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Climbers to redo '63 Everest climb

Added At:  2012-04-13 12:02 AM  

Last Updated At: 2012-04-13 12:02 AM

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REUTERS

KATHMANDU: A flood of US climbers is taking aim at Mount Everest this year as the 50th anniversary of the first US conquest of the famous peak nears, with one team set to try and replicate the historic ascent along a difficult and rarely used route.

Five US mountaineers climbed the 8,848 metre Everest, in May 1963. Two went along the untested West Ridge route and three along the traditional South East Ridge route, aka the South Col route.

This year, two climbers in a nine-member team led by Corry Richards will climb the difficult West Ridge route, while the others will go along the Southeast Ridge route, pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Conrad Anker, 49, a member of the team and a two-time Everest climber, said if weather and physical abilities allowed, both groups would try and meet at the summit. “That will be the plan,” Anker told Reuters before leaving for the mountain in March.

Another American team consisting of four climbers led by James Ryrie Norton will also be on the West Ridge route, Nepal’s Tourism Ministry said.

“These two expeditions are trying to replicate what the US team in 1963 did on Everest,” said Elizabeth Hawley, Kathmandu-based historian and an unofficial authority on Everest.

Hawley, 88, unofficial arbiter of climbing related disputes and chronicler of Everest climbs, considers the 1963 American ascent to be the biggest Everest milestone after the pioneering feat of Hillary and Norgay because the route is long and so difficult it is rarely used today.

“They will make a film ready for next year’s 50th anniversary,” Hawley said of the US climbers.

Other US climbers are aiming for records. Dave Hahn, 50, from Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico, will try to make his 16th ascent along the normal route, Hawley said. The record is 21 climbs by Apa Sherpa.

During the current March-May climbing season, 40-year-old Chad Kellogg, from Seattle, Washington, is trying to become the fastest climber on Everest. The record is now held by Pemba Dorje Sherpa, who climbed the mountain in 8 hours 10 minutes from its base camp which is located about 5,300 metres. For an average climber it takes several days to cover the distance after weeks of acclimatisation in altitude.

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