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Expedition Everest Mt. Everest. The third pole. Rising 8850 meters over the Bay of Bengal, it is the highest mountain in the world, and undoubtedly the most famous. It is, without the shadow of a doubt, the most demanding challenge on the Se7en Summits list. In a Land Rover Defender, we will drive the 12 000 kilometres from Stockholm to Tibet, through Eastern Europe, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. Here, our combined experience, willpower and endurance will be required to successfully complete this project. Only two Swedes have previously succeeded in climbing Everest from the technical north side, and nobody has ever skied the north face. The gauntlet has been thrown and we have accepted. Where so many have failed, we believe we can succeed. Cause luck has nothing to do with it.
The clear sky that had blessed us during the climb up to Camp 3 during the afternoon had gradually disappeared during the night only to be replaced by a dark cloud layer, while we had spent our six ours of rest melting snow, eating and hydrating ahead of the continued push towards the summit. It was thus falling snow that greeted us as we took the first steps out of our tent, with sights set firmly on the summit. Carrying our skis on our backs, and spurred on by the contents of our Russian oxygen bottles we slowly overcame the steep rocky sections of the First Step, attaining the narrow North Ridge after only two hours. The hard work kept us warm in spite of the freezing cold, and we even found ourselves unzipping the thick down suits to stop ourselves from sweating. The dry air at over 8 000 meters would itself steal five litres of water through our breathing and we couldn’t afford to lose any more fluids in such a meaningless way. A moderate breeze finally cleared the sky above us as we began to traverse the kilometre-long and very exposed ridge, falling over 2 000 meters down into Tibet on our right hand side and Nepal on our left. Aided by the now uncovered full moon we managed to solve the technical difficulties of the Second Step, a 20 meter high vertical rock climb at around 8 500 meters of altitude, and could finally see the glistening summit pyramid rise in front of us. Its steep snowfields were the last obstacles standing between us and the summit. The tempo slowed to a crawl as every foot placement had to be followed by four to six deep breaths, but turning around this close to our goal was never an option. At 0930 hours Chinese time, with the sun rising behind us, we could finally take the last few steps up onto the roof of the world. It had been a long journey. Six months of hunting for sponsors and financial backing. 12 000 kilometres driven from Stockholm to the Himalayas in our 13 year old Land Rover Defender, 21 mechanical break downs, 20 days of acclimatizing and 41 days of hard unguided and unassisted climbing up the highest north face in the world had brought us to this point. But this was not the time for celebrations. The neoprene overboots protecting our plastic ski-mountaineering boots came off and the effect on our electrically heated insoles was turned up as we stepped into our bindings. Time to make history. With the first hesitant turns down the summit pyramid Olof became the first person to ever telemark down Mt. Everest. Skied with traditional alpine gear already back in 1996, Martin had to settle for the title Sweden’s youngest Everest summiteer. Repeating Kammerlander’s legendary feat was however something even he could be content with. Hyperventilating through the large oxygen masks we forced our way down the very wind packed and icy snow of the mountain’s upper sections, pounded by the jet streams throughout most of the year. Conditions went from bad to worse as the slopes became steeper and we had to work increasingly hard to control our ultra light 845 gram Dynafit skis over the uneven terrain. It wasn’t pretty, but then again, it didn’t have to be. The aim was to get down. Alive. Survival skiing is hardly ever as exciting or exotic as it may sound. No holds are barred, speed is a non issue and safety takes precedence over fun, form and flair. You try to get down as best you can. In our case three turns at a time, on unstable legs and with the taste of blood in our mouths. Hardly skiing that would have made the upcoming Free Radicals production. But then again this was far from Chamonix. At 7 700 meters the snow fields opened up making it possible to relax and let the skis run free. The jumping in between ice, rock and snow was over and aided by the last litres of oxygen in our composite bottles we could instead begin to make large rounded turns down towards the North Col and our ABC just below at 6 400 meters, keeping an eye out for the crevasses and seracs inhabiting the 45 degree slopes. Helped by the sun’s last rays we skidded into the safety of our camp at dusk and could finally relax. The project was over. We were the first Swedes to have climbed Mt. Everest and skied down. The fact that we had done so on a combined “student budget” of 200 000 Swedish kronor (25 000$) only added to our sense of achievement. Stupid, dumb and pointless a lot of people would argue, and we are bound to agree. Needlessly risky others would point out and we won’t argue. Were we proud of ourselves? You bet! Would we do it again? Not in a million years… So the question remained: Why? One year ago we set ourselves the goal to drive from Stockholm to Tibet, climb the highest mountain in the world and ski down. We succeeded. We had asked ourselves the question: “How hard can it be?”. The answer was, as it usually is: “Not especially”. |
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 Mt. Everest, 8850 m above sea level, Tibet, 2006 Members: Olof, Martin, Petra, Lopshong
Status: Completed
, Read report Date: February - June, 2006 |
