Harsh reality hits home

Posted by Makalu Team at 12:36 on 4 Jun 2008

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All I can say is thank goodness I am back at base camp fairly unscathed! Our summit attempt was fairly straight forward, but we had to turn back with less than 200m to go due to the extreme winds that suddenly ensued.

Our day had started at 11 O’clock at night, scrambling around in the tent to get all the necessary gear together. Our oxygen cylinders were tested and our small group of potential summiteers: Dave, myself, two Sherpas and Angela set off.

Angela had had some reserves earlier about her health and after 30 mins or so decided that it would be safer to turn back. She had spent the previous night in a tent with another team member who had unfortunately had a chest infection, which now looked liked it had infected Angela.

My head torch then decided to fail, I had taken spare batteries but due to a bit of hypoxia and the severe cold, I nor the others could not get it to work again. I then spent the next five hours following semi-lit footsteps, stepping over crevasses and trying not to slip on the glacier.

The ambient temperature was approx -30 so before any wind chill, so it was a testing time to keep our hands and feet warm. Constant movement of your toes and fingers was imperative to keep frostbite at bay.

We were making good time, the sun rose over the mountain range and I got the most beautiful sunrise across the Himalayan range and was able to take my first real breather. The route started to become more complex at this point as we worked our way up through a couloir and rock band to the final ridge. It was at this point that it was as if someone had flicked a switch and decided today we would have strong winds (not forecast!). We are so close to the jet stream that any summit attempt has to be closely monitored.

I had been wearing sunglasses but immediately the wind whipped around the edges, my eyes watered and I could see absolutely nothing. I then had to precariously perch myself behind a rock with a 1000’ drop either side and take my rucksack off (careful not to drop it!) Immediately after putting my goggles on they completely froze from the spin drift preventing me from seeing anything and due to the strength and direction it was impossible to take my goggles off.

We were being battered from all directions and everything started to freeze, face and hands were in immediate danger. Approx 150m from the summit we decided to turn back.

Absolutely exhausted I stumbled my way back down the ropes and glacier to our tent at Camp 4, I could go no further as I was completed exhausted and dehydrated. It was 15:00 hrs and since 23:00hrs the previous evening, I had only drunk ½ litre of water and two sweets.

On arriving at Camp 4, in a snow storm we quickly threw ourselves into the tent and collapsed with exhaustion. It was imperative that we started to rehydrate but we soon realised that all our matches were damp and we could not light our stove. This put us in a serious situation, if we could not hydrate then we were more susceptible to succumbing to high altitude illness, frostbite and severe exhaustion. Too tired to move that night we decided to wait until the morning. One of our Sherpas then arrived, slightly hypoxic and slept in the tent next door with another teams Sherpa.
At approx 0200hrs in the morning, Lapka (our Sherpa) threw himself into our tent mumbling something about someone being dead. Having just woken up it was all very confusing but we soon realised that there was potentially a dead person in our tent next door.

Due to the confusion, hypoxic state we were all in, I grabbed a torch and clambered out of the tent to go and check the situation. Unfortunately the French team's Sherpa had indeed died, and we are still unsure what off.

With no communications with the French team or our own we had to wait until the morning to notify anyone. there were now three of us squeezed into the tent and I started to treat Lapka for shock. We had a little oxygen left and some chocolate but unfortunately what we really needed was a hot drink. No such luck again we were going to have to wait for the morning.

It was an uncomfortable night, with little and no sleep. At first light, a Portuguese climber passed and we were able to borrow a lighter and started melting snow immediately. The poor Portuguese climber had summitted the day before but had suffered severe frostbite to his nose. He had previously lost his fingers, toes to frostbite on another expedition.

Still unable to contact anyone, we continued to hydrate, I was then (using the dead Sherpa’s radio) able to contact a French team member at their Camp 3. They were however too exhausted to climb back up to deal with the dead Sherpa. We were then committed to waiting for our base camp team to wake up so we could call them on the satellite phone.

Once we passed on the bad news, we could do nothing else, so decided to pack up and move down the mountain before we became casualties ourselves. Our original plan had been to get to Camp 2 that day but I could only manage 10 paces before slumping into the snow with exhaustion. We decided to stay a night at Camp 3, another night above 7400m, not a great position to be in but hydration was more important at this point. Another day with little, if no food but we spent hours melting snow and trying to rehydrate to enable us to descend the next day.

At this point Dave started to notice that his feet were rather painful. He had suffered frostbite and his feet were badly swollen and had gone a deep purple colour. Another blow to our descent, we could only ensure that they were dry and warm but they would have to stay warm to prevent any further damage being done. It was going to be a painful descent for Dave the next day.

The next day we left at 09:00hrs having been up since 0500 melting snow and trying to eat some food. We finally stumbled into base camp at 17:30hrs absolutely exhausted but happy to be safely down.

It was, to be blunt, one of the hardest, most physically and mentally exhausting experiences of my life. It was disappointing not to achieve the summit but with the weather and Dave’s feet we were lucky to arrive at base camp in a fairly reasonable state.

The French team were obviously extremely upset and the Sherpa’s family decided to have the body buried on the mountain, which in itself is an exceptionally difficult task, at such high altitudes.

During that summit day only two people summitted, one died and many people suffered serious frostbite. So I feel lucky to have got away with just a small amount of frost nip at the end of my fingers. Dave has now been evacuated along with another team member that has suffered from frostbite and we remain at base camp waiting for the SE Ridge team to join us.

With all of the above said, the expedition has still been an outright success and I am pleased to be able to tell you that three team members including Lara succeeded in summiting.

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