The Climb

by Anatoli Boukreev

  Wisely, although they had not made the target altitude of their excursion, the clients had turned back to the tents when the weather had abruptly changed.

  That night (April 24) I spoke by radio to Scott, who, along with Neal, was still at Base Camp, and we discussed the problems we had. Camp III was still not in place, and our Sherpas were bordering on exhaustion after having worked several days straight. I suggested that the next day four of our Sherpas go to the site of Camp III and set up our tents, then descend to Base Camp for a much needed rest. Sending them down meant they would not be able to work on April 26, and that complicated our situation.

  An agreement had been reached between Fischer, Rob Hall of Adventure Consultants, Todd Burleson of Alpine Ascents, Ian Woodall of the Johannesburg Sunday Times Expedition, and Makalu Gau of the Taiwanese National Expedition to cooperate in lacing the ropes between Camps III and IV on April 26. As the other expeditions had planned, Mountain Madness was not going to use any of its guides for this effort, but to instead dispatch several Sherpas to the job. Boukreev’s and Fischer’s problem: if Mountain Madness directed their Sherpas’ efforts to establishing Camp III on April 25 and then sent them to Base Camp to rest on April 26, they would have no Sherpas to contribute to the effort. So, a decision was made to send Boukreev in the Sherpas’ stead.

  We could have refrained from contributing, but we would have lost our privilege to be among some of the first expeditions to make our bid. May 10 was circulating as a proposed summit date, and we didn’t want to lose our position.

  The fixing of ropes from Camp III to Camp IV is one of the most laborious and time-consuming jobs that has to be done when laying siege to Everest on the Southeast Ridge Route, and Boukreev was pleased to get the assignment. He wanted to know that the route was ready and safe prior to the summit bid. But, to contribute to that effort he needed a day of rest, and it was agreed that he would spend the following day at Camp II, resting and collecting from each of the other expeditions their contribution of supplies that would be necessary for the job.

  Meanwhile, a few of the clients were becoming increasingly restless, frustrated by the delays and the seeming lack of focus of their guides. One of the clients, who has asked to remain anonymous, said that on several occasions when walking with two other Mountain Madness climbers between camps, they would talk among themselves about their situation. They “would raise comments about the fact that Neal, Scott, and Anatoli didn’t seem to be paying attention to details. Neal and Scott would go zipping by everybody like they were racing each other between camps, or they’d hang out and take photographs or something.” The “hired help,” as one of the clients referred to the guides, were not making a favorable impression.

  *Subsequently, a medical authority questioned about this reading agreed that Dr. Hunt was right to be concerned about a client who had exhibited symptoms of AMS and was testing in the 60s, but cautioned that pulse oximeters are notoriously inaccurate. One authority went so far as to say that a client who was obviously having difficulties and was continuously testing in the 60s could, if he or she persisted in efforts to ascend, be headed for a “dirt nap.”

  *The advice from Base Camp, however, was to intervene with drugs, because Ngwang’s symptoms suggested he wouldn’t be able to descend on his feet, but the drugs that were administered seemed to have no effect. Next they attempted to place him in a Gamow bag, a bag that can be inflated around a stricken climber and filled with air. This procedure increases the concentration of oxygen molecules and simulates a descent to a lower altitude.

  *Bromet had been able to report for a while from Base Camp after arranging to use a satellite phone that was kept in an “ice-box of a tent” in Mal Duff’s Everest Base Camp.

  CHAPTER 11

  TOWARD THE PUSH

  On April 25 the weather stabilized, and our clients, as was planned, began their excursion that would take them onto the fixed ropes. As Scott and I had agreed, I stayed at Camp II, resting for the work ahead, gathering the supplies we would need in the effort to fix ropes between Camps III and IV, and meeting with Ang Dorje Sherpa, Rob Hall’s climbing sirdar, to discuss how we would divide up the work the next day.

  Because Fischer was still in Base Camp and Beidleman had yet to make it to Camp II, the clients were left to maneuver their own way to the fixed ropes. Some of them made it to the target of 7,000 meters; others didn’t. Thanks to eager street vendors in Kathmandu, as one climber has since mused, the only people that were getting high were in Base Camp.*

  Very early in the morning, somewhere around 4:00 A.M., I started my climb from Camp II, barely awake and not too cheerful. Even strong coffee at that time in the morning is not much help! A full sky of stars suggested a good day, and as I squeaked along on firm-packed snow, I could see ahead of me by about 150 to 250 meters the headlamps of the Sherpas from Hall’s expedition, and behind me, trailing at about the same distance, I could see the bobbing lights of the Taiwanese Sherpas. Traveling in tandem at a steady pace, we made it to the site of Camp III in about three and one-half hours, arriving at about 7:30 A.M. as the first rays of sun began to edge toward two tents the Sherpas had set up the day before.

  Camp III, located at the end of the fixed ropes where Boukreev had stashed his carry two days previously, had been notched into the sloping face of Lhotse. Given the angle of the slope, about that of a ladder going to a second-story window, platforms for the two standing tents had been cut into a natural ice shelf, but another platform for a third tent still needed to be carved from the oblique ice, so Boukreev and the Sherpas went to work with the adze and pick ends of their ice ax heads. Using small arcing swings that pivoted from their wrists, they took the ice down in a steady rhythm.

  I left some of my things in the tents and advanced above Camp III where Ang Dorje and some other Sherpas from the Rob Hall expedition were already at work threading the fixed ropes. After one run of rope I changed positions with Ang Dorje, who had been in the lead, and for the rest of the day I worked in the lead as Ang Dorje belayed me, and the other Sherpas passed the ropes up the mountain. We went in this way for almost five hours, working at an even pace, until we reached 7,550 meters, a place just below the Yellow Band.*

  Having put in a full day, Boukreev decided to descend to Camp III to spend the night and further his acclimatization, while Ang Dorje and the other Sherpas who had been working on the fixed ropes returned to Camp II. Looking toward Camp II as he descended the fixed ropes, Boukreev expected to see activity around the tents or some of the Mountain Madness clients advancing toward the camp, but no one was in sight.

  The Mountain Madness clients at Camp II had spent most of the day in their tents resting because bad weather had pinned them down. Reporting on the day to NBC, Pittman groped for some “human interest” to flesh out her dispatch and devoted most of her coverage to the music the Mountain Madness climbers liked to listen to on the Base Camp boom-box or on their personal CD or cassette players. Neal Beidleman, Pittman reported, preferred the Chipmunks’ “Lollipop, Lollipop.” Lene Gammelgaard, she said, preferred Nick Cave’s “Murder Ballads.” As they were in music, they were on the mountain. Different.

  Beidleman, soft-spoken, measured, and solicitous, was a tall, forest pine for Gammelgaard’s lightning personality. Opinionated, strong-willed, determined to climb the mountain on her own terms and with a taste for the bold “out theres” of the world, she felt that Beidleman’s limited experience at high altitude made him overeager to prove himself, that he needed to be “worshiped” and “respected” as a guide. “And there’s no way I did that… . T don’t need a guide, especially not you.’… And when he doesn’t get that, then he has to find another way, which doesn’t work … so, ‘Grow up… . Stay away from me or I’ll kill you.’ … So, I think he had a hard time with me.”

  Like Boukreev and Fischer, Beidleman had a few critics among the clients, but he kept a professional edge to his encounters, only rarely slipping from character to offer a public par
ry.

  That evening I had our tents at Camp III to myself and enjoyed the solitude and quiet on the Lhotse Face away from the activity of Base Camp. Using one of our high-altitude stoves, I prepared tea and some food. Often, as you advance in altitude, you lose your appetite, but because of the day’s work I was particularly hungry and devoured my dinner. Later, as the temperature fell and the cold began to return to my body, I made a radio call to Base Camp asking that the Sherpas bring more rope up the next day, and then I zipped into my sleeping bag and fell almost immediately to sleep.

  Boukreev’s first night above seven thousand meters was more fitful than those he’d spent at Camp. II, and he woke with a lethargy not unusual as one advances to a higher altitude in the acclimatization routine. Somewhere between 7:00 and 8:00 A.M., as he continued to rest in the warmth of his sleeping bag, a few Sherpas passed his tent in conversation as they carried a supply of rope up to the Yellow Band. Still not fully restored after his day of work and fighting for about thirty minutes the desire to stay nestled in the warmth of his bag, Boukreev finally wriggled out of his tent and clipped onto the fixed rope that was little more than a stride from the zippered flap of his tent.

  As I advanced up the ropes, I checked the work we had done in the days before, making certain the anchors that had been placed were not creeping and that our tie-offs were secure. Also, I was removing some lengths of old rope that still remained attached to anchors we were using, wanting to prevent a climber from mistakenly clipping on to an old rope that was either weak or not properly anchored. I could see Ang Dorje working in the lead. In cooperation, we advanced the route further above the Yellow Band, and then stopped for rest and lunch.

  As Boukreev drank hot tea from his thermos, he watched as Sherpas above him pulled old fixed ropes out of the snow and examined their condition. Sorting through them, they chose the ropes that appeared still sound and then climbed higher, fixing those ropes and new rope to anchors as they went, advancing the route. After a brief rest, Boukreev followed behind the Sherpas, examining the fixed ropes as he went, making his way to the South Col.

  At about 7,800 meters, at a place where the rise to the South Col was becoming more gentle, I saw the Sherpas who had been ahead now descending. I asked how they were doing, and they reported “good” but that they were hurrying to return to Camp II before darkness fell. Because I was planning to spend another night at Camp III, I had not such a long descent ahead and I continued on to find a site for our Camp IV and to leave a high-altitude tent that I had been ferrying. The wind, as I came to the South Col, was high and steady, but I had not observed any threatening weather during the day, nor did there seem to be any immediate possibility of a storm, so I took the time to locate a place from which we would launch our summit bid.

  Descending to Camp III after locating a site for Mountain Madness’s Camp IV, Boukreev, to his relief, found that five of Fischer’s eight clients, Lene Gammelgaard, Klev Schoening, Martin Adams, Sandy Hill Pittman, and Dale Kruse, had arrived during his absence. To Boukreev the climbers seemed to be doing well, and were strong after their climb from II to III, but he recalled his own first night up and considered that things have a way of changing at altitude.

  The next morning (April 28) we all arose somewhere around 8:00 A.M. as the sun began to warm our tents. By radio we were informed that Scott and Neal had advanced to Camp II and were planning that day to climb to Camp III for their acclimatization. My condition, I think because of my work, was much improved, though I was still tired, and all of the clients except for Lene and Dale seemed to be adjusting well. Lene’s eyes were red and inflamed and she was somewhat lethargic. Like me the day before, she seemed to be having some minor, but not threatening problems. Dale Kruse was altogether a different matter.

  Continuing to be concerned about Kruse, Boukreev was monitoring him closely and noticed that, unlike the other clients, he seemed “apathetic, withdrawn and distant.” To Boukreev’s trained eye, Kruse looked to be in trouble. Around 10:00 A.M., Martin Adams, who’d finally had his night at Camp III, started to gather his gear and said he was going down as soon as he was together. Boukreev, particularly eager to get Kruse to a lower altitude, was encouraging all of the climbers to follow Adams’s lead.

  One night at that altitude for a person who has come there for the first time in his or her life was, I thought, enough, and I was discouraging both Lene and Sandy, who were expressing a desire to spend yet another night at Camp III. I thought that their ambitions were misplaced, that they needed rest, so I proposed that they consider climbing that morning to 7,500 to 7,600 meters and then descend to Camp II, but neither appeared to have any desire to climb higher.

  As I talked with the clients about their intentions, I noticed that Dale’s situation seemed to be getting worse, and I began to encourage him to prepare for a descent, and I was joined in my efforts by some of the clients who were also becoming concerned about his deteriorating condition.

  Finally, Kruse was convinced, and he began to pack his gear and get dressed for the descent. As Boukreev watched Kruse moving about, his concern turned to alarm. Kruse, according to Boukreev, was “wobbly, having trouble standing,” and now, Boukreev thought, he had a potential disaster on his hands. Kruse was a big man, much larger than Boukreev, and he was not in total control of his movements. If Kruse fell, Boukreev wasn’t at all certain that he could get him up and safely to Camp II.

  I got Dale onto the fixed ropes with some difficulty. Whether it was his condition or my problem of making myself understood, I don’t know, but it took a lot for me to explain how he should clip on and move with me to descend. Fortunately, as we were beginning our descent, Scott and Neal came into view, and Scott, immediately upon seeing Dale’s condition, began to assist.

  We decided that the two of us would take Dale down, while Neal stayed behind at Camp III, because he needed to get an overnight for his acclimatization.

  Securing Kruse with a rope attached to his climbing harness, Fischer led the descent. He, in turn, was secured to Boukreev, who trailed the two of them. Behind Kruse, Fischer, and Boukreev, Lene Gammelgaard followed, but Sandy Hill Pittman, despite Boukreev’s encouragement and advice, had elected to remain behind.

  Somewhere around 6,900 meters Kruse began to rouse, to come to his senses, and he seemed much more in control of his movements. Finally, around 5:00 P.M., as we made it to the bottom of the slopes of Lhotse and onto the Western Cwm that would take us to Camp II, Kruse seemed back to normal, and we removed our connecting ropes to move independently.

  As Kruse moved down the glacier in front of them, Fischer and Boukreev talked about the events of the past several days, Boukreev about the progress that had been made on the climbing route, Fischer about the problems with which he’d been dealing at Base Camp.

  Scott was sharing with me the situation with Ngawang Topche Sherpa, telling me that Lopsang Jangbu Sherpa had flown with his uncle and Ingrid to Kathmandu and that the rescue costs were maybe going to be as much as $10,000. This expense, Ngawang Topche’s condition, his use of oxygen from our dwindling supply, and the fact that our Sherpas had still not prepared Camp IV or taken our oxygen supplies to that altitude were of the greatest concern to Scott. Seeing his openness, I talked with him about our Sherpa team, saying I felt it had not been strong from the beginning and that, when compared to Rob Hall’s team headed by Ang Dorje, ours was not as strong or as well led. In discussing this we agreed that after the expedition we should evaluate how our Sherpas had performed and consider who among them should join future expeditions.

  Safely in Camp II by dark, Fischer checked in with both Base Camp and Camp III, and while there were no encouraging reports on Ngawang Topche Sherpa’s condition, no other immediate problems needed Scott’s attention, so he decided to ascend the next day with Pete Schoening to Camp III in the hope that the elder Schoening could further acclimatize and continue his bid for the summit.

  On the morning of April 29, Scott and Pete began th
eir ascent to Camp III, and I continued my descent to Base Camp, climbing with both Dale and Lene. For much of the route I was constantly securing and controlling the movements of Dale, because, while he was much improved from the day before, I was concerned that he could make a mistake, especially in the Icefall, and I wanted to avoid a problem there. Arrival in Base Camp was a relief and the warm temperatures a welcome pleasure. After six continuous nights above Base Camp and the work that I had been doing on the fixed ropes, I was much in need of a rest.

  On April 30, I made use of the quiet and good weather in Base Camp and took some simple pleasures: a shower and the time to read a book in the sun. I understood from my body that I had acclimatized well, and I made plans to descend to the forest zone for an extended rest and again encouraged Martin Adams to do the same.

  We were now strewn up and down the mountain from Pheriche, where Tim and Charlotte had gone to recover from AMS symptoms, to Camp III where Scott had spent the previous night with Pete. This geographical spread was not of particular concern to me as the art of acclimatizing is not something that can be held to a rigid schedule, dependent as it is upon events, circumstances, and personal physiologies, but what did concern me was the spread of readiness between the Mountain Madness climbers. Of growing concern to me was Scott, whose routine had repeatedly been broken in his efforts going up and down the mountain.

  By May 1, every one of the guides and clients, except for Charlotte Fox and Tim Madsen, had returned to Base Camp. Fischer, longing for some rest, decided to take a shower before dinner. As Boukreev rested in his tent, he heard Lene Gammelgaard call to Fischer as he emerged from his shower.