On March 10, 1953, an army of nearly 400 men left Kathmandu, Nepal, and set out RELICS to conquer the highest peak on Earth. There were 13 mountaineers from Britain and New Zealand, 362 porters and 20 Sherpas from Nepal, together carrying over 10,000 pounds of gear. By then, the summit of Mount Everest had eluded 11 previous expedi- tions. Dozens of men had been killed. But this time would be different. Eleven weeks after leaving Kathmandu, two unlikely companions — a beekeeper from New Zealand named Edmund Hillary and a Sherpa from Nepal named Tenzing Norgay — stepped onto a small, wind-blasted, heavenly lit altar made of snow and rock and became the fi rst men in history to summit Everest. It was a triumph of the human spirit. Hillary and Norgay became overnight legends, FROM and mountaineering was changed forever. But what of the things they carried with them? The men wore 44-pound backpacks, bodysuits made of cotton and down, windproof smocks, nylon trousers, waterproof boots, silk gloves, heavy oxygen tanks and wool base layers and carried ice axes made of wood and steel. At the summit, Norgay placed chocolates as an offering to his gods; Hillary buried a small crucifi x as an offering to his. They may have reached the highest point on Earth by their own sheer will, but without gear — the items that kept them alive, and the items that gave them purpose — the summit would have been impossible. The legacy of legends like Hillary and Norgay continues today in the greatest living THE mountaineers. They still embark on epic pilgrimages to the world’s highest, holiest, most challenging peaks; they still rely on gear to reach the summit, and to return intact.
And all mountaineers know of a profound mystery: When a simple thing, be it a pair of glacier goggles, a watch or a bag of blessed rice, ascends a mountain, it transcends the material realm; it becomes a piece of history, an outward manifestation of the moun- taineer’s spirit, a holy relic. And every relic tells a story.
BY MICHAEL FINN ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHANE MANEL VOID PHOTO BY HENRY PHILLIPS
243 CONRAD ANKER
BROKEN PORTALEDGE POLE
Numerous fi rst ascents of the world’s most diffi cult climbs: the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru, a Himalayan peak long thought to be impossible; Vinson Massif’s East Face and Rakekniven Peak’s Snow Petrel Wall in Antarctica; El Capitan’s Continental Drift in Yosemite; Latok II’s West Face and Spansar in Pakistan; three summits of Everest (one without supplemental oxygen); captain of The North Face Athlete Team.
It was our third night on Meru. We were probably two or three pitches below the big head wall, halfway up the 14,977-foot-high mountain — right below the Shark’s Fin itself. We had crossed the Rubicon. That night, we pitched our portaledge, a single-point suspen- sion clif dwelling with an aluminium frame. In the morning, my climbing partner Renan Ozturk was sitting right on the edge of the tube when it bent, then snapped. Our stuf went fl ying out — my down pants, luckily, got hung up on a spike of rock about forty feet below. I would’ve been fucked if didn’t have those. Before the 'ledge snapped, I would sleep with just a piece of rope tied around my belly. After the 'ledge snapped, I started sleeping in my harness. Renan and Jimmy [Chin] got onto the clif with their senders, and I went down and got my insulated pants, came back up, put the portaledge back into its haul bag, and then we pressed on. That night, we did some MacGyver repairs on it: a piton for an internal splice, two ice screws on the outside and some athletic tape. When I got back to Montana, I engraved “Meru 2007” on it and crimped some wire and an old piton onto it. Now it hangs in my garden. I quite savor the exposure out there. Looking out of the 'ledge, knowing that you’re impris- oned by gravity, but freed from gravity too. You’re sailing on a sea of granite.
FEATURE 245 ED VIESTURS
ROLEX EXPLORER
One of 33 people in history (and the only American) to climb all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks (the fi fth to do so without supplemental oxygen); seven ascents of Everest, one summit of Kanchenjunga in Nepal (third highest peak in the world), one summit of K2, one summit of Annapurna and one summit of Vinson Massif (highest peak in Antarctica); 208 summits of Mount Rainier in Washington; numerous alpine rescue missions; published author and motivational speaker.
Throughout my whole career I’ve been fi xated on being punctual. I lived by one APA SHERPA rule: If I wasn’t on or near a summit at two J U L B O G L A C I E R o’clock, I had to turn around. That gave me this margin of safety to make sure that I GOGGLES could get back down. I never broke that rule. I was always on the summit at two o’clock, or well before. I remember looking at my watch as I was climbing Annapurna. We were still going up, and the clock was ticking, getting closer and closer to two o’clock. I remem- ber we reached the summit at exactly two. Tied for most Everest ascents of
In 2007, six of my family members, two friends and I climbed Everest. We called it the . I keep questioning myself on that partic- any person in history (21 summits); DELEU
Super Sherpa expedition — between the eight of us, we had fi fty-fi ve Everest summits. I wore ular climb and on that particular day: had
led the expedition of the 1,050-mile KYLE these Julbo glacier goggles on the expedition. They protected me from snow blindness, which / it taken us longer, would I have broken my long Great Himalaya Trail (widely BAUER I’ve had before. The Super Sherpa expedition was the fi rst time an all-Sherpa team climbed rule? That’s what a lot of people do on the
considered one of the world’s most EDDIE Everest without working for Westerners. Normally, Sherpas just help Westerners get to the mountain; they have rules that they have BY diffi cult treks); founder of the Apa summit; this time, we didn’t have to suf er for anybody. We didn’t have to carry their oxygen lived by for a long time, and then there’s PHOTO Sherpa Foundation. tanks. We didn’t have to carry their water, fi x their ropes or set their tents. It felt like more of an that one day they break their rule. And that ORIGINAL adventure. When we’re working as Sherpas, we don’t really get to think about adventure. We’re ; kills people. You live by rules. You have pro- just doing our job, helping Westerners realize their own adventure. But the Super Sherpa expe- tocols. It’s the one day you decide to take ILLUSTRATION dition was our adventure. It was a very proud moment in my life. On the summit, we all hugged, a shortcut or break or stretch a rule when
took a photo together and shouted with joy. It was my seventeenth ascent of Everest. PHOTO accidents happen.
246 THE AMERICA ISSUE FEATURE 247 248 of heart. and of thinking change I’d Eiger, fundamental the felt own my On nirvana. or vision of sort some receiving of hopes in weeks and days for meditated of and days toil long endured themselves, starved have seekers spiritual other and shamans years, hurt. badly been have Icould where fall, amuch longer from me saved Tricam 1 Number a Eiger, the on place one At cracks. icy in else anything than better hold They 1967. since protection for climbing devices oncamming working been had Mike, brother, older our and He Lowe. Greg brother, my by invented prototypes were They Eiger. I climb purest the route make to unclimbed was intention manage. could hardest My the wall. the try of part and highest bolts, the fion without could nd I winter, in alone, go myself: deck the against stack to had I commitment, of level that approach even To death. to they freeze soaked, got might clothing wool and cotton their if water; melt to stoves crude their start to able being not risked They range. limited a of pitons simple just — 1938 in bolts have didn’t company and Heckmair Anderl pioneers. its honored that wanted a style in Face I North the climb to 1991, February In mind. my left never Eiger the of Face North the of fiascent rst before. seen been never had that something create —to Icould if art, make to there I was time, But at same the for myself. a new I’ddirection to make chaos and the made, of out way a needed I then. life be- my in joy some 1991 needed February really I joy,and in my is Alps climbing cause Swiss the in Eiger the to come I’d straight. me set would climb time after Time Lifetime Achievement, thehighest award inalpinism. Alps; featured intheaward-winning biographical film JeffLowe’s recipient of thePioletd’Or Metanoia; of AmaDablamintheHimalayas, andMetanoia,asolodirect route ontheNorthFace of theEigerinSwiss first ascents, includingtheGrand Central Couloir onMountKitchener intheCanadianRockies,solofirst ascent Ridge of Latok 1,theHimalayan peakwidelyconsidered theworld’s most difficult unfi nished climb;over 1,000 Credited asthefather of NorthAmericanice climbingandmixed climbing;highest pointreached ontheNorth PROTOYPETRICAM JEFF LOWE I named the route “Metanoia” [for “a transformative change of heart”]. For thousands of thousands For heart”]. of change transformative “a [for “Metanoia” route the named I me onwere with and the for rack decades two were a on staple my climbing Tricams These book Harrer’s Heinrich read had I THE AMERICA ISSUE in my life, when things were going wrong, I found that doing a long, hard hard long, a doing that found I wrong, going were things when life, my in The White Spider White The when I was twelve. The epic of the the of epic The twelve. was I when
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION; ORIGINAL PHOTO BY WICK BEAVERS, FROM THE JEFF LOWE COLLECTION M E L ISSA A R N O T
B LESSED PRAY ER CARD & RICE
Second most successful female Everest climber in history (six ascents); first American woman to summit Everest without supplemental oxygen; three summits of Aconcagua in Argentina; five summits of Cotopaxi in Ecuador; 92 summits of Mount Rainier in Washington.
There’s an eighty-nine-year-old lama who blesses climbers in Nepal before they climb to the summit. His name is Lama Geshe. He gives you this card marked with a Buddhist prayer that wishes goodwill to all people in the world. Then, he blesses some rice, puts the rice and card inside an envelope and instructs you to throw the rice if you ever feel that danger is near. In 2013, I was climbing through the Khumbu Icefall, a notoriously unpredictable and dan- gerous area on Everest. The wall of ice above us was probably forty feet tall. We were climb- ing up the wall on a ladder when the ice suddenly shifted. I thought we were going to die. My climbing partner had blessed rice, too, and I had rice flying in my face before I realized what was happening. After that, I started keeping a little handful of it in my jacket pocket. Throwing rice is a funny thing for me, since I’m not superstitious at all. I’m an incredibly pragmatic realist. I believe everything happens as it should. And yet I’ve been carrying the rice and card with me nearly everywhere I go — all year long, on every peak I climb. Inside the card I have a photograph of my climbing partner, Chhewang Nima, who died on a climb with me in 2010. He was a Nepali Sherpa, and a really close friend of mine. He was incredibly revered in the climbing community. Many believed that he was spiritually enlightened — he was going to be a lama. It was tragic for so many reasons when he died. I keep this photo of him on the summit of Everest inside the card. It feels like he’s with me — nestled in the mix of the blessings and rice seems like the right place for him.
FEATURE 251 J I MMY CHI N RENAN NIK ON F ILM OZT URK CAM ERA T H E NORTH F A C E PANTS
World-renowned photographer and filmmaker with numerous first ascents: the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru with teammates Conrad Anker and Renan Ozturk; three first ascents in the Karakoram Mountains; one of First ascent of the Shark’s Fin on Mount Meru (along a handful of people in history (and the first American) with teammates Jimmy Chin and Conrad Anker); to ski down Everest; 15 one-day ascents of El Capitan part of youngest team to ever send the northwest in Yosemite; director of the award-winning film Meru, face of Half Dome and the Nose of El Capitan in which documented the historic Meru ascent. Yosemite; first enchainment of the Tooth Traverse in Ruth Gorge, Alaska; first ascent of the southwest Cat Ear spire in the Himalayas.
It was 1999. I was training for my first big expedition to Pakistan. My friend and I were in Yosemite — we had just finished When you've been to the top of a peak this climb on El Capitan called Native Son. with something, it feels like a good luck We woke up the next morning on top of El charm. I’ve had these pants since 2010. Cap and there was really beautiful light, so They were designed, originally, for our I reached over, grabbed a camera and took a second attempt of Meru. They’ve been photo. My friend had been submitting pho- on countless other expeditions — Burma, tos to diferent companies, and he suggest- Alaska, Nepal, Chamonix, our backyard in ed that I submit mine. Mountain Hardwear Park City, Utah. actually bought my photo, published it and Taylor Rees, my wife, has done a lot of paid me for it. It was the first time I ever got the handiwork and patching on them — we paid for a photograph, and it was one of the add about ten patches every year. I proba- first photos I ever took with a real camera. bly would’ve turned them away a long time I had the logic of a twenty-three-year-old ago if she hadn’t fixed them. But I just keep climbing bum. I thought, “Wow! I only need coming back to these old, ragged, patched- to take one photo a month, and I could live over pants because they fit me better than like this forever out of the back of my baby- any pair I’ve ever worn, and because they blue 1989 Subaru Loyale.” Months later, contain so many memories. They’re also I met Conrad Anker, who then helped me a testament to not always throwing stuf land a deal with The North Face. It really away and getting the latest and great- wasn’t that exciting of a photo. It was a est gear. You can revive gear, keep it going moment of dirtbag climbing-bum living. longer than you think. It’s important to not But it pretty much launched my career. keep consuming blindly.
252 THE AMERICA ISSUE FEATURE 253 LOU WHITTAKER
NEW BALANCE RAINIER BOOT
Led the fi rst American ascent of Everest’s North Col in 1984; 250 summits of Mount Rainier (more than any other Rainier mountain guide); published author.
The New Balance Rainier boot came to be because of an ulcerated toe. It was 1975. We were sleeping above twenty thousand feet on K2, and I was in these rigid, eight-pound leather boots. The socks and boots pressed my toes together, cutting of circulation. I kept getting this discomfort in my foot, and I wasn’t sure what it was — maybe frostbite. I took my socks of and saw little holes in the sides of my toes. The doctor at basecamp said over the radio that I might lose my toes, maybe even my whole foot. I needed to get air to my feet. So I descended the mountain in lightweight tennis shoes. I fell down constantly. It was sixty miles on the Baltoro glacier, and then another forty miles to Skardu in Pakistan. A few months after I returned from K2, I approached New Balance and proposed a new kind of shoe — something lightweight, like the stuf they were already making, but with heavy lugs on the bottom. By the time I was back on Everest in ‘82 — the fi rst attempt of the North Wall on the China side — we were outfi tted with a great lightweight boot that increased our ability to move high on the mountain, up to about twenty-one thousand feet. From then on, that was the approach shoe on all of my Himalayan trips, as well as an all-purpose boot. On peaks like Kilimanjaro, we wore them all the way to the summit. And soon I began seeing the shoes all over. It gave climbers a lightweight shoe that made approaching, and sometimes summit- ing, easier than ever before.
254 THE AMERICA ISSUE