Dave Hahn: Everest 2008
The spring season on Mt. Everest very nearly didn't take place. Just days before we were due to leave the States, in mid-March, there was ample reason to believe that the Nepalese were not going to issue climbing permits. China had already canceled climbing on the Tibetan side of Everest and had essentially closed Tibet to foreigners. They wanted nobody interfering with the Olympic torch being carried to the summit... but that torch parade and the impending Olympic Games had already spawned widespread human rights protests in Tibet and the situation seemed to be escalating with protests popping up around the globe. China pressured Nepal to curtail climbing on the Nepal side of Everest as well. Their great fear seemed to be that climbers from the south side would somehow be on the summit when the torch bearers from the north side arrived and that this would result in a protest with "Free Tibet" banners ruining the torch ceremony on the summit.
In the end, Nepal decided to allow climbing on Everest, but with a number of restrictions that dealt with how high climbers were allowed to go and how climbing teams communicated with the outside world in advance of the Chinese attempts from the North. So much of what transpired in the way of permitting decisions occurred in late March, just when we'd normally be marching up the Khumbu already. There wasn't too much choice for the climbing teams at that point. Great sums of money had already been spent on logistics and we needed to make the best of whatever deals could be worked out in terms of permitting. In the end, myself and Justin Merle stayed an extra week in Kathmandu waiting for the permits to be issued while our IMG team, under the capable leadership of Mark Tucker and Ang Jangbu Sherpa proceded toward the mountain. Justin and I then flew in to Namche Bazaar and did an accelerated push up the valley in order to rejoin our team at the village of Dingboche. My clients were there and acclimatizing well already.
Nicky and Greg Messner call Taos, New Mexico home... a thing we have in common. I had the pleasure of guiding Nicky on Denali a few years ago and we'd been talking for years about getting her on Mount Everest. She'd done a great job of working up to the mountain, with an ascent of Cho Oyu in Fall of 2006 (among other major ascents). Her husband Greg had no intentions of climbing high on Everest, but he was interested in being part of Nicky's team and getting to experience the mountain with her.
We all managed to stay healthy on the trek in and waited at Everest Basecamp with many others until the Nepalese authorities had worked out the rules under which we'd be allowed to climb. This was a stressful time from my standpoint since any guide would naturally want plenty of time for the acclimatization rounds on the mountain in order to allow for natural setbacks -like storms. Any artificial hold-ups are undesirable, but in this case they were unavoidable. There was no question that the Nepalese had to comply with Chinese demands. We all began to hope that the Chinese would not waste time in getting their torch team to the top from the other side of the mountain.
Nicky and I, along with Samduk Dorje, a young but well-experienced Sherpa from the village of Pangboche made the best of being able to go as far as Advanced Basecamp at 21,300 ft. We were there on May 8th when news came that the torch procession was finally on top. We pushed up the mountain for one final practice round, sleeping at 24,000 ft Camp III on the Lhotse Face. Nicky was doing fine but we were both pretty sure we wanted no part of the concentrated rush to the summit that was forming up for May 21 and the three or four days following. This was an aftereffect of the artificial limits, that most everybody on the mountain ended up on the same time-table. My feeling was that there would be too much hazard in going for the summit in the first frenzied pushes on the upper mountain. Our strategy would be to follow... going up the mountain when most others were coming down. We risked missing the summit weather "window" that was allowing many people to get up. But in truth that window wasn't seeming terribly stable anyway. People were reporting very cold conditions and a number of climbers were coming down with frostbite.
Ultimately, Nicky and Samduk and I, now joined by Phinjo Dorje Sherpa (whom I summitted with last year) were on the South Col and ready for a summit bid beginning the night of May25th. We got up that night, planning to leave camp at 11PM and did so, but as we left the Col, the weather deteriorated. Damp clouds came over the Col, coating our gear in rime ice and greatly reducing visibility. We only climbed for an hour or so before I decided that conditions were simply not good enough for us to continue. We returned to high camp, not at all sure that we'd get another chance to go for the top. The weather forecasts described the jet stream getting closer to Mt. Everest in the next few days. Even so, Nicky and I, along with the Sherpas, hung in at the South Col. We rested and ate and drank and breathed bottled oxygen on May 26th and geared up again to go climbing that night. As we left camp that night, the weather again seemed unstable. Clouds came over us once more while we were on the steep "Triangular Face" but this time I played a hunch that the weather would get better. It did. Dramatically so. Nicky was climbing strong and steady and at daybreak we discovered that there were only two other climbers on the entire route to the summit. Winds died away to nothing, we passed the two other climbers on the steep ground below the South Summit and worked our way over to the Hillary Step and the final slopes leading to the summit. The climbing route was relatively dry, with large sections consisting of rock scrambling where in other seasons easy snow climbing could be had. But the ropes were in place and well-fixed. We made the summit around 7:20 AM and enjoyed perfect conditions on top. We took a round of summit pictures... at least Nicky and Samduk and Phinjo took a round of pictures. When I realized, a few minutes after leaving high camp, that I'd left my camera in the tent, I laughed and kept on walking... reminding myself that I'd already gotten my fair share of pics from the top of the world. Without a camera, I felt able to simply enjoy the beauty without trying to capture it.... an unaccustomed luxury.
We climbed easily down in good conditions all day. Nicky was so strong on this day that we made it down to ABC at 21,300 ft by late afternoon, greatly easing the effects of high altitude by avoiding a third night at 26,000 ft. We made it to basecamp the following day and celebrated our reunion with Greg, Tucker and Jangbu. On the same day, our entire Sherpa team came down off the mountain with the last of the team gear. The IMG team had put a total of 31 climbers on the mountaintop over a six day period and all had come down safely. It was time to head for easier altitudes again.