Geneva Spur
{{Other uses|Geneva (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox mountain pass
| name = Geneva Spur
| photo = File:Western Cwm and Lhotse.jpg
| photo_caption = Looking up at Lhotse, Geneva Spur on the left bank
| elevation = Starts at about {{convert|24,000|ft|m|abbr=on}}[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/climb/waytosummitsou.html The Way to the Summit]
| traversed =
| location = Mount Everest
| range = Himalayas
| coordinates =
}}
The Geneva Spur, named Eperon des Genevois{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=84ttGahHDEgC&pg=PA132|author=Baron John Hunt Hunt & John Hunt|title=The Ascent of Everest|year=1993|page=132|isbn=9780898863611}} and has also been called the Saddle Rib{{cite book|author1=G. O. Dyhrenfurth|author-link=Günter Dyhrenfurth|title=To the Third Pole|publisher=Werner Laurie|edition=1955}} "Chapter Two [...] Saddle Rib" is a geological feature on Mount Everest{{mdash}}it is a large rock buttress near the summits of Everest and Lhotse. The Geneva spur is above Camp III and the Yellow Band, but before Camp IV and South Col.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wKTJkDj8vrYC&pg=PA226|first=Bear|last=Grylls|author-link=Bear Grylls|title=The Kid Who Climbed Everest|year=2004|page=226|isbn=9781592284931}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} It is a spur{{Cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/climb/waytosummitsou.html|title=NOVA Online | Everest | Climb South | the Way to the Summit}} near the south col. A related formation is the saddle{{Cite web|url=http://www.popularhistoria.se/artiklar/erovringen-av-mount-everest/|title = Erövringen av Mount Everest|date = 23 April 2003}} between the peaks of Mount Everest and Lhotse.
The altitude of the spur is between {{convert|25,000|and|26,000|ft|m}}.
The Geneva Spur name comes from the 1952 Swiss Mount Everest Expedition. The spur provides a route to the South Col, and is usually traversed by climbers heading for Lhotse or Everest summits.{{cite web|url=http://blog.firstascent.com/2011/05/24/dave-hahn-achieves-his-13th-summit-of-mt-everest/|title=Dave Hahn Achieves His 13th Summit of Mt. Everest|date=May 24, 2011|access-date=2014-04-01}}
From the top of Geneva Spur, South Col can be seen, and when looking at it Mount Everest is on the left and Lhotse to the right. Lhotse climbers typically head southeast from Geneva Spur, and on to a couloir to ascend that summit.
History
On the 1956 Swiss Everest–Lhotse Expedition, the spur was the location of the last high camp before Fritz Luchsinger and Ernst Reiss achieved the first known ascent of Lhotse summit, on 18 May 1956.Aargauer Zeitung, 25 April 2006
{{quote|Far bigger than it looks from a distance, Geneva Spur was a welcome mixture of snow and rock scrambling.|G. Plimpton, As Told at the Explorers Club{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fAFF7DBhJOsC&pg=PA155|first=George|last=Plimpton|author-link=George Plimpton|title=As Told at the Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure|year=2005|pages=155–156|isbn=9781592286584}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}}}
{{wide image|Climbing through the Yellow Band, Mt. Everest, -May 2007 a.jpg|800px| Eperon des Genevois as seen from a climber's perspective, the rock formation rising up from snow in the center-left||none}}
Location on climbing routes to peaks of Everest and Lhotse
The Geneva spur is above the Yellow Band; on the Southeast Ridge climbing route, the Geneva Spur lies above Camp III, but lower than Camp IV (as of 2003) and South Col. The spur provides a route to the South Col, and is usually traversed by climbers heading for Lhotse or Everest summits.[http://blog.firstascent.com/2011/05/24/dave-hahn-achieves-his-13th-summit-of-mt-everest/ Dave Hahn Achieves His 13th Summit of Mt. Everest]
Additional descriptions
The Geneva Spur, [in the 1955 translated edition of a 1952 book] "is now called the Saddle Rib. It is flanked on either side by two steep couloirs, which after fresh falls of snow become dangerously exposed to avalanches, but after dry spells
turn to grooves of bare ice".{{cite book|author1=G. O. Dyhrenfurth|author-link=Günter Dyhrenfurth|title=To the Third Pole|publisher=Werner Laurie|edition=1955}} "Chapter Two [...] Saddle Rib [...]"
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.mountainguides.com/photos/everest-south/geneva-spur_simon_arnsby.jpg Geneva Spur] ([http://www.mountainguides.com/everest-south-photos.shtml parent gallery])
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/obartunov/5489312415/in/photostream/ Lhotse from Geneva Spur]
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/theodorefairhurst/5700943271/ Climbers above the spur]
- [http://landtarget.blogspot.com/2008/05/summit-push-20-may-trek-to-south-col.html Climbing from Camp III to IV]
{{Mount Everest}}