Climbing Everest: a 2 year plan

Don't be like the 5 hr marathoners who have never run a 5k. work your way up.

If you haven't backpacked in nice weather, start there.

Then start working on climbing 14ers in colorado and california. Then go to mexico and climb the volcanos, then go up to alaska and climb denali. then head down to south america and climb aconguaga.

get experience route finding, glacier travel, and hydrating, feeding yourself, and staying cold in extreme cold. learn how to climb independently. this doesn't mean alone, it means you make decisions as a group of climbers rather than an "expert" telling you what to do.

mountineering seems like it's just an aerobic sport, but high aerobic capacity will only get you so far. your life depends on experience.

wasatch range wrote:

I have decided to make getting up Everest a 2 year plan/goal from this coming May. It has been an obsession my entire life, and I feel almost like I must take a shot before I become too old. A bit of background:

I am 41, a former D1 miler, and remain significantly fit. I am 6 feet and 185 pounds with 8% body fat. Though gym work and faster runs on the track have been my fun for the last 20 years, I realize that long aerobic/endurance sessions wil be required, as will specific climbing and mountaineering abilities. I currently live at 5000 ft altitude, and higher altitudes are an easy drive away. Can anyone here put me into contact with someone here in the Salt Lake City area that might be available for specific training advice/goals along this period?

That's not evenly remotely close to being enough experience. Unlike hitting the wall at a marathon where you leave with sore legs and a bruised ego, being underprepared when at 26,000 ft. will lead to your family having to make funeral arrangements. Oh yeah, I hope you have at least $75k to spend on this little adventure.

If your serious about climbing Everest, hopefully you are aware of the financial cost of the permit to climb. I believe $35,000.00 is about the cheapest your going to pay.

Todd Disney wrote:

If your serious about climbing Everest, hopefully you are aware of the financial cost of the permit to climb. I believe $35,000.00 is about the cheapest your going to pay.

Nepal has just slashed it to $11,000.

Now we can all afford to go!

Everest has become a huge joke and a tourist destination in my opinion. These days people show up at Everest base camp without any prior mountaineering experience and average fitness and some of them still manage to make the summit. Of course, it's still dangerous and being extremely fit will definitely increase your chances of survival but any former D1 endurance athlete who has kept himself in shape is plenty fit enough to climb it provided proper acclimatization. Some people handle altitude better than others and not being a completely stick-thin distance runner is probably a good thing as your body will consume more calories than you can hope to eat at high elevation. Having a little muscle mass will also make it easier to carry a heavy pack.

Personally, I feel that climbing should be about a sense of adventure, discovery and self-reliance. Everest is about as far from that ethic as you can get. The mountain's a garbage heap, and you have fixed lines, a tramped down trail and share the normal route with hundreds of other climbers on a busy day. I get a lot more out of climbing technically harder but lower altitude routes myself as you can move faster, lighter, don't usually get frostbite on your extremities and can actually enjoy the experience as your brain's not numbed (and losing brain cells by the minute) from lack of oxygen. You could also spend a year (or years, if you're as thrifty as the average climber) climbing in the Alps, Andes or the Rockies for what it costs for a permit to climb Everest.

Everest is to mountaineering what the marathon is to running. It attracts a lot of people who make life checklists, work for a short period of time to achieve their goal and then move on to something else. Like running a marathon, it holds some cachet by the general public who don't know much about mountaineering.

To each his own, I guess.

Read Into thin Air. You have no business near the Himalayas without a vast Alpinist dossier. And climbing with Os is cheating. Google Messner and Viesturs. Bucket-list mountaineers are dangers to themselves and others.

Whatch "Everest: Beyond the Limit". Awesome documentary of people climbing Everest. Available on Netflix. The triathlete guy was the best prepared, but his asthma always stopped him around camp 4. Train like him. I think he went on day-long hikes with lots of climbing with a 90 pound pack.

What is the ideal % body fat to balance fitness and insulation?

runner who professes wrote:

Read Into thin Air. You have no business near the Himalayas without a vast Alpinist dossier.

I was going to mention this. I'm currently half way through reading this book for a college class. It's pretty eye opening material for me regarding the difficulty & insanity involved with attempting to climb Everest. It's hard for me to understand why someone would so much money & yet the odds aren't really that great to reach the peak. Plus it sounds like many people do the climb in a group expedition where they are bound by strict rules such as having to stay within close range of the slowest member.

Side note: I can't truly enjoy this book due to Krakauer (being your typical author) exaggerating too many details.

Climb K2 like a Real Man. Everest is for girly men.

Fake Spinal Tap wrote:

Whatch "Everest: Beyond the Limit". Awesome documentary of people climbing Everest. Available on Netflix. The triathlete guy was the best prepared, but his asthma always stopped him around camp 4. Train like him. I think he went on day-long hikes with lots of climbing with a 90 pound pack.

Into thin air is also on netflix.

Hope the op makes it. That's one dream that'll never become reality for me.

Your corpse will be one of many littering the Death Zone.

Buried wrote:

Fake Spinal Tap wrote:

Whatch "Everest: Beyond the Limit". Awesome documentary of people climbing Everest. Available on Netflix. The triathlete guy was the best prepared, but his asthma always stopped him around camp 4. Train like him. I think he went on day-long hikes with lots of climbing with a 90 pound pack.

Into thin air is also on netflix.

Hope the op makes it. That's one dream that'll never become reality for me.

There are some 8,000 meter peaks that are pretty doable for a lot less money. One of them is a warmup for Everest for a lot of people, but I forget it's name.

Read the Russian's version of events from Into Thin Air. Very different.

And you need to plan on 5-10 years, not 2. Sign up for a NOLS course, do some backpacking, and work from there. As others have stated above, the purity of climbing has been compromised by the masses. Do it the right way and it will mean more than just a notch on the belt, a bucket list scratch off. The sherpas will appreciate when you don't lean on them to carry you to the top. It will be a life changing process and you won't put other peoples' lives into jeopardy.

Peak slogging is fine if you lack technical ability. Otherwise optimize aesthetics, athleticism and fun over grinding self-abuse. My project this year is a 65-foot 5.14 roof (first ascent). Warm sun is always near as are the cute girls and cold beer.

I'm in the middle of Ed Viesturs' book right now, about to start the chapter where he gives his version of the Spring 1996 season (he was on an IMAX film crew at the same time. I have my copy of Into Thin Air handy (to look at the pictures and maps) and will reread it once I'm done with Ed's book. I read ahead a little to a section where he said he was tested in a lab and found to have a pretty high VOMax. He was also a runner (probably still is) and ran the NYCM (3:15, I think) a couple of years ago. He's my age, 55. I'm getting into this because I'm planning to start doing some climbing...I've never alpine climbed and have only done a few walk-ups...but I doubt that at my age I will ever have the cash or skills or want to take the risk to do something like Everest.

I haven't climbed Everest myself (but have been at base camp and trekked the Himalayas). I have climbed for the past 10 years and have summited several 20,000+ peaks including Aconcagua and McKinley in Alaska and am pretty familiar with Everest.

1. You're already in suitable fitness from a purely physical standpoint (altitude acclimatization obviously notwithstanding)

Plenty of old, relatively out of shape guys climb/attempt Everest these days. The mountain isn't what it was before when only hardened Alpinists would dare attempt even the upper camps. The routes are standardized and Everest although tough is not K2 or Annapurna tough.

It's a money machine and some of the guide businesses will take on pretty much anyone who will give them the money regardless of prior experience/skills and do their best to drag their rich butt up the mountain, not saying this is a good thing but this is really how it is. Walking around basecamp myself 3 years ago I saw quite a few Westerners who looked like they shouldn't be climbing a sledding hill let alone the worlds highest peak.

2. In terms of preparation, start off by familiarizing yourself with technical/alpine climbing techniques and gear. Start with Colorado 14-ers, and progress to Mount Rainier, which is regarded as one of the best "Everest Prep" mountains due to its cost, location, and preparation for Everest in regards to glacier/ice/crevasse climbing. After Mount Rainier, I recommend higher elevation peaks like McKinley/Aconcagua or even other Himalayans if you can afford it, but imo after Rainier you are technically "ready" for Everest.

Make sure that you completed your will. No joke. You may not make it. See this video first:

http://gizmodo.com/5755875/abandoned-on-mt-everest

I prescribe 2 identical back pack trips-one next August, repeating the same route in January. Start in Twin Lakes Colorado, and climb La Plata Peak via Ellingwood Ridge. Drop south into the Clear Creek Valley (and no stopping on the road for resupply,) and then climb up to Elkhead Pass and touch the summits of Belford, Oxford and Missouri. Drop south into Missouri Basin, and then up to the Mighty Mt. Harvard. Keep walking south over Columbia and Yale, and arrange for a pickup on Cottonwood Pass Road. No skiis or snowshoes. No resupply.

If you can do it in a week in the summer, and 2 weeks in the winter, without getting resupplied you're ready to think about your plan. My little trip is childs' play compared to Everest-but it will show you what slogging through waist deep snow, and 20 below temperatures, and blizzards will feel like. The average elevation of my hike is 12,000 feet or so. The highest you'll reach is 14,300.

Dilletantes such as yourself die doing this stuff. It's serious business. Respect it.