Mt. Everest

Members from the Danish Himalayan Society have led and participated in four expeditions to Mount Everest. Two of these expeditions were succesful.

Danish Everest Expedition, 1996 – first all danish attempt on the roof of the World. Bo Belvedere Christensen reached 8450 meter without supplementary oxygen in an attempt together with finnish climber Veikka Gustafsson. Veikka is now one of the few climbers reaching all 8000 meter peaks and even doing so without the help of bottled oxygen.
Thrane & Thrane Danish Everest Expedition, 2000 – sponsored by by former Thrane & Thrane now Cobham. Mads Granlien and Asmus Noerreslet reached the summit using oxygen. Allan Christensen pushed the record for Danish climbers without oxygen to app. 8600 meter.
Danish Everest North Side Expedition, 2013 – danish expedition to the North Side of Everest. Rikke Hoejland and Martin Cederkrantz reached the summit using oxygen. Bo Belvedere reached app. 7900 meter without supplementary oxygen and without any kind of sherpa support.
Danish climber Bo Belvedere Christensen attempted a solo attempt from the north without oxygen bottles, but was stopped by the huge earthquake with epicenter not far from Everest. The earthquake caused the death of many climbers in basecamp on the south side of the mountain, but luckily doing no harm on the north side, though avalanches were observed. Unfortunately, the earthquake caused severe damage to a huge area of Nepal including the capital, Kathmandu. Around 9.000 people were killed and almost 800.000 had their homes wrecked.

Thus, Bo Belvedere Christensen has participated in all four expeditions to Mount Everest, but doesn’t consider having had a fair attempt so far. On two expeditions he had to help other mountaineers survive and had to abandon his own attempt, on one expedition it was impossible for him to summit due to a back injury, and on his last attempt so far, the mountain was struck by the powerful earthquake. On these expeditions he reached these altitudes, always without bottled oxygen:

1996: 8450 meter during an attempt after the main disaster of the year.
2000: 8050 meter limbing due to partial paralysis of his left leg caused by disc herniation.
2013: 7900 meter forced to cancel his attempt to help to climbers in trouble.
2015: 7000 meter forced to cancel due to the earthquake.

As can be seen, the highest altitude reached has been steadily decreasing. Is that a tendency that will continue? It is not caused by his own inability to climb, which his super fast ascent of Cho Oyu in 2014 proved, and in 2015 he felt more certain than ever that this year would probably see him reach the summit, even if he had to try several times. There was no such opportunity, as the Chinese authorities closed the mountain for the season immediately after the earthquake.

Mt. Everest from the North in the early morning light