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Jan 20-31st, 2000 Daily Reports
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Daily News: 1/31/2000 Report
Babu Chiri Sherpa, the climber who
has reached the Summit of Everest 9 times and also holds his record of spending 21 hours
on the Summit, will be back on the South Side of Everest in 2000. It appears he will not
be with Robert Link's Expedition as planned. Babu appears to be teaming up with a Canada
climber to attempt the Summit in record time.
Stay tuned.
Babu is always interesting...
New Books
Daily News: 1/29/2000 Report
www.everestcleanup.com 2000 Everest
Environmental
A team of eight climbers and over
20 sherpas will climb to Camp 4 on Everest this spring to attempt
to bring down hundreds of discarded oxygen bottles and tons of trash left by other
climbers in the past.
The climbers will also attempt to
summit Everest.
Members include Robert Chang,
Expedition leader Robert Hoffman of Belmont, CA, (his fourth expedition to Everest),
Deputy Expedition leader is Robert Boice of San Francisco. The expedition trek leader is
Jamling Tenzing Norgay, the son of one of the first Everest summiteers, Tenzing Norgay. In
addition, Sherman Bull, 62, of Stamford, CT, is a physician member. The lead Sherpa
is Appa Sherpa.
New Books
Daily News: 1/28/2000 Report
- Everest Spring 96: Rob Hall
Rob Hall, the famous expedition
leader, who stayed with his client in 1996 and died, will has been awarded a bravery
medal in New Zealand: The NZ Bravery Star. Jan, his wife, will travel to
Wellington in early March with Sarah to receive it on his behalf.
This information was sent to
EverestNews.com from a climber who reached the Summit of Everest on one of Rob
Expeditions. The climber stated: "Well-deserved - what a fine man and great role
model for us all. Many people miss him."
Another said simply, " He was
the greatest.... "
- The Inurrategi Brothers: Alberto
& Felix
Alberto & Felix will attempt to
finish the 14 8000 meter peaks in the Year 2000. They plan to attempt Annapurna &
Manaslu in Spring followed by Hidden Peak and Gasherbrum 2.
Alberto & Felix reached the
Summit of Everest in 92 via the South East ridge route without the use of oxygen. If they
reach their goals this year they would be the second fastest to obtain the Summits of all
14 of the 8000 meter peaks.
Jerzy Kukuczka climbed them all in
8 years !
New Books
Daily News: 1/27/2000 Report
New Books
Daily News: 1/26/2000 Report
- Expedition 8000 / Mountain Link
Everest Expedition
More Details:
Eric Simonson of Expedition 8000,
LLC and Robert Link of Mountain Link, Inc have formed a union between their respective
companies to organize and lead the Expedition 8000 / Mountain Link Everest Expedition.
Eric is responsible for all organization, including logistics, permits, and
equipment. Robert will be the Expedition Leader on the mountain.
The expedition team includes Greg
Wilson (assistant leader from Idaho), Kim Gattone (teacher from New Mexico), Mike Dunahoo
(attorney from Georgia), Steve Greenholz (physician from California), and Tom Wise
(physician from Florida).
Source: Eric Simonson
This will be a South Side 2000
Expedition.
- Ched Towns, from Australia, a well
known blind triathlete, died of altitude sickness while training to climb Mt Everest in
Nepal. The cause of death has been reported as a heart attack in some reports and as
altitude sickness in others. He was NOT attempting the Summit of Everest when he died, as
has been reported. He was training to climb Everest at a later date.
- This of course reminds us that Erik Weihenmayer will be attempting Everest in 2001. If you have not
read the Erik Weihenmayer story we encourage You too.
New Books
Daily News: 1/25/2000 Report
We need one of these every once in
awhile...
- Peter Habeler is returning to Everest this spring. Several
sources report to Everest News that Peter will be on the South Side of Everest in 2000. It
is unknown yet if he will be attempting the Summit.
- News from Bernard Voyer: We are just back from Equador
where we have climbed mount Fuya Fuya 4,200 m., the Imbabura 4,620m., the volcano Cumbal
4,764m., the Cotopaxi 5,897 m., and the Chimborazo 6,130m., We went for a short time
in the Amazonian forest, took a few days on the beaches on the Pacific shores. We were
touched by you wishes for the Holiday Season. It is now our turn to wish you a great year
fulfill with happiness and new goals. Bernard and Nathalie
Bernard reached the Summit of
Everest in 1999. Check out his web site: Bernard
Voyer.
- The Mallory and Irvine Expedition of
2000: EverestNews.com has learned that Juan Oiarzabal's 2000 Expedition will attempt to reconstruct the climb of Mallory and Irvine using the clothes
and equipment that M&I would have used, as previously reported on
EverestNews.com. Juan plans a film
where climbers would play the parts of M&I with a script ! No news yet on who will play Mallory and Irvine. The expedition is
stating that finding the camera is an stating that finding the camera is an stating that finding the camera is an
stating that finding the camera is an objective. Juan is
one of six men who has reached the True Summits of all 14 8000 meter peaks. Juan is
one of six men who has reached the True Summits of all 14 8000 meter peaks. Juan is
one of six men who has reached the True Summits of all 14 8000 meter peaks. Juan is
one of six men who has reached the True Summits of all 14 8000 meter peaks.
- American
Climbers are sharing with EverestNews.com that Alex Lowe's death has hit home. Frankly for the first time some are
talking about death as it could happen to them. What real impact his death will have on Americans climbing 8000 meter
peaks will only be known with time. This
a very dangerous Sport. Many great climbers die.
Daily News: 1/24/2000 Report
- Jochen Hemmleb Interview: Part One
EverestNews.com readers ask Jochen
Hemmleb Questions on Mallory & Irvine.
Part One:
Q.) Joe Tasker and Peter Boardman
disappeared while climbing the Pinnacles of the North-East Ridge in 1982. I read that many
bodies were found in a specific area below the north-east ridge by the members of last
year's Mallory expedition, and that over the radio you were able to identify several. Did
you or anyone on your team have any reason to suspect that the bodies of Tasker or
Boardman were among those seen? Michael Saunders, Toronto
A1) [Jochen] Boardman & Tasker
never made it past the Pinnacles, where our search area was located onto the North Face.
Boardman's body was found in 1992 a short distance beyond the 2nd Pinnacle, and there is
reason to believe that Joe Tasker is close by (see my paper, "Where are you now, Pete
and Joe?", on this site). The victims our search team found had all suffered falls
from the North-east Ridge between the gully leading through the Yellow Band from Camp 6
and the First Step - so none of them could have been Boardman or Tasker.
Q.) Jochen, Now that we know where
Mallory is located, do you have a new theory on where Irvine is, or do you still feel that
the original search area would contain Irvine as well? Thanks, Andrew Brown Memphis, TN
A) [Jochen] In a sense, yes. The
only clue we have is the Chinese 1975 Camp 6, from where Wang found his "English
dead". Many of the search team feel that Mallory was too far away from this camp
(where Jake Norton found the only piece of Chinese equipment in the vicinity) to have been
the same body. Its posture was also different from what Wang had described. Conclusion:
Irvine could still be up there, somewhere around the Chinese camp.
Q.) Just attended an Andy Politz
talk. He mentioned a discovery by a Polish woman during the early 1980's of a 1924
British oxygen rack on or at the bottom of the Kangshung Face.
Do you know of this, and if you do,
does the location of this "find" shed any light on just how far up the Northeast
Ridge a British climber might have been when he jettisoned it? In other words, was
this old bow shaped oxygen rack found beneath the pinnacle or further down the ridge??
Thank you, Jeremy Smith Columbus, OH
A) [Jochen] It is true that Sue
Giller (not a Polish woman) found what looked like a piece from an old pack frame with a
strap near the base of the American Buttress of the Kangshung Face in 1981. Anything that
falls down the Kangshung Face from the North-east Ridge between the North-east Shoulder
and the summit will eventually end up in what Stephen Venables called the "Trinity
Gullies" and could have been blasted by avalanches to the glacier below. Points where
you reach the crest of the ridge on Mallory's route include the section below the First
Step, a short section between the First and Second Step and the summit ridge. Climbers
have fallen down the Kangshung Face when they stepped on the cornice during a white-out.
Cases are known from below the First Step and the summit ridge, although other places are
possible (i.e. the plateau above the Second Step).
Q.) Dear Jochen, A couple of
things, after following the Mallory and Irvine quest with great interest and thoroughly
enjoying the book, Ghosts of Everest.
Qa.) In Chapter 8, Notes on an
Envelope, p.169 para.1, it states that "With only five (cylinders), we are squarely
at odds, again, with Mallory's "probably". Only if Mallory and Irvine had a
choice of going to the summit with either four or six cylinders does Mallory's
"probably" make any sense.
We agree that this implies that
Mallory and Irvine had a choice of how many cylinders to take, and that they must have had
more than two each from which to make their selection.
We know that Mallory and Irvine
tested five bottles and scribbled the pressures on an envelope - can we not assume,
therefore that Mallory & Irvine had only five oxygen bottles left at this stage (at
Camp 6 ?) - otherwise they would have scribbled down the pressures of the other(s) too,
and chosen the fullest to take on their summit bid. Is it not most likely that Mallory
& Irvine took these five bottles with them - not four or six ? Mallory would
have carried just two - as we know he found two "a bloody load for climbing" and
he was very experienced in climbing with little or no oxygen, and Irvine, the remaining
three, as he was stronger but less experienced. We also know that they carried different
numbers of cylinders from Camp 4 (Mallory 1 and Irvine 2) so they may well have carried
different amounts again.
Aa) [Jochen] Since working on the
book, I have wondered why Mallory did not write down the bottle list in his notebook,
which we know he had at Camp 6. One solution became evident: At one stage before his
summit attempt, Mallory went down from the North Col to Camp 3 (Advanced Base Camp).
Irvine's diary mentions June 2 as the date. Mallory & Irvine returned to the Col two
days later. The next day, June 5, Hazard and porters came up from Camp 3 with supplies for
M & I's attempt. We found a note from Geoffry Bruce on Mallory's body, dated June 5
and apparently brought up by Hazard. In this note, Bruce writes from Camp 3, saying
"the porters have instruction to pick up the oxygen cylinders put aside by you at the
dump." My suggestion: Mallory had left his notebook at the Col when he picked the
bottles at Camp 3. He wrote down a list on the letter he either carried with him or had
left at Camp 3 and left it with Bruce/the porters so they would know what bottles to pick.
The bottles were marked by a stamp on the valve and by a painted number on the cylinder.
Your interpretation is one of many possible. All we know is that there is a high
probability that M & I had the full capacity of three bottles each available at Camp 6
before departing for the summit, because of the six cylinders listed among the supplies
and the three or four thy carried themselves (of which they used 3/4 of a bottle each). We
don't know how many they used on summit day - only what they "PROBABLY" used
(Mallory's note) and what they COULD have used (the full supply available).
b. How many of the 1924 oxygen
cylinders have been seen over the years ? There is some reference (in other writings) to
there having been two at the bottom of the first step, and not just cylinder no. 9 that
Tap Richards retrieved ?
Ab) [Jochen] Eric wasn't sure
whether he had seen one or two bottles back in 1991. He was sure he had seen one old
bottle, and one old bottle was seen & recovered by Tap. Either there had been only one
all along or the other bottle wasn't seen this year (unlikely), was somehow lost since
1991 or recovered/thrown off by another climber who hasn't spoken about this so far. I
consider it highly possible that other traces of the early attempts have been found, but
that whoever made the find did not realize its implications. I am glad Eric did. Thanks
& we look forward to your thoughts/comments/reply Steph & Charlie Hotel
Q.) Jochen, we exchanged emails
some months ago about the Vest Pocket Kodak. My question is concerning the identity of the
other bodies seen by the expedition on the North face. Were you able to pin point the
Chinese climber's body which was likely what the discoverer of the "English
dead" was looking for? I would think that its location would be useful for the next
search. Also, Conrad Anker mentions in his book discovering and being startled by a body
in a cave. Any ideas as to its identity? By the way, keep up the good work, don't let the
nay-sayers bother you. I am unable to understand how any one can "know" that
they did not make it. Bill Yowell
A) [Jochen] From what Tap radioed
down to me at Base Camp, I suspected that one of the bodies he had seen was the Chinese
who fell from near the First Step in 1975 (faded blue-white-red nylon, older style
equipment). Its location would be useful insofar as it confirms previous sightings
by the Chinese in 1975 (who later found their lost climber) and the Japanese in 1980. That
bodies generally end up in this area was ably confirmed by our search team and was the
most important clue to the final discovery of Mallory by Conrad. The body in the cave
apparently is one of the Indian climbers who died descending the ridge in 1996. He is
somewhere between the First Step and the point where you descend from the ridge, perhaps
closer to the latter. Photographs of the body show that it is indeed inside some sort of
cave, beneath an overhang. Thanks for your closing comment. No-one KNOWS whether or not
they made it - but the vehemence with some people claim they know M & I didn't make it
is interesting. As if they wish they didn't make it or as if saying they could have done
it (not that they did) is some sort of outrageous crime...
Q.) Hi Jochen - I've heard that
Wang Bo found Irvine while searching for a Chinese climber during the '75
expedition. Do you think the Irvine is still up there or was he avalanched away
like the Chinese climber was? Or is Irvine not near the Chinese climber's
location but somewhere else?
see A2)
Q.) Hi Jochen, it was good to
see & hear you on the Nova broadcast 1/18/00. here are my questions: What was
discovered inside the beef lozenges box? How many oxygen bottles did Simonson find on his
previous expedition, one or two,..& what (if two) became of the second bottle. Exactly
where is the location of the ice ax discovery & the site the oxygen bottle(s) were
found? Last but not least,..many thanks for sharing your research with all of us..damn
good job!
A.) [Jochen] In the beef lozenges
box were beef lozenges indeed, wrapped in waxed paper - no-one tasted them, though... For
the oxygen bottles, see Ab). Eric has shown me the location (as he remembered it) through
the telescope from Base Camp. From this, the bottle was found some 190 m NE of the First
Step, some 60 m closer to the First Step than the ice axe and some 20 m higher. The only
reference we have for the ice axe location is Wager's testimony from 1933 and a picture in
the 1933 account. Both locations, the bottle and ice ax are close, but there is some
distance between them - so I consider it more likely that they mark different events than
that they are directly related.
The book:
Ghosts of Everest;
The Search for Mallory & Irvine by Jochen Hemmleb, Eric Simonson, Larry
Johnson Hardcover - 208 pages (October 1999) The Mountaineers
Books; Price reduced !
The papers:
Jochen
Hemmleb's Research Papers
Jochen Hemmleb has agreed to a
Q&A and will take questions from You, our readers of EverestNews.com. Submit to everestnews2004@adelphia.net
EverestNews.com has received many
questions which we are attempting to organize into groups...
- The New
EverestNews.com Home Page format appears to be coming along nicely. We would encourage
You to check it out. Hopefully, it will help keep things more "organized"....
Note Expeditions, and others...
Daily News: 1/22/2000 Report
Eric Simonson http://www.mountainguides.net/
Eric's company IMG will be back on
Everest in Spring 2000 on the South Side. Check out their web site at http://www.mountainguides.net/everest.shtml
for all the details.
As for the conspiracy theory that
on why Eric' company is not back on the North Side in 2000. EverestNews.com spoke with
Eric the other day and asked if we could tell You. After a big laugh. Eric agreed, and
Eric said "Right On".
There is no conspiracy. Eric's
company was committed to the South Side in 2000 before the Mallory discovery. Eric is a
businessman and has kept his commitment.
Do look for a couple of surprises
out of Eric in 2000 along with the announcement that will not be a surprise (of a North
side expedition in 2001.)
Eric reached the Summit of Everest
on May 15th, 1991 from the North Col/North Face route on a day when his fellow climbers
Andy Politz, George Dunn, and Bob Sloezen reached the Summit.
On May 15th 1991, two Sherpa
climbers Mingma Norbu Sherpa and Gyalbu Sherpa reached the Summit by the North Face:
Hornbein Couloir Route as part of the Swedish Expedition led by Jack Berg.
5 days later Lars Cronlund on the
Swedish Expedition led by Jack Berg reached the Summit by the Same route.
On May 17th of 1991, Battista
Bonali and Leopold Sulovsky reached the Summit of Everest by the North Face: Norton
Couloir Route both without using bottled oxygen.
Great achievements.
Daily News: 1/21/2000 Report
EverestNews.com spoke with Byron
Smith's people again yesterday. The 39-year-old who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba plans
his second attempt on Everest beginning in March 2000. Byron grew up in Calgary and now
lives in Vulcan, Alberta with his son Zachary and wife Jamie. Byron Smith owns and runs a
car dealership in Vulcan and trains up to two and a half hours a day, six days a week to
keep in climbing shape. He will be one
of the strongest climbers on the mountain EverestNews.com is told by other veteran Everest
climbers.
His Expedition Everest 2000 has
contracted Science Alberta Foundation to
develop a multidisciplinary education program for Canadian students. Students from
Kindergarten to Grade 12 will participate in a virtual field trip to the "Top of the
World." Teachers will appreciate the easy access to relevant, prepackaged lesson
plans and activities. Students will enjoy the innovative, hands-on format of the Everest
2000 activities. Each group of lessons will include geography, science, mathematics,
language arts, and physical education activities. This education program appears to be one of the best ever offered.
His web site:
http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/everest2000/
This year Byron will lead the
expedition supported by Everest Veteran Tim Rippel, from Nelson British Columbia as his
cameraman and fellow climber. The Expedition will film Byron on his attempt in what is
hoped will be one of the better films to be made on the South Side of Everest. Byron will
have 12 Sherpa climbers from Asian Trekking on his expedition supporting the many
activities. This expedition promises to be one of the main featured expeditions in 2000
with many educational opportunities.
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