Footnotes

FN1 The name Sherpa means two things: (1) it’s an indigenous group from Nepal, but (2) it’s also slang or a catch-all term for the Himalayan mountain guide, as used by foreign explorers.

 

FN2 Mountaineers usually spend a couple of months on 8,000-metre peaks. Over a space of weeks, climbers move from Base Camp to Camp 1 to get used to the debilitating effects of high altitude. They then move between Camps 1, 2 and 3, climbing high in the day and sleeping low, until the symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS), such as nausea, breathlessness and banging headaches, have subsided. These climbs are called ‘acclimatisation rotations’. Once settled at high altitude, they wait patiently, sometimes for weeks on end, until a suitable summit window opens up, when the weather is considered good enough to climb. Then they’ll push on to the peak.

 

FN3 I also learned about the different styles of climbing. On Dhaulagiri we worked with a fixing team, who set ropes to the mountain with anchors. The climbers used those lines to pull themselves to the top on steep inclines and sheer faces. Alpine-style climbing involved a team moving quickly over the terrain, while roped together for safety. If one of the group slipped or fell, the others braced hard in order to stop them from tumbling too far. Finally solo climbing, as far as I was concerned, required a mountaineer to work towards a peak alone, while trailblazing and climbing on his own path.

 

FN4 A serac is a pinnacle or block of ice found among crevasses on a glacier, usually on a steep slope. Commonly the size of a house or larger, they are very dangerous to mountaineers, because they are liable to topple without warning and can cause an avalanche.

 

FN5 For those unfamiliar with the details of high-altitude climbing, fixed lines are roped routes set at the start of the season by a designated team. They allow expeditions to move up the steep inclines more easily throughout the same season.

 

FN6 HACE stands for high altitude cerebral edema, a severe and potentially fatal medical condition in which the brain swells with fluid, causing confusion, clumsiness and stumbling.

 

FN7 Everest and Lhotse share camps from Base up to Camp 3 on the South Col route. After Camp 3, a climber hoping to top out at the world’s tallest mountain travels to the left across the South Col to Everest’s Camp 4. An individual hoping to climb Lhotse moves straight up. Makalu was a helicopter ride away from the shared base camp.

 

FN8 Previously, people used to organise their acclimatisation rotations very differently. Expeditions would climb to Camp 1, sleep there and then descend to Base Camp. On the next climb, the group would move to Camps 1 and 2, sleep and then climb all the way down again. Finally, for their third rotation, it was considered best to go all the way to Camp 2, rest and then climb up to Camp 3 before returning to Base Camp. For the past few years it has been considered more effective if a climber summits after completing only one acclimatisation rotation, moving quickly through the camps and sleeping at Camps 1 and 2 and moving up to touch Camp 3. This tactic also reduces the threat to a climber’s life, because they don’t have to move through the very dangerous Khumbu Icefall, over and over. This method applies to those climbers using bottled oxygen.

 

FN9 A line-fixing rotation, like acclimatisation, requires a series of climbs in order to set the ropes for an expedition, sometimes all the way to the top. The team designated for the job usually features the best climbers on the mountain at that point, but the work is hard going and can take weeks to complete, depending on the terrain, weather conditions and mountaineers involved.

 

FN10 I had placed oxygen in high camps across the mountain. This was done during the acclimatisation rotations and load carry climbs, where equipment, such as oxygen, was dropped off for use later in the mission. Big expedition teams rarely carry all their equipment with them on summit pushes.

 

FN11 I liked the idea of fusing my career to my passion and so I set up Elite Himalayan Adventures in December 2017. In 2018 the group began leading clients – expert climbers who paid to be guided by a team of skilled guides – to the top of 8,000-metre peaks.

 

FN12 In many ways, executing the work in an off-the-radar style would have suited me nicely. The problem was, I was starting from scratch financially. To get money, I needed sponsorship. To acquire sponsorship, I’d have to put on a show, while working on the mountain and off it.

 

FN13 Here’s the science. When it comes to CASEVACs in war, medics have what is called a ‘golden hour’ – the timeframe in which to get an injured soldier away from the battlefield and to a hospital. Extracting them in that time gives the wounded a greater chance of survival, though, of course, those odds change according to the severity of the bullet wound, or injury. When it comes to altitude, time is important, but altitude is vital: as soon as you start bringing the casualty down, more air hits their body, and the blood flow, breath and heart rate begin to normalise, helping the vital organs. It’s not only oxygen that is helpful for survival. Increasing the barometric pressure – the atmosphere’s weight – is imperative too and like air it decreases at altitude. This is why some climbers have died at high camps, even when they’re given oxygen.

 

FN14 When climbing in this way, if one of us had slipped and fallen, the other dudes on the line would have to hit the ground, digging their ice axes into the snow and ice. That action was designed to stop anyone from stacking it off the mountain.