page_title: South Summit (Mount Everest)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: South Summit (Mount Everest) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Mount Everest from Kala Patther
context_page_description: The South Summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the second-highest peak on Earth, and is a subsidiary peak to the primary peak of Mount Everest. Although its elevation above sea level of 8,749 metres is higher than the second-highest mountain on Earth, K2, it is only considered a separate peak and not a separate mountain as its prominence is only 11 meters.
context_section_description: On reaching the South Col in 1953, expedition leader John Hunt was struck by the sight, writing "Above us rose the South Summit of Everest ... an elegant snow spire, breathtakingly close yet nearly 3000 feet above our heads ... none of us had been prepared for any spectacle quite so sharp, quite so beautiful as this. To me it seemed that a new and unsuspected peak of alpine stature stood above the South Col."
  A geologist with a 1965 Indian Everest expedition discovered a deposit of fossils of seashells in limestone about 100 feet above the South Summit. This expedition put nine climbers on the main summit.
  Describing his first ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen in 1978, Reinhold Messner described the South Summit as "quite a milestone for me".
  During the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, mountain guide Rob Hall and three other people died at the South Summit while descending from the main summit in an unexpected blizzard. Hall survived overnight, and established radio contact the following day, but froze to death later that day, May 11, 1996. His body remains on the South Summit.
  In 2012 Eberhard Schaaf died on descent at the south summit from altitude sickness. 
  The south summit is a popular place for climbers to stop for various reasons, and to turn around if so decided. From this location the cornice traverse, Hillary step, and summit can be seen in clear weather and for a typical climber using bottled oxygen in the early 21st century, it is a favored spot to change oxygen bottles.
caption: The south summit is the sub peak on the right-side.
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