Hillary Step

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The "Hillary Step"

The Hillary Step is or was an approximately twelve meter high, over 70 degree steep rock step . It was located on the southeastern summit ridge of Mount Everest at 8790 m above sea level. This step was named in honor of Sir Edmund Hillary , who, together with his teammate Tenzing Norgay, first climbed this steep step on the first ascent in 1953 . Due to the changing snow conditions and the visit break after the earthquake of 2015, it was speculated from 2016 that the Hillary Step may have collapsed in this earthquake.

meaning

The Hillary Step was the last serious obstacle on the climb to Mount Everest via the standard southern route. It was one of the few places on the south route where you had to be able to climb properly in order to conquer this route without the help of experienced mountaineers. The Hillary Step usually had a lifeline. Even the first bidder of a new season of the year could often still use one of the ropes from previous expeditions that were stuck from the previous year.

If that was not the case, i.e. if there was no usable fixed rope , the “paying tourist” had reached the end of his possibilities: At the very top at 8,790 meters, 60 meters below the summit, exhausted from the approx. Twelve-hour final ascent since midnight, there was none Climbing technique no further. Most of the time, securing the ropes was the task of a team of two Sherpas who carry out this work in front of the mountaineers.

Of usable security cable is hooked an ascender , a, a handle with resiliently flexible cable clamp, and pulled upward.

Problems with guided Everest ascent

Even with team support and a safety rope, the Hillary Step could be the end of a trip that cost up to 65,000 dollars: if too many people wanted to climb Mount Everest at the same time on one of the few reasonably “beautiful” (weather-tolerable) days in May, it would jam more often on Hillary Step. There could be waiting times of several hours before it was your turn to climb up. There have been mountaineers who, faced with the dangers of cooling off and the risk of not being able to descend from the summit until it is dark, decided to turn back just before the summit.

Death in 1996

There was a tragic death on the Hillary Step on May 25, 1996 when the English photographer Bruce Herrod was above the rock step well after 2 p.m. The member of a South African expedition was still on the way to the summit very late. The mountaineers usually turn around around 1 or 2 p.m. to avoid an emergency overnight stay ( bivouac ) on the mountain without a tent, as there is a high risk of freezing on Everest. The photographer reached the summit shortly after 5 p.m., photographed his success with the self-timer and set out to return. At the Hillary Step, he was tangled in the ropes, exhausted, and froze hanging upside down. Months later in the 1997 season, Anatoly Bukrejew , a Russian-Kazakh mountain guide who had already been a mountain guide for Scott Fischer's group on Everest during another accident on Mount Everest in 1996, found him floating in the wind . Peter Athans cut Herrod's body from the rope a few days later. His camera and other personal items were recovered.

2015 earthquake

After the earthquakes in April and May 2015, there were no ascents in 2015. In May 2017, it was alleged that the rocks of Hillary Step collapsed presumably as a result of the earthquake. This was denied shortly afterwards. Suspicions had already arisen in 2016, but the unusual appearance of the Hillary Step was initially explained by the unusually high amounts of snow during the season. A photo comparison in 2017 showed that the earthquake destroyed part of the upper part of the Hillary Step.

Consequences of the collapse for ascents

The ascent via the southern route became easier for mountaineers, but there is still a bottleneck. It is unclear to what extent fixed ropes can be attached in the loose scree and how different snow conditions will affect the passage in the future.

For a few years now, the professional climbing companies have been trying to defuse the area of ​​the bottleneck by laying two fixed ropes, which can be used to ascend or descend at the same time, the same procedure as for the similarly notorious Second Step on the north side. The changed passage of the previous steep step can simplify this procedure.

literature

In the book In eisige heights by Jon Krakauer you can find pictures of the summit ridge and the Hillary Step in the previous state, up to 2016.

Web links

Commons : Hillary Step  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Atjun Vajpai: On Top Of World: My Everest Adventure, Penguin UK, 2010, p. 111 ( online on Google Books, English).
  2. ↑ Jon Krakauer: In Icy Heights: The Drama on Mount Everest , p. 351
  3. ↑ Kate Lyons: Mount Everest's Hillary Step has collapsed, mountaineer confirms , The Guardian, May 21, 2017, accessed May 22, 2017.
  4. ↑ Michael Safi: Mount Everest's Hillary Step is still there, say Nepalese climbers , The Guardian of May 23, 2017, accessed on June 10, 2018.
  5. ↑ Mt Everest's Hillary Step potentially collapsed in earthquake , The New Zealand Herald, August 17, 2016, accessed May 9, 2017.
  6. ↑ Rangdu's photo exhibit reveals truth about Hillary Step My City on July 9, 2017, accessed on December 24, 2019
  7. ↑ Everest Hillary Step collapsed , planetmountain.com from May 19, 2017 (English).

Coordinates: 27 ° 59 ′ 14.9 "  N , 86 ° 55 ′ 29.4"  E