Everest climber Robert Mads Anderson wrote the following foreword to the book Three Faces of Everest: “From the top of the pyramid of Everest, its massive slopes drop away into three great faces, each one looking out across a different land and a different people. From the lush valleys of Nepal to the dry plateaus of Tibet, and the hidden eastern valleys where few still travel, the mountain shows many moods. For trekkers, it’s a world that can be walked into, step by step, where every path leads to a new view, a new rhythm of life beneath the shadow of the highest point on Earth”.
‘Heavenly Mountain’
The Nepali name for Everest is Sagarmatha; in Tibetan, it is Chomolungma; and the Chinese call it Qomolangma. Between 1845 and 1850, the Survey of India designated the circa 50-million-year-old mountain as Peak XV. First, calculations from 1852 showed that the peak was the highest mountain in the world. The official Nepalese name of the mountain is Sagarmatha, meaning ‘Heaven’s Head’.
The Tibetan name Chomolungma was first used on a map in 1718 by French Jesuit missionaries, who took it from the Dalai Lama's archives. A list of 25 forms of the name and its meaning does exist. The most popular meaning is ‘Goddess, Mother of Earth’ or ‘The Land of Birds in the South’.
Exploring Mount Everest for outsiders wasn’t easy in the early days. Travel permits on both sides of the mountain were difficult to obtain. From the northern side, Tibet kept its doors closed until 1903, when a British mission led by Francis Young husband crossed the Sikkim-Tibet border. From 1913, several attempts were made to explore the approaches to Everest. Tibet finally opened up to expeditions from 1921 until the outbreak of the Second World War, leading to seven large British expeditions.
Nepal remained closed, with a brief exception from 1905 to 1909, when some observations were made, and a flight over Everest from Nepal was conducted in 1933. In 1951, Eric Shipton led a reconnaissance expedition. By now, the Brats were not alone fighting for a first on Everest; the Swiss had a permit for spring 1952, reaching an altitude of 8600m. Spring 1953 saw the first two climbers finally summit: the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, joining a British expedition that counted 14 climbers, 20 Sherpas, and 350 porters (7½ tons). They used oxygen systems which had been improved during the previous years of expeditions.
Since then, thousands of people (as of 2019, nearly 10,000 ascents performed by 5550 individuals, meaning several climbers have been more than once on the summit) have climbed Everest from all sides on one of the 18 different routes; in different seasons; traversing the whole mountain; without supplementary oxygen (around 200). But also many climbers lost their lives (more than 288 climbers or 6% from 1921 to 2017). The most successful season so far is 2019, with 923 climbers summiting. The deadliest season was in 2015, when a large avalanche was triggered by the earthquake, resulting in 22 casualties.
(Bart Jordans is a professional trekking guide from Denmark. He has written several guidebooks, including on Bhutan, Pakistan and Nepal.)
The pyramid-shaped Mount Everest has the following three faces: in Nepal, the Southwest Face, and in Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China), the North Face near Rongbuk Monastery and the less-visited East Face (Kangshung Face). All three faces offer an overwhelming, intimidating, awe-inspiring view of the world’s tallest mountain, Mount Everest (8848.86m), also known as the Third Pole. The mountain straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet/China, about halfway between Kathmandu and Lhasa, and is surrounded by a complex region of passes, peaks, glaciers, and valleys.
Yearly, Mount Everest is visited by thousands of trekkers and climbers from all over the world. There are three easier or harder treks to reach the Everest Base Camp. All three have their own charm.
All three sides offer an overwhelming sense of nature and thrilling mountain views. The Nepali side, influenced by the monsoon, has many villages with the potential to grow crops, whereas the Tibetan side, at an average altitude of 4000m and with little precipitation, is nearly the opposite.
The Nepali Southwest face of Mount Everest is the best known and by far the most frequently visited side. An enormous infrastructure servicing trekkers has been developed over the years. There are several starting points for this trek.
The most popular one is flying domestic to Lukla at 2840m and starting (and finishing) the trek there. Another one is driving from Kathmandu in one day to Jiri at 1900m, then starting from there and joining the trek from Lukla after some days.
Reaching Mount Everest in Tibet involves several days of overland travel from Lhasa or Nepal. A spectacular flight from Kathmandu or one of the major Chinese cities takes you to Lhasa (3656m). Lhasa can also be reached by a long train journey. From Lhasa, after some time acclimatizing, a beautiful 2–3 day journey overland brings you to the start of the Mount Everest East Face trek or to the foot of the Everest North Face. After a visit to Mount Everest, most visitors continue their journey over the vast Tibetan Plateau, crossing the Himalayas to the Nepal border and onwards to Kathmandu.
If you prefer a trek with teahouses and all their luxury, you should choose the trek in Nepal. Reserve eighteen days for this trek. The trek to Everest's East Face can only be done with the services of a kitchen crew and by sleeping in tents. This trek takes 10 to 11 days and involves crossing two high passes. Visiting the North Face, you can drive with a Land Cruiser to some cold hotels near base camp.
Instead of trekking to the base camps, one can take a mountain flight, getting closer to the Nepalese side of Mount Everest; drive to the North Face on the Tibetan side; and, whilst flying to Lhasa, be lucky to get a view of Everest's East Face.
This book is meant to be an entrée to visit one or more of the three faces of Mount Everest.
