It’s perhaps the toughest job on planet earth. The undertaking is bloody serious as there’s danger at every turn. The rewards are meagre. On successful return, you get a hero’s welcome. A tragedy could mean no one would touch you with a barge pole. Leading an expedition on Everest is dangerous business, one that could cost lives. Expedition leaders on Everest have an impeccable mountaineering resume combined with sound knowledge and years of experience. But the era of Hunt’s expeditionary style is now a faint remembrance, only found in books.
Sixty years after the first ascent, climbing Everest has become the high altar of commerce and cutthroat competition where mountaineers who once explored the Himalaya have become proprietors selling Everest.
There are two types of leaders. One who lead commercial expeditions and others who lead national expeditions on behalf of countries whose style and tactics bear some resemblances to classic mountaineering style.
The body of Mohamad Shahrulnizam Ahmad Nazari, who died during an expedition to climb Mount Kala Pathar and to the Everest Base Camp in Kathmandu, Nepal, is expected to be flown home tomorrow.
Putrajaya Corporation (PPj) Public Relations senior deputy director Zaharah Salamat said the body of the assistant engineer with PPj had been taken to Lukla at 3pm yesterday (5.15pm Malaysian time).
However, she said, it could not be flown to Kathmandu due to the foggy weather and limitations to air traffic as it was on a mountain slope.
I am compelled to borrow this title from one of the chapter in Walt Unsworth’s book Everest. And it is so true.
On the May 29, 1953 Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa reached the summit of Everest. In 2013, more than 388 climbers from around the world including the first woman from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia had permits to climb Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse from the Nepalese side. In sixty years, so much has changed. The pre-Everest expeditions walked from Jiri to Base Camp. Now only a few take that route. And that too, the roads have reached to Bhandar. Most of them fly to Lukla and start walking. Then, the trek from Gorakshep to Base Camp used to be on pristine ice, recalls Kancha Sherpa, the only living member of Col. John Hunt’s 1953 expedition. Now, the yak trail all the way to the lip of Khumbu Icefall is laden with rocks and dirt. And the glacier has receded.
Everest has been a curiosity before Hillary and Tenzing. Even when they were at the top, they were looking for signs of Mallory and Irvine. Later the mountain caught the interest of climbing expeditions from different countries. The Swiss put four climbers on top in 1956. In fact, Hunt owed the success of the first ascent to the persistent efforts of the Swiss expedition in 1952. Led by Jim Whittaker, the Americans made it to the top in 1963 and Unsoeld and Hornbein climbed the West Ridge.
In the meanwhile, after two unsuccessful efforts in 1961 and 1963, the Indian team led by Capt. MS Kohli led the first successful expedition in 1965 where nine people reached the top. Yuchiro Muira became the first person to ski down from South Col. And he was back this year, at the age of 2013 to become the oldest to climb Everest at the age of 80.
The 1971 international expedition lost Maj. Harsh Bhaguguna on the mountain. A few years later the South West Face was conquered by a team led by Chris Bonington in 1975. Doug Scott and Dougal Haston reached the summit and became the first British citizens to summit Everest. And Junko Tabei from Japan became the first woman to climb Everest. In 1978, Reinhold Messner and Peter Habler from Italy and
Austria reached the summit without oxygen. In 1980, the Poles attempted the first winter ascent under the leadership of the Andrzej Zawada and were successful. In the summer of 1980, Poles Czok and the legendary Kuckuczka Also, Reinhold Messner became the first mountaineer to summit solo and without oxygen. He climbed a new route on the North Face. Bachendri Pal became the Indian woman to reach the summit in 1985. A year later, Harsh’s brother Jai Bhaguguna died on the mountain.
Keen watchers of Everest concur that commercial climbing began in 1993 and changed the face of climbing on Everest. And then the biggest tragedy struck in 1996 where fifteen people died on the mountain including two experienced climbers, the American Scott Fischer and New Zealander Rob Hall. Till now, expedition outfitters were responsible for fixing the route on the mountain including the Khumbu Icefall.
A sherpa and an English outfitter brought aluminium ladders for the Icefall in the early nineties. After a sudden surge of Everest marketing, things took a turn. Icefall doctors ensured those who came to climb Everest, mountaineers and novices, could go up the icefall safely. Also, a few expedition outfitters came together making their Sherpas available to fix ropes all the way till the summit so that other expedition members can go up making it assembly line. Now, everything pretty much functions like a factory model which cost a fee. A number of expedition companies offer a summit dream starting from $25,000 to $75,000. A high altitude make shift city of tents gets erected for two months at Base Camp offering employment to hundreds of porters, cooks, runners, managers and Sherpas. Kancha Sherpa recollects he was paid eight rupees per day during the 1953 expedition while a Sherpa now earns above two lakh Indian rupees and above during the expedition’s duration. There’s stiff competition between operators. One operator had about 80 clients this year because the company had offered the cheapest rates. Like any other product in the market, Everest summit too has hidden clauses. For example, a Sherpa is offered a summit bonus if he brings up a client to the top.
I gather a few companies never make this clear to their clients. Hence, whether the client summits or not, the Sherpa gets his summit bonus after reaching the top without having to pay a fee while the cost of a client’s permit is 10000 USD.
Then there are other costs like evacuation that are separate. An evacuation from Camp II and above starts from 12000 USD and ferrying a dead a fortune. But fortunately, one of the helicopter operators bring back the injured and the dead Sherpas from the mountain for free. Not just evacuations, helicopters have become a part and parcel of the Everest trade. Those who can afford, fly to Namche and start walking to Base Camp. A Japanese team apparently flew back to Kathmandu after their acclimatisation climb and later to Bangkok to recuperate and later return to Base Camp for their summit push. Most clients fly back to Kathmandu after their summit making it an luxurious outing. For the purists, this seems a mockery. Not just the heli sorties, the whole business of going up Everest. It has become the ultimate trophy and to make it worse there are records attached to it. You name it and you have it- the first Arab woman, the first neurosurgeon from India, the oldest, the youngest, the first one to summit from the South and North side, so on and so forth making it utterly ludicrous. So laughable, one climber wanted to walk or climb backwards this year. But paraphrasing Walt Unsworth, these are the men for whom the unattainable has a special attraction and usually they are not experts. Apart from the increasingly gargantuan mockery it faces, a few expeditions and renowned climbers come to the mountain for they see them as ‘cathedrals to practice their religion’ every year trying to climb a difficult route or go all the way to the summi in true mountaineering style. Ironically and quite tragically, a lot of them have perished, sometime leading clients and sometime on their own- like the loss of Alexey Bolotov this season. After all the highest mountain peak has a special attraction. And it is only growing by the year.
“We expect to be able to send the body home tomorrow if it arrives safely in Kathmandu today.
“The Malaysian embassy in Kathmandu will use an alternative flight to send the body if we fail to use Malaysia Airlines flight which is scheduled for 12.20pm tomorrow afternoon,” she said in a statement, here, today.
Zaharah said all the other 13 expedition members were reported to be on the descent route in the Dingboche area (near Periche).
The late Mohamad Shahrulnizam, 25, died at 7.15pm (Malaysian time) on Monday at Labuche on the way to the Everest Base Camp after he had acute mountain sickness.
The expedition started on May 27 with 14 climbers (11 men and three women) from the Recreation and Welfare Club of PPj. They were expected to return home on June 10.
There has been a sea change in the way leaders look at Everest. These days, there is no single expedition leader on a commercial climb. The boss who owns the outfit runs the company with a few guides, climbing Sirdars, Sherpas and base camp staff. Back then, before commercial expeditions began, say till the eighties, expedition members did everything from reconnaissance to route opening to load ferries and rope fixing. Now, the Icefall doctors make the Khumbu passable, Sherpas fix the ropes all the way to the summit and guide the clients on the mountain.
Behind every successful expedition on Everest, there is a calm leader. Leader of the NCC Everest expedition, Col.Sharma is also cool and composed with a great sense of humour. With 28 successful expeditions under his belt he was one the most experienced on the mountain this season. He knows the Himalaya fairly well from east to west. Col.Sharma has a couple of first ascents to his credit. He climbed Indrasan in Himachal Pradesh with the French in 1989 and later in 1993 he was on Neelkant with a multinational expedition in Uttarakhand, both highly technical and difficult peaks. In 1995, he was on Kabru and Nanda Devi in and in 1997, climbed Jogen I, II & III. In 2000 he was on Mana, considered a highly technical and difficult peak.
Every mountain has its own technicalities and difficulties. And you have approach it with all seriousness and devotion as much as you do it with Everest or any other 8000er, says Col.Sharma who has been a competitive skier as well.
He first went to Everest in 2001 as the deputy leader with the Indian Army expedition. Later he led some fantastic climbs on Annapurna I in 2002 and Kanchenjunga in 2004.
Satish has been lucky, said Wng. Cmdr. Sreedharan, member of Indian Mountaineering Foundation and a member of the 1984 Everest expedition who was at Base Camp immediately after the NCC team’s successful climb.
Col. Sharma ran a tight ship, I guess in the tradition of Col. John Hunt. In fact it was Eric Shipton who was widely expected to be the leader of the 1953 British Everest expedition but Hunt was preferred because of his experience in military leadership.
Col. Sharma chose Wng.Cmdr. Kutty as his deputy, a highly efficient officer and man of many skills. Kutty was on Everest from the North side in 2005. A navigator with the Indian Airforce, Kutty ran the show overseeing almost everything ensuring smooth proceedings from beginning to end. The NCC cadets saw in him an older brother. Amiable, he always exuded an air of pleasantness and sense of camaraderie. For the expedition doctor, Maj. Rahul Mahajan, it was his third trip to Everest. At Base Camp, he was doctor to team members from other expeditions too including the North East and Seven Summits team who didn’t have a doctor on board. The injured and ill woke him up during the dead of the night yet he went about tending with care a smile on his face.
It was the National Cadet Corp’s first ever expedition on Everest and they couldn’t have got a better leader than Col. Sharma. He was caring and exercised caution when it came to the young cadets. He gave clear instructions to his soldiers that they are young boys and at all times they should be taken care. He would always consult with his deputy and team members and warrant their suggestions. There’s nothing called a fool-proof plan on Everest, yet his summit plans were brilliantly accurate. Most importantly, the team returned from the mountain safely. None of them had a scratch.
Like a true gentleman, he offered the best for them. On the mountain and during the entire trip, everyone was equal for him. And deservedly, Col. Sharma was the first among equals.
