The Updates

Tumpach is using a satellite telephone to stay in touch with The Mountain Zone. [Click here to read his updates from Everest.]

The Route

Mount Everest north side via the North Ridge, Tibet.

The Team

George Tumpach
Climber
Born in Czechoslovakia, Tumpach was a member of the national downhill skiing and cycling teams before escaping the communist regime by scaling the peaks of the nearby Alps and climbing into Austria. He travelled through Switzerland and France before eventually settling in Ontario, Canada.

His climbing career has included successful ascents of Mount Elbrus, Mount Blanc, Mount Grossglockner, Mount Aconcagua, and the Matterhorn.

His current goal is to make an oxygenless ascent of the Seven Summits within two years (24 months).

Rick Gustavsen
Cinematographer
Gustavsen will be responsible for documenting the climb and possibly the ski descent.

Mount Everest
Just the Facts

Elevation: 29,028'; five miles up; the world's highest summit is at about cruising altitude of a jet.

Local Names:
Sagarmatha (Nepal)
Chomolungma (Tibet)

First Ascent: 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, Nepal

Because it's there: in 1924, George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, GBR, were last seen going strong for the top. It is unknown if they reached the summit before disappearing.

First Oxygenless Ascent: 1978, Reinhold Messner & Peter Habeler, AUS

Wind: climber Dave Breashears has compared the ominous sound of evening winds on the upper mountain to that of a 747 jet taking off endlessly.

As good a reason as any: "Expeditions are good spacers — time and distance for weighing and evaluating life back home as well as beginning to understand somewhere new." — Pete Boardman, 1975, from "Everest the Hard Way"