This month, a team of world class climbers will embark on the 2012 Everest Expedition to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the first American ascent of Everest, via the difficult West Ridge route. The team, led by Conrad Anker, Conservation Alliance Board Member, The North Face Athlete, world renowned mountaineer, climber, and author, and all-around great guy, will attempt to repeat this historic feat on the world's highest peak. In 1963, Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld climbed Everest's West Ridge, and made their decent via the Southeast Ridge. This route has not been successfully climbed since.
The team will split into two groups; Conrad's group will retrace Hornbein and Unsoeld's route up the West Ridge and be supported by the second group who will climb up and down the Southeast Ridge route.
In addition to this historic mountaineering feat, the team will be conducting extensive scientific work on Mount Everest. While previous research of region has advanced our knowledge of the area, Everest continues to hold many secrets; this expedition will be instrumental in discovering some of them.
To learn more about the expedition, visit The North Face Blog, www.neverstopexploring.com.
To follow the expedition online and to download the National Geographic Magazine App for iPad, click here.
To learn more about the scienticific portion of the expedition click here.