Trip Reports

Everest Season 2005

On the final section of the SE Ridge of Everest in spring 2011

Written by Leader Kenton Cool, June 2005

Good things come to those who wait...
As the first flakes of monsoon snow begin to fall on Mount Everest, both our South Col and North Ridge teams are back in Kathmandu, where they will celebrate their climbs with a party tonight at the Summit Hotel.

Spring 2005 will be remembered as one of the worst weather years in memory on Everest. Our South Col team had completed their acclimatisation by 28 April, with a night sleeping at 7,300m. On the same day on the other side of the mountain, members from our North Ridge team reached 7,700m whilst testing our new oxygen masks. They had climbed from the North Col at 7,000m to 7,700m on a flow rate of 2 litres per minute in just 4 and a half hours. We were beginning to feel very positive as the reports came through that team members were feeling strong, the sherpa team were starting to stock the top camps and the weather was still okay.

Then the winds came. The Jet Stream – a high altitude wind that blasts the upper reaches of the mountain at speeds of 80 miles per hour, positioned itself over Everest and showed no signs of budging. By mid-May, people started to get twitchy. Last year, Kenton Cool and Clive Jones were the first to top out on 15 May – a year to the day later, Kenton and this year’s South Col team were getting ready to leave base camp for a summit attempt. This attempt ended just above camp 3 a few days later, when it became clear that the forecasted lull in the wind was not going to materialise.

The first climbers of the season summited Everest in a brief window and extremely marginal conditions on 21 May, via the North Ridge. The highest that anyone from the South side reached that day was the South Summit (8,500m), before they were forced back by wind and cold. Finally, the Everest forecast models seemed to agree that the Jet Stream would start to move away from the mountain at the end of May. On 26 May, our South Col group left base camp and climbed to Camp 2, where they waited. They then moved up to camp 3 and on to camp 4 at the South Col, on 30 May. With the winds still strong, but decreasing, three team members, three sherpas and expedition leader, Kenton Cool reached the top of the world on 31 May and descended back to the South Col. Kenton descended quickly to base camp, having sustained a cut above the eye from rock fall just above the South Col.

On the North Ridge, climbers had summited again on 27, 29 and 30 May. The night of 1 June was extremely windy and our team were in two groups, pinned down at camp 2 at 7,500m and camp 3 at 7,900m. Leader, David Hamilton, phoned from camp 3 to say that he thought they would be descending soon. Later, he said that the second night at camp 3 was “the worst night I have ever spent in a tent”. Two out of the three tents in camp 3 were broken by the wind. When we had a call from David the following day, we expected it to come from Advance Base Camp, it was from the top camp at 8,400m! Team member, Tore Rasmussen joked over the Satellite phone “We are having a jolly good time here, brewing up, talking and enjoying ourselves.” The other half of the group had moved to what was left of camp 3. Over the next two days, in clear conditions, with very little wind, the team’s patience finally paid off and 8 out of the 11 original members summited. They did so quickly, with both groups topping out by 7.30am. On his descent, Ian Parnell commented that they had so much oxygen in the top camp, they were able to descend on a flow rate of 3 litres per minute.

As has been widely reported in the National Media, Sir Ranulph Fiennes took the decision to turn round on summit day. Ran was fearful of having a heart attack after he felt chest pains less than an hour out of the top camp. At a press conference in London on Tuesday, Ran described how he was feeling strong up to that point and was the first of his group to reach each camp, as he moved up the mountain. Whilst clearly disappointed not to summit, Ran’s main concern is to raise £2 million as part of his Healthy Hearts Appeal for the British Heart Foundation. As he sees it, if he achieves this aim, then the ‘Everest project’ will have been successful. You can visit www.bhf.org.uk to find out more about this appeal and to donate to it.

So that’s another Everest season over. These were the 9th and 10th Everest expeditions that Jagged Globe has organised and the 8th and 9th that have put members on the summit, making us the most experienced and successful British company on either side of the mountain. This year, a total of 12 out of a possible 17 members (leaders and climbers) topped out, despite the bad weather. This outstanding result is a testament to each team’s patience, commitment and hard work, as well as just a little luck!

We continue to run our expeditions with a clear ethos – to make sure that team members are well prepared and to make our expeditions as well resourced as any on the mountain. Crucially, that means the very best oxygen system and lots of it to spare, a high level of Sherpa support, the best equipment and expert leadership. On Everest, that’s what counts.

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