1963 American Mount Everest West Ridge Expedition
7,844
Published 2023-04-08
#mounteverest #westridge #everest1963 #americansoneverest
| The Impossible Climb: The 1963 Everest West Ridge Expedition |
In this video we explore the incredible story of the 1963 Everest West Ridge Expedition. With Jim Whittaker being the first American to summit Everest just weeks before, Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld wanted to do something no one else ever dreamed of - Summiting Mount Everest via the West Ridge.
The two climbers and their team, faced some of the most difficult and dangerous terrain on the planet in their quest to conquer the West Ridge of the world's highest peak. They were up against something mountaineers claimed to be impossible, as the route was extremely difficult and required over 4,000 meters of climbing up a steep vertical.
The 1963 Everest West Ridge Expedition was a landmark moment in mountaineering history, as it marked the first successful ascent of Everest via the West Ridge and what became to be known as the Hornbein Couloir route.
The climb was especially challenging due to the steep and technical nature of the route, as well as the extreme altitude and unpredictable weather conditions. Despite facing numerous setbacks and near-death experiences along the way, the climbers persevered and ultimately succeeded in achieving their goal.
However, even though they had summited, they still had to find their way down via the South Col which ended up being the most deadly part of their expedition!
Hope you enjoy this account of the first ever Everest summit via the West Ridge in 1963!
PS: You 🪨
All Comments (12)
-
Climbing 14 hours straight on Everest, bivouac at 28,000 ft., smoking a cigarette at 27,000 ft....Damn, that's a badass right there!
-
The west ridge climb is one of the greatest climbs in climbing history. Horbiens book is excellent. I re read it once in a while
-
Remains one of the most remarkable Himalayan climbs to this day. Those guys were so extended and luck with the weather played a significant role in their survival. Three years after their ascent , my teenage self took the Seattle Mountaineers basic course and Tom Hornbein gave the lecture on rock climbing. I was, of course, awed by his presence. So many of the climbers on that trip were from the northwest and I always found it ironic how famous Whittaker was locally and nobody other than climbers knew about Unsoeld and Hornbein.
-
An astonishing achievement, they are legends
-
Met and shook hands with Dr Hornbein back in June 2015, also in the same gathering saw Jim Whittker, and Willi Unsoeld's son, who's exactly the image of his father.
-
One of the greatest climbs of all time.
-
A really well put together description of this historic climb. Only one minor criticism - the animation that starts at 0.49 incorrectly shows the route as going from Base Camp up the Lho La, then the Western Shoulder to reach the West Ridge. This was a route taken by some later expeditions. The 1963 expedition, as is correctly shown in the map at 8.55 took a route through the Icefall into the Western Cwm and from the Cwm climbed up to the West Ridge, bypassing the Lho La and Western Shoulder.
-
Hayden, my man- 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏! Well done my friend! Standing ovation to you! The editing, chronological ordering, and supplementary footage were excellent! You are obviously not a novice. Just curious, did you go to a library to access the footage, or did you draw everything from online? Either way, job well done! I'm not sure your level of commitment and interest, but with your editing skills and proper "historical sense," you could truly create the best channel for high-altitude mountaineering documentaries. There's a lot out there that's in bad need of revising and supplementation. I will only offer three minor "criticisms" or corrections: 1) I believe the proper pronunciation is Horn- bine, as in eye! Now, he might have pronounced it like you said. I go through it with my name Kiely. Many pronounce it Kee-lee, when it's Kie-lee. 2) Lhotse is pronounced Lowt-zee with a hard 'o'! 3) I would have made reference to the couloir being named after Hornbein after the team's successful climb. Simply minor though. Your overall effort was superb Hayden! I hope you'll still do the 1984 Australian expedition! And, if you really are into doing these excellent mountaineering 'shorts,' you might also do: 1) the Marco Siffredi's story of successfully snowboarding down Everest vis-a-vis the Norton Couloir in 2001, and his 2002 attempt down the Hornbein Couloir, where he disappeared, and is correctly assumed dead! 2) the Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker first attempt through the "Three Pinnacles" vis-a-vis the FULL North East Ridge in 1982! Both men perished, and their bodies are still up there! If you have an email, I can send the last photo taken of them from their basecamp. It's one of my favorite high-altitude mountaineering photos ever! Thanks again Hayden!👌 P.S.- I'm now a subscriber buddy!
-
Firing up a smoke above 25000 feet is bad ass, a non filter Camel is gangster 😮
-
Ciao Tom...
-
Never smoke a cigarette inside your oxygen mask. Always pull it off first.
