The Three Pinnacles are a formation of steep rocks along the northeast ridge on

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

. They were one of the longest unsolved challenges in high-level

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

, but have now been successfully climbed. The rocks are located at around 7,800, 8,100 and 8,200 metres

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

(height of base of pinnacle) and are therefore already in the death zone, in which people cannot usually recover, even at rest. The

normal route A normal route or normal way (french: voie normale; german: Normalweg) is the most frequently used route for ascending and descending a mountain peak. It is usually the simplest route. Overview In the Alps, routes are classed in the following way ...

s on Everest avoid this area; the normal northern route leaves it to the left. During the various attempts to conquer the pinnacles and open a new route along the entire northeast ridge, there were frequently serious problems and fatalities. In 1982

Peter Boardman Peter Boardman (25 December 1950 – 17 May 1982) was an English mountaineer and author. He is best known for a series of bold and lightweight expeditions to the Himalayas, often in partnership with Joe Tasker, and for his contribution to mount ...

and

Joe Tasker Joe Tasker (12 May 1948 – 17 May 1982) was a British climber, active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He died while climbing Mount Everest. Early life Born into a traditional Roman Catholic family in 1948, Tasker was the second of t ...

died in the first serious attempt to climb in groups at grade 5 within the death zone. In 1988,

Russell Brice Russell Reginald Brice (born 3 July 1952) is a New Zealand mountaineer. He was the owner/manager of Himex (Himalayan Experience Ltd.), a climbing expedition company. He has summited Cho Oyu seven times, Himal Chuli and Mount Everest twice, as well ...

and Harry Taylor successfully climbed 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. In 1992 a joint Japanese-Kazakh expedition crossed the Pinnacles but were unable to continue to the summit. They found a body beyond the second pinnacle at approximately 8,200m on the Rongbuk side of the ridge. Photographs taken by Vladimir Suviga and sent to Chris Bonington confirmed that the body was that of Peter Boardman. Joe Tasker's body has never been found. Not until 1995 did a team from a Japanese university, supported by a group of about 35 Sherpa porters, climb the entire northeast ridge route, including the Three Pinnacles in both directions. In order to facilitate the expedition, the Sherpas had covered virtually the entire route with

fixed rope In mountaineering, a fixed rope or fixed line is the practice of fixing in place bolted ropes to assist climbers and walkers in exposed mountain locations. They are used widely on American and European climbing routes, where they may be called via ...

s. Only after the ropes were 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 three routes with extraordinary difficulties: a direttissima climb up the avalanche-prone East Face, a direttissima climb up the Southwest Face and ascent of the north pillar on the East Face over the (according to

George Mallory George Herbert Leigh Mallory (18 June 1886 – 8 or 9 June 1924) was an English mountaineer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Mount Everest in the early 1920s. Born in Cheshire, Mallory became a student at Winchester ...

) so-called "Fantasy Ridge". This ridge ends at the centre of the northeast ridge – below the Three Pinnacles. A climber wishing to climb up the Fantasy Ridge on his way to the summit would have to negotiate the east ridge and then climb the Three Pinnacles on the northeast ridge.

Sources

* Stephen Venables: ''Everest, Kangshung Face''. Pan, 1991, * Roberto Mantovani und Kurt Diemberger: ''Mount Everest - Kampf in eisigen Höhen''. Moewig, 1997, * Stephen Venables: ''Everest - Die Geschichte seiner Erkundung''. Geo, Frederking und Thaler, 2003, {{Mount Everest Mount Everest