Battle Plan

[Click on the pictures to see larger versions with captions.]

For the last two days everyone at base camp has woken up to cloudless views of Everest. That's motivated people to think about the days ahead. On the mountain we know that David Tait and Phurba Tashi are headed to Camp 4 and that tomorrow is their projected summit day. They will then cross over into Nepal the same day for their double traverse. There have been reports of plenty of activity up high as other teams position themselves for summit bids.

Everyone at BC and ABC has itchy feet for the summit. A few hundred folks have been waiting weeks for the classic period of mid- and late-May when the weather warms, the wind drops and the summit comes within reach. Yesterday, Russell announced his expedition's battle plan.

Starting today we will make a gradual shift back to ABC and Russell named dates for two summit pushes. "Don't put that in your blog, though," he said to me. "People in other base camps might read that and follow us up." So until the teams set out from ABC, the date is secret.

The teams are not secret, however. The first group will consist of Tim, Fred, Darius and Rod. Woody and Dean will be their guides.

The second summit team, which will leave a day later, will comprise the Japanese (led by Hiro, with young Kobi, 71-year-old Yanagasawa and Yoshida), and Mogens and Josette, who want to make their attempts sans supplemental oxygen. Their guide doesn't want to be identified in this blog or in the Discovery Channel documentary.

Each team will be accompanied by a summit cameraman — Ed Wardle with Team 1, and New Zealand climber/cameraman Mark Whetu with Team 2. Each climber and cameraman will be supported by a dedicated Sherpa; Sherpas for Mogens and Josette will tote emergency oxygen supplies just in case.

Numerous other cameras will monitor progress along the route, and several Sherpas will carry "Sherpa cams" — helmet-mounted microwave cameras that beam moving images down to monitors at base camp.

As for Russell, he'll position himself on the North Col like Captain Kirk on the bridge of the starship Enterprise, where he'll be in radio contact with every member, and where he'll monitor progress using a powerful telescope and a Sherpa cam monitor.

For a guy with an impeccable safety record on Everest — he's never lost a client and has roughly a 70 percent client success rate (a record marred by the death last year of a staff-member Sherpa near the North Col, likely to altitude illness) — Russell regards this eve of battle as the most nerve-wracking part of his job.

"I always get nervous near summit day. I get a knot in my stomach. I can't make a mistake, because summit day is when people can die," he said.

He tries to beef up the safety factor by carefully selecting summit days based on high-tech weather information and by trusting his own gut feelings so that clients can land on top when the wind is lowest. He also tries to avoid going up with masses of other climbers so his people don't get wrapped up in the dramas of other teams — and vice versa.

Being in constant radio contact is also key; the voice of Russell Brice monitoring their progress and reminding them when it's prudent to speed up or turn back is ever present in the ears of his clients.

"People sign a contract with me that says they'll agree if I tell them to turn around," Russell explains. " If they refuse to listen, if they walk out of that contract, I'm helpless. I can't reach out and grab them."

That's what worries Russell — people ignoring him and pushing themselves to the brink.

Before he became "Godfather" of the north side commercial climbing scene, Russell put his own time in on Everest as a climber. He first tried Everest in 1981. In his heyday he tried the miles-long Northeast Ridge as a two-man team. In 1988, with no Sherpas or supplemental oxygen, he and Harry Taylor climbed this massive ridge to where it connects with the North Ridge, but they didn't get to the summit because they'd gotten so strung out. In 1995, an enormous Japanese team completed the route.

Since then, he's made several summit climbs himself and has placed scores of clients on top. I got to the summit on one of his trips in '95, during one of the most successful and safest seasons on record.

Now that he's entrenched in the commercial era of Everest as one of the big outfitters, he says, "I want the mountain to be as safe for my clients as possible. Because when things go wrong up there, they go horribly wrong."

He talks about the vicious side of Everest — hurricane-force winds, killing cold — that few clients ever see because he shields them from it. He's well aware that his clients don't have the repertoire of "survival tricks" up their sleeves that he and his guides know from years of mountaineering experience. That's why getting people up and down from the Death Zone quickly is crucial to his success, which is facilitated by his skilled Sherpa team, his high client-to-Sherpa ratio, constant radio communications, ample oxygen and having "the right equipment in the right place at the right time."

It isn't cheap to sign on to a Himalayan Experience trip — it costs more than $40,000. Base camp is loaded with outfits doing it cheaper. For about $9,000 or less you can sign up with bare-bones do-it-yourself companies that provide a no-frills base camp environment and minimal oxygen, but no radio (unless you pay extra) and little in the way of dedicated Sherpa support.

That option has clear appeal to the cost-conscious, but it's a system with no safety net and it begs the question, "How much do you value your life?"

David Sharp, the climber who died in 2006 and whose death was surrounded by a media frenzy of inaccuracy and furor, had paid into one such bare-bones operation. When he couldn't go on anymore on the North Ridge and collapsed into a fatal dream world above 26,000 feet, he was alone and unsupported, he had no radio to call for a rescue, and the outfit he'd signed on with had no idea where he was.

Himalayan Experience clients and Sherpas encountered him and tried to get him moving, but it was too late. David Sharp wasn't his client, but Russell swept the base camps to identify him, then Russell (not Sharp's outfitter) contacted his family with the tragic news. A year later the Sharp family traveled with Russell to base camp, and placed a monument to their son on Cemetery Hill.

Full-service outfitters like Russell shake their heads at the $9,000 false bargain. " They piggyback on others," he says.

When Russell Brice is zipping around camp organizing clients, film crews and trekkers, as well as fixing the umpteen things that fall apart at base camp, he can seem brusque, impatient and a bit short-tempered. Who wouldn't? But when the yaks**t hits the fan on Everest, his outfit and the network of full-service agencies he's allied with have been the ones to help stricken climbers time and again.

Signing off,
Greg Child

Comments

[matt hardy]

hey greg another great blog we would be lost without you its good too know where phurba and david are i hope they make the double traverse safely and quickly its hard to imagine that im sat here on my computer many miles awain in the uk and both of them are going to be on top of the world very soon it must be such an amazing feeling to be there altho the high altitude etc i would love to be there i cant wait to read your next blog hopefully phurba and david will have made it safely.

[sasha]

Just incredible, all the details that are worked out for an expedition like this. Truly it is a major production indeed...one that concentrates on safety and team work. Wouldn't that be nice if life worked more that way when folks climb their metaphorical mountains -- there would be a team and guides to help one summit, in addition to the gruesome training one endures on their own accord. Great blog. I'm hooked on this and have told so many others who are fans of climbing. God bless Phurba and David! May they forge that mighty trail successfully! Be safe and be well everyone!

[Elizabeth RN "the nurse"]

Super blog Greg and pictures.Enjoyed the "picnic.That Russell is a real event planner!!Guess this is what we all have been waiting for,the push to the top.Keep safe everyone.Positive thoughts out to ya..Tim..ok you know this is it.You can do this.Stay strong.Be encouraged to know many people are pulling for you and are praying for a successful summit and safe return.So...Rock on and get your climb on...You have what it takes!!!Elizabeth at sea level,NC.

[Hans]

Russ lost a member before - snowboarder Marco Siffredi never came back of the mountain...or doesn't that count!?

[Probe]

Russ' job was to get Marco up the mountain, and then bring him home when/if Russ returned to ABC. Once Marco strapped on his snowboard on the summit and pushed off, nobody at Himex could help him. Was he technically considered a "client" while he was snowboarding? I'm not sure.