Hi Everyone, I will finish up with this blog writing now that the Everest climb is over, however I know a few of you are interested to read a final account of summit day. A lot happened on summit day, plenty of which remains very vivid in my recollection of events, however there are other elements that remain a little blurry given the oxygen deprived nature of my mind at the time!. I will endeavor to recite the whole summit day experience for you.
Below is the account and some pictures of the final ascent. I will post in the next few days an account of the eventful descent down from the summit to camp (and it was certainly a most eventful one in many respects) and then I hope to finish up this blog shortly thereafter with a few final reflections on the Everest experience. Cheers for now..David
Summit Day : 20-21 May 2008
Just hours before our departure for the summit we set the alarm for 830pm with the plan to depart at 10pm. It would take a good 1.5 hours to get prepared – force down some more food and fluids, and then organize our final gear for the summit – the objective being to travel as light as possible - suncream, mitts, inner gloves, camera, snacks, goggles, sunnies and water bottles (needed to be filled with hot water and kept in custom pockets on the inside of my down suit to prevent them from freezing). Outside we were distracted by the headlamps and sounds of other teams busy preparing for a slightly earlier start than us.
830pm soon came and by this time we had given up on any proper rest. It was now all go for Andy, Anselm and myself. Immediately we got the stove going to reheat some water and get some more noodles on the boil. Time passed quickly as we prepared. Before we knew it was time to get going.
Starting out for the summit we changed to a new oxygen bottle set at a flow of 2L/min; this would last us about 8 hours to about 6am tomorrow morning which will get us a good way to the summit. A final last check of gear, our harnesses, and lastly climbing out of the tent to fix our crampons, we paired up with our sherpas with a 1:1 ratio. We wandered through the campsite, past the glow of other tents, into darkness. Darkness that would lead us ever higher to the upper reaches of Everest.
The climb out of C4 starts out on a lightly crevassed snowfield, which initially, was a gentle slope heading directly upwards. But this continues to get ever steeper, and then for some 400m ascend directly up over a mix of rock, loose scree and snow. The steepness is unrelenting.
Towards the top of the face, the route traverses to the right over a right band then up a snow slope to The Balcony. The Balcony is a small flat platform which is slightly sheltered by a large bolder, and marks the start of the ridge which we will then ascend all the way to the South Summit, The Hillary Step and then onto Everest's summit. On the opposite of The Balcony, the ridge drops several thousand meters down the other side into Tibet.
Upon setting out, we could see well ahead of us up the route, a trail of headlamps of those climbers that left earlier. Even higher again was a small team of sherpas who would do the final fixing of the route from the South Summit to the true summit.
For summit day, as many other climbers do, I had a fresh pair of heavy woolen mountaineering socks to wear. Well I wasn't but a few hundred meters out of camp and I immediately noticed that my feet were especially loose in my boots. This bothered me, as being too loose could mean that my feet could get colder than what they would otherwise, possibly risking frostbite. Furthermore, without having a slightly snug foot it could make footing on more technical parts of the route, dangerously slippery. But I did not want to turn back to camp to change socks, we were underway now, so I could only hope these problems would not materialize perhaps jeopardizing the climb later on.
I was feeling good starting out on the trail. Oxygen was working better. I was feeling more comfortable with it with a good steady breathing pattern. I went ahead of rest of our team and my partnering sherpa, Zhangbu.
It was a great night; no wind and relatively mild temperatures (for 8,000m!). I made steady progress up the route; soon catching a number of slower climbers which were all part of a larger group. Every so often they would stop on the route and take some video footage. That did this several times and it was becoming annoying as this hindered my momentum up the route, and used up critical summit and oxygen time.
I managed to bypass this larger group, stepping out wide around numerous climbers. In passing, I could not identify their nationality. There was very little talking; everyone was in their little oxygen zone and focused on moving only upwards in their slow, steady state.
In the monotony of climbing in the dark, time passed without noticing. There were hours of climbing ahead of us. It was dark. Nothing to look at. The extent of my world at this time was only as far as the reach of my headlamp beam; usually focused on the fixed line immediately in front. To the left and right of the lines just more rock, and snow. Safety line, after safety line we moved along. The upward climb became mechanical like; switched on auto-pilot; the mind void of any thought otherwise. Thinking consumed valuable energy.
As we moved through some more technical sections of rock, the work effort became greater, and suddenly I would be gasping for breath. Suffocating behind the oxygen mask I would need to desperately pull it from my face to get my breath back before regaining composure.
Despite this though, I still felt that I was moving well. Looking back down at C4 it was evident I had gained quite a bit of altitude. I have no idea what time it was; I never thought about it and didn't care really. Looking back, I tried to identify fellow team members but could not in the glare of those oncoming climber's headlamps.
Every so often I would catch up to some slower climbers; usually at the rock steps and at changeover of fixed lines where it seemed that their sherpas would often do the clipping and unclipping for them onto the safety line. This was really hard to believe and showed some lack of basic skills of some people attempting Everest.
I finally reached the upper snow slope to climb up onto the ridge to reach The Balcony. There was already a huddle of climbers there; checking gear, taking a short rest, and some even changing oxygen bottles. There was not much chat, this was not the place for it; only a few short muffled hellos from beneath our oxygen masks.
This group soon moved on, and I remained. I wanted to wait for Zhangbu and the other guys to catch up but I could not see them. By now the sky was starting to lighten with the early rising sun. Starting still, waiting, I started to get extremely cold. Shivering. I could feel my feet and toes getting cold. I have to keep warm but at 8,400m standing on a ridge on Everest, there is no shelter. I was confident to continue climbing up alone. By now I could see clearly up the route all the way to the South Summit; numerous climbers strewn along the full length of the knife edge ridge.
It was upon reaching The Balcony that for the first time I gained a sense of being up high. Set behind C4 was Lhotse – the 4th tallest mountain in the world at 8,516m - now I was standing almost as high as it's summit looking across at it; incredible.
I continued with the steady pace moving up ridge. After perhaps an hour or so I started to keep an eye on my oxygen level. I was not in a rush to change the bottle until such time most of the oxygen had been consumed. By taking this approach, it would mean I could use my 2nd bottle later, which would then effectively last longer for the descent.
It was around 6am that I changed over to the second bottle. By this time, I had radioed to other guys to learn they were only 15-20 minutes behind me. I rested a little for both Anselm and Zhangbu to catch up and from here on, we continued to climb closer to each other.
It was a long this section that I noticed a bloke it his mid 40's perhaps climbing without oxygen, we spoke briefly and I was especially impressed by the fact he was climbing without oxygen at what was a pretty respectable pace, albeit it looked like bloody hard work, and his rest stops were particularly heavy. We continued on and upwards together – he setting a similar pace, every so often stopping for a well needed rest.
Also along this section was, we caught up to a large stocky climber in a blue suit and wearing a dark pair of Tom Cruise shades. He was particularly slow, and was struggling at each of the rocky sections. We were stuck behind him with no opportunity to pass, and other climbers were starting to catch up with us.
Part way up one of the rock sections the guy obviously fatigued and must of held him self to the fixed lines for 10 minutes or so. He was struggling. We attempted to climb past him on an older line (not the main line he was climbing on) and he yelled down to us to get off it! We respected his request, and waited patiently along with those other climbers behind us until he climbed up the rock band onto the snow slope above. It was there we were able to skirt by him.
Anselm climbed on ahead. The slope become quite steep and I knew we were nearing a high spot along the route as the route was no longer visible above.
I climbed up it, and not realizing it, had just climbed up onto the South Summit at 8,750m. There in front of me was the most impressive view, perhaps the most memorable of the whole climb, of the Hillary Step rising up to the jagged summit ridge of Everest – absolutely magically. It was at this point now that I knew the summit of Everest would be mine. I checked my watch and it was 8am – we had been climbing for 10 hours.
We took a good break on the South Summit; and sat there in awe of the breathtaking 360 degree views. A sensational dark blue sky. No wind to chill out bodies to the core. In fact the temperature seemed that of a warm spring day…..oh how deceiving Everest can be! When we were down at base camp these past weeks we were surrounded by numerous 7,500m peaks towering above our camp. Now, we were a good kilometer above those very same peaks, all of which now were barely recognizable as we looked down upon their summits.
Looking at the Hillary Step and towards the summit, a number of climbers could be seen moving up and down the route; some already on their way back from the summit. We heard of traffic jams on the Hillary Step as climbers try to pass each other on this very exposed section of the route, but none were evident.
From the South Summit it was a short steep climb down, before then ascending up the Hillary Step.
The Step was covered in a tangle of fixed lines which have been there from previous years climbing. To trust any of these older lines was too risky. Instead I would apply some simple science of looking for the newest looking line (likely this year's) and along with it, grab some of the older lines and hoist myself up the route. Ascending the Hillary Step in this fashion was relatively easy; about 3-4 steps – one cramponed foot on the rock, and one behind me wedged into the snow and I was up one of the steepest sections.
The route then moved back onto snow for what was the final summit approach, the RHS of which faced Tibet and was very heavily corniced with massive exposure.
To the summit it was a slow, steady plod; the prayer flags of the summit clearly visible. Be patient I thought. One step at a time. The route went no higher; I could only see blue sky. I had reached the summit of Everest!
………(to be continued)
