Three Pinnacles
The Three Pinnacles are a formation of steep rocks along the northeast ridge on Mount Everest. They represent one of the longest unsolved challenges in high-level mountaineering, which has now been resolved.
The rocks are located at around 7,800, 8,100 and 8,200 metres above sea level (height of base of pinnacle) and are therefore already in the death zone, in which people cannot recover, even at rest.
The normal routes on Everest avoid this area; the normal northern route leaves it literally to the left.
In various attempts to conquer the pinnacles to open a new route across the entire northeast ridge, there have repeatedly been serious problems and fatalities: In 1982 Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker died in the first serious attempt to climb in groups at grade 5 within the death zone. Joe Tasker disappeared; ten years after his death Kazakh mountaineers found Peter Boardman's body in 1992 at the foot of the second pinnacle sitting as if he were asleep.
In 1988 Russell Brice and his partner, Harry Taylor, finally mastered the Three Pinnacles, but they were so exhausted after climbing the third pinnacle that they abandoned their original plan to continue along the normal route to the summit. Instead, they crossed the normal route along the north ridge and descended to the North Col.
Not until 1995 did a team from a Japanese university, supported by a group of about 35 Sherpa porters, conquer the entire northeast ridge route, including the Three Pinnacles in both directions. The Sherpas had virtually the entire route covered with fixed ropes. Only when that was in place did a group of Japanese go to the top.
Even today this part of the vast mountain is almost always avoided, too great are its difficulties, that range from the Pinnacles themselves to the weather, the extreme cold, the winds and the altitude as well as the arduous terrain.
Almost all the mountaineering challenges on Mount Everest have now been overcome, but there remain two routes with extraordinary difficulties: a direttissima climb up the avalanche-prone East Face – the only yet unclimbed direct route on Everest, and ascent of the north pillar on the East Face over the (according to George Mallory) so-called "Phantasy Ridge". This ridge ends at the centre of the northeast ridge – below the Three Pinnacles. A climber wishing to climb up the "Phantasy Ridge" on his way to the summit would have to negotiate the east ridge and then conquer the Three Pinnacles on the northeast ridge.
Sources
- Stephen Venables: Everest, Kangshung Face. Pan, 1991, ISBN 0-330-31559-5
- Roberto Mantovani und Kurt Diemberger: Mount Everest - Kampf in eisigen Höhen. Moewig, 1997, ISBN 3-8118-1715-9
- Stephen Venables: Everest - Die Geschichte seiner Erkundung. Geo, Frederking und Thaler, 2003, ISBN 3-89405-465-4
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