NOVA Online | Everest Quest | The Summit Day (4)

The Summit Day
part 4 | back to part 3

The team makes their way to Camp 3 which sits on a ledge on the Lhotse Face, a 45 - 50 degree wall of ice rising some 4,000 feet above the Western Cwm. Although there are 13 different routes on the mountain, this is the most popular one. Sometimes referred to as the "Hillary Route," more people have reached the summit by this route than any other. By January 1, 1993, 338 out of 485 ascents were made on this route.

For Jamling, climbing the route his father climbed with Edmund Hillary 43 years ago is a powerful experience. Every moment, he literally follows his father's steps to the summit. Sherpa

According to Jamling, success on Everest is all about teamwork: "All I can say is this: I think everybody needs to work together, whether you, me or anybody in the world. No matter who you are, where you are, and what you're doing you always have to work as a team to be successful. If you look at the 1953 expedition that my father was on, it was a British expedition. There you see my father, my father the Sherpa. They didn't know each other before that, but they worked together and see what they did."

Base Camp

The Sherpas on this expedition, like all expeditions, are an integral part of the team. They are the team's climbing companions, sharing in the daily experiences on the mountain. This is Araceli's first time climbing with Sherpas. Click here to hear her talk about what it's like to climb with them.

Today's expeditions have the luxury of high tech, lightweight gear and clothing. Images from the 1953 ascent of Everest reveal climbers in tweed jackets living in tents made out of heavy canvas. Ed, who is sponsored by several moutaineering clothing and equipment companies, marvels at what Everest's early climbers had for equipment: "I'm amazed at what they did with what they had. They had leather boots, they had wooden backpacks, they had canvas tents. Everything weighed 3 times what it weighs now. Those guys I think were harder core than we are. They didn't have the lightweight warm equipment that we do."

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Photos: (1) courtesy Araceli Segarra; (2) courtesy Robert Schauer; (3) courtesy Sumiyo Tsuzuki.

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