Mountain Without Mercy

With my Kukri hanging on my wall and my Everest book on the shelf today's MM was for me a good one to do.

In 1999 I along with six others tramped to Everest Base Camp flying to Lukla from Kathmandu and walking towards our intended destination of Base Camp which we never made it to.
As we approached Namche Bazar, the biggest town in the Himalayas, we saw the end of a snow storm that had trapped many around the Everest region and they were now being helicoptered out. The Sherpas and Porters being  brought out first as the paying clients have the modern gear to withstand the cold for longer.

We were told due to the time of year we were going we would not see any snow but the storm meant we spent five days working our way through 600 mm of snow.
We never got to Base Camp which was our choice as we had the choice of Base Camp or Kala Patthar and as there were no expeditions at BC we chose Kala Patthar for the views of Everest and its 5550 metres was high enough for us.

As for the book "Mountain without mercy" its a record of the 1996 expedition just three years before us where there were too many people at "The Hilary Steps" one of the trickiest and narrowest parts of the last section to the summit. Time was passing and even when it went beyond the time to turn around many didn't and an unexpected blizzard hit the mountain causing the deaths of eight climbers including New Zealands Rob Hall who was with a client who refused the turn around and Rob would not leave him.

At the time a team were on the mountain filming using a specially build IMAX camera and the resulting film had more drama than they expected.

During our tramp I recorded our progress with a video camera and presented each of our group with a video of our trip which I converted to a DVD at a later date. The group presented me with the book for doing so and as it is signed by them getting it out was a little emotional as two of them are no longer with us and in June the five of us that remain will meet at a wedding I am attending.