Why We Climb

For over 90 years Champion Athletic Wear has introduced the world to some of the biggest innovations in sports apparel. We continually set new goals. We constantly try to top ourselves. We consistently surprise. That's how we play. Now for our latest challenge: Taking innovation to the top of the world.

Champion®, a leader in performance activewear for 90 years, and Duofold, an innovator in baselayer for 100 years, are partnering to outfit a climbing team for an attempt to summit Mt. Everest. Not just any old summit, however. To get the Expedition Champion team atop Everest, we challenged our product development team to customize an innovative line of head-to-toe outdoor apparel to help our mountaineers make one of the warmest, lightest ascents ever recorded.

The Champion research and development team has been integrating unique innovations in fabric technology, garment design and sports science into special apparel that will be worn on Everest. You can learn more about this unique apparel within this website. If all goes well, someday soon you'll be able to personally experience our warmth-without-weight technology in a new line of Champion® with Duofold technology.

In the meantime, whether you're sitting in the stands at a sporting contest, training for your own event, or yes, even standing atop a mountain, our goal remains the same: to ensure that every garment we manufacture provides you with the ultimate combination of protection and comfort so you're always ready to handle any challenge you can encounter.

Nepal

Learn more about this mystical mountainous country

Nepal is a landlocked, mountainous country in South Asia bordered by China to the north and India to the south, east and west. It covers 56,827 square miles (about the size of Iowa), and is home to 28.7 million people (compared to 3 million Iowans).

The median age is just over 20. Kathmandu, with a metro population of 1.5 million, is the largest city and the capital of Nepal.

Eight of the world's 10 highest mountains are located in Nepal: Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna.

• - In 2005 there was less than one telephone per 19 people, but there were approximately 175,000 Internet connections.
• - Nepal has five seasons: summer, monsoon, autumn, winter and spring.

A Short History of Mt. Everest

Read the story behind the legend

Legend has it that in 1852 a Bengali number cruncher named Radhanath Sikhdar ran into the office of Sir Andrew Waugh, the surveyor general for the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India, and exclaimed, "Sir! I have found the highest mountain in the world!". In reality, mapping the world's highest mountain required the assistance of six survey stations strung out across the Himalayas. But when the team averaged its findings, Peak XV topped out at 29,002 feet (which would grow to 29,035 feet over the next century), surpassing 28,307-foot Kangchenjunga as the highest point on the planet.

To British colonial powers, such a superlative peak deserved a solid Western identity. In 1865 London's Royal Geographic Society renamed the behemoth Mount Everest in honor of Sir George Everest, the former British surveyor-general of India and the man responsible for mapping most of Asia. A culturally sensitive guy, Everest was slightly embarrassed by the grand gesture, but the freight train of enthusiasm to reach the roof of the world had begun.

Long before the mountain became an obsession for Western adventurers, Everest was sacred to the people who lived in its shadow. The gneiss and shale mountain is known as Jomolungma, "Goddess Mother of the World," to Tibetans, and Sagarmatha, "Goddess of the Sky," to the Sherpas of Nepal. Buddhist monks would spend weeks traversing inhospitable terrain en route to Shekar Dzong, a monastery about 50 miles north of Everest. But even from that perch the world's tallest mountain was tucked so discreetly in the clouds behind 27,940-foot Lhotse, 25,790-foot Nuptse, and 24,747-foot Changtse that it was sometimes impossible to see, let alone try to climb.

The quest for the summit took the efforts of 15 expeditions before a tenacious beekeeper from New Zealand named Ed Hillary and native Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, members of the British Everest Expedition, were the first to reach the summit on May 29, 1953. Since then more than 3,250 climbers have reached the crest.

The act of climbing Everest is the ultimate metaphor for the journey of life. The summit may seem impossible, but what's the point if you can't dream of reaching the top—no matter what shape your own Everest takes?

Climbing Routes

There's more than one way to reach the summit

Mt. Everest has roughly 15 climbing routes, but most climbers choose either the southeast ridge from Nepal or the northeast ridge from Tibet. Of the two, the southeast ridge is the most popular, and it was via this route that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay first reached the summit in 1953. It is also the route that Jamie Clarke and the Expedition Champion Team will be following.

The ascent via the southeast ridge begins at 9,380 feet in the remote mountain town of Lukla, the starting point for a six to eight day, 35-mile hike to Base Camp at 17,700. Along the way, climbers pass through Namche Bazaar, a small town that forms a natural amphitheater along the side of the mountain. Climbing equipment and supplies are transported by yaks, and human porters.

Although the long trek assists in acclimatization, during which the number of red blood cells double (allowing the blood to carry more oxygen), it typically takes a month for climbers to get comfortable. Therefore, teams often spend a couple of weeks in Base Camp attempting to fully acclimate.

While the climbing team is acclimating to the altitude, Sherpas and other expedition climbers set up ropes and ladders in the Khumbu Icefall above Base Camp. To reduce the hazard, climbers begin their ascent well before dawn when the frigid temperatures freeze ice blocks in place. Over the course of the next couple weeks, team members will make several up and down trips from Base Camp through the icefall to successively higher camps to further acclimate to the extreme altitudes. At the same time, the Sherpas haul 40-50 pounds of gear up the mountain so that each camp is properly outfitted with all the necessary provisions.

The first such site, Camp I, lies above the icefall at 19,900 feet. From there, climbers make their way up the Western Cwm to the base of the Lhotse face, where they establish Camp II or Advanced Base Camp at 21,300 feet. The Western Cwm is a relatively flat, gently rising glacial valley, marked by huge lateral crevasses in the centre. With little atmosphere to filter the sun and reflective snow covering everything, the area can quickly turn into an oven on a clear, windless day in spite of the altitude.

From Advanced Base Camp, climbers ascend the Lhotse face on fixed ropes up to Camp III, located on a small ledge at 24,500 feet. While it's "only" another 500 yards to reach Camp IV on the South Col at 26,000 feet, climbers face two significant challenges: the Geneva Spur, an anvil shaped rib of snow-covered rock over which climbers must scramble, and the Yellow Band, a section of interlayered marble, phyllite and semischist that requires about 100 yards of rope to traverse.

Once on the South Col, climbers enter altitudes greater than 26,000 feet, where they typically have a maximum of two or three days to make a summit bid before they're forced to descend. Clear weather and low winds are critical factors in deciding whether to do so. If everything looks good, climbers begin their summit push from Camp IV around midnight with hopes of reaching the summit somewhere near the 12 hour average. (It took Jamie Clarke 7.5 hours in 1997. He spent another 5.5 hours returning to Base Camp.)

Climbers first reach the Balcony at 27,600 feet before continuing up the ridge, where they face a series of imposing rock steps that often forces the team to the east into waist deep snow, a serious avalanche hazard. At 28,700 feet, a small table-sized dome of ice and snow marks the South Summit.

From there, climbers follow the knife-edge southeast ridge along what is known as the Cornice Traverse where snow clings to intermittent rock. This is the most exposed section of the climb, and the smallest misstep can be fatal. Once they reach the end of this traverse it doesn't get any easier, for there at 28,740 feet stands a 40-foot rock wall, the famously imposing Hillary Step.

After ascending the Step using fixed ropes, it's a comparatively easy 200-yard climb to the top along moderately angled snow slopes, though the exposure on the ridge is extreme. With more and more people climbing the mountain, the Step can become a bottleneck, forcing climbers to wait significant amounts of time for their turn on the ropes.