The Climb

by Anatoli Boukreev

  KLEV: On the summit—this is Klev—I personally did not see any threatening weather. And I know that Neal mentioned to me that he, after the fact, that he did. You just mentioned that you some kind of weather pattern coming in.

  ANATOLI: What?

  KLEV: You saw some kind of weather coming in from the summit? Did you see bad weather coming in?

  ANATOLI: Strong wind began. Because it was—before it was little white and sun, and began strong wind and cold wind. I felt what I felt.

  KLEV: When I was at the summit, there was a strong wind. I didn’t feel it intensify, but I didn’t see any evidence personally of snow or deteriorating weather.

  SANDY: I agree. I didn’t sense any deteriorating weather. I felt a sense that we were late on the summit—

  KLEV: Yes.

  SANDY:—not because I was told that we had a deadline on the summit, but because I was aware of it from previous climbers’ stories about when you should be off and on. And, if I felt any anxiety up there, it was because we were late, but not because I saw any weather.

  LENE: This is Lene. Before I decided to go up over the Hillary Step, I noticed a whiteout coming from the valleys and I saw the wind pick up over the summit.

  ANATOLI: Little bit, maybe little bit. It is difficult to feel. But when I asked somebody, maybe— How many time, Klev, you spent for summit—on summit?

  KLEV: You’re asking me how much time I spent?

  ANATOLI: Yeah.

  KLEV: I think I spent about twenty, twenty-five minutes there.

  ANATOLI: Yeah, because I was longer, and I felt this.

  KLEV: Yes, you were there much longer than I was.

  ANATOLI: More than one hour.

  KLEV: Yes.

  ANATOLI: And I felt this began strong wind. Not so—Very difficult to say that it will be bad weather. Little, like intuition. Little began wind and cold. I ask somebody to make picture. Nobody have initiative to make many pictures because it was cold. Very cold.

  KLEV: So, Anatoli, Scott asked you at the summit, when you saw him, to beeline it to camp and start making tea. My question for Lopsang is, who was left in camp of the Sherpas?

  LOPSANG: Pemba Sherpa.

  KLEV: Pemba? One Sherpa. Pemba was left in camp.

  LOPSANG: Yeah.

  KLEV: And what were his instructions? What was he supposed to do there?

  LOPSANG: Making tea, uh—

  SANDY: Can you pause just a second while I change tapes?

  SANDY: This is tape number two, Everest debriefing, May fifteenth, 1996.

  SANDY: The last question was, What was the responsibility of the Sherpa that was left at Base Camp—I mean at the South Col—and was he aware—?

  LOPSANG: Pemba Sherpa.

  SANDY: His name was Pemba.

  INGRID: Is he considered a climbing Sherpa? So, he was someone who could go to the summit? Has that kind of experience or whatever?

  LOPSANG: Yeah, he had the experience climbing with—[UI]—so, we need—[UI],

  INGRID: So you left a strong Sherpa at the South Col?

  LOPSANG: And, we keep to South Col.

  INGRID: Okay.

  ANATOLI: Pemba, what has Pemba climb before? This your brother—

  LOPSANG: He climbing Everest six times.

  ANATOLI: Six times?

  LOPSANG: Not going to summit; he no pass.

  ANATOLI: Who make tea, yeah?

  LOPSANG: He climbing with me Kanchenjunga, 8,300 meter—[UI]—Japanese—[UI].

  ANATOLI: He have experience?—[UI].

  LOPSANG: [UI].

  ANATOLI: But he look like—

  LOPSANG: Climbing ten or eleven mountain. Same age. Looks very young, but same age. And he making tea and hot water. So two Sherpa come back and he tell to Pemba and you and Pemba going to have some member.

  KLEV: This is Klev. Did Pemba have a radio?

  LOPSANG: Yeah. He had a radio.

  KLEV: He had one of the black Base Camp radios?

  LOPSANG: Yeah. Black radio. Camp IV.

  SANDY: Let’s talk about the chronology of the descent. Martin led the descent for the group, right? Or, Anatoli?

  ANATOLI: Began, yes. First time I pass Martin and I began to go down for fix line because I afraid this is very old rope who make to like two people and began strong wind with snow. What I felt maybe between 8,700–8,500 meters.

  SANDY: Is where the storm began?

  ANATOLI: Yes. Yes.

  SANDY: What is the landmark there?

  ANATOLI: Visibility lose.

  SANDY: What’s the landmark? Below the Southeast Ridge?

  KLEV: Halfway between the South Summit and the Southeast Ridge maybe?

  SANDY: Is where we—

  LENE: It’s sort of where the descent starts with the sort of slab snow, rock slab, old fixed ropes. Yeah.

  SANDY: And you led the descent?

  ANATOLI: Yes, and I made Camp IV—thirty minutes, maybe five o’clock, maybe thirty minutes past of five.

  SANDY: And, it’s storming but visible.

  ANATOLI: Yes. Began storm, not visibility, and I saw—Pemba give me tea. We talk little bit, I saw some Sherpa come from Camp III, another expedition to Camp IV, and I drink little bit, little rest and then I saw nobody, very slow, nobody come, began snowstorm. I ask Pemba. I didn’t see Sherpas.* I think I didn’t understand about plan of Sherpas. And I didn’t see Sherpas. I ask Pemba about oxygen. I took three bottle of oxygen and go up again, try to find fixed line, because began dark and nobody go down.

  TIM: Did you find the fixed line when we went back up?

  ANATOLI: Began very strong wind and I have mistake, little go left, strong, hard ice. I didn’t found nothing. Somebody in Base Camp† I ask somebody who made light for people, and I saw this and little saw our Camp IV and try to find fixed line, and spent maybe like three and a half hour for this, but without success. Was terrible wind and also I little tired. I took mask, oxygen, and try go up. This help me, but not visibility, dangerous, possible go South Face, and I come back; maybe, forty-seven minutes past nine I was in tent again. I spent so this time to try to find somebody.

  KLEV: What time did you get down, Martin?

  MARTIN: About nine.

  INGRID: The first we heard that Martin was down was 8:30 [P.M.].

  LENE: There’s been a lot—

  ANATOLI: No. No. Maybe after one hour Martin come.‡

  MALE SPEAKER NOT RECOGNIZABLE: I thought it was SIX.

  ANATOLI: Maybe thirty minutes past ten.

  INGRID: No. It was dark. It was well dark at that time, so it has to be past seven, and I remember asking, when I got back up to Rob Hall’s camp, asking the two women who had come down here to—I think they were coming down to get me—what time that was when they came down because that was the same time that we got the radio call, and they were keeping records of things and they said that was about eight to eight-thirty.

  ANATOLI: No possible.

  INGRID: That’s when we got the message that Martin had gotten in.

  NEAL: Ingrid, can you tell us who was up there on the radio and how the messages got taken up to you?

  INGRID: Yeah, I can. The difficulty was that the only people carrying radios on the mountain were Nepalis.* And so it was very difficult for me to give a message to Gyalzen† to give to Pemba to give to Lopsang to give to a member in English. I was not confident that any message—any English message—would get through. So I used Ngima.‡ I would give a message to Ngima and he would then in Nepali relate it to Gyalzen Sherpa, to Pemba to whoever, and likewise when Pemba wanted to relay something—when anything was relayed down from the mountain it would be through Pemba through Gyalzen, through Ngima, and then for me. And Ngima was very inconsistent in what he told me. I was either here at Rob Hall’s camp, because Rob Hall’s camp had better communications, so I was getting more information up there, but I was constantly talking on my radio to Ngima, saying, “Any news? Any news?” And every time I heard a Nepali conversation go
ing on I would try to understand what I could and then call Ngima and say, “Any news?” But to give you an example of how accurate this was, when at one point at 10:46 [P.M.] on that summit day I called Ngima and said I heard a Nepali conversation and called Ngima and said, “What’s the news?” he said, “Nothing.” And, I said, “Well, who are you talking to?” and he said, “Oh, I was talking to Pemba.” He said that Scott, Lopsang, and Makalu, and three Taiwanese Sherpas and one New Zealand Sherpa were near the South Col. And I said, “You know, Ngima, that’s news I want to know. You have to tell me things like that.” And then, subsequently, at 1:00 A.M. [May 11, 1996], Ngima again spoke with Gyalzen who reported recently speaking with Lopsang, who had still had not arrived at Camp IV and reported that Lopsang was “coughing and in bad condition.” And, I was at Rob Hall’s camp at that time. I raced down here. I was able to understand that in Nepali, that he was coughing and in bad condition, so I raced down here hoping I could get them while they were on the phone,* and Ngima doesn’t—nobody thinks that, [with] a sick person [at hand], we should probably get some medical advice;[they apparently don’t think] we have a doctor at Base Camp. —By the time I got down here the connection is gone and we don’t hear from anyone for six hours. So that was the nature of the radio communication. And I really recorded pretty much every call that we got for the whole ascent, like starting on the day you guys left. And the last time I actually talked with Scott, before the summit, was on the eighth [May 8, 1996], and that was the 8:00 A.M. radio call. And I would like to go through this at some point. Should I go though this now?

  SANDY: Yeah.

  LENE: Why not?

  INGRID: Okay; 8:00 A.M.—on the eighth [May 8, 1996]—I spoke with Scott. He stated that everyone was doing fine and the team was heading up to Camp III. There had been some talk of leaving earlier, but the wind was bad and there was a later morning than you all expected as I understood it. From 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. I made numerous radio calls between myself and Gyalzen, who is the Sherpa working at Camp II. Gyalzen reported talking to Scott and he was relaying messages. I tried to get ahold of Scott, but was unsuccessful. Gyalzen said he was climbing and Scott reported by the late afternoon, maybe 4:00 P.M., everyone was at Camp III and everyone especially, quote: “Charlotte and Tim were doing well.” That was the last I heard until the ninth [May 9, 1996], and on that day I attempted to call the team as usual in predetermined radio times—8:00 A.M., 12:00 P.M., and 6:00 P.M.—but received no answer. Again, received messages from Gyalzen at times directly and at times though Ngima. Messages received state that all the climbers reached Camp IV between 4:00 and 5:00 P.M. with Sandy, Scott, and Neal maybe a little bit later, bringing up the rear. Reports continually said, you know, I got the feeling that Scott was saying, “Just tell Ingrid we’re okay. Just tell Ingrid we’re okay.” Because the reports kept on saying, “All the climbers are doing well. All the climbers are doing well.” Well, that may be, you know, the message that got augmented as it came down the hill because they knew that’s what I wanted to hear. In the evening Ngima talked directly with Scott. My radio was open and with me at that time, but perhaps because I was working in the communication tent or elsewhere at Base Camp, the communication wasn’t well. I did not receive that communication. I didn’t hear that communication. I asked Ngima about it, checked the battery on my radio, confirmed that it was well charged. I changed radios with Ngima at any rate. Ngima told me that Scott said that everyone was doing well. I specifically, certainly did not hear anything about Lopsang being sick and not being able to go up and fix lines early. I didn’t hear anything about Scott being sick. Likewise, just to go back a second: The night that you all spent at Camp II, that Scott spent down here after he brought Dale down, I had many people saying he was sick for five days. I had no indication that he was sick. He was just—

  PETE: Joking around, had a beer—

  INGRID: He was Scott.

  PETE:—wanted Dale to have a beer.

  INGRID: You know, he typically left. He gave me a big pinch on the butt à la Scott, you know, just like the way Scott always is. I had no indication that he was sick.

  LENE: Who had been saying that he had been sick for five days?

  INGRID: Martin said that.

  ANATOLI: No sick from high altitude, I think. Just after Camp IV.

  INGRID: Okay, 8:00 A.M., then on that—6:00 A.M. on the summit day, there was a call between the Sherpa in South Col, which is Pemba, and Gyalzen and Ngima report that all climbers doing well and approaching the South Summit, so, obviously, again, there is some real discrepancy here. That’s the first report we got that you are approaching the South Summit at 6:00 A.M. and that was six hours before you all really did.* The night before, Scott had told Ngima to tell me that we’ll have an 8:00 A.M. call the following day, so at 8:00 A.M. I tried to reach Scott and wasn’t surprised that I couldn’t reach him because I knew he was climbing. Then, again, I received the report at 8:00 A.M. that all climbers had reached the South Summit. Then I didn’t get any messages at all, and I was going back and forth to Rob Hall’s tent to see what information they had. I was probably up there from 1:30 to 2:30 [P.M.] definitely and at maybe 2:20 [P.M.] they got their call from Rob that Rob was up there and everybody had summited except that Doug was just coming up to the summit.* I came down here to see if we had any news, and so at 2:30 [P.M.] I was down here, and Ngima said he spoke with Lopsang and that all the members had summited. About three o’clock I spoke briefly with Scott. He said all the members had summited. I congratulated him. He said, “I’m so tired.” I said, “Get down the mountain.”† Lopsang was on the radio again. I agreed with Lopsang to talk at 6:00 P.M. [At] 4:30 that evening, the people from Rob Hall’s camp came down here and said, “We need to get some oxygen sent back up the mountain. We think one of your team members has collapsed at the Hillary Step and Rob Hall is with him.” Because, Rob Hall was sending messages to them that “I’m with this guy,” he kept saying, “and he’s collapsed above the Hillary Step.” So we, you know, do everything we can to try to get oxygen sent up. One of the things is, we actually talked to Pemba and asked Pemba to keep trying to get hold of Lopsang or anyone up the mountain and asked Pemba himself if he could go, and he said the weather was too bad, [that] he didn’t want to. At 5:45 [P.M.] we learned that Lopsang and Scott were just below the South Summit. They were out of oxygen and Scott was very weak.‡ Again, this was a message. I pressed Ngima to get some information. I got the message and I immediately think: I have to talk to him; I have to give him some advice; I have to tell them [the Sherpas with the radios] to give Scott some messages. And we couldn’t hear from anyone until—uh— and we try and try and try to get to Gyalzen to get to Pemba to get to anyone up there. So, from 5:45 [P.M.] to 10:45 [P.M.], I know that Scott is up there, weak without oxygen. I don’t know why we have such sporadic communication with Pemba. He knows there’s an emergency going on with Scott and Rob Hall, but cannot contact them. [At] 10:46 [P.M.], as I said, we get a message from Pemba that the whole crew, Lopsang and Scott and Makalu and three Taiwanese Sherpas and one New Zealand Sherpa are near the South Col and Pemba actually says, “We’re flashing lights with Lopsang. We’ve had our headlights flashing, and we’re now making a lot of noise with oxygen bottles to try to attract them here.” Meanwhile, I’ve learned at Rob Hall’s camp that there is a complete whiteout up there, so I am not sure, like, how Lopsang is flashing lights at people, but I wonder if this—again—they were trying to give me some hope or something.

  SANDY: Were you flashing lights?

  LOPSANG: Light?—[UI]—So, we not see a way.

  ANATOLI: Very strong wind and it’s impossible.

  LOPSANG: Windy, and it’s snow, all ice, and so we need so oxygen, and we need light, please, call to up, but we don’t—

  INGRID: Did you see Pemba flash lights?

  ANATOLI: Somebody from Rob Hall made very strong light. Impossible to see headlamp. It is like milk with snow, strong wind. I go up. It’s i
mpossible.

  INGRID: So, uhhh—

  LENE: This kind of light can have been anybody on the mountain, because there’s been twenty people who can—you know—

  INGRID: Absolutely, yeah. So why I was told that Lopsang and Scott were flashing their lights and near the camp, I’m not sure; 1:00 A.M.—

  LOPSANG: [UI]—I have opened radio—[UI]—Anatoli already go to bring oxygen and tea bring going already up—[UI]—waiting.

  INGRID: You were waiting?

  LOPSANG: Yeah.

  INGRID: I see.

  LOPSANG: So we were waiting, then after so no coming. Also, Scott not walking.—[UI]—[Scott is saying], “I need helicopter. I never walking go down.” [UI]— [I] tell you [Scott], “We going to Camp IV, please, please. I have rope. You no dead. I play rope.” And, he say, “I’m not go. I need helicopter.” [UI].

  SANDY: Lopsang, where exactly did you stop with Scott?

  LOPSANG: So, you know that pass to going up—[UI]—one hundred meter up.

  SANDY: And you made the full descent with Scott, right, from—?

  LOPSANG: Yeah, so I have rope, many rope to bring down.