. Everest, he had already completed some challenging peaks including Mt. Cho Oyu, Mt. Tocllaraju, and Aiguille Verte. On 23 May 2001, he descended the north face of Mt. Everest via the route of Norton Couloir, which wasn’t his preferred route. His goal was to explore down the Hornbein Couloir, which he recognized as the ‘Holy Grail’, but couldn’t cause of lack of enough snow on that route.
After victory on the first attempt, a year later in September 2002, he decided to attempt snowboarding on his preferred route. But the day he along with three other Sherpas, the weather wasn’t in his favour. Despite the warning of Sherpas because of the clouds being formed down them and nearing the late hours, he went down towards the Hornbein Couloir. The Sherpas trying hard to catch up with him, at the North Col reported seeing something that looked like a man standing distant. They said the man silently slid down the mountain and was never seen again. When they reached there, no signs of Marco’s Siffredi were seen and that’s when they all assumed he was now gone forever.
Marco Siffredi’s body has never been found since then and hence many theories were formed. Some say the avalanche buried him in the snow, some say it was the curse of the mountain and some also say he’s alive to date and is living somewhere in Tibet.
North face of Mount Everest – Bodies
Being one of the most challenging ways to the summit of Mount Everest, with extreme weather conditions, and very high altitudes, the death of the climbers shouldn’t be much surprising. Thousands and thousands of dead human bodies are seen lying on the path to the summit. The rescue of these bodies is nearly impossible. However, some recognizable bodies are seen here.
George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, the first ones to attempt climbing the North Face disappeared in 1924. Almost 75 years later, in 1999 George Mallory’s body was found but Andrew Irvine is still undiscovered. Tsewang Paljor, known as ‘Green Boots’ due to his bright neon-colored mountaineering boots, was also found dead in 1996 near a cave and left there for decades.
A controversial name, David Sharp was also seen there in the same cave nearly dead. It was Sharp’s third attempt towards the summit of Mt. Everest from the Northern Face. He was without support and a very low amount of additional oxygen to be with at more than 8000 meters altitude.
In May 2006 he was seen curled up with knees between his hands mostly unconscious suffering frostbite and lack of oxygen and later died there. It is documented that more than 40 climbers passed by him during that time and still no rescue operation was performed. It sparked the controversy that everyone started ignoring humanity as he was left there to die with the hope that he would ever reach the summit. Even the big name, Sir Edmund Hillary was furious about this and stated that climbing the summit wasn’t as important as human life, criticizing the new-time climbers.
