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Ski Everest Autumn 2000 !
Introduction
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Target
of the expedition: Ski
Down from Everest's Summit on skis
On
30 August, a ten-member Himalayan expedition took
off from Ljubljana Airport, heading for Kathmandu,
to attempt Everest. It was not yet
"another" ascent to Everest: once at the
summit, the job was only half over. 8,850 m above
sea level, Davo Karničar put on his skis and
skied down to the base camp, more than three and a
half kilometers below the summit, an attempt in
which nobody in the world was successful so far.
Almost
half a century has elapsed since the first ascent
of Everest. Routes which traverse its ridges and
faces are many. It has also become the
highest-lying scene for various challenges: a
hot-air balloon flew over Everest, a paraglider
took off from its top, and several skiers
attempted its slopes. The most successful among
them were Pierre Tardivel from France, who in the
autumn of 1992 skied off the south summit (some
100m below the main summit), and Hans Kammerlander
of Italy, who in the spring of 1996 skied from the
top, yet the lack of snow on the north side, where
he was descending, soon forced him to take off the
skies and down-climb a considerable section of the
route to the base camp.
In
the same year, Davo Karničar attempted
Everest from the same side as Kammerlander, yet he
got frostbites while ascending in a terrific
storm, which put an end to his expedition. Four
years later he succeeded.
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