My Experience on Mt. Everest. John All
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My Experience on Mt. Everest. John All This narrative describes my climb of the North Col/North Ridge Route on Mt. Everest and is selections from my journal of the climb. This route is accessed through Tibet and is the one attempted by George Mallory and various British teams prior to World War II. It was closed to climbing after the Chinese invasion of Tibet and only re-opened in the late 1970’s. It is one of the two main climbing routes used today – the other being the southern route that Hillary and Norgay used for the first ascent of the mountain in 1953. The Hillary route begins in Nepal and is by far the easier and safer of the two. Currently, if you summit from North side, there is a 5% chance you will not survive the descent. In 2010, there were approximately 150 people who attempted the climb from Tibet. Approximate 50 people summitted and 7 people died that we know of (expeditions leave the bodies on the mountain and will not talk about deaths because it hurts their reputation, so those are only what we know about from talking to the Sherpas), thus this year was almost a 15% summit death rate. Be careful what you wish for… The first three days of the route are spent ascending the East Rongbuk glacier, but I do not talk about that long slog through loose rock and seracs or the time spent at 5200 meters and 6400 meters acclimatizing other than to say: It feels like you have a lead suit on your body every minute. Even getting into your sleeping bag leaves you gasping for breath like you are so close to dying. Most of the day you just lay in the tent staring at the ceiling. Small tasks to do begin to fill your mind but you just can't move and after hours of thinking about doing something like putting on lip balm, you slap yourself and get up and do your chores on your way to eat and drink and then immediately go back to bed. I was lying in the tent reading a Newsweek where they were talking about all of 'torture' techniques that Bush allowed during his reign. Unfortunately most of them also sound like climbing here - drowning, cold exposure, lack of sleep, hunger, etc. This is a beautiful bleak place that does its best to break you every minute, every day. Laughing here leads to a coughing fit that lasts 5 minutes. Pretty much everything leads to a coughing fit; which leads to the feeling that you are drowning and 'can you just catch your breath and please breath easily before you die'. I can barely stand sleeping with myself because I smell so badly of salt and every other odor you can imagine. After a long time of that slow wasting, mixed with carrying loads to higher camps, your lungs have adapted to 6400 meters and you are ready to climb. Cast: I was not climbing with a big commercial expedition. I climbed with a British chap named Ed, whose wife had been volunteering with the Himalayan Rescue Association while he climbed here for a few months. We hired a man we knew named Anil to handle the permits and logistics and two Sherpas brothers named NaTenji and Lhakpa to help carry tents and oxygen up to the higher camps. Ed and I climbed at different speeds, so it was usually me alone on the mountain until we reached camp. May 20, 2010. North Col, Mt Everest. 7050 m. -11deg C I had trouble sleeping again last night because of too much rest and nervous anticipation of the climb the next day. Also, we got hit by a heck of a wind/snow storm. It shook the tent like crazy all night and it forced snow into every vent and tiny opening. I stuffed my shoes into a crack in the floor of the vestibule that was blasting me with snow. Finally it let up and I fell asleep. I didn't read or anything because I wanted to give my mind free reign to think and plan the climb. Once I got up this morning, I was packed really quickly except for drying my snow-covered sleeping bag. But everyone else was much slower so I had plenty of time. We took several pictures and breathed incense before we left. I had forgotten how ungainly my overboots are and difficult to walk in, but they kept me from getting too badly frostbitten so far and are worth the trouble. The climb begins on scree and climbs the first couple of hundred meters of elevation slipping and trying not to twist an ankle on the loose rock, but I felt good and moved through it quickly. I took some GCPs to slow myself down and make the unpleasant section worthwhile – the glacier margin is here and so any climate changes will be along the rock/ice edge. The line of scree slowly pinches out between the glacier and a cliff and we put on crampons where the cliff rained a thin veneer of rock into the grooves of the glacier. Next, it is a pleasant, relatively flat walk on the translucent glacier that extended for miles around us to the North Col headwall. There are small, twelve-inch wide crevasses every once in a while, but nothing too difficult to jump – even though some of them extend for 30 or more feet into the darkness below. As you are walking towards the North Col headwall, it appears easy from a distance but gets steeper and trickier looking as you get closer. From here on it is crampons, ice axes, and fixed ropes for safety. The ropes are put it by the Chinese Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) as part of our climbing permit costs. They are not very strong, but help with the climbing and MIGHT hold a bad fall. The Chinese side of the mountain is far better organized for a far cheaper price than the Nepal side. But the Nepal route is far easier to climb – especially at the upper sections – and thus has far fewer people die every year. Not surprisingly, the lower death toll and higher success rate attracts climbers to the Nepal side of the mountain in far higher numbers in spite of the dollar cost. Overall, the North Col headwall is a very pleasant climb. We wandered through snow ramps and up a lot more steep ice than I expected. The views were incredible and we had left late enough in the day that we could pretty much move at our own pace. The climbing is a lot longer than I expected, but never too strenuous. The altitude slowed us down, but was never that big of a deal unless I tried to move super fast and pass someone. Then I felt like someone was strangling me - for a few seconds you just cannot take in enough air. There were two ladders across crevasses we had to cross on the route and the second one was a decent size with a long fall and surprisingly at the edge of a cliff, so there was good exposure to your left as you stepped on the ladder over the void. I rushed across it because it was a major bottle neck but Ed was polite and got caught behind four people descending and five climbing. Bei peak is just to the northwest and is the ridge behind which Camp 1 hides. It is steep and much harder that I expected but it a good looking peak. Below the peak, on its ridge heading east, there is the incredible wall of yellow and black striated alternating zones. Perfect colors for sunset and just a beautiful wall. Looking south, Everest suddenly looks so CLOSE. A long snow ramp, then a rock ramp that looks super straight forward to reach the Northeast Ridge, then some tough rock through the Steps to a snow pyramid and the summit. It seems no more than a couple of hours walk on a good day - if it was thousands of meters lower in elevation! Even if it was lower, I think it would still be a major attraction because it is so beautiful and the route so aesthetically pleasing. While I am not looking forward to sleeping up there in the cold, I am incredibly excited about the route and the climbing and visiting Chomolungma (the Tibetan name for Mt. Everest). It was actually a perfect day - sunny but not super hot and just a few occasional wind gusts - of course they were monsters when they came and one of them froze my beard solid! We got to the North Col around 3 or so and found that Ed's tent had been beaten into a new shape. At least it was still here- Ed was talking to a guide and they both watched as the wind launched his tent and its contents - sleeping bag, pad, clothes, etc - over the 2000 foot cliff. His climb was ended before it began. I dug our fuel canisters out of the ice while Ed prepared to cook. He made some of the Indian food while I rested. It tasted great, but now my stomach hurts and I fear it will require a bathroom break (into a crevasse on the glacier) later tonight. Ed also melted a lot of glacier ice, so now I have two hot water bottles at my feet for tomorrow. The tent keeps getting hit by rare but incredibly strong winds.