So on May 23 2010 Mike P made a successful ascent of Mt Everest. Now I know us Club members summit stuff all the time but to Aunty Rata this sounded like a good story. I was even prepared to fly out to Kathmandu in order to interview Mike but the newsletter editor said his budget only runs to book vouchers. Oddly enough all the airlines I called were not that interested in book vouchers. We did a virtual interview instead.
Congratulations on summiting Everest Mike and commiserations on the beard. How did you get into climbing?
When I was tramping the harder routes required scrambling so it is a natural progression. I started to get quite serious about 5 years ago.
Do you have any mountaineering heroes?
I am not really someone who has heroes, but there are quite a few people I very much respect who I have climbed with. I met Stephen Venables when I was a school kid but he managed to put me off Everest for quite a few years! Doing this sort of thing brings you into contact with quite a few people who are far better climbers and that is quite humbling.
Why Everest?
I think it was Mallory who said “because it is there”. Between that and the fact that it is the highest…
What did you do to prepare for the climb?
Strained my hamstring is the honest answer. I tried increasing the amount of training too
suddenly and paid the price. When I decided to go last October I was pretty fit already so I eventually just kept up the same training which is about 9 sessions a week.
Which is more important for a climb like Everest, mental or physical training?
Probably mental. On the day I had to make quite a lot of decisions a lot of which were instinctive and thankfully the right ones. That goes down to experience. The same is true of the endurance, the cold and the lack of oxygen are hard on the body but you need to keep yourself going.
Climbing at altitude involves a lot of waiting around because of the need to acclimatise or because the weather is unsuitable, how did you pass the time given that the Club newsletter “Mouth n Ear” only comes out once a month?
Unfortunately unlike huts in NZ and with only email I missed a few editions of the Mouth n Ear. Not sure how I coped with out Aunt Rata’s sage wisdom. However scrabble was the game of the expedition and we had a DVD player for the evening.
You were part of the Jagged Globe team, what was that like? What are the benefits of climbing with a professional guiding company?
The team was very well led by Robert Anderson, whose experience on Everest is pretty extensive and includes many of the harder routes. The team got on particularly well which helps on the mountain due to lots of mutual support.
The benefits of a professional company are three fold. One the logistics are very much taken care of so less troubles. I did a lot of the organisation for a trip to Mera peak when I was 18 years old and the devil really is in the detail.
The other big benefit was the quality of the Sherpas. They averaged about 4 summits each of Everest and their experience, calmness and strength really helped.
Finally the base camp was pretty luxurious. We had a qualified Western chef so food was amazing. You can’t crave steak, chips and chocolate cake when they serve it to you at Base Camp. We also had good tents, DVDs and good communications.
(No I am not on commission but I would strongly recommend Jagged Globe.)
You had a few dramas prior to summit day, for example a stomach bug, how did you stay focused?
By taking drugs. Thankfully there are antibiotics and Tindazole. As to staying focussed it really is not hard when you are surrounded by lots of other people who all have the same aim. I tend to climb these sort of endurance peaks by focussing on the next step, thinking about the whole thing can be overwhelming.
Tell us about summit day. It was fairly drama filled as well wasn’t it?
The climb started at 7:45 pm from the South Col at 7950m. It was still windy but dropping. There were perhaps 30 people ahead of us already, the large numbers at the camp meaning people were setting out earlier than normal. A queue of lights up the snow face. Initially this wasn’t a problem but after about an hour the line ground to a halt.
Eventually my Sherpa Pem decided enough was enough and we started overtaking large numbers. This proved to be wise as the hold up was a group taking a rest on the fixed line. We were then near the front and we made steady progress as I could set the pace. The climb was on fixed ropes on slopes of about 25 degrees with odd rock steps of about 60 degrees which took the breath away from you!
We reached the Balcony (8500m) after 5 hours and things were looking very well set, considering I had been slow into the South Col camp.
Naturally things happened! The air inlet valve on the mask I was using became clogged with ice. This restricted my breathing and I tried to clear it. In doing so I broke the valve. This reduced the flow of oxygen to me and I began to slow down. Luckily Pem was carrying the spare for the group. About an hour later I realise that unfortunately size large did not fit my face! At the time dawn was breaking about us in a yellow circle like it does from an aeroplane.
I had by now got to the South Summit on limited oxygen but realised that it had taken far too much out of me. I used the valve from the large mask to fix my original mask and kept going. All this had caused two problems, my body was exhausted from lower oxygen supplies and I had taken my gloves off for a long time to fix my mask.
The first meant it took a while to get to the top very slowly. The summit ridge is sharp and spectacular but I was mostly focused on my feet. At 8:15am I reached the now crowded top. There was a panorama of other snowy mountains all around. After some photos Pem and I quickly turned around, never before have I so felt that the climb was not finished until I was down.
It was slow progress down. Normally gravity does the trick but there were many stops. One was for an hour at 8600m while we waited for a rope to be replaced (the original was used to assist in the rescue of a climber!) Eventually as I reached the thicker air of the South Col I picked up the pace a little and even overtook someone! The descent took about 6 hours. A long day.
As a result of the exposed hands my two right little fingers got frost bite. The doctor tells me it is not too serious and not to let any one chop them, they will take a couple of months to recover. Bit of relief!
How did you feel when you finally made it to the South Summit?
The south summit was probably quite an anxious period as I knew I had to sort out my mask. Strangely enough I was quite calm but just knew what I needed to do.
When did you feel you could just relax and enjoy the fact that you’d summitted?
The celebration such as it was happened once I was on the snow plateau about 50 m vertically above Camp 4, (the high camp). I had been totally focussed on getting down alive and while reaching the Balcony was a relief it was here that I unwound and realised that I had done it.
What’s the prognosis for your frost bite?
Good, I like the fact that the doctor said not to let anyone chop my fingers. The bigger finger looks pretty good now and the little one is not too far away from sealing up. After this the danger of infection will be gone. Hopefully a full recovery! I am missing the rock climbing at the moment.
Has the experience of climbing Everest changed you?
Yes I think I will shave next time. I have taken beards as far as is decent.
Any advice for people looking to fulfil their dreams?
It is fantastic when you fulfil them, I always thought Everest would be beyond me. Having said that I think the important thing is to find out. One reason I had a go was that I didn’t want to look back and regret not doing so. Even if I had failed I would have known, which is still great.
I know you are taking a well earned break for a few weeks. What’s the plan after that? Are you looking forward to getting back to NZ and going on a few Club alpine trips?
I have agreed to help out on the AIC and am leading an ice climbing trip. It will be good to be back home in NZ but not for the cold weather, I am very much enjoying being warm. Future plans will wait a month or two, I need the memory to fade again.