Alpamayo to Everest: It’s Not About the Summit

By Ian Hibbert

Ian Hibbert chronicles his adventures climbing the world’s highest mountains in this gripping series of tales that reveals the power of grit, determination, and will.

Filled with pictures, these memoirs delve into the challenges he overcame climbing the exotic mountains of the South American Andes, Nepal, Tibet, Pakistan, Africa, and New Zealand. At each stop, he enriched his body and soul.

In the Peruvian mountains, he paid little mind to the Sendero Luminoso terrorists, even though a police chief guarded the group at the Los Portales Hotel. When a member of the group needed to convert U.S. dollars to Peruvian Intis at the bank, the National Police were employed to guard the delivery.

At Cho Oyu, the sixth-highest mountain in the world at the Tibet-Nepal border of the Himalayan range, he was almost arrested and thrown into the brig amid the SARS outbreak when he was found to have an elevated temperature at a border crossing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Nov 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483440736

Book preview

Alpamayo to Everest

It’s Not about the Summit

Ian Hibbert

Copyright © 2015 Ian Hibbert.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4072-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4073-6 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 11/05/2015

CONTENTS

Introduction

1 The Social Climbers Expedition, Peru, 1989

2 The Andes-Bolivia

3 The Andes-Peru

4 Ecuador volcanos and Venezuela rescue, 2007

5 Khan Tengri Survival, 2002

6 Tibet –Shishapangma 2000

7 Tibet- Cho Oyu 2003, 2008

8 Darkest Africa 2004

9 Road to Everest 2010

10 Adventurous Spirit- Pakistan

11 Aconcagua to Manaslu 2012

12 Huaraz to Himlung Himal 2013-14

13 Answers in La Paz

14 The 2015 Nepalese Tragedy and beyond

Epilogue

INTRODUCTION

I spent the first twenty years of my life by the sea. From a very early age I felt a conventional life was not for me in Australia. My childhood village of Somers, on the Mornington Peninsula of Victoria, was surrounded by farmland and sea. So, I enjoyed an active life in the open spaces. I participated in various sports at the local state school and could be seen forever kicking a football with my brother, Peter, after school. It was a simple, healthy upbringing that has, to a large extent, been lost in today’s technology driven, more complicated environment. However, it played a major role in forming and moulding the type of person I am today.

In 1972 I began to travel, first to Queensland, and then to New Zealand where I encountered and enjoyed the pinnacles of snow and ice for the first time. In 1979 I hiked through the national parks of North America for six months. I was running marathons and enjoyed the incredible level of fitness I had gained. The great outdoors opened up new world of endeavours to me. Not only could I challenge myself to my personal limit, I could enjoy travelling to new and exciting countries of incredibly diverse vistas and cultures. The puzzle began to fit into place. I had a great deal of energy and now I could release it in the most positive and pure ways!

In 1983 I was working for a local Football identity whose name was ironically Richard Everist (with i). I was very grateful when Richard allowed me two months vacation to visit Nepal. Well before the internet, I read as much as I could about the Everest region and Kathmandu as preparation for a solo adventure of a life time. I did not know it but it would be the beginning of my obsession with High Altitude.

For as long as I can remember I have had a desire for adventure, pushing my personal limits. This is an account of success, failure, extremes of personal physical and mental challenges. The reasons for my unusual story will unfold and become evident. However, this is a story of personal development and enrichment of body and mind. I climb mountains not only for the challenge and achievement. It’s not (only) about the Summit. It’s about the Journey to the mountain, history, the preparation, rich cultural exchange, decision making and problem solving. It’s also about the enjoyment of being alive and free of urban pressures among the most powerful and incredible scenery the planet has to offer. To those few who are willing to leave their comfort zones and explore the great wilderness, it is the richest, most rewarding lifestyle that one can choose.

George Mallory was asked, ‘Why climb Everest?’ ‘Because it is there’, he replied, ‘It is of no use, there is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever. Oh, we may learn a little about the behaviour of the human body at high altitude, and possibly medical men may turn our observation to some account for the purpose of aviation. But otherwise nothing will come of it. We shall not bring back a single bit of gold or silver, not a gem, nor any coal or iron….. If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upwards and forever upwards, then you will not see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to live. That is what life means and what life is for.’_ George Mallory, Climbing Everest. The Complete Writings of George Mallory.

The Pleasure of possessions is short-lived, while the pleasure of experiences lasts a lifetime, and, the greater the challenge the more rewarding the experience. Owning material possessions requires little and universally common effort. Climbing a remote and challenging mountain requires a great deal of planning, experience and physical/mental effort. Owning and enjoying material possessions is a more social and interactive experience that becomes easily obsolete. Physical and mental challenges (especially when survival is a major factor) gives one the acute sensation of being ALIVE. It is the difference between climbing a mountain and seeing the view from the summit and watching a video of the summit view.

Conrad Anker best sums up my own efforts in the mountains, While visiting a Buddhist Monastery I observed monks creating sand mandalas, intricate patterns created painstakingly with coloured sand. The first takes weeks to produce with thousands of hours of effort. When the mandalas are finished they are swept away as a reminder of life’s impermanence. I have always been fascinated by the sand mandalas, never really knowing what drew me to them. Perhaps there is a connection with my own efforts in the mountains. A great amount of effort to achieve a state of mind and then nothing. This has taught me that values lie in action and in doing. Perhaps my own trials in the mountains are a simple form of accepting impermanence and the transitory nature of life.

CHAPTER

1

The Social Climbers Expedition, Peru, 1989

T he Social Climbers Expedition of Huascaran was my first to the Andes of South America. The Andes is the longest mountain range in the world (7200kms) and the most diverse, stretching from Venezuela to Tierra del Fuego. The most spectacular mountain scenery is found in the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountain range) of Peru. The highest mountain of the range is Huascaran (south summit 6768m) which is the fourth highest in the Andes.

The summit of Huascaran Sur was first reached on the 20th of July, 1932 by a German-Austrian expedition. On 31st May, 1970, a major earthquake caused a substantial part of the north summit to collapse. The avalanche mass, an estimated 80 million cubic feet of ice, mud and rock, as about one km long and one km wide. It advanced eighteen kms at an average speed of 300 kms per hour, burying the towns of Yungay and Ranrahirca, killing more than 20,000 people. In 1964, while climbing towards the south summit of Huascaran, two British climbers noticed a massive crevasse near the north summit and that fact was reported in the local newspaper. Later some mountain guides climbed the peak to verify the finding and reported that there was no cause for alarm. Six years after the false alarm Yunguy was destroyed by a catastrophic avalanche. At least 20,000 people were also killed in the nearby capital of regional Ancash. Estimates suggest that the earthquake killed over 66,000 people.

In 1989, a group of nine amateur mountaineers, ‘The Social Climbers’, held what was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records to be ‘the world’s highest formal dinner party’ on top of the mountain, as documented by Chris Darwin (great, great grandson of Charles Darwin) and John Amy in their Book, ‘The Social Climbers’, raising $20,000 for charity.

In early 1989 I contacted Milton Sams of Australian Andean Adventures about joining his climbing trip to Bolivia and Peru the following June. The climbing season for those Andean countries is June to August. Milton informed me that the program was being interrupted that year by an unusual expedition. He surprised me by suggesting I could join the group as support and meet up with them in Huaraz, Peru. I detected his obvious enthusiasm for the mountains, and, immediately agreed. Being a ‘closed’ expedition, I was not sure how I would be accepted. What the hell, I would just go with the flow!

I had travelled to Central America for 10 weeks in 1979, however, my Spanish was limited. I swatted up and on May 30, 1989, I found my way to Huaraz. I was a marathon runner and Ironman triathlete, having competed in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 1985 at the age of 34. My experience at extreme altitude was limited, so, I was excited about the prospect of climbing such a giant pile of rock and ice.

The concept of the ‘highest formal dinner party in the world’ was the brainchild of an Oxford collage educated Chris Darwin. I found him an unusual personality who would ‘have a go’ at just about anything. The reasoning behind that may have originated from his grandmother who told him; If you cannot be good at anything, be different my boy. And he was certainly different! During his Oxford years he wanted publicity for his Band. And so, dressed up in a chicken suit, he threw himself off a bridge into the Thames River to disrupt the running of the famous and time honoured Oxford to Cambridge Boat race. He received the publicity, and then some!

I met the group at the Los Portales Hotel in Huaraz. They had just finished walking the famous Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and were in great spirits, looking forward to the challenge ahead. There certainly appeared to be an air of ‘The Old British Rum Doodle’ spirit of adventure and eager anticipation. My experience with many expeditions over the years showed that members usually were apprehensive and guarded at first, especially on international 7000 and 8000m climbs. The ‘Social Climbers’ were not totally aware of the effort required and the hidden dangers of Huascaran. Chris Darwin originally planned to have the dinner party on Mount Everest, however, was advised by experienced Australian guides, Tim McCartney-Snape and Milton Sams, that Mount Huascaran in Peru would be a better option.

The group consisted of a cultured English lady, Tracy; an Australian stuntwoman, Avril; a Base-jumping Doctor, Glen Singleman; a sky-scraper climbing Spiderman; a circus performing grandfather, Ballantyne (named after chocolate sponsor); an oxford trained English Lawyer, Neil; Australian School of Mountaineering Director, Derik Murphy; and, of course, Chris Darwin. Major sponsor, Ansett Airlines of Australia, provided an Air Hostess, Deirdre (not the foremost tragic heroine of Irish mythology), who won a competition to join the expedition. The overall Team (30 strong) also included well known guides Milton Sams, Nico and Sebastian De La Cruz from Argentina and Sherpa Tenzing from Nepal.

Acclimatization is an important phase of climbing a big mountain. Without the gradual, efficient process of diffusing and converting oxygen from the alveoli (lung sacks) to the blood stream, hypoxia (hyperventilation) may result in acute mountain sickness (AMS) and possibly cerebral or pulmonary oedema. The acclimatization mountain was Pisco (5700m), a non-technical trekking peak with a fantastic view of greater ice pinnacles surrounding it.

The plan was to film a warm-up dinner party on Pisco’s ample summit. From the top one can almost reach out and touch the four summits of difficult Huondoy, the impossible mountain (Chaquiraju), and the massive north and south peaks of Huascaran. In the distance appear the ice pyramids of Artosonraju, Garcillaso de Piramide, and the most beautiful mountain on earth; Alpamayo.

The Social Climbers, along with guides, porters, kitchen staff and film crew (including Australian Documentary film maker, Mike Dillon and German film producer, Wolfgang) hauled Louis XIVth table and chairs all the way to the summit. Several camps were set up for the acclimation process. Sexual and comic banter began to develop, however, the possible threat of recriminations and lawsuits forbids me to elaborate! Summit day proved to be spectacular for filming. Documentary film footage and magazine still shots were eventually shown around the World. With the warm-up a great success, the main event would prove to be a far greater challenge!

The group returned to Huaraz for a few days to recuperate in the restaurants and bars. To add to the diversity for the documentary, Milton hired the oldest and most dilapidated ‘collectivo’ or bus. We jumped up onto the roof cluttered with old chairs as Mike filmed us spluttering through the dusty back streets of Huaraz, plumes of exhaust smoke bellowing behind with a trail of excited Quechua kids.

1989 was a somewhat dangerous period in the Peruvian mountains with the menace of the Sendero Luminoso terrorists. A police chief guarded the group at the Los Portales Hotel. When Milton had to change a large amount of US dollars to Peruvian Intis at the bank, the National Police were employed to guard the delivery. It was hilarious and a little ‘over the top’ but added to the drama. A bus that included a French expedition was stopped at gunpoint near Huaraz and on board tourists robbed by those thought to be members of the terrorist group.

After regaining necessary calories, the social climbers headed off to Huascaran. The first casualty was film producer, Mike Dillon. While filming Quechua field workers, he suffered a recurrence of malaria that he contracted in New Guinea the year before. He was rushed to Huaraz hospital and was lucky to survive! While in Musho, the last village before the Trek to Base Camp, we played a lung busting game of football against the local school children. They thrashed us, of course! However, they possessed the huge advantage of skill and the Quechua high altitude ‘gene’.

The team set up four camps. Base Camp at 4200m, moraine camp at 4800m, camp 2 on glacier at 5400m and camp 3 (Gaganta) above the ice fall on the col between north and south peaks at 5900m. At camp 2 a huge avalanche from the ice fall above awoke the inexperienced alpinists to the very real dangers of mountaineering! I climbed Huascaran again 18 years later in 2007 and, as with many other peaks around the world, noted the dangerous effect of global warming. Greater instability with crevasses opening up and greater and more prevalent avalanches.

The social climbers were adapting surprisingly well to the thin air. Derik Murphy had prepared the group well and their collective positive frame of mind would pay dividends. Following a rest day on the vast glacier (including crevasse rescue training) we roped up for the climb, traversing the ice fall to ‘Gaganta’.

Milton employed three sisters as cooks for the expedition. They added a lot of life and colour, providing much entertainment. One of the girls, Janet, was nicknamed ‘pocket battleship’ because of her boundless energy and rapid fire voice coming out of such a small frame! Unfortunately, one of the sisters, Paula, was murdered at a lake camp of the famous Huayhuash trek in 2009.

The group staggered into camp 3 and laboriously set up tents. At 6000m eating high caloric food and drinking plenty of fluids is important for rehydration and recovery at that altitude. Altitude sickness (soroche) can result from climbing too quickly. It is caused by low partial pressure of alveoli or lung oxygen resulting in poor diffusion of oxygen from the alveoli to the blood stream. In order to compensate, one must hyperventilate (hypoxia). So, the partial pressure of oxygen is reduced and the partial pressure of carbon dioxide is increased. The PH of the blood becomes alkaloid. To correct this condition, sufferers are given 250mg of Diamox (acetazolamide), a sulphur drug that will acidify the blood PH and reduce Hypoxia. Diamox is the most common aid for Altitude Sickness (AMS). AMS can progress to the more serious High Altitude Pulmonary oedema (HAPE) or High Altitude Cerebral oedema (HACE) which can be fatal. Several members of the group were showing signs of AMS and viral infection. Derik Murphy and ‘Ballantyne’ were important to the success of the expedition. However, they were unable to continue to the summit for the dinner party. The beautiful Air Hostess, Deirdre, pulled the plug at base camp after declaring that one would have to be mad to climb such a big pile of crap. After a sleepless night during which Chris attempted to murder me in a nightmarish fit of rage, I rose at 3am to an ice filled tent. After attempting to force down orange tang and porridge, I slowly prepared for the climb. At 6000m, especially in extremely cold weather conditions, it takes forever to put on harness, double plastic koflach boots and crampons in such a lethargic state. Normally, teams leave camp 3 for the summit at one or two in the morning. This is because the ice is more solid and stable with less chance of falling through a snow bridge into a crevasse or being swept away by an avalanche!

Eventually, loaded up with Louis XIVth table and chair parts, Champaign and trout, we roped up and climbed up through the heavily crevassed route towards the summit, far too late in the morning for margin of safety! As the morning warmed, I managed to fall into a crevasse. Lorenzo, one of the tough Quechua porters, was roped up with me. He immediately arrested my fall by thrusting his ice axe into the ice. After extracting myself from the abyss, I promised to shout him a Pilsen beer if and when we returned to Huaraz.

I had always suspected Lorenzo of being a Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) terrorist because he was from the Huayhuash mountains, a known terrorist stronghold and training area. The Shining Path was a murderous, socialist terror group very active and disruptive in Peru during the 80’s and early 90’s. My suspicions were re-enforced when we returned to Huaraz for post summit celebrations at one of the largest restaurants. Well into the night, after I had shouted Lorenzo and the other porters a few Pilsens, they left the restaurant in slightly inebriated states. An hour later, the streets of Huaraz suddenly fell into darkness. Had they blown up an electricity sub-station? Lorenzo passed away some years later, not a violent death at the hands of Government forces, but of alcoholic poisoning!

I followed a young Sebastian De La Cruz to the vast summit of Huascaran, arriving at mid-day. Seb would later be the first Argentinean to Summit K2 (arguably, the most difficult 8000m mountain) and work for Reinhart Messner, the first mountaineer to summit all 14 8000m peaks. The last of the group arrived at the summit after 3pm in near ‘white out’ conditions with minus 37 degree temperature. The old saying; ‘better late than never,’ does not apply to mountaineering. Late means unstable weather and mountain conditions. Nevertheless, on the top were assembled the required participants and equipment for a formal dinner party. Louis XIVth dining table and chairs, formal top hats, tails and gowns, frozen wine and candelabra, flowers, smoked chicken in mango, frozen trout with vegetables, cherry jubilee and Ballantines’ chocolates. It was quite possibly the shortest formal dinner party in history (minus 37 degrees in white out conditions)!

I have always believed that summiting a mountain is only half the job. One must return safely to base camp to ‘bag the summit’. Often, climbing down is more dangerous and difficult due to fatigue and deteriorating weather and mountain conditions. That was certainly the case retreating from the summit of Huascaran during that late afternoon. We had placed bamboo wands along the route and this was an important factor in finding the way back to camp 3. Filming also proved to be a nightmare on the summit and so the footage from the more pleasant dinner party on Pisco became the media focus.

We all returned to Huaraz to celebrate a remarkable success, the likes of which had never been achieved before! The real party began! Chris Darwin continued to enjoy the great outdoors, guiding with Murph for the Australian School of Mountaineering and High ‘n’ Wild. Today, Chris continues to live in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney where he works in Nature Conservation. Milton Sams runs trips to the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia as director and guide for Antarctic Horizons, Polar Horizons and South American travel specialist.

CHAPTER

2

The Andes-Bolivia

A fter the Social Climbers Expedition of 1989 I returned to Australia with the ambition of returning to the Andes. Whenever possible, I would meet up with Milton in Sydney and drive up to the Blue Mountains, 50kms to the west, to rock climb. The Blue Mountains present countless climbing routes amongst some of the most spectacular scenery in Australia. The Blue is the haze from the eucalyptus leaves that are prevalent throughout the mountains. The Blue Mountains are a dissected plateau carved in sandstone bedrock. They are now a series of ridge lines separated by gorges up to 760m deep. The highest elevation is about 1200m. The park was World Heritage listed by UNESCO in 2000.

In summer, the weather is hot and usually perfect for climbing and camping (watch out for the red bellied black snakes). We would crash in our sleeping bags on the rock ledges, completely oblivious to the ‘rat race’. The first climb in the Blue mountains for me was the ‘Mantle-shelf’of the famous ‘Three Sisters’. Milton led the relatively easy but spectacular route. A large group of tourists watched from the fenced off cliff edge of Echo Point as we climbed to the top and abseiled back down. I was hooked, a rock star playing up to the crowd! We invited two English girls from the audience for a few beers at Katoomba. After that impressive introduction, my rock climbing in the ‘Blueys’ would be on more remote and less crowded ridges.

Another rock climb that has since been banned is ‘The Fear’ at the north head of Sydney harbour. It is also in a spectacular setting at the entrance to the most beautiful harbour in the world. The rock climb is a vertical 80m from the water breakers to the top of North Head, with an overhanging ‘crux’ of the climb thrown in for good measure. We had to climb down fishermans’ ladders to begin the climb by the raging surf. The first belay was straightforward with jug-holds and cracks. By the time I arrived at the ‘crux’ it began to rain with the added drama of US Navy fleet of warships steaming close by out through the Heads. Milton had completed the climb and had me on belay from the top. I could not hear his on belay call because of the howling wind and rain. However, he was pulling on the rope which signalled he was ready for me to start climbing. I yelled out, climbing, and began to attack the roof. He had placed a ‘friend’ or camming device in a crack half way out under the overhang. The job of the second climber is to retrieve the protection (camming devices and chocks) out of the rock. I built up too much lactic acid trying to prise the bloody cam and fell into space. I was sure the Yanks viewing from Uncle Sams’ warships were having a chuckle at my expense! I gritted my teeth, swung back to the roof and completed the climb, minus Milton’s expensive friend. He greeted me on the top with a wry smile, asking if I had enjoyed my ‘nap’ below. I replied, My shout at the Neutral Bay Vines.

Milton had worked as a guide at Wildness Expeditions, which later became World Expeditions. Many of Australia’s leading Mountaineers guided for the well-known Adventure Company including Tim Macartney-Snape, Sue Fear and Lincoln Hall. Milton, who had climbed and guided extensively throughout the Andes, began his own company in the 1980’s, Australian Andean Adventures (AAA).

In 1989 he asked me if I would be interest guiding in the Andes. I was not interested wasting the rest of my life behind a desk or in a factory and jumped at the opportunity. The Andean winter months of June to September provide the best time for climbing and trekking in Peru and Bolivia. AAA ran the ‘Mountaineering for Beginners’ trip during the winter. The program began in La Paz, Bolivia at 3600m. La Paz is the highest city in the world in the most spectacular setting. One flies into El Alto airport at 4000m on the altiplano with the impressive 200km long Cordillera Real Mountains opening up on the left side of the plane. The impressive Huayna Potosi (6070m) looms large close to the airport.

On landing at El Alto one immediately feels the effects of the thin air. The air pressure is about 660 hpa compared to about 1000 hpa at sea level. Breathing available oxygen into the lungs and diffusing it into the bloodstream is more laboured than at sea level. One may develop a headache and become lethargic with exercise difficult. It takes a few days for the body to adapt with the aid of plenty of water, relaxation and perhaps soroche pills.

Once leaving El