Mt. Makalu – Climate, Mountaineering History

Mt. Makalu, with an altitude of 8463 meters, is noted as the fifth highest peak above the sea level. Located at the middle sections of Himalayas, Mt. Makalu is divided into the northern Mt. Makalu seats in Tibet and the southern Mt. Makalu locates in Nepal. Mt. Makalu is covered with thick ice and snow all year around. The large scale glaciers and giant ice crevasses, as well as the frequent ice fall and snow slide bring a lot of difficulties for mountaineers willing to conquer it.

Mt. Makalu has five main ridges, including the northeastern ridge, the southeastern ridge, the northeastern ridge, the southeastern ridge and the northern ridge. The mountain valleys here are covered by large scale glaciers with steep cliffs and crevices. Mt. Makalu is regarded as one of the most challengeable mountains above the sea level for its complicated topography and frequent ice fall and snow slide. It is recorded that only 5 teams succeed in conquering Mt. Makalu in the first 16 mountaineering activities.

Climate of Mt. Makalu

Makalu was originated from Maha-kala, which means big evil in Sanskrit. Mt. Makalu has a climate quite similar to Mt. Everest. It is dry and windy in the winter, and the summer half year is its rainy season. Generally, the period between June and September is its rainy season. The hard rains caused by the strong southeast monsoon would cause frequent ice fall and snow slide.

The period between November and February is the severe cold period of Mt. Makalu. The average temperature during this period is between -40? to -50? and the extremely low temperature during this period would even reach -60? and the wind speed would reach 90 meters per second. The periods between late April and late May, and September and October are the transit seasons of the windy season and rainy season. These two periods are said to be the best seasons to do some mountaineering activities at Mt. Makalu due to the relatively better weather condition.

Climbing History of Mt. Makalu

A French mountaineering expedition conquered the main peak of Mt. Makalu firstly in May 1955. This team started from Nepal and climbed over the saddle of northwest mountain of Mt. Makalu, then reached to the top of Mt. Makalu successfully along the northwest Mt. Makalu in China.

A Russian mountaineering expedition reached to the top of Makalu successfully along the western Mt. Makalu in 1997. This route is said to be the most challengeable mountaineering route of Mt. Makalu.

The professional Chinese mountaineering expedition conquered Mt. Makalu successfully in May 2003. Luo Jing, is the first female amateur mountaineer who reached to the top of Mt. Makalu successfully. She conquered Mt. Makalu on May 10th, 2012.