Planned Access Route
As the kingdom of Nepal was forbidden to foreigners, the British expeditions before the Second World War could only gain access to the north side of the mountain. In 1921, Mallory had seen a possible route from the North Col to go to the top. This route follows the East Rongbuk Glacier to the North Col. From there, the windy ridges (North Ridge, Northeast Ridge) seemed to allow a practical route to the top. On the Northeast Ridge a formidable obstacle blocks the route in the form of steep cliff called the Second Step at 8,605 metres (28,230 ft), whose difficulty was unknown in 1924. The second step massive is a suddenly steeper strata of rock with a total height of 30 metres. The crux is a 5m cliff that was first verifiably climbed by the Chinese in 1960. Since 1975 it has been bridged with a ladder. After that point, the ridge route leads to the summit by a steep (45-degree) snow slope, the "triangular snow field" on the summit pyramid, and thence to the summit ridge.
The first men to travel this route to the summit were the Chinese in 1960, along the Northeast Ridge. The British since 1922 had made their ascent attempts significantly down the ridge, crossed the giant north face to the Great Couloir (later called the “Norton couloir”), climbed along the borderline of the couloir, and then attempted to reach the summit pyramid. This route was unsuccessful until Reinhold Messner followed it for his solo ascent in 1980. The exact route of the Mallory and Irvine ascent is not known. They either used the natural Norton/Harris route—cutting diagonally through the Yellow Band ledges to the Northeast Ridge or, possibly, following the North Ridge straight up to the Northeast Ridge. It is unknown if either of them reached the summit before death. The diagonal traverse of the northern face to breech the Second Step strata through the beginning of the Great (Norton) Couloir was a potential alternative to the ridge route, but it is rarely used.
Read more about this topic: 1924 British Mount Everest Expedition
Famous quotes containing the words planned, access and/or route:
““If little planned is little sinned
But little need the grave distress.
What’s dying but a second wind?
How but in zig-zag wantonness
Could trumpeter Michael be so brave?””
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“In the greatest confusion there is still an open channel to the soul. It may be difficult to find because by midlife it is overgrown, and some of the wildest thickets that surround it grow out of what we describe as our education. But the channel is always there, and it is our business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest part of ourselves.”
—Saul Bellow (b. 1915)
“By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)