SCALING THE WORLD’S MOST CHALLENGING SUMMITS IS DANGEROUS TO SOME. TO DAVE HAHN, IT’S JUST A MATTER OF WALKING UPHILL A LITTLE LONGER THAN USUAL. KING SHEER FEAR OF THE HILLBY MICHAEL HAEDERLE photo: matthew turley matthew photo: 74 discovery channel magazine.com september 2009 75 WAS A LONG, COLD NIGHT IN After this first and most harrow- ROUTE TO THE TOP MAY 1994. CROUCHED ALONE ing success, Hahn went on to climb Hahn grew up in Kingston, New York, IIN A SNOWTSTORM 8,500 Everest a further ten times, more where his father, a former climber in than any other non-Sherpa, estab- Yosemite National Park, took him METRES UP ON THE NORTHEAST lishing himself as one of the world’s camping in the nearby Catskill and RIDGE OF MOUNT EVEREST leading high-altitude climbers. The Adirondack Mountains. As a teenag- lanky 47-year-old has also conquered er he visited his mother’s hometown – without oXYgen – DAVE the 4,897-metre Vinson Massif, the of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and HAHN HUNG ON FOR FIRST highest peak in Antarctica, a record scaled the craggy 3,255-metre Sandia LIGHT, DESPERATELY WILLING 26 times. Add to that 18 ascents of Crest. He returned to New Mexico af- Mount McKinley (also known as De- ter college to work as a ski instructor, HIMSELF TO STAY AWAKE AFTER nali) in Alaska and more than 250 but had an epiphany in 1985 when he 48 HOURS OF CONTINUOUS scalings of Mount Rainier in the US enrolled in a mountaineering course state of Washington and you have run by the Mount Rainier guide ser- CLIMBING. HE WAS CLOSE TO one extremely busy – not to mention vice. “After that I knew exactly what “AT THE END OF A DAY OF JUST GUIDING ... SUMMITING THE WORLD’S competent – climber. I was going to do,” he recalls. “I knew When asked about his accomplish- I was going to get on with the guide I FEEL LIKE KING OF THE WORLD” HIGHEST PEAK, BUT HE KNEW ments, Hahn is surprisingly modest. service.” THAT IF HE FELL ASLEEP HE “Nobody would rightly rank me with On his first attempt at climbing WOULD PROBABLY SUCCUMB great climbers,” he says, claiming Mount Rainier, a 4,392-metre peak he is just a good guide. He classifies with extensive glaciers fed by North TO HYPOTHERMIA AND DIE. climbers as the ones “looking for Pacific storms, Hahn and his com- DESPITE HIS DESPERATE challenges in unclimbed faces and ... panions were turned back by bad doing things that haven’t been done weather and avalanche conditions, jimmy chin alamy; photos: SITUATION, HE FELT TRULY before.” But Conrad Anker, who first but he completed the route later that EXHILARATED. HE KNEW HE climbed with Hahn in Antarctica in summer. He joined the guide ser- WAS GOING TO MAKE IT. 1997, begs to differ. “For the kind of vice in 1986, the same year he first work he does – high-altitude guiding climbed 6,193-metre McKinley. – he’s one of the best,” says Anker. Over the next 20 years, Hahn per- Hahn climbs year-round, but fected his skills as a guide on some when it’s time to rest he can usually of the world’s most difficult moun- be found at his rambling old adobe tains – including Everest. Clearly house outside Taos, New Mexico. The in love with climbing, Hahn enjoys whitewashed plaster walls are hung the sheer beauty of wild places and with relief maps and photos from his how it changes the way he looks at climbing expeditions, and the décor the world and his fellow climbers. “I is accessorised with ice axes and old always have liked being on a team. oxygen cylinders he’s collected from When a team works well and accom- his trips. He particularly treasures a plishes something, it’s satisfying.” weathered cylinder used on Sir Ed- His teams have included some of mund Hillary’s historic 1953 ascent the world’s greats, but the one man of Everest. he counts as a real inspiration was the photos: matthew turley; jimmy chin turley; matthew photos: first to everest’s summit Jim Whittaker: first American, 1963 Junko Tabei : first woman, 1975 Reinhold Messner, Peter Habeler: first without bottled oxygen, 1978 76 discovery channel magazine.com may 2009 77 otherwise she would have died,” FINDING Hahn says. Amazingly, Bista recov- ered with few lasting effects. Hahn’s commitment to safety, and the lives MALLORY of other climbers is echoed most suc- cinctly in a quote to MountainZone. The body lay where it had fallen, Northeast Ridge, where Mallory com: “I am most proud of ... the four high on the northern flank of and Irvine had last been seen on times I’ve turned around within a Mount Everest, face down on a June 8, 1924. thousand feet of Everest’s summit.” steep slope. Dave Hahn trained Anker had spotted the frozen his video camera as teammate body, but at first everyone had CLOSE CALLS Jake Norton turned over a label assumed it was Irvine’s because Despite his impressive rescue cre- sewn into the corpse’s tattered it lay hundreds of metres below dentials, Hahn has also been on the shirt collar. It read: “G. Mallory.” where his axe had been found in receiving end. In 2002, a helicopter “Oh my God!” Hahn exclaimed. 1933. “It felt like being in a time he was in crashed on Mount Rainier Seventy-five years after George machine … it’s not real common while on its way to perform a rescue Mallory and Andrew Irvine’s ill- that you come across another on Liberty Ridge. The helicopter’s tail fated 1924 summit attempt, Hahn climber wearing gear from the rotor hit some ice and, Hahn recalls, had joined an expedition seeking 1920s,” Hahn says. They searched “We ... corkscrewed back into the clues to their fate. It was May 1, Mallory’s pockets, looking for a glacier.” Despite the crash landing, 1999 and standing there at an camera Irvine was known to carry he was remarkably unscathed and altitude of 8,229 metres, he had in the hope it would hold clues. was able to help the injured climber. helped bring new evidence to “We found a bunch of letters and A military chopper airlifted everyone one of climbing’s most enduring notes wrapped up in a bandana,” to safety. A few days later, an ava- mysteries: Had Mallory and Irvine Hahn says, but no camera. Before lanche swept the wrecked helicopter made it to the summit, nearly 30 descending, they covered Mal- into a crevasse. years before Sir Edmund Hillary lory’s body with rocks. But apart from a few knee opera- and Tenzing Norgay? “I think we’re all tions, Hahn has managed to avoid Hahn and fellow pretty well convinced serious injuries during his career. climbers Norton, Con- that they had their His biggest health scare came in his rad Anker, Andy Politz accident on their way late 30s, when he was nearly forced and Tap Richards had down, that they were photos: jimmy chin photos: to retire after discovering he had fanned out across the together,” Hahn says. Hahn says his suc- late Alex Lowe, a guide, Andy Lapkass, who had spent celiac disease, a gluten intolerance “What we weren’t cess as a guide is legendary pio- the night near the summit without that degrades the digestive tract. He able to tell the world because he always neer climber oxygen or shelter. After first aid, they developed serious anaemia, which is whether they made reminds himself to be scared of death. who died in an escorted the dazed climbers back to impaired his oxygen-carrying ca- it to the top.” avalanche in camp, although Hahn thought at the pacity and robbed him of energy at 1999. “I’ve met time that “the chance of getting the high altitude. Today he controls his When discovered, mallory’s body and personal effects were remarkably a lot of people who climb really well, two climbers down alive no longer condition by monitoring his diet and well preserved despite the altitude. it was a moment Hahn describes as but somebody I would actually view existed.” avoiding foods containing wheat, both “magically confusing” and “adrenaline-surging.” as a hero ... Alex was unique,” he barley, rye and oats. says. nd in May 2007, Hahn was Through it all, Hahn says he re- Hahn’s own career has had its heading to the summit of mains motivated by the challenge share of heroics. On one Everest Everest on the Southeast of taking on something bigger than expedition, he and his team came Ridge when he and his himself. “I don’t need to go to Ever- across three Siberian climbers Sherpa came across Nepali est every year,” he says. suffering from altitude sickness at climber Usha Bista, who He says that, just as when he 8,626 metres. “We gave out Decad- had been abandoned by her started climbing, he still lives for the ron (anti-oedema) pills as if they Ateam at 8,321 metres. She was show- challenge of the mountains, for go- were candy at a Halloween party,” ing signs of cerebral oedema, or brain ing to places that fascinate him, and he wrote later. They also gave them swelling. Hahn gave her drugs and for the natural beauty. precious water and oxygen, and oxygen and organised a daring res- “At the end of a day of just guid- helped them down. Further up, cue. “I grabbed her by her legs and ing, in difficult mountains, I feel like they found Guatemalan climber started dragging her down, because king of the world,” he says.