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 David Tait and Phurba Tashi are on their way to the summit of Everest on the first leg of their world record double traverse attempt. "Mentally, I back myself with everything I've got," he says. "It is the main driving incentive to do something for the first time. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that very reason."
They decide to skip the normal overnight stop at Camp 2 and carry on to Camp 3 because of changing weather. If they can speed up by a whole day, they may make the summit. Back at Base Camp, Russell announces his two summit teams, and theres a surprise for Mogens Jensen when Russell Brice puts him in the slower second team, alongside 71-year-old Japanese climber Katsusuke Yanagisawa, who hopes to be the oldest person to climb Everest. This is it. The training and the acclimatization climbs are over, the expedition leaves Base Camp and heads for the summit. High above the rest of the team, David Tait and Phurba Tashi are within hours of the summit, but even if they make it, they're only a quarter of the way through their extraordinary challenge. Lower on the mountain, the rest of the team wakes to news breaking on the radio. David and Phurba have made it, but it's not all good news. As the team watches events unfold through telescopes, a Japanese climber becomes the first of many deaths on the mountain this year. "We may be passing him on the ropes," says Tim with a shudder. Then, other casualties begin to stumble into ABC – a British solo climber arrives frightened and confused with high altitude pulmonary edema and a Japanese climber staggers into the medical tent with frostbite. The team members watch with mounting concern as the death toll grows. In five days' time it’s their turn to take on the world’s deadliest mountain and conquer their own fears. "Of course people are worried that they will not come back down in one piece," says Rod. "If you are not worried, there is something wrong with you." On the summit, David and Phurba are in unexpected trouble. The bad weather has meant no one has been able to climb the mountain from the south side, and therefore no safety ropes have been fixed for their descent. They'll have to break trail themselves and rope themselves together in the hope they can save each other if one of them falls. To make matters worse, neither of them has ever been on the south side of Everest. As they drop behind the summit onto the South Face, they fall into the shadow of the mountain – and radio silence. They are on their own. PHOTO: Gavin Bate, a Briton, is given oxygen by Dr. Monica Piris Chavarri at ABC (Advanced Base Camp) after being rescued near the summit. |
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