How climbing Everest got easier

By Martha Buckley
BBC News

Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquered Everest in 1953

When Edmund Hillary conquered Everest in 1953 it was seen as an incredible and death-defying feat and he was hailed as a hero.

With Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the New Zealander had reached a place where no man had ever stood before and which had once been thought unclimbable.

On the final and most difficult section of the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak the pair braved a completely unknown landscape, under incredibly tough conditions, with no idea what they would encounter, or whether they would get back down alive.

Nowadays, by contrast, hundreds of people reach the summit each year - an estimated 2,000 are now thought to have made the ascent, with more than 630 doing so in 2007 alone.

By 1953, as successive expeditions had tried and failed to reach its peak, Mount Everest achieved a sort of mystique which would ensure the first person to conquer it a permanent place in history.

Mountain guide Kenton Cool - a Briton who has climbed Everest more than any other European - says it is always harder to be the first person to make an ascent.

He said: "On the first ascent you are stepping into the unknown. You've no idea what you're going to encounter en route."

Nowadays, climbers use guides like Mr Cool, plus experienced Sherpas who know the route, and have sections of fixed ropes to help them to the top.

Their other major advantage is vastly improved clothing and equipment.

Their clothing was far less efficient than what we have today, much heavier, much bulkier and unpleasant to wear Kenton Cool

While Hillary had specially-designed, relatively light-weight boots insulated with kapok and cotton, he would have relied on heavy woollen clothes to keep warm and weighty, primitive axes, crampons and climbing equipment.

Today's climbers by contrast, have hi-tech, lightweight fabrics and tools.

Mr Cool said: "Their clothing was far less efficient than what we have today, much heavier, much bulkier and a little unpleasant to wear, I suspect."

He added: "Things like good gloves, goose-down suits, they make a lot of difference. On summit day I wear boots which cost £550 a pair. They are very specialised and keep my feet incredibly warm. The technology, even for things like socks, has improved so much.

"We also have much better oxygen delivery systems than Hillary did in 1953. Theirs were very, very heavy and probably hadn't really been tested. Ours are tried and tested and so much lighter, it's mind-boggling."

Death toll

Even so, the mountain still has an ominous record - the death rate has been about one fatality for every 10 successful attempts to climb Everest for many years.

The extreme and very changeable conditions on Everest present one of the biggest challenges to climbers, with sliding ice blocks, extreme cold, storms, high winds and avalanches endangering lives and forcing many to turn back.

They were flying by the seat of their pants Kenton Cool

Above 8,000m, conditions worsen, with a third less oxygen in the air than at sea level, extreme cold and slippery frozen surfaces. Most climbers cannot endure these harsh conditions for more than two or three days.

Nowadays, mountaineers have the benefit of very detailed weather forecasts, which can predict what sort of weather they can expect for their summit attempt seven or eight days in advance.

Mr Cool said: "Hillary had none of that. In those days they were flying by the seat of their pants to some extent. If they had been hit by a storm that day then I think there could have been a very different outcome."

Tourist draw

These days Everest is a major tourist draw, with safety measures in place to make climbing it as safe as possible for the hundreds each year who now attempt it.

But its dangers were underlined in 1996 by the deaths of eleven climbers in a single day as they made their descent, raising controversy about the commercialisation of the mountain.

WERE THEY FIRST? George Mallory and Andrew Irvine made an attempt on the summit on 8 June, 1924 but never returned. Some believe they may have achieved their goal before perishing on the way down

Mr Cool said: "It's safer than it was. However, it's still the same mountain and if anyone goes up there thinking it's easy, they are going to get very caught out.

"Once you get above 8,000m you're in the death zone, where the body cannot cope on its own. If anything goes wrong - say a dropped mitten, a problem with the oxygen supply or the weather goes wrong - it becomes a very serious place, like it was for Hillary in 1953.

"It's sad that some climbers these days belittle Everest and call it just a glorified snow walk. Well, having gone there five times, I can say we make it as safe as possible but there's still a lot of inherent risk. It's still very big and very scary."