Ain't No Mountain High Enough Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dougal Haston, Doug Scott & Peter Boardman

Nobody knows for sure if George Mallory and Andy Irvine ever made the top when they disappeared into the storms in 1924 after being seen "going strongly for the top". Sir John Hunt led the successful 1953 British expedition with Tom Bourdillon, establishing a high camp for Hillary and Tenzing. Sir Christian Bonington led the 1975 Southwest face expedition that put Haston & Co. on top for the first British ascent.

Answer: Annapurna

Everest, although very dangerous, has a relatively tame death to summit ratio of 5.7% (these numbers are skewed by the massive amounts of people on the big E). Nanga Parbat, the "killer mountain" claims 22.3% of all summiteers. K2, widely thought of as the hardest 8000 meter summit to reach claims a 23.2% summit to death rate. And Annapurna, with the only "easy" route constantly raked by massive avalanches claims a mind-boggling 42.8% of all who summit! Golf anyone?

Answer: He was first to climb the ridge from Everest to K2.

Mr. Messner climbed all 14 '8000ers' between 1970 and 1986. He and Peter Habeler climbed Mt. Everest without bottled oxygen on May 8, 1978. Two years later, on August 20, 1980, Messner climbed the north ridge of Mt. Everest again--completely alone! As for the ridge running from Mt. Everest to K2, well, if it did exist, it would be over 1000 miles long!

Answer: Hidden Peak (Gasherbrum I)

In 1958, Nick Clinch led an American expedition that climbed Hidden Peak (8080m or 26,509ft) for the first time. Pete Scheoning and Andy Kauffman made the top. As for the others, Broad Peak (8051m or 26,414ft) was climbed by the Austrians in 1957, Nanga Parbat was climbed in 1953 by a German-Austrian expedition, and K2 was summited for the first time by the Italians in 1954.

Answer: Lightweight boots and dropped gloves

The boots the French had in 1950 were boots originally designed for use in the Alps, far lower than the altitudes in the Himalayas. On the descent from the summit, exhaustion and hypoxia caused Herzog to drop his gloves and descend several thousand feet, in a storm, without hand cover! Lower down, while spending the night in a crevasse, the summit party and their rescuers were engulfed by an avalanche, burying their boots and exacerbating the problem.

Answer: Tomo Cesan claimed a false first ascent.

In 1990, Slovenian climbing phenom Tomo Cesan claimed an incredible solo ascent of the wall and was awarded medals and prizes. As skeptics dug deeper, however, the claim looked to be more and more made-up. The only pictures Tomo had, which he did claim as his own, proved to belong to a famous Polish climber who had lent them to Tomo for route-finding.

A massive Russian team climbed the wall soon after and claimed the first ascent, saying no single climber could have done it. Cesan's claim is now generally discredited and even Cesan himself says he only reached the summit ridge.

Answer: Tim Macartney Snape

On August 11, 1990, Australian Tim Macartney Snape summited Mt. Everest after hiking all the way from sea level at the Bay of Bengal. He claimed the hardest part was swimming across the "great, grey, greasy Ganges river". Most climbers us aircraft to get from Kathmandu to Lulka (2860m or 9380ft) to start their adventure.

Answer: Babu Chiri Sherpa

In May 1999, Babu Chiri, a legend among Sherpas, set the record for time on top of Mt. Everest with an astounding 21.5 hours spent on the summit without bottled oxygen. He even pitched a tent and spent the night! Sadly, he slipped while taking pictures near camp II (6500m) and fell to his death. Tenzing Norgay was the legendary Sherpa who first climbed Mt. Everest. Ang Tsering was with the 1950 French Annapurna expedition, among many others. Glayzen Norbu is a Pakistani climber who climbed K2.

Answer: It was getting dark.

Fritz and climbing Sherpa Pasang Kikuli were almost to the easy summit snow slope, but alas, it was getting dark. Even though the weather was perfect, Pasang was fearful of the spirits whom he believed dwelt on the mountaintops at night. Fritz, being a true mountain guide, could not even think of untying and leaving his Sherpa behind, no matter how great the prize. Sadly, a series of breakdowns in communication did not let Fritz attempt again the next day, or ever, the expedition was over.

Answer: They honored local beliefs that you should not walk on the summit.

After promising the Maharajah of Sikkim that the summit snows are sacred and should go untrodden by man, Joe and George held up to their end of the bargain. They stopped a few feet below the actual summit. Most summit parties have held true to this show of respect to the local beliefs, a wonderful token of appreciation to the deity that resides there.