Costa Blanca Mountain Walkers

Summary of Vic's Trip to Everest North Side April/May 2011

We are 7 males and our leader Graham 'Niv' Niven, who had never been on Mount Everest nor had he been higher than 19400 feet! After weighing each other up the most capable guy, Garry - chooses me as his room mate/climbing buddy, which flatters me. The choice proved mutually acceptable, we were able to support each other subsequently in a variety of ways. Others in the group were a mixed bunch, mainly OK guys, except one who was just a talker, unfit, lazy, boring and a misogynist. Simon, 6 foot 4 inches, big head and Mensa IQ spent 12 years in Parkhurst as a dentist and had an amazing array of anecdotes to help pass the time until he got fed up with the hardships of mountain life and the organistation and only perked up again when we were off the mountain, Bill was a soft spoken American from Florida which must have been a set back for high altitude preparation, Phil, aged 65 was stoic and tough, uncomplaining despite having a stomach bug that prevented him from eating solids for 2 weeks. How he kept going I will never understand. Ross, PhD in geography fancied himself as a climber but never quite made it. As a college lecturer he talked a good talk.

In Kathmandu I bought a goose down top for £60 which was excellent value and hired a sleeping bag for $20 for the month.

The drive to the Tibetan border was hairy, a switchback of hairpin bends, few safety barriers, precipitous drops of a 1000 feet to the valleys below and landslides on many corners, no where to stop and a 5000 foot climb. Chinese customs was labourious and manned by youngters in various uniforms, average age 22 I would guess. I wonder if they had been posted to the furthest frontier from Beijing as an apprenticeship. There were overly officious.

At Nyalam I suffered the only bout of sickness of my trip. Over a 36 hour period I had 3 times 20 seonds of extreme dizzyness, followed immediately by hot sweats & vomiting. Some others also got sick.......bad food and perhaps some altitude adjustment. For the rest of the trip I did not have any nausea or headaches, tingling fingers or any other symptom of altitude sickness. Probabaly this was because I religiously drank copious amounts of melted glacier water.

At Nyalam our leader was bitten by a dog and as a result, after calls to the UK, it was decided that he would return to Kathmandu for rabies booster jabs. We did not see him again until we were off the mountain. He chose to stay with the lazy member at the base camp. (Curiously, he did not attempt to climb higher and I wondered if this was due to altitude problems, also more odd was that nobody saw him bitten by a dog and his wound, if it can be called that, showed no more than a tiny graze). The upshot was that our small group of 7 was amalgamated with the larger summit team who had had the benefit of an extra week of acclimatisation and better training.

At Tingri we stayed in a nice looking lodge and I managed to find the best room in the village for Garry and myself. The problem was that no room had running water so for two nights we had to manage without and the toilets got a bit smelly. Fortunately I had a lot of 'wet wipes' to help out. From Tingri a small climb lead to my first glimpse of Everest and Cho Oyu some 100Kms away.

Our climb the next day was a continuation of the previous climbs - hard. Far from the walks advertised each was a steep trek of several hundres metres altitude gain adn this at around 15000 feet. None of the group had expected so harsh an introduction to acclimatising.

From Tingri we drove over rough tracks to Everest Base Camp where suddenly were were confronted by the massive north face of the mountain in brillant sunshine. All of the salient features were visible, the Pinnacles, NE ridge and the J steps leading to the final summit slope. A breathtaking sight! It was warm but as we discovered the weather can turn in seconds from warm to freezing. This was a recurring theme especially around 7.30am when the freezing tent and outside temperatures of around -25 degrees became a sauna as the sun hit the tent and the damp & ice crystals soon disappeared.

Next day we had the Puja, which is the blessing of the ice axes by two monks from Rongbuk monastery. It was a colourful ceremony in which the monks do all the work, chanting for almost two hours whilst the climbers mill about trying not to get too cold. It was surprisingly moving and all members were gently ushered forward to receive an individual blessing with the words 'Good luck' and a neck ribbon that was tied around the neck by the monk. I kept this on until safely away from the mountain, just in case!

There was a lot of drink and food in this ceremony including alcohol, both beer and spirits which surprised me. At the end we were encouraged to chant a sort of bonding shout several times with an increasing crescendo rather like a NZ Moari rugby team Haka.

Later I discovered that my Jumar was faulty and was promised a replacement by one of the leaders, Chris. It never came so on the day of the possible ascent of the North Col I was still trying to manupulate my Jumar with 3 layers of gloves/mitts - an almost impossible job and one that meant if difficult at Base Camp what would it be like in snow and icy conditions if I had to remove gloves to climb. It was a prospect that I did not relish. I had made a vow to return with all fingers & toes.

On the day of the North Col atttempt 2 of our 7 left ABC at 21000 feet, including Garry. It was a fine day but within 2 hours the weather turned nasty. I thought all would return. It was now 10.00am. By 5pm it was beginning to get dark. Ross had returned having got half way up but there was no sign of Garry and we were getting messages that a climber had been found semi comatose a the base of the col covered in snow and not moving. By 5.30 we were getting concerned. At last at 6.00pm Garry appeared, completely exhausted. As he said later it was easily the most exhausting moment of his life (and he has done many marathons including the Khumbu marathon in 1999 when he came 3rd). It took a lot of TLC to bring him around so he could talk. As he explained he had been left on the North Col and was the last person off the Col. The leader, Zac, had gone on down leaving Garry to his own devices so that he had to improvise his descent taking short cuts to get off the mountain before it was dark. This was the third time that the leaders had failed in my opinion to observe proper care. As Garry said it was every man for himself. And as the leaders themselves told us we had signed up to it. There seemed to be a gap in this understanding. We had expected a bit more care. Garry is a qualified Mountain Leader and I was many years ago. We both observed the two leaders together on many occasions when we would have expected them at front and back and with an awareness of where each paying member was at all times.

The 4th time of inefficiency occured on the way down when Garry and I decided to stay overnight at the Intermediate Camp. We were passed by the two leaders who assumed we were going to descend to Base Camp. We stayed at IBC because threatening weather and tiredness and because our porter had our bags nearby. There was no radio left with us to communicate our intention. In the end we gave a note to a sherpa who delivered it after dark but not in time to prevent the leaders phoning the UK to say we had not arrived. It was all a bit OTT and unnecessay.

Tent management at altitude: Difficult. Each simple move is exhauting, even doing up ones boots. Peeing into a bottle takes a bit of practive. Visiting the loo a hundred metres away, in the dark, over snow-covered rocks in -25 degrees only to be presented with a dirty long drop is unpleasant. Thw whole procedure might take 15 minutes.

I had blood saturation level and pulse taken twice along with most of the two combined groups.

Results as follows:

At ABC at 21000 feet (6350m) Blood saturation was between 79-82% and resting pulse 65-69. Both were best of the 7 in my group which makes me wonder why I felt so knackered. Obviously other factors come into play.....old age I suppose!

At Base Camp at 5200m a few days later of about 15 tested my Blood Sat was 92% and pulse 60. Again I was near the top. Only 2 scored better at 93% blood sat. This was after one week at 6350m or slightly higher.

What have I leared. 1. My limitations at age 67. 2. Respect for the porters/cooks who work so hard in difficult conidtions and always with good cheer, also for the Tibetan people toiling away on the edge of survival at 15000 feet 3. I hope humility - may it last. 4. Not to wear too much in a sleeping bag but let the body heat up the bag.

We left Base Camp and drove for a total of 17 hours over two days across harsh Tibetan landscape over passes at 18000 feet with mountains over 20000 feet on all sides, over what must be some of the most inhospitable land on the planet, cold snow wind bleak, no vegetation. Brrrh! Lhasa was a nice surprise - a modern city, green and fertile valley wide boulevards and pavements, modern shops and department stores. Went to the main temple and the 1000 room Potala Palace. Then flight over the HImalayas in a brand new plane with views of Everest and Makalu.