The longtime guide with Alpine Ascents summited for the 21st time on May 27, tying Apa Sherpa and Phurba Tashi for the most summits on the world's highest mountain
For more than a century, Western climbers have hired Nepal’s Sherpas to do the most dangerous work on Mount Everest. It’s a lucrative way of life in a poor region, but no service industry in the world so frequently kills and maims its workers for the benefit of paying clients. The dead are often forgotten, and their families left with nothing but ghosts.
High-altitude workers put everything on the line, hauling climbers’ gear up and down the mountain, and aren’t compensated fairly. Their lives are worth more.
There's nobody more qualified to drag you to the top of the world than Babu Chiri Sherpa. And he'll gladly do it. But when he's through, he's got some business of his own to attend to. Namely, obliterating every last climbing record on Everest, shattering the myth of his people as high-altitude baggage handlers, and taking the Sherpa brand global.
Survivors from Everest '96 recall a day of terror and confusion that many still believe was distorted in ways that oversimplified complex events and dishonored the dead.
On a sunny day in 1953, a tall young New Zealander named Edmund Hillary became the first human to stand atop the world's highest mountain—and, thereafter, a paragon of grace and bonhomie for explorers who would follow.
You were told that Everest base camp is an insult to the true spirit of mountaineering. (Harrumph.) But why weren't you told about the excellent bars, the butter people, and that friendly Playboy bunny from Poland? The author spends a month at the world's most exclusive party town.
Is it possible to guide safely on Everest? Or will the mountain always demand its pound of flesh? MARK JENKINS talks to a dream team of veteransbetween them, they've reached the summit 17 timesin a frank look at the risks, rewards, and nightmares of taking clients to the top.
In an exclusive excerpt from the forthcoming book by the men who led the quest to solve the mystery of George Mallory's disappearance, the authors for the first time reveal the evidence they uncovered—and offer their chilling re-creation of Mallory and Irvine's last hours.
The 2014 season has ended in Nepal, and some mountaineers are turning toward Tibet, where ascents continue. Can they overcome Chinese complexities and turn the north side into the new Everest norm?
In a remarkable rescue effort, helicopter pilots ferried dozens of climbers to safety from Camps I and II. Meanwhile, reports continue to come in from other Himalayan peaks—including Makalu and Annapurna—that were hit by powerful avalanches.
A photographer with 6 Summits Challenge, an international team of climbers lead by Nick Cienski, whom Outside senior editor Grayson Schaffer spoke with yesterday, captured these images during the rescue efforts.
Across the Web, the Silicon Valley executive has been recognized for his role in bringing Street View to Everest and his other accomplishments at Google. Here, two close friends recall the spontaneity and energy that made him so endearing.
The avalanche that effectively closed Everest last spring hasn't stopped crowds of climbers from flocking to Base Camp. These are the stories that will define another controversial season.