Norton Couloir
the red line shows the Great Couloir or Norton Couloir; in 1924 Norton crossed the north face between the light blue and the green lines; (b) marks the highest point on west face of the couloir, up to which Norton ascended in 1924;
the light blue line shows the 1980 Messner Traverse;
the green line shows the normal route, which largely corresponds to the 1924 Mallory Route, with high-altitude camps at about 7,700 and 8,300 m, although today's 8,300 m camp is somewhat more to the west (2 triangles).
The Norton Couloir or Great Couloir is a steep gully high on the north face of Mount Everest in Tibet which lies east of the pyramidal peak and extends to within 150 m below the summit.
Its companion to the west of the summit is the Hornbein Couloir.
Origin of the name[edit]
The steep couloir (gully) was named after the lead member of the 1924 British expedition, Edward F. Norton, who reached a height of about 8,570 metres (28,120 ft) in this gully during an unsuccessful summit attempt on 4 June 1924. He avoided the dangerous windswept ridge and, by traversing the north face, ascended into the couloir, which has since borne his name.
Everest solo, Reinhold Messner[edit]
The Norton Couloir was the scene of one of the greatest mountaineering achievements when, in 1980, Reinhold Messner entered this gully to avoid what, for a solo climber, was a dangerous ridge - especially its crux, the "Second Step" - and ascended to the summit, alone and without using supplemental oxygen. The most successful climb to that point by F. Edward Norton in 1924, was Messner's inspiration for this attempt: Norton had also used no oxygen.
Other climbs through the couloir[edit]
In 1984 an Australian expedition succeeded in climbing a new route. From the main branch of the Rongbuk Glacier they went directly onto the north face and established their third high-altitude camp at the entrance of the couloir at 7,500 metres. From another camp at 8,150 m Tim Macartney-Snape and Greg Mortimer reached the summit on 2 October without bottled oxygen, the first Australians to reach the top of Everest.[1]
In 2001, French snowboarder Marco Siffredi succeeded in the first snowboard descent of Everest by using the Norton Couloir. He died the following year, attempting a new descent via the Hornbein Couloir.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ Bartram, Geoffrey: Everest via the Great Couloir. In: AAJO 1985. S. 338[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Everest Snowboarder Vanishes on Second Try". National Geographic. 27 September 2002. Archived from the original on 28 September 2002. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
Further reading[edit]
- Anker, Conrad; Roberts, David (1999). Verschollen am Mount Everest : Dem Geheimnis von George Mallory auf der Spur (in German). München: Heyne. ISBN 3-453-17711-8.
- Holzel, Tom; Salkeld, Audrey (1999). In der Todeszone : Das Geheimnis um George Mallory (in German). München: Goldmann. ISBN 3-442-15076-0.
- Messner, Reinhold (2001). Everest Solo (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer. ISBN 3-596-15092-2.
