The news that Beck was alive was quickly sent to the American embassy in Kathmandu, where it was relayed to his family in the States – what a harrowing few hours they must have had since they were informed that he was thought to be dead.
From our perspective at Base Camp the picture on the mountain was at last becoming clear and we could concentrate on making plans to get Beck and Makalu down through the Icefall to Base Camp.
It was Guy Cotter who suggested using a helicopter to bring them down from Camp 1. From my time as a helicopter pilot in the British Army, I thought that it would be very difficult for a helicopter to land and take off at the height of Camp 1 on the edge of the Western Cwm.
I have been asked many times since 1996 why a helicopter didn’t rescue Rob Hall at over 8,000 metres. Quite simply, and without going into complex technical explanations, the air is too thin. Most military helicopters at the time had height limits somewhere around 5,000 metres. It was bad enough that Camp 1 was over 6,000 metres and the helicopter wasn’t just going to have to fly at that height, it was also going to land and take off – twice.
There were also the problems of flying in mountainous terrain, where strange and powerful wind conditions can cause additional problems.
Despite the limitations, a helicopter had tried to land in the Western Cwm in 1973 when an Italian Army expedition climbed the mountain. After the helicopter had crashed making an attempt to land, the team were forced to porter their stores up through the Icefall. It was some small coincidence that I had climbed with some of the Italians from that expedition in the early 1970s, but it never occurred to me in those distant days that twenty-two years later the fact that their helicopter had crashed would once again be useful information.
The idea of using a helicopter was discussed with Kathmandu and an experienced Nepalese Army pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Madan Khatri Chhetri, volunteered to have a go. The attempt was scheduled for the morning of 13 May.
At my initial meeting on 11 May I had tried to impose a communications ban with the outside world, but it was clear by the next day that a flood of information was leaving Base Camp. It was pointless investigating who the culprit was; I suspect there was more than one. Most teams had satellite telephones at Base Camp through which, in most cases, emails or faxes could be sent. Several teams had direct links to the media and it would have been a great temptation to relay information to the outside world.
Rather than let what was apparently misleading news trickle out and, given that we had a fair idea now who was dead, we decided to issue an accurate press release. There was also a need to reassure the friends and relatives of survivors on the mountain that their loved ones were okay.
This was, however, not our only communications problem. The head LO came to see me to complain that while the outside world was starting to hear about events on Everest, the ministry in Kathmandu were still largely in the dark. I found some sympathy with this problem. As the news started to leak, the world’s press were starting to seek information from the government in Kathmandu. Unfortunately the LOs had no direct link with their headquarters and by the morning of 12 May they had only been able to pass on limited information. Embarrassment was being caused when it became apparent that the members of the world’s press corps who were phoning in knew more about events than the government officials responsible for mountaineering in Nepal.
I organised for the LOs to have greater access to a satellite phone to keep their ministry updated. This was, however, a further deterioration in the relationship between the rescue co-ordinators and the LOs because they resented that we had control of equipment and they had to always seek our help to contact their ministry.
Throughout the day, as we heard that Beck and Makalu were being brought down to Camp 2, the mood at Base Camp lightened. It was too early for the outpouring of grief that was to come two days later. For a short time the dead were forgotten and we focused on the miracle that two climbers had survived.
We still had to get them down to Base Camp and out to Kathmandu, but this would be a lot simpler than getting them down from Camp 4 to Camp 1.