RETURN TO EVEREST 1953-1993

GEORGE C. BAND

THERE HAVE BEEN two remarkable charitable spin-offs from the first ascent of Everest in 1953: the 'Mount Everest Foundation' and Sir Edmund Hillary's 'Himalayan Trust'. The Foundation deployed the surplus funds and royalties from the book, lectures and film of the ascent — initially some £100,000 which was well invested — to encourage and support exploration of the world's mountainous regions. In 40 years it has dispensed over £500,000 in grants to 900 expeditions, both large and small, about half of them to the the Himalaya or Karakoram. It still holds a sizeable capital sum. We never dreamt at the time that the money would last for more than 15 — 20 years. To publicise the Foundation and boost the funds, it was agreed to launch a '40th Anniversary Appeal' of which the highlight was a public lecture given by members of the original team in May 1993 at the Royal Geographical Society, attended by the Queen and other members of the royal family.

The second spin-off was a personal initiative by Ed Hillary, inspired when he, George Lowe, and a group of Sherpas were returning from an exhausting exploration of the Nup la in the 1950's. As usual, it was the Sherpas who put up the tents, cooked the evening meal and cheerfully handed tea to Ed and George who lay resting in their sleeping bags. 'It's crazy,' said Ed to George, 'they're just as tired as we are but they still do all the work and don't have half our advantages. What can we do for them in return?' 'Sahib', said their Sirdar, 'we want schools for our children and medicine when we fall sick, and help to repair a roof or rebuild a bridge washed away by the monsoon.' Over the intervening years, Ed has responded to the Sherpas' specific requests by setting up the Trust, raising some $250,000 per year, creating the airport at Lukhla to import materials, and assisting with construction work and provision of teachers and medics. There are now 26 schools, 2 hospitals, 13 health centres, and 3 tree nurseries which have grown a million pine seedlings for replanting. Gradually, the Sherpas are assuming leading roles in the work of the Trust.

In October 1991, Ed Hillary gave a public lecture at Oxford University to launch a scholarship for a post-graduate student from Nepal. I was climbing in Bhutan at the time, but he met several of the 1953 Everest team on that occasion and suggested that to mark the 40th Anniversary we should revisit Nepal to attend the reopening of Thyangboche monastery which was planned around April 1993. It had been destroyed by a disastrous fire on 19 January 1989, shortly after it had been linked to a small electric power plant. Ed, both personally and through his Trust, had been closely involved in helping to raise funds for its complete restoration. It seemed a great idea. The precise date would depend on the monks and auspicious stars. The plan was to set up a tented camp close to Lukhla airstrip from where one could proceed to Thyangboche on foot, or, for the less active, by helicopter on the day. In the event, like so many construction projects, it fell a few months behind schedule and the formal reopening was attended by Ed on 22 September. However, work was sufficiently advanced to make a visit by the rest of us in April well worthwhile.

The renovated Thyangboche monastery, Nepal. (George Band)

Six of the original team made the journey (Hunt, Hillary, Lowe, Wesrmacott, Wylie and myself) accompanied by various family members nnd friends. My wife Susan and daughter Louise were able to come so I suggested that, instead of just flying to Lukla, a group of us should retrace the most spectacular part of the approach march by walking from Jiri, particularly to enjoy the rhodedendron, magnolias nnd other spring flowers. This would also help our acclimatisation. Then, after Lukla and Thyangboche, while some went on to see Everest from Kala Pathar, others could trek to Thame and Gokyo, which we had not seen. This would also enable us to visit other Himalayan Trust projects. Finally, three of us would stay on for a modest trekking peak, Island peak 6189 m, at the confluence of the Lhotse and Imja glaciers, which was first climbed during the 1953 Everest acclimatisation period by Evans, Gregory, Wylie, Tenzing and 7 Sherpas. We would be away upto five weeks. I had no desire to trek up to the Everest Base Camp myself. Some 14 expeditions were in progress. The Koreans, first through the Icefall, were reported to be charging other climbers for the use of their route. One was horrified to think of the jostling and congestion and piles of excrement, compared with the relative solitude of 40 years ago when only a handful of Europeans had been privileged to enter the whole of eastern Nepal. Now some 10,000 trekkers use Lukla airstrip each year and 5000 follow the trail to Everest.

Our rather complex arrangements were handled by a Derbyshire trekking agency, Classic Nepal, who with their local associates looked after us very efficiently. There were tables and chairs, hot water for washing, and three cooked meals a day. We had never had it so good. One of the pleasantest memories was the walk in from Jiri, when we were still a compact group of eight: Nicols, Westmacotts, Bands and Joy Hunt, aged 80, but still bursting with vitality. We were chaperoned by Steve Aisthorpe of Classic Nepal (who had climbed the Eiger Nordwand five years ago with Alison Hargreaves when she was five months pregnant). The weather was more variable than in 1953; rain at Jiri, then hailstones, and fresh snow, crossing the Lamjura Banjang. Some porters still preferred to tackle the slippery descent barefoot but, unlike 1953, a tiny radio in their carrying basket might be pulsing out the latest pop tune from Kathamandu. We camped at Junbesi, where there is now one of the biggest Hillary schools with over 200 pupils and an enterprising headmaster, Mr. Kazi, who was about to spend a post-graduate year at Nottingham University funded by the Trust. He had planted apple trees and there was a burgeoning cider industry, which helped us to celebrate my daughter's birthday. Alternatively, on all the main trails there is now beer from Kathmandu backpacked in heavy glass bottles for Rs. 100. I had not brought enough rupees to succumb too frequently to temptation.

On the seventh day we completed the stiff climb from the gorge of the Dudh Kosi up to Lukla and joined the main party. They had flown in that morning from Kathmandu where they had been suitably regaled by The Sherpa Association, the Nepalese Mountaineering Association and our Ambassador after being initially met at the airport by an elephant with the words 'Welcome to Lord Hunt and the 1953 Everest expedition members' painted in large red letters directly on his ample flank. Each time one visits Lukla one is astonished at the extent of development around the airstrip. Hotels, tea houses and a complete village have sprung up to cater for, and thrive on, the large number of trekkers who fly in directly rather than walk.

Our camp site was happily away from the crowds, a short walk over a shoulder and out of sight of the airstrip and village. Encamped close by were two TV crews: Chris Railing producing 'Return to Everest' which was shown on Channel 4 in May and a New Zealand team making a documentary on Ed Hillary's life. TV teams from other countries also visited the camp from time to time for interviews. John Hunt and Ed Hillary bore the brunt of these but on the whole the media were very considerate and we were able to enjoy walks and dips in the icy streams round this delectable spot before moving up the valley.

One day was set aside specially for the Hillarys and Hunts to make a ceremonial visit by helicopter to meet the Rimpoche at Thyangboche. The rest of us would visit on foot some days later. It was such an enthusiastic reception that John Hunt said that Ed became almost submerged beneath the traditional silk scarves. The two heroes were sat down in front of respective tins of Dundee cake and pilchards to be eaten with a knife. Hillary tackled his cake well enough but Hunt had distinct difficulty with the fish!

The reconstructed monastery was nearing completion. The outside had been painted by British Venture Scouts and there were Swiss volunteers busy fixing copper sheeting on the roof. Painting of the inner courtyard had been assisted by monks from Bhutan. A huge statue of Buddha was being constructed inside, taking up most of the far wall of the ground and first floors. We were greatly impressed and heartened by what had been achieved. The surrounding forests were still the haunt of musk deer and impeyan pheasant and the mountains were as beautiful as we remembered.

Our initial walk-in party, less Joy Hunt, but still with Steve Aisthorpe, was now free to visit the Thame and Gokyo valleys. On our way <it Phurte was one of the three tree nurseries where some 25-30,000 three-year-old pine seedlings are being produced each year. This project was largely sponsored by the Hillary Foundation of Canada. Higher up the valley, the Austrian Government was supporting a small hydrpelectric development, but progress was slow because an earlier site had been washed away by floods. Thame was Tenzing's birthplace and was still a very simple village overlooked by the small monastery on the path up to the Teshi Lapcha. There was another Hillary school,, recently extended, and the Trust was contributing to storm damage repairs at the monastery.

Moving round to the Gokyo valley, we were surprised by a heavy overnight snowfall at Machherma, the location of one of the best yeti stories where a few years ago several yaks had been killed by them, or was it by snow leopards? The snow and depressing weather hampered our progress but, surprisingly, the morning at Gokyo dawned fine and Mike, Steve and I were rewarded with splendid views of Cho Oyu, Gyachung Kang and Everest from high up on Gokyo peak (5493 m), one of the world's outstanding viewpoints. The recent balloonists over Everest spent two months waiting in Gokyo for the right winds. As a result, it now boasts a prefabricated wood and glass summer house that would not be out of place in Surbiton, as well as an amply stocked bar.

We now approached the final phase of our trek, the attempt on Island peak. While the others returned, Mike Westmacott and I stayed with our mentor Steve Aisthorpe and were joined by the New Zealand doctor from the hospital at Kunde, David Murdoch, who had just finished his assignment. The weather was again unsettled and overcast and we were glad to break our journey and sleep in the lone tea-house at Chhukung rather than camp. To our knowledge, Island peak had not been climbed to the summit this year. Bonington and Pertemba were just ahead of us and we wondered how they had got on. We passed en-route but missed each other. In the evening the clouds lifted momentarily to give us ethereal sunset views of the great southern face of Lhotse and the incredible fang of Ama Dablam wreathed in vaporous clouds. We were looking up at the severe rock ridge where my friends Mike Harris and George Fraser had disappeared in 1959.

We had a fine day' for summit bid from a high camp on Island peak. Unfortunately, not long after we started, David Murdoch had a severe attack of migraine and had to turn back. Steve kindly escorted him down and then reascended. Our two climbing Sherpas went ahead to prospect the route. We then caught up with a bizarre French trio from Lyons: a nightclub and restaurant owner accompanied by the Chief Fire Officer and the Head of Police! After some casting about, we reached a high point on the summit ridge beyond which the condition of the slope under fresh snow appeared rather unsafe, so we agreed to call it a day. It seemed prudent at the time, but the next day one regrets having given up so easily. What would we have done 40 years ago?

As we walked down along the ever spectacular trail from Everest through Pangboche, Thyangboche, and Namche to Lukla, there was time for further reflection. By the ejid of 1992, 428 people had climbed Everest by 13 different routes, half of them within the previous five years; 115 had died on the mountain; 51 ascents had been made without supplementary oxygen (including an astonishing 7 by Ang Rita). Why had it taken so long, and why did it now seem so easy? The fact that the teams of the 1920's got so high so soon probably contributed to the delay. It took the spur of international competition, the scientific deductions concerning oxygen rates, dehydration and acclimatisation, clearly reported by Dr. Griffith Pugh in 1952, and the outstanding planning and leadership of a well-knit team by John Hunt, for Hillary and Tenzing to achieve ultimate success in 1953.

It is a sad reflection that, despite these basic lessons, so many parties still push on regardless for their moment of glory, and return by the slimmest of margins or suffer severe frostbite or death from exhaustion on the descent.

After 1953 there was a gap of 25 years before Everest was climbed without bottled oxygen by Messner and Habeler in 1978. Since then the greatly increased climbing population has produced a significant number of mortals of Olympian physique and fitness capable of this feat. But the number of successful ascents seems unlikely to continue at the recent rate. In the autumn of 1993 the Nepalese Government increased the peak fee substantially to $10,000 per climber passing through the Icefall. This should reduce the number of expeditions sharply — a measure which I fully support, particularly if some of the income is ploughed back to improve the lot of the Sherpas and other hill people and to conserve the fragile Himalayan environment.

In the last five years, Everest has become the scene of novelty stunts: Boivin's parapente descent of 2500 m (8000 ft) in 11 minutes to the Western Cwm; Batard's roundtrip from Base in 2272 hours; the 1991 hot air balloon flights; and Tardivel's ski descent from the South Summit in 1992. 'I am thankful', wrote Hillary recently, that I climbed Everest in the days of innocence, when everything was new and a constant challenge, and for me at least publicity was a bit of a laugh!'

----------------------SUMMARY---------------------

A nostalgic return visit to the Everest area by the author to celebrate tin- 40 years of the first ascent of Everest in 1953..

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