Marco Siffredi

Marco Siffredi (22 May 1979 – 8 September 2002) was a French snowboarder and mountaineer who hailed from a climbing family; his father was a mountain guide and his brother had died in an avalanche in Chamonix. He was the first to descend Mount Everest on a snowboard in 2001 via the Norton Couloir. In 2002, he disappeared after making his second successful Everest summit, while attempting to snowboard the Hornbein Couloir.

First Everest descent

Marco Siffredi reached the summit of Everest, a 29,035-foot mountain, on May 23, 2001 with the help of oxygen along with two Sherpas who brought the equipment. Siffredi was forced to snowboard down an alternative route to the one he considered the Holy Grail of snowboarding. The coveted Hornbein Couloir didn’t have enough snow, so he rode down the Norton Couloir for the historic ride back to Advanced Base Camp at the foot of the North Col. Then begins the descent down the Norton Couloir of the north face, but after only 200 meters due to the intense cold (- 35 °C) a fastening strap on his snowboard broke; unable to repair it with help from a sherpa, Marco continued the descent to 6,400 meters in two hours.

On May 22, the Austrian Stefan Gatt reached the summit alone and without using oxygen. He went on a snowboard up to 8,600 meters along the north wall, but at that altitude he found very hard snow and decided to continue without snowboard; the quota of 7,500 meters using shooting snowboarding, going up to 6,450 meters. There were disputes about who will be awarded the first snowboard descent of Everest in, as Stefan Gatt got out first, but for about 1,000 meters without using a snowboard. The site everestnews.com attributed primacy to Marco Siffredi but the site snowboarding.transworld.net recognized merits and demerits to both, for which the record was shared.

Second Everest descent

In early August 2002, Siffredi departed for Nepal, intending to make the first snowboard descent of Everest along the passage Hornbein Couloir. This was late in the season for summitting Everest, but Siffredi hoped that the passage would have more snow. On August 10, he left Kathmandu with three Sherpa (Phurba, Pa Nuru and Da Tenzing), reaching base camp in Tibet on August 14. On September 7, the group reaches the advanced field at 8,300 m. On Sept. 8, 2002, after a grueling 12-hour push, Siffredi and the Sherpas reached the summit at 2:10 PM. According to Phurba Tashi, however, Siffredi showed little enthusiasm for the accomplishment, commenting that he was "tired, tired...too much climbing."

After weather conditions began to change, the Sherpas urged Siffredi not to go. Siffredi disregarded their warnings and begins making his way towards the Hornbein just after 3:00 PM, with only one hour's rest. His Sherpa companions lost sight of him periodically. At the North Col, about 1,300 meters below Camp Three, both Sherpas report seeing the distant image of a man standing up, then sliding down the mountain. As they reached the point of the sighting, Siffredi's snowboard tracks stopped. His body has not been found

Other achievements

Highlights of the north face of Everest. In May 1996 in snowboard down the north face of the Aiguille du Midi in the Mont Blanc, along the track Mallory, a descent of 1,000 meters with passages of more than 50 degrees.

In 1998, as preparation for climbing the Himalayas, the scale Tocilarajo in Peru (6,032 m) with Philippe Forte and René Robert, then falls on a snowboard.

On 17 June 1999 makes the first snowboard descent of the Nant Blanc wall of Aiguille Verte of Mont Blanc, with passages of more than 55 degree incline. In autumn of the same year the scale Dorje Lhakpa (6,988 m) in Nepal and makes the first snowboard descent of this mountain.

In June 2000 the scale Huayna Potosi (6,088 m) in Bolivia. In autumn the scale Cho Oyu in the Himalayas (8,201 m), the sixth highest mountain on Earth.

In autumn 2001 the scale Shisha Pangma Himalayas (8,027 m) with the intention of making the entire descent in snowboard, but the strong wind begins to use only the portion of 7,000 meters.

See also

• List of people who died climbing Mount Everest

External links

• The Disappearance of Marco Siffredi, article from TransWorld SNOWboarding Magazine: The Disappearance Of Marco Siffredi.
• [1]: Article from MountainZone.com: Steep Ascents and First Descents (Siffredi's second descent of Nant Blanc, Aiguille Verte) Trey Cook on Showboarding