Everest without oxygen

Reinhold Messner · 1978 CE · Earth

Everest without oxygen — Reinhold Messner · 1978 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Reach the summit of Everest by the South Col without supplementary oxygen, which many physiologists believed could not be done.

Historical context

Nobody had climbed Everest without supplementary oxygen. Edward Norton had gone without it to about 8,573 metres on the north side in 1924, but many physiologists believed the summit could not be reached without the bottles, and some climbers thought anyone who tried was risking brain damage and death. Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler had climbed the north face of the Eiger in ten hours in 1974 and Gasherbrum I in 1975 without oxygen, high-altitude porters or a chain of camps. In the spring of 1978 they went to Everest as members of Wolfgang Nairz's Austrian expedition, the first from Austria, the pair who would try without oxygen while the others climbed with it.

The voyage, step by step

  1. The Austrian expedition

    1978 CE

    In 1978 Wolfgang Nairz leads the first Austrian expedition to Everest, by the South Col. Two of its members, the South Tyrolean Reinhold Messner and the Austrian Peter Habeler, mean to try for the summit without bottled oxygen while the rest of the team climbs with it.

  2. Base camp and the first attempt

    April 1978

    From base camp, at about 5,350 metres, the expedition fixes a route through the Khumbu Icefall. On 21 April Messner and Habeler set off on their first attempt; Habeler turns back sick, and Messner goes on to the South Col with two Sherpas, Ang Dorje and Mingma.

  3. Up the Cwm again

    6 May 1978

    On 3 May Nairz, Robert Schauer, Horst Bergmann and the sirdar Ang Phu reach the summit with oxygen, the first Austrian ascent of Everest. On 6 May Messner and Habeler leave Camp II in the Western Cwm, at about 6,400 metres, for their second attempt, and climb the Lhotse face towards the South Col.

  4. The night on the South Col

    7 May 1978

    On 7 May Messner and Habeler reach the South Col, at about 7,900 metres, without oxygen, and spend the night in the tent with the cameraman Eric Jones. At 5:30 the next morning they set off for the summit, leaving Jones asleep.

  5. The South Summit

    8 May 1978

    Above Camp V the two climb towards the South Summit, some 260 metres higher, and there rope up for the final ridge and the Hillary Step; near the top, by Messner's account, they go more on their hands and knees than on their feet.

  6. Everest breathing only air

    8 May 1978

    At 13:15 Nepal time on 8 May 1978, by Elizabeth Hawley's records (the first reports from base camp said noon), Messner and Habeler stand on the summit of Everest, 8,849 metres, the first people there without bottled oxygen, about eight hours after leaving the South Col.

Outcome

Messner and Habeler on the summit at 13:15 local time on 8 May 1978, without bottled oxygen, about eight hours from the South Col; Habeler back on the col in about an hour. The expedition also put Nairz, Schauer, Bergmann and Ang Phu on top with oxygen on 3 May, Ölz and Karl on 11 May, and Franz Oppurg, alone from the last camp, on 14 May.

Reinhold Messner

The South Tyrolean who climbed Everest without oxygen with Peter Habeler in 1978, when some climbers thought the attempt risked brain damage, and came back alone two years later to climb it solo from Tibet in the monsoon.

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Sources

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