Are There Lots Of Routes To Climb Everest?

There are about 15 routes to climb Everest, although 2 of them are used most of the times.The 2 main ones are the the south-east ridge from Nepal and the north-east ridge from China, of which the former is the more preferred of the two and was the route opted for by Hillary and Tenzing when they did their first climb.At the south-east ridge, the base camp is located at 17,600 feet and the long climb which lasts about 6 to 7 days is meant to acclimatize the climbers to the high altitudes.From here they move on Camps I,II,III and IV through a series of awkward physical structures such as ledges, rock, crevasses and ridges all covered with thick snow and each with their own weather conditions that get worse as one climbs higher.One of the last phases of the summit is the Hillary Step, a near vertical rock forming the top of Mt.Everest.

The north-east ridge begins from Tibet and the first base camp to this route comes in at 17,000 feet. Camp VI becomes this route's last stop from where the mountaineers move on to their final summit. Just as the Hillary Step, enthusiasts taking this route have to cross three rock bands called the First, the Second and the Third Step before they reach the summit.