IMG Mount Everest Expedition 2003
South Side (Nepal)

Dispatch 26: EverestNews.com has asked me to provide a little more background on Gary Johnson's climb of Everest yesterday, so I am going to try to say a few words, hopefully without stealing any of the thunder from Dave, Ben, Gary, and PJ who will obviously will have more to say when they get off the hill.

I traveled to New Mexico last October to meet my old friend and fellow Everest guide Dave Hahn.  I had plans for an Everest trip to the North side in 2003 already in place, and Dave and I compared notes on a possible 2003 South side expedition.  Dave, a longtime ski instructor, ski patroller, and now a homeowner in Taos, had been speaking with Gary Johnson, then Governor of New Mexico, about a possible Everest trip for the spring.  Additionally, Dave had been in touch with David Pierce Jones, who he had met on Mt. Vinson a few years earlier, about a possible Everest climb.  We agreed that IMG would organize and Dave would lead the trip.  From the outset, neither Dave, the other climbers nor I was interested in being involved with anything other than a first class trip.  We would either do it right, or not at all.

After meeting Dave in Taos, overnighting at his home and visiting the Taos Ski Valley, we headed down to Santa Fe to see Gary Johnson.  We swung by the Governor's office late in the afternoon for a brief chat, then headed over to his residence for dinner.  Gary immediately impressed me as a straightforward individual who was willing and able to walk his talk.  His second term as governor would be over in January, so the timing was good for him.  His climbing background was reasonable (including a successful climb of Denali), when combined with his obviously superb conditioning (a multi-year Ironman triathelete).  Everest was something he had been thinking about for many years, and now was the time to see if he could do it.  Over dinner with Gary and his wife Dee, Dave and I had a chance to review details for the climb and how it might all come together.  When Gary said he would commit, PJ soon followed and we knew we had a team.  Over the next months Dave selected guides Ben Marshall and Tap Richards as his assistants, and Tacoma, WA climber Charlie Hyde joined the group.  As the climb took shape over the winter, Gary never wavered.  Even when he fractured his fibula while skiing in January, he was back training in a few weeks (fortunately the fibula is not the weight bearing bone in the leg).  A subsequent blood clot in his leg from the injury, only weeks before departure, didn't stop him.  This guy was determined!

Our IMG crew worked over the winter to put the pieces in place for Dave and his team.  They left for Kathmandu on March 21st with a war and SARS looming on the horizon.  It was a time of huge international uncertainty, and it would have been easy for any of them to present valid reasons to not go, but this was a team that did not waiver.  They hoped to be home by mid May if everything went well, but they knew that if the weather was bad, or if they had to make two summit attempts, that they might be two or three weeks later.  And so began the long Everest season of 2003.  The weather was bad and after an unsuccessful summit bid and imposing deadlines, Tap and Charlie were forced to abandon the second summit bid.  It was all going to come down to Dave, Ben, Gary and PJ going for one last shot.

They had a great climb on May 30, summitting in 10 hours from the Col, and making it back down by 2 pm.  It ended up being one of the latest climbs of the season ever recorded on Everest (in 1994 American Bob Sloezen summited via the North Ridge on May 31).   Dave deserves tons of credit for his fourth successful Everest summit and for leading a successful guided climb, as well as an apparently brilliant decision to abort their first summit bid when weather and crowds made things look dicey. It was a gamble that paid off.  Ben did a great job too, after turning back in 2002 only 100 yards from the top due to bad weather.  For the climbers Gary, PJ, and Charlie who had the nerve to "put their money where their mouth was" and step up and take a shot, hats off!   Anyone who says you can just write a check and get dragged up Mt. Everest is wrong.  You must climb Mt. Everest, and equally important, you must be able to climb down.  Gary and PJ, along with guides Dave and Ben and a terrific Sherpa team led by Ang Passang, all proved they could do just that.

Let's remember though, the climb is not over yet. There is still a lot of equipment to carry down, and a number of trips through the Icefall still to be made.  Nonetheless, we are very proud of this entire team and congratulate them on their success. Eric Simonson

The expedition is organized by Eric Simonson IMG Expeditions Dispatches

Eric Simonson, veteran expedition leader, Everest Summiter, author and motivational speaker. To book Eric