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.
As Sandhosh prepares to climb Mount Everest, we’ve an interesting new coming in about the height of Mount Everest.
The official Everest height of 8,848 meters (29,028 feet) was measured by the Survey of India in 1954. However Chinese mountaineers and researchers climbed Mount Everest in May 2005 to determine its height afresh and concluded that the rock height of the peak was about 3.7 meters (11 feet) less than the estimates made in 1954, or the summit was 8,844.43 meters (29,017 feet), with a margin of error of about 0.21 meters. While the height of 8848 meters includes the snow cap on the peak, China’s measurement is referred to as Rock height, excluding the height of snow.
This difference has caused a dispute regarding the official height of Mount Everest, world’s tallest peak. Very recently Nepal and China have agreed to recognize the snow and rock heights of Mount Everest, ending a long-standing debate about the height of the world’s tallest mountain..
More than 4,000 climbers have scaled the mountain that straddles the Nepal-China border since it was first summitted by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in May 1953.
Rest day today. We decided to hike up as far as we can go for an hour. I was starting to feel the altitude and was panting hiking up the hill. We reached up to about 4600m+ after an hour and 15 mins. Got some great views of Ama Dablam from the other side. Took some photos and headed back down.
Day 8 – Names of Everest climbers who have passed away and the blank ones
Pheriche is also the place with the HRA (Himalayan Rescue Association) and a doctor. The only other doctor we will have will be at base camp. Right next to the HRA is a little memorial in the shape of a split pyramid. The names of all those who have passed away climbing Everest is etched in the middle. The disturbing thing is that there are a few
blank spots left for future names to be etched.
Day 8 – Split pyramid memorial with Lobuche east in the background
Close to the HRA, we stayed at a very nice hotel called the Himalayan Hotel. Unfortunately, we enjoyed the peace only on the first day here. The rest of our bigger team (18) and alpine ascents (18+) also decided to come to the hotel and the place was packed. The food was great at this place as well. To get an idea of what we eat up here to keep up
with the calories we burn. On day 8: Breakfast – 2 slices of French toast, Spanish omlette, 2 slices of toast with lots of butter and jam, and atleast 2 cups of milk tea. Lunch – Soup, Chicken curry rice and cheese sandwich. Dinner – Soup, Chicken chilly, Half a pizza, Half a cheese sandwich and custard pudding. In between, we munch on some chocolates or whatever snack food we carry.
That night was pretty cool. It was quite a party as Vern, the alpine ascents team’s lead guide played some guitar and others joined him in singing and playing the mouth device. We stayed up until 8:30pm, quite late for climbers schedule:)
