Mount Everest Route Comparison 2026: South Col vs Northeast Ridge — and the 4 Elite Alpine Alternatives

Approximately 20 climbing routes have been documented on Mount Everest, though counting depends on whether minor variants are considered separate routes or part of parent lines. The six primary routes are the Southeast Ridge / South Col (Nepal, Hillary and Tenzing 1953), the Northeast Ridge / North Col (Tibet, Chinese 1960), the West Ridge with the famous Hornbein Couloir (1963 American), the Southwest Face (1975 British), the Kangshung / East Face (1983 American), and various North Face direct variants. As of December 2025, 13,737 total Mount Everest summits have been recorded — and only 187 ascents (1.4%) have used non-standard routes other than the Southeast Ridge or Northeast Ridge. The two standard ridges account for the remaining 98.6% of all summit successes, demonstrating how dramatically commercial climbing has consolidated around the two established commercial routes.

Neither standard Mount Everest route is easy — both involve extreme altitude exposure, technical challenges, and significant fatality risk. However, the Southeast Ridge from Nepal (South Col Route) is generally considered the more accessible commercial route for most climbers because it has more established commercial infrastructure (Sherpa support, fixed-rope teams, multiple operator base camps), the route is meaningfully shorter (summit-day from Camp 4 typically runs 16-20 hours round trip versus the Northeast Ridge’s longer summit-day exposure), the South Col allows for a more compressed summit window strategy, and the commercial operator ecosystem on the Nepal side is much larger. The Northeast Ridge from Tibet has its own advantages — no Khumbu Icefall objective hazard, helicopter access available at lower camps, and meaningfully less crowding than the Nepal side. The “easier” route depends on a climber’s specific strengths: climbers more concerned about objective hazard prefer the North side (no Icefall), climbers more concerned about extreme altitude exposure prefer the South side (shorter summit day).

The Kangshung Face (East Face) of Mount Everest is widely considered the most dangerous side of the mountain. The Kangshung Face was first climbed in 1983 by an American expedition led by James Morrissey, and it has seen the fewest total attempts and even fewer successful summits of any face. The face is threatened by constant avalanches, has limited rescue accessibility, and the eastern face of the mountain remains the most remote with the longest approach. The Kangshung Face is so dangerous that even after the 1983 American first ascent and several subsequent attempts, the face is essentially abandoned for modern climbing — climbers attempting it are conducting first-ascent-class technical climbing rather than commercial expedition work. The West Ridge with the Hornbein Couloir is the second-most-dangerous elite alpine route on Everest, requiring extreme technical skill, long committing climbing, and meaningful exposure throughout the route. Neither the Southeast Ridge nor the Northeast Ridge is “safe” in any absolute sense — Everest’s overall fatality rate sits at approximately 1-3% across the commercial era — but the standard routes are dramatically safer than the elite alpine alternatives.

The first ascents of Mount Everest’s six primary routes span 30 years across multiple expeditions and nationalities. (1) Southeast Ridge / South Col Route: May 29, 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, on Sir John Hunt’s British expedition. This remains the standard commercial route for ~64% of all summits. (2) Northeast Ridge / North Col Route: May 25, 1960 by Chinese climbers Wang Fuzhou, Konbu (Tibetan), and Qu Yinhua, conducted as a national Chinese expedition. The second-most-climbed route at ~34% of summits. (3) West Ridge with Hornbein Couloir: 1963 by Americans Tom Hornbein and Willi Unsoeld, part of the same American expedition. The route is named after Hornbein. (4) Southwest Face: September 24, 1975 by British climbers Doug Scott and Dougal Haston during Chris Bonington’s expedition. (5) Kangshung Face / East Face: 1983 by an American expedition led by James Morrissey. (6) North Face Direct variants: Multiple first ascents through the 1980s and 1990s by various international teams including the Great Couloir variant climbed by Australian and other expeditions.

Approximately 98.6% of all Mount Everest summits have used the two standard commercial routes — the Southeast Ridge from Nepal via the South Col, or the Northeast Ridge from Tibet via the North Col. As of December 2025, 13,737 total Mount Everest summits have been recorded, with only 187 ascents (141 members and 46 hired climbers) via non-standard routes — the West Ridge, Southwest Face, Kangshung Face, and various North Face direct variants combined. This means roughly 64% of all summits have used the Southeast Ridge from Nepal and approximately 34% have used the Northeast Ridge from Tibet. The dramatic consolidation around the two standard routes reflects the commercial era’s focus on accessible, supportable, and infrastructure-rich climbing — the elite alpine routes remain technically and historically significant but represent a tiny fraction of actual Everest climbing activity in the modern era.

The Hornbein Couloir is a narrow, steep snow and ice gully on Mount Everest’s West Ridge route, named after American climber Tom Hornbein who first ascended it in 1963 with his partner Willi Unsoeld. The couloir is the technical crux of the West Ridge route, requiring sustained technical climbing at extreme altitude. The route was originally climbed during the American 1963 Mount Everest expedition, with Hornbein and Unsoeld completing the West Ridge and Hornbein Couloir while other team members climbed the standard Southeast Ridge — making the 1963 American expedition the first to successfully complete a multi-route Everest ascent. The Hornbein Couloir gained renewed cultural prominence when American extreme skier Jim Morrison skied the narrow line as part of his ski mountaineering achievements. The couloir remains the defining technical feature of the West Ridge route, and the West Ridge as a whole is one of the most committed alpine routes on Everest — long, technical, exposed, and rarely attempted in the modern era despite its 1963 first ascent.

The South Col Route from Nepal and the Northeast Ridge Route from Tibet are the two standard Mount Everest climbing routes, on opposite sides of the mountain. The South Col Route ascends from Everest Base Camp at 5,364 meters via the Khumbu Icefall, the Western Cwm, the Lhotse Face, and the South Col at 7,925 meters, then up the Southeast Ridge through the South Summit and the Hillary Step to the main summit at 8,848.86 meters. Total camps: BC, C1 (6,065m), C2 (6,400m), C3 (7,200m), South Col/C4 (7,925m), Summit. The Northeast Ridge Route ascends from Tibet Base Camp at 5,150 meters via the Rongbuk Glacier, the East Rongbuk Glacier, the North Col at 7,000 meters, the North Ridge, the Northeast Ridge, and the Three Steps to the main summit. Total camps: BC, ABC (6,492m), North Col/C1 (7,000m), C2 (7,800m), C3 (8,300m), Summit. The South Col has the Khumbu Icefall objective hazard but a shorter summit day; the Northeast Ridge has no Icefall but more time at extreme altitude with harsher wind exposure and a longer summit-day.

Successful summits via the Kangshung Face (East Face) of Mount Everest have been extremely rare in recent decades. The Kangshung Face was first climbed in 1983 by an American expedition led by James Morrissey, with summit climbers including Lou Reichardt, Kim Momb, and Carlos Buhler. The route was climbed again by a 1988 expedition that included Stephen Venables. After these early ascents, Kangshung Face climbing essentially stopped in the commercial era — the combination of constant avalanche hazard, the longest and most remote approach of any Everest route, limited rescue accessibility, and extreme technical demand makes the face primarily a first-ascent-class objective rather than a commercial climbing destination. The Kangshung Face’s massive 3,000-meter vertical rise from the Kangshung Glacier base makes it one of the largest mountain faces in the Himalaya, and it remains the least-climbed Everest face. Climbers asking about “recent” Kangshung ascents in 2026 are essentially asking about expedition-style first-ascent-class climbing rather than the standard commercial Everest objective.