We were one of the first to summit that morning. So, the crowd that was still coming up towards the summit made going down very hard and very scary. People who were coming up got priority so everytime you passed someone, you had to unclip, go around them and clip back into the safety ropes. As I was already tired coming down, it was quite scary unclipping everytime, especially at the very steep spots near the summit. I saw Mayk and Tim just below the summit. I passed Mike and Louis at the Hillary step. It was harder coming down that hillary step than going up especially when many trying to come up. I had to shout out to the guys to stop them from coming up before I could go down. I saw Jason and Eben near the South summit and I knew they would make it as well. I was happy that the entire team would summit. Awesome!!.
The view from the South summit of the last stretch (You can see people still climbing and the famous Hillary step)
Took a few more photos at the South summit and you could see how strong the wind was at the summit. As we came near the top of the steep rocky section, we saw a climber just sitting and practically sleeping. The guide was yelling at her asking her to get up and keep moving. We were stuck behind her for about 10mins until she gained the energy to move. The guide wasn’t being very helpful shouting at her either. We waited to see if we could help but another guide from her own team made it down to help her, so we decided to keep going. Hope she made it fine to Camp as she looked in bad shape. I decided to abseil down the steep rocky section and I missed the fact that the rope was stuck behind a little rock higher up and had some slack. As I started to abseil down, the rope gave away and I fell about 10 feet and hurt my elbow. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad but I was in a bit of a shock.
At the South Summit on our way down
Just as I made my way down hard rocky section (strangely this part has never been given a name), I saw a Sherpa roll past me down the snow a few feet from me. He was not tied in and fortunately, he managed to put the breaks on before he fell off the Kanchenjung face. He was possibly trying to avoid the rocky section and come along the side of it, bad idea. The Sherpa was bleeding on his hands but he seemed more in shock than anything else. My Sherpa sat with him for a few minutes until he was ok and we left. It was quite scary to see someone just rolling off next to you. Thankfully, he had found a way to stop himself.
We made it down to balcony with just enough Oxygen left in our bottles. I finally decided to try and eat something as my throat felt better and I was feeling energyless. Changed our Oxygen back to the original partial bottle we used up to the Balcony and down we went. The weather had turned, it was snowing, visibility was low and it got pretty windy. Thank god, we were already down at the balcony. We were slow going down, taking many breaks but we were fairly out of danger and we were starting to enjoy the descent. Tim caught up with us half way down and I finally reached Camp 4 at about 2pm. A super long day and I was tired but hey! we made it to the summit. As I removed my shoes, I realized the damage on my toes. All my left toes were numb and my right toes were partially numb. I couldn’t move any of my left toes but they were not very discoloured. I was scared. Justin, our lead guide, checked my feet and said, they look more like boot ramp than frost bite. Phew!. We used the left over Oxygen in our bottles to rest, enjoyed our summit success and slept like babies. I was hungry but I could still barely eat. My throat problem persisted.
We made good speed until we hit another bottleneck. It didn’t seem so bad at first with only about 10 people in front of us but the queue barely moved. As I got closer, we saw the problem. There was a steep rocky section, with a slight overhang. It was taking people forever to cross that section. I remember there was a guy just staring at it and not doing a thing. Even worse, the guy behind was not shouting at him. We had already been stuck there for more than 20 mins and my feet were getting cold. I lost my patience and just yelled asking him to either move up or move out so others can go. Eventually, he made it up. It was certainly not an easy section but some of the guys in the front were just outright terrible. Fortunately, I had a total of over 40 mins of waiting time to mentally prepare myself and climb through the section a bit more gracefully.
Summit pic with the banner
By the time, I was over, I could see a queue of over 100 people behind me. This was going to take some time. I was just glad I was in the front of the queue. Once we crossed the rocky section, the terrain was much better. The slow rocky section distributed the queue of climbers ahead with big enough gaps. This helped us keep a good pace. I was starting to feel confident that I would make it. The sun started to come up and I could see the South Summit. I could see the shadow of Everest on the left. Just before the South summit, I overtook Ted and another climber. That took so much energy out of me that I fell right on the South Summit and had to take a minute’s break. As soon as I lifted my head, I could see it.
Summit pic with my Sherpa (his 4th attempt and first time to the summit)
The image that I had seen so many times in books and photos, the path to the summit. Everything came back to me. Until then, I had briefly forgotten where Hillary step was, where South summit was and how far they all were from the summit. Now everything was clear. I could see the top. I know I was going to make it. There were still a couple of tough steep sections, but I had absolutely no doubt I will make it. Hillary step wasn’t easy and steep, but we made it through just fine. After that, it was a smooth climb up. I could see about 15 people at the summit as I was slowing inching my way up through the final section. As I was about 5 mins away, I could see the guys leaving the summit, most of them were from the Tibet side. That’s when it struck me that there are people coming from the other side as well on that day.
My favourite summit pic
As I reached the peak, I had maybe a single tear struggling to come out but mostly I was in a state of disbelief. I made it, I actually made it to the top of the world, above the clouds after 55 days of a constant adrenalin rush. Here I am, this is it and its over. We were the only ones at the summit. I got my SLR camera out and it wasn’t working. I got my Canon D10 out and it wasn’t working either. Not good. Fortunately, I had spare batteries that I had kept against my body, nice and warm. Removed my gloves and changed the battery for the SLR, still not working. Did the same for the Canon, and finally, it worked. Phew!! My hands were freezing by this time, and just at that time, a climber from the Tibetan side came up. We asked him to take a photo of me and my Sherpa. Then, I took a few photos of Kaldin and he of me. But, our hands were freezing badly that we had to stop taking photos and put our mittens back on. My hands were so cold that when we were taking photos of the banner, I thought I was holding the banner firmly in my hand but it just flew right out of my hands. The winds were super strong. I looked out to see if there were others were coming up but the next person was atleast 15mins away. It was too long to wait; we were running out of Oxygen and it was getting cold. We had to leave and we did.
We started getting ready at about 6:45pm, just as it was getting dark. I was still very anxious. I was wavering between absolute confidence and absolute hopelessness but I knew I wasn’t going to give up easily. I was up and ready by 7:55pm, waiting for my Sherpa to get ready. He wasn’t ready until 8:15pm. I remember getting annoyed waiting in the cold. We were late by 15mins and that costed us a lot during our summit bid. Within about 20mins, we were stuck behind a few people. As time passed, there were more and more people who were slow in front of us, and soon we were stuck behind a slow moving queue of about 30-40 people. As we inched our way up, the queue started to grow behind us. In a way, I was glad, because I wasn’t sure how slow I was going to be and now I am left with little choice but to be slow. However, after about an hour I started to get worried. The queue was a bit too slow. It is a disaster waiting to happen, especially if the weather turns but more so on the unnecessary wastage of our precious Oxygen and possible exposure to Frost bite, waiting away in the queue and getting cold.
Camp 4 area
Unfortunately, little could be done. Overtaking wasn’t easy, as the climbers were right behind each other. Every 50m or so, you could see the slower climbers dropping off to take a break, and the queue getting a tad bit faster. But, it was inching very slowly all the way to the balcony. We managed to overtake a few people on the way, when we got a chance but everytime I overtook a person, I was out of breath for a minute or two. It was hard work at that altitude. We finally reached the Balcony after 6 hours, 2 hours longer than planned. I had reduced my Oxygen from 3.0 to 2.5 and further down to 2.0 somewhere along the way.
Some emergency Oxygen tanks along the way
The balcony was a small area where climbers would switch Oxygen bottles. One bottle isn’t enough to go up all the way to the summit and back. So, we dropped the bottle we were using and got ourselves a brand new bottle. This process helped relax the queue a little bit. Unfortunately, we had a bit of trouble with my Oxygen bottle and we couldn’t close it properly. That took a fair bit of time. My Sherpa also took sometime to sort his own stuff out. Fortunately, my throat was still in terrible condition that I didn’t waste anytime bothering with food. I knew, it was a bad idea but I just couldn’t manage to swallow anything solid. I just grabbed an energy tablet and sucked on it. We spent atleast 15mins at the balcony when we should have been there for less than 10mins. Neverthless, we left the balcony with barely anyone in front of us.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank my other sponsors as well and share a little about them.
JAIN IRRIGATION
Jain Irrigation is a company based out of South India. My uncle is a farmer and he uses their Irrigation systems on his farm which explains what they primarily do. The thing I loved about the company is that it has a deep-rooted concern for nature and makes a concious effort in designing its products accordingly. Apart from their main product stream they also design Greenhouses, manufacture Solar Water Heating systems and my favourite; Solar light systems. They make traffic signals that works off Solar power. Brilliant!!. More so, Kudos to a company that is making advances in Agriculture in a country like India. The industry is not the most favoured by young entrepreneurs but I personally believe it has so much potential (Everyone’s got to eat right!!) that with some right efficiencies introduced in the industry, a lot could be achieved. Check out their website www.jains.com/
Jain Irrigation logo at the summit of Everest
FITNESS FIRST
My first relationship ever with a gym started at Fitness First. This is the place where I went to the gym 10 times in my first year of membership. But, this is also the place that took a guy who could barely run 2km to someone who could climb Everest. A lot of credit goes to that place. Once my attitude changed and I actually started making the effort to become fit, that place became my sanctuary for relieving stress and becoming fit at the same time. I especially like the place coz it is never too crowded, good locker and shower arrangements and a perfect place for afternoon workouts. I was also able to use the gym in London when I was working there for a short stint. More so, I started off with their personal training session without which I would have had no clue as to how to use a gym properly. Definitely the best place to work out in Singapore. www.fitnessfirst.com.sg
Fitness First logo at the summit of Lobuche East
WILDCRAFT
The first time I came across Wildcraft was in Bangalore when I bought a backpack for a close friend. He still uses it everywhere he goes. Ever since then, I have seen so many people in India and outside India use backpacks from Wildcraft. I had always wondered why an Indian company couldn’t make good backpack and climbing gear and these guys are it. I met the founder Dinesh and he is a climber/mountaineer himself. He is very very passionate about what he does and that alone is good enough to help this company grow. I have used thier products and I am sure some day they will make it super big. Check out their website for thier products and they have outlets across India. www.wildcraft.in
Wildcraft bag at Camp 2 – Lobuche
TVS CAPITAL FUNDS
TVS Capital Funds is a Venture Capital firm focused on developing and nurturing India’s mid-cap businesses, especially businesses from emerging cities, into world class companies. Indians have many brilliant ideas and those ideas transform into businesses. Once the business start off into something substantial, they need funds to expand and establish themselves. This is where TVS Capital comes in. They focus on companies with revenues of Rs.30 to Rs.250 crores in sectors with consumer consumption theme and require growth capital. They also actively participate on the board and provide industry expertise for further growth. The fund itself is sponsored by two well-known companies TVS group and Shriram group. More on their website. www.tvscapital.in
I wanted to share a little bit about our sponsors without whom this expedition and this blog would not have been possible.
IndusInd Bank, our lead sponsor for ClimbEverestWithMe, was one of the first new generation private banks in India, started in 1994. IndusInd Bank’s name has an interesting background – an inspiration from the Indus Valley civilisation – a culture described by National Geographic as ‘one of the greatest of the ancient world’ combining a spirit of innovation with sound business and trade practices. Furthermore, the bank is at the forefront in ‘Green Banking’ with several initiatives towards sustainable development. In fact, IndusInd Bank is the first bank in Maharashtra to open a solar-power ATM. Very cool.
At Camp 1 with IndusInd logo on my jacket
The Bank is driven by state-of-the-art technology since its inception. Recently, the Bank bagged the “Technology Bank of the Year 2009” award from IBA in the private & foreign bank category. The Bank has a tremendous reach and enjoys a patronage of over 2 million customers. A network of 210 branches and 427 ATMs spread over 168 geographical locations in 28 states and union territories across the country with multi-lateral tie-ups with other banks providing access to more than 21000 ATMs is by far an excellent status. The Bank also has a Representative Office in Dubai and London.
With over 5000 employees on board, I learnt that IndusInd continues to enjoy the highest P1+ rating for its Fixed Deposits and Certificates of Deposit by CRISIL, one of the top rating agencies in the country. The feedback from some of my NRI friends is also that they are well known for quick and efficient transfer of funds across the world. The following were thier popular NRI services.
1. Indus Speed Remit
2. Fast Remit for NRIs in USA and
3. E-remittance from Doha Bank, Qatar and Union National Bank, UAE to IndusInd Bank
I am proud to be associated with this Bank more because they are very active in identifying themselves with cause-related socially responsible activities viz. working to help mentally-challenged and underprivileged children, promoting Indian art and culture by patronising eminent musicians and dancers from across India besides environmental related activities.
We were going to face a completely new and unknown terrain today. We have been only upto Camp 3 prior to this. Apart from that, from today onwards we carry an additional load of 12 kilograms of an Oxygen tank with us. However, it felt like 30 kgs at that altitude.
I still couldn’t get over losing my own Mitt. First, I decided not to use them, but it was quite cold that morning, so I decided to alternate the use of my single mitten on both hands. Mike asked us to set our flow rate at 2.5 but my Sherpa set it at 2.0 and for some reason, I did not resist. Another example of strange oxygen deprived behavior. We all started about the same time and I kept right behind Mike and Louis but after about 30 mins I started to fall behind and I just couldn’t catch up. I could feel myself climbing slower and slower. I suddenly remembered my Oxygen was lower so I double-checked with Eben on the flow rate and asked my Sherpa to turn it up. Unfortunately, it didn’t help much with my speed. I began to start coughing like crazy and this was different from the Khumbu cough I had. By the time we reached the yellow band, I was about 30 mins behind Mike and Louis. I was a disaster climbing the yellow band.
Day 53 – A few anchors after the yellow band, a busy day
The yellow band is a rocky section of the mountain about 20-30 feet high on Everest. This band runs across all the 8000m peaks from Pakistan to Tibet through Nepal. This is yet another proof that Everest was once under the sea and the continental plates pushing against each other formed the mighty himalayas. At some point in history, I particular meteor strike would have the formed the yellow band layer that today runs across the mighty himalayan peaks. The band was much smaller and easier on Cho Oyu (8201m) as compared to Everest.
At the top of yellow band, I was so wasted, I wanted to a break immediately but Eben who had caught up with me by this time, insisted I walk two more anchors to a much safer point before my first break. After much struggle, I reached that point, just dropped my bag and sat like I had lost every ounce of energy in my body. Just at that point, I see Ted walking past, skipping his break, making the whole climb up yellow band seem simple. My confidence was shattered and I knew it wasn’t the best of my days. Eben decided to accompany me slowly as I inched my way from anchor to anchor. I stopped almost every 10-20 steps to take a short break. We took a longer break just before the last big hurdle of the day, the Geneva Spur, a famous and steep rocky section that had to be crossed before reaching South Col. Once above the spur, I was told it was fairly flat and that was motivation to get up that section.
Day 53 – Resting before tackling the Geneva spur
I finally reached camp at about 2pm. Very very late and I could see the look on Mike’s face…”why so late and is Sandhosh going to be a problem tomorrow?” Mike was clear and honest “He said that I was very slow and if I kept the same pace during summit, it could potentially be a problem”. We decided that I should leave early just in case.
I could not understand why I was slow. I crashed in the tent with Louis and Mayk. I tried to find all sorts of excuses and justifications. After about 30mins, I fell really sick. I could not swallow my own saliva as my throat was hurting and I was coughin badly. My lung capacity seemed reduced and I couldn’t take full breaths. I was getting more and more worried, so I took every possible medicine I could and laid down, not wanting to think about the night. I managed to have as much food as I can that wouldn’t hurt my throat. It was mainly hot water and noodles, no chocolates. I got my glove system sorted, checked my Cameras and got everything setup for the last leg of our long journey. I told myself that I should keep going as long as my Oxygen lasted and that I was not going to turn around and give up easily. Fingers crossed, I hoped and prayed. I became more religious than I had been my entire life. I wanted that summit bad.
We were to leave at 7am but it was still howling at 6am. Mike comes up to our tent and says “the weather report showed that the winds were supposed to die down in the morning but looking at the actual situation, we may have to wait for the weather to die down before we take off to Camp 4. In case, it doesn’t die down by afternoon, we were to spend another day at Camp 3″. That’s when I knew that we were going to be stuck for another day staring at the roof of my tent for another day.
Day 52 – View of Western Cwm, Cho Oyu and Pumori from Camp 3
Logistics had to be arranged for the additional day. Firstly, the rest of the team had to move out of the Alpine Ascents tent as the Alpine Ascents team were ascending to Camp 3. (We were more exposed to the winds going to Camp 4 and hence why we didn’t go up while others came up to Camp 3). New tents were put up and some of us had to share with three people per tent. We were running out of food, so we pooled all of our noodles and ready to eat meals together and redistribute it. Finally, we had limited Oxygen, so we started using the Oxygen that we were supposed to use to go to Camp 4. We didn’t use Oxygen for most of the day and for sleeping we decided to use it at the lowest flow rate of 0.5.
Day 52 – View from within our tents
The wind had pushed so much snow the previous day and the night that our tent was buried in about a feet of snow and the sides of the tent were pushed towards the inside taking up the already limited space we had. Unfortunately, I chose the side of the tent facing the wind which made things worse. By the middle of the day, it got really uncomfortable and the snow pushing on the sides of the tent was starting to melt into the tent. As the weather got better, I decided to go out and move some of the snow away from the tent, and make space. A pain in the ass but unavoidable.
Day 52 – View of the windy summit
I dress up, get out, take my ice axe and start shoveling the snow out extremely slowly and carefully. Unfortunately, only I believed I was careful. I managed to create a nice little hole on the side of the tent with my Ice Axe. Just earlier in the day, I had made a similar mistake. I managed to make a hole in Mike’s and Eben’s tent, as I shoved the Ice Axe right through thier tent on the outside. The fabric was buried deep in snow and I thought I was far enough from the tent, but apparently I was not. Hey! I again blame the low oxygen and high altitude. As a temporary fix, I had to build a little snow wall to block the wind and put my bag in the inside of the tent. I promised myself, I would do nothing more but lie down to avoid any further disasters.
Wake up call was at 3am. I barely had a breakfast, didn’t have the apetite and we left by 4am. Mike decided to keep a slower pace that usual for the whole team. The weather was great until we reached the Bergschrund, the base of the Lhotse face. As we got higher and higher, the weather started to get worse. When we crossed lower Camp 3, the wind speeds were over 100km/hr and for the first time during the trip, I had to use my goggles. As we got close to our camp, sadly, I lost one of left Mittens (Gloves without the fingers that are super warm). I was wearing the Mitts on and off during the climb, and they were tied tightly around my wrists. It started to loosen towards the end of the climb but since we were close to camp, I figured no point stopping and fixing it. Big mistake!. There was a gust of wind, it slipped out of wrists and I watched it fall right off the face. Just a matter of seconds and it was gone.
Day 51 – Visibility was low at Camp 3 due to high winds
We reached camp in terrible weather. I am just glad we were close to Camp when the weather got worse. Mike wasn’t happy when he found out I lost my Mitts as I would not be able to attempt summit without the Mitts. Usually, we have extra pair of gloves but Mitts are usually back-ups themselves so we carry only one .But, if there was bad weather, Mitts would become a necessity. Fortunately, our Sirdar (lead Sherpa) had an extra pair of Mitts which he was happy to lend. Phew!
Day 51 – View from Camp 3 when the weather was still bad
The winds were strong at Camp that the Sherpas were unable to put up the additional tents we needed at Camp 3. We ended up calling Alpine Ascents for help and using thier tents as they were to come up to Camp 3 only the following day. Despite all the difficulties we faced that day, the best part of the day was to breathe some pure Oxygen for the first time. We were going to be on Oxygen from here on. The Oxygen flow from the tank is controlled using a regulator with flow rates starting from 0.5 to 8.0. At a flow rate of 3.0, and a full tank of 3000psi, we would have Oxygen for 10 hours. I had to make sure I remembered that wherever I was, so I don’t run out of Oxygen. At Camp 3, we were going to be resting and sleeping at a flow rate of 1.0. Even at 1.0, I was starting to feel like Superman.
Day 51 – Sleeping in the tent with Oxygen
That evening, I managed to do something very stupid. With terrible outside conditions and me being extremely tired, I just dropped the bag inside the tent as soon as I entered the tent. The rule of thumb is to keep all sharps outside the tent in the vestibule, especially, Crampons and Ice axe. Unfortunately, the Ice Axe was on the outside of my bag. After a bit of rest, when I tried to do the responsible thing and move the bag outside, the Axe accidentally punctured Mayk’s super comfortable sleeping pad and boom, the air gushes out and along with it came thousands of small cotton pieces filling up the whole tent. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to clean up the tent and fix the pad. Fixing the pad was hopeless; we tried using the repair kit, duct tapes..nothing worked. Eventually, I gave up my pad which was sadly not half as comfortable as his. I used Eben’s, which was half the size of mine. I was a little cold, but I had to pay the price for my stupidity.
Day 51 – Our shitter at Camp 3, right at the edge of the face
Rest and re-energize day. Met Victor, my guide from Mont Blanc who summitted on the 17th. His whole team had successfully summitted on the 17th and apparently about 90+ people, including Sherpas, had attempted summit on that day and a fair number of them succeeded. According, to our weather report, it wasn’t the best of days to summit but in reality it turned out to be a decent day for summit. Let’s just hope, 22nd turns out to be a good enough day too. We spent the day sorting out gear and snacks for Camp 3, Camp 4 and Summit. We would be taking bare minimum gear at this stage as every gram makes a difference. Apart from what I was going to wear, my summit gear would only include ski goggles, 2 litres of water, 2 cameras and my satellite phone. I decided to carry a light-weight SLR camera to the summit. The SLR and Sat phone were certainly excess luggage. It was a big decision in terms weight vs benefit. Considering, my camera didn’t work on top of Cho Oyu (sixth highest mountain in the world), I didn’t want to take any chances. Mike did mention, there should be someone or the other at the summit, just in case my camera didn’t work but I still decided it was worth the weight. As for the Sat phone, it would be nice to make the ‘I made it’ call from the top
Day 50 – Sorting out snacks
We also made sure to eat as much as we could; chocolates and other high calorie snacks. Calories in was key as we were bound to lose a lot of energy during our summit rotation. The weather was still looking good, but the weather report suggested it could be bit windy in the morning. We crashed early and prepared ourselves for an early day the next morning.
The key objective during the summit rotation is to conserve as much energy as possible for the summit day. We are expecting to burn over 15,000 calories on that day alone. So, I decided to leave an hour before with the slightly slower guys of our team and take it easy to Camp 1. Woke at about 2am, had toast and fried eggs for breakfast and off I left with my Sherpa. We made a quick stop at the place, where our puja ceremony was held, had a very brief prayer, burnt some twigs, and threw a fistful of rice as a sign of respect for the gods. Even though I thought we started quite early, so did a whole lot of others from various teams and a crowd was starting to form on the way to the crampon point, so we ended up keeping a good pace. We reached Camp 1 in approx. 5 hours. It usually becomes extremely hot once the sun hits the Western Cwm. In order to avoid the heat of the day, the plan was to reach Camp 1 and rest till the afternoon clouds came in and then start moving to Camp 2. But, we (Me and Mayk) reached Camp 1 in good time and Greg, who was ahead of us, suggested the weather was looking good, with a slight cool breeze ahead. Mike suggested we could take off to Camp 2 immediately if we wanted instead of waiting. Me and Mayk decided to do so after a half an hour break. It was a big mistake. The breeze had disappeard and it got very hot. I was down to my t-shirt and sweating away. We made good speed although I began to crash the last quarter of the way. Reached Camp 2 in 2.5 hours and we were glad we had made it to Camp 2 while the rest of the team were still resting at Camp 1. More rest time for us
Day 49 – Coming up a different way to the Camp 1 plateau due to changes in the Ice Fall
Day 49 – Got pretty crowded that day
A crazy thing happened that afternoon though at abour 1pm. I was lying down in the tent, I suddenly heard Mike say, “I feel great, I had a gallon of water”. I thought the team arrived at Camp and shouted back, “Welcome to Camp, Mike”. No response. After abour 5mins, I walk out searching for the guys and they aren’t anywhere. I walk to the common tent and couldn’t find them there either. I searched for them inside the other tents and no sign of them. I just concluded that I must have heard Mike on the radio and they are yet to arrive. Mayk was wondering why I shouted, “Welcome to camp”, when no one had arrived. It was so weird. Even more weird was when Mike and the team actually arrived at about 3pm. Mike said he never used the radio that afternoon and he never used those words about feeling great or having a gallon of water. I couldn’t believe it. I swear to god, Mike’s voice had felt so real and I didn’t think I had slept or dreamt. Either Mike was playing an elaborate prank or I completely blame it on Oxygen deprivation.
