(wind blowing) (gentle music) - [Brooks] We would
all kinda go around, have our own place to
watch the sun come up and I stood on the stupa
every morning about 6:30, where we had the prayer
flags that came in, right at the high
point of our camp. And I don't think
there's anybody that was in base camp that day that will ever forget first
the sound of the helicopters, the cadence. (helicopter whirring) (disquieting music) - Single worst tragedy
ever on Mt. Everest. A ferocious avalanche. Eyewitnesses describing
a crisp, clear day, a hail of ice and snow
that struck out of nowhere. - [Geir] We were
a little bit late because there was
a lot of equipment that need to be sent up
to the higher camps there. So we were one day late and that was good for us. I saw the helicopters bringing back all the
bodies one by one, so the bodies were
attached with cord. - [Reporter]
Today's avalanche is the single deadliest incident
on Everest in history. - [Brooks] There were
12 of these in a row. And they just kept
coming on a cadence of about every
seven to 10 minutes. - [Reporter] Latest
reports say that at least 12 people are dead
and more are seriously hurt. It happened after a
high-altitude avalanche just above base camp. - Whatever is meant to be, the universe will
make that happen. (gentle music) Whatever the intention in life, I try to explain this intention and put it out in the universe so that maybe it's gonna happen. A year from now I'm hoping
that the summiting of Everest will start the ripple effect
for people to see that you don't have to
get old as you age. If Jim can do it, so can I. - [Reporter] Twenty years. The 67 year old summited several of the
world's highest peaks but never though to attempt
Everest until recently. - [Anchor] The most
inspiring story of the night. - [Reporter] It costs close
to $200,000 to climb Everest. Here he is meeting
with supporters. Geiger recently got a sponsor, the CEO of a
private equity firm, who's going to fund his climb. - That's just fantastic.
- We're gonna follow up. - [Anchor] 67? - I'm a pretty straight
by the book guy, yeah. I'm just Jim Geiger,
how ya doin'? (dramatic music) - [Deanna] What
time, what channel? - Well, I don't know. 10 or 11, whatever time they
have the news, I don't know. - Okay, I'll try and get
to a TV and watch it. - And then Channel 10's
gonna come tomorrow, - What? - And Sacramento Bee's
gonna do a story on me. Yeah. - You're gonna be famous. - Oh man. Not that I wanna be. Just happening. You want something to drink? - I got my water. - Okay. (glass clinking) - I'd like to propose
a toast to Jimbo. And Jim has been an
inspiration to me and I'm sure many of you. I'm so happy for you
and this opportunity and I will be with you
all the way to the top. - Thank you. - Here here.
- To Jim! - Cheers.
(guests applauding) - Just a quick word
about my friend Andy. Now we haven't known each
other a very long time, but there's been a
special connection. And within 10 or 15
minutes in Antarctica he and I had already
struck a deal with he's gonna send me
to Everest, that quick. So I can't thank
you enough, Andy. And I really appreciate
the opportunity. - Thank you, Andy.
(guests applauding) - [Jim] So drink up. - My name is Andy Intrater, I live in New York
City, in Manhattan. Jim Geiger is a special guy, somebody I met when I was
on a trip to Antarctica to visit the South Pole. - I went to Antarctica
to climb Mt. Vincent and also visit the penguins. - Jim had just come back
with a group of climbers and we met in the mess
tent at the glacier camp. - There was a chair sitting right at the
end of the table, empty. - He came over and just sat
down and started talking. - What do you do? I said, I climb mountains, I've been to Everest
base camp before but I could never
afford to go to the top. - And without even
understanding what it was, I said, well I'll take care
of it, I'll find a way. - And then he leans
forward, "and I mean it." - And he just kind
of looked at me. I think he thought, boy,
this is some crazy guy and he doesn't know
what he's talking about or what he's committing to. - No kidding, yeah. So we became friends and-- - Jim had mentioned that
he wanted to set the record for the oldest American
to summit Mt. Everest. - Can I do it at this age? Can I be the oldest
American to summit Everest? - Now, you have to understand,
I'm sitting next to Jim, I'm 50 years old. He looks like he's about my age. I said, you're telling me
that an American in their 50s hasn't summited Mt. Everest? - How old are you? 67, I said. - I frankly fell off my chair,
I just couldn't believe it. You look like the
healthiest, fittest 67 year old I've ever met. I spent a good half
hour talking with Jim and as he talked
about Mt. Everest as
a goal and as a record I saw, this guy has such
passion for what he's doing, it was just incredible. - And that's how I
met Andy Intrater. I hope they sent
the park ranger. We have to fill out a permit. - [Ranger] Actually, you
could write it right on-- - [Jim] Okay. - [Ranger] This
goes on your pack. Here's a pen, take that. - [Jim] I retired from
you guys a year ago. - You did?
- Yeah. - Where? I'm just a volunteer. - I worked for the regional
office, region five, and six and 10. - What's your name?
- Jim Geiger. They're filming me. I'm on my way to
Everest in 2014. - You are, wow. - Are you filming right now? - The first great-grandfather
to go the peak of Everest. - Fantastic. - Seriously, how
can we support you? What are you lookin'
at from public people? - I haven't even
given it a thought. - You're climbing
Everest for a reason. What is that? - Uh. - Better get it
down pretty quickly. - [Producer] You're starting
to get that question a lot, why are you doing it? - Yeah, I answered it
yesterday differently. It's, I don't want any flip
answer about that either. Jim Geiger, G-E-I-G-E-R. - [Camera Person]
Okay, where you from? - From Sacramento, California. - Step this way for
me a little bit. - Every single person has
an Everest of their own, whatever that may be. I'm doing what I've always done, I've just been doing
this for 27 years. I don't climb the mountain,
the mountain lets me climb it. There's been many
times I've failed and I wanna see if I can do it. Can I still do this? That's what it's all about. I never planned
to climb Everest, I never thought I
could afford it. It costs $110,000 just
for the guide service plus all the ancillary
costs of insurance and new equipment, you're running about
$150,000 to $200,000 budget. - [Reporter] Tell me a little
bit about your personal life. - I've got two daughters
and five grandsons and one great-grandson. - His last wife? Only a couple years
older than me. - [Producer] Okay,
that's what it was, you were just talking
about his second wife. - [Deanna] Yes. - [Producer] How long was
he married to her for? - Six, seven years. - It was not that long. Not like my mom, but
that was only 14 years, with my mom. But I think that my dad's
happy being by himself. He likes the freedom of just being able to do
what he wants to do. - You consider yourself
an accidental climber, it seems like you're
walkin' along, here I am doing
a little training when someone comes up to me
and says hey, there's one. - Yeah. I just never
intended to do these, it just shows up and,
well maybe I can do this. And I went in and did it. - Four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine. Lovely, good job. Jim is my oldest client. He is not the usual 60 plus guy. Four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, 10. There's nothing usual
about Jim anyway. He's one of the tough
mental clients I have. He's willing to break
down at every level to go to the next level. Perfect. So we're gonna go
for failure now. - My trainer is TJ Watkins. He happens to be the top amateur
bodybuilder in the country. 20, okay. - I just keep reminding him that this is all
part of the process. This is the process that
takes you from being just an ordinary dude
walking on the street to an ordinary dude
walking up a mountain and being 68 plus
years old, you know? - He reminds me that a lot. He's very, very good at fine
tuning what I already have so that I bring the best I
can to this climb at Everest. So I really trust him a lot. - On a mountain
nobody's gonna save you. You know, you
gotta save yourself and it's a mental thing. I think failing Everest, I think failing and
disappointing people, you see, I think that
is Jim's biggest fear. It has this scale and it will challenge everything
that you think you are. I just tell him, allow that to be there,
allow that fear to be there, but you just don't give
it that much energy. - I was fighting this demon that was telling me,
you can't do this. That I'm too old,
I'm not fit enough, it's too hard, I'm gonna
fall in a crevasse. All this crap's
going in your head. The biggest thing was
the crevasse for me. I did not want to
fall in any crevasses. (tense music) I'll get used to this. It's a really awkward
feeling at first. This was never a dream of mine, never even in my
consciousness for, you know, until just recently. I've been thinking
this through my mind, I've read all the
books about Everest, I've done most of
the preparation to get myself in
shape for Everest and I was starting to visualize
myself actually climbing. So all the preparation now is culminating on
this Everest trip. I hope there's not
too many of those. I'm Jim Geiger
and in May of 2014 I will be the oldest American
to summit Mt. Everest and also be the first
great-grandfather
to summit Everest. It's gonna happen,
man, it's gonna happen. - [Producer] Got it. (sighs) - Congratulations. There she is. The first girl born into
our family in 38 years. Congratulations.
- Thanks. - [Mom] Gorgeous,
you are gorgeous. - Welcome to the family. My kids and my grandkids are the most important
thing in my life. So I'm trying to keep them in
my mind when I'm doing things so they can see that
I'm there for them and can be there for
them a long time. (gentle music) Yeah, you're gonna be spoiled. (laughing) - I'm nervous, I'll be honest, I'm nervous with him climbing. It's a dangerous mountain. But we just try
and stay positive and have a positive outlook. - Can I do Everest? Can I knock off the
biggest one there is? Not because it's there, not
because it's the biggest, it's just, can I do it? Can Jim Geiger
climb Mt. Everest? (birds singing) - [Teacher] The word
of the week is money. Don't beg your
parents for money, you have to work for your money. Please stand for the
"Pledge of Allegiance." - [Together] one
Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all. (girl laughing) - Have you already
climbed Mt. Everest? - I've been to base camp,
I haven't climbed it yet. It'll be my first time. Yeah? - Are you gonna made it
all the way to the top? - Of course. So we're here today to
visit with Eric Simonson who's the director of the
Everest Himalayan expeditions and Greg Vernovage who's gonna
be the base camp manager. - [Andy] So you know
these guys already, right? - Yeah, I've met them before and climbed with Greg on
three different occasions. Good to see you. - Come on, sit down. - What should I be paying
attention to in my training to really maximize my
ability on Everest? - Get used to long
duration training. Your summit day is
probably gonna be, you know, it might
be 18 hours long, 20 hours long. It's a long day. - I'm already doing that
plus long bike rides, 4-6 hour bike rides. So those are,
that's good to know, and I'll continue doing that. - And make them longer,
- I can do that. - Hey, maybe a 10 hour bike
ride or a 12 hour bike, 14 hour bike ride. I mean, what you're
really developing is the ability to
monitor you gas gauge so you really know what
you've got in you gas tank. - You're the
unlikely hero, right? So to speak, because you start this thing, you don't know where
it's going, but. - No. - You don't even know, you just keep trying
and practicing. And suddenly you become one
of the best on the planet at this very thing. How the fuck did that happen? - Well, what is that old adage? When you're ready
the teacher shows up. - Yes. - That's what's happening. - Or the thunder. (laughing) - Lord, part of that
success for Jim and for us and we believe also for
you includes safety. And so very
specifically we do ask that you would anoint
him with safety. That you will take with
him a holy reminder that he is supported
by those who love him and is surrounded by
your never ending, never sleeping, never
departing presence. Be that he is joy, his
peace, and his security. In your holy name, Jesus. - [All] Amen. (congregation applauding) (gentle music) - I leave a week from tomorrow. Boy, it's gotten here a lot
faster than I was hoping, but I'm ready. I was last month, I was
ready, I wanted to go. Let's go. And I still had a month left
and now it's only a week. So I'm ready. Physically, mentally,
spiritually, I'm ready. I was invited by the
University Retirement Community to give a talk. They sent out flyers, also had it advertised on NPR. At 68 I'll be the oldest
American to summit Everest. - You'll be 68?
- I'm 68 now. - [TJ] I mean, the last six
months have been pretty amazing. - I heard him use the
word elite athlete. - Yeah.
- Me? - You did. And you, kind of, it wasn't like you did it with a
lot of confidence. - He's right, it was hard
to get that word out. - Yes, own it, own it. - I'm just humbled by people
that say I'm an elite athlete and that I'm doing something
unheard of at my age. I just keep doing these things
because I love what I'm doing and really the best part
about climbing mountains is getting back in the
pickup truck and going home. (laughing) And saying that I just did that. It started with that
serendipitous meeting. The chair just
happened to be empty. In that instant my
intention happened. I'm now going to Everest. (stirring music) (bells chiming) I first met the rest of
the members of the IMG Team in Kathmandu. - It's an interesting point, but we don't get introduced
to people ahead of time. So you show up in Kathmandu, you don't know who's
gonna be on your team. I first met Jim in Kathmandu. He was a day late getting here, he'd missed a flight. So before I knew
Jim I knew of Jim. I was immediately struck
when I was talking with Jim of my dad. Because they were
both people that late in life the physical
element of pushing themselves, really important. - [Jim] People that do this just seem to have
this drive to do it. And so it all rubs
off on each other. We're kind of inspiring
each other to do this and to get to the top. - Terrific group of people, the people that turns up
on this kind of expedition tends to be people
that have done things. - So I'm working with the
foundation of my hospital. I hoped that I
would achieve both through the fundraising
and the climbing to the summit of Mt. Everest. I'm from Canada,
Montreal, Canada. I'm a neurosurgeon. - I'm a CEO there in a
constructing firm in Norway. We build prefabricated houses. - I'm 46 years old and I'm a retired
partner at Goldman Sachs who left work about
nine months ago to train for Mt. Everest. (muted office chatter) - Should I pick it up? It's BBC. Hello. The objective of Nepal
Mountaineering Association is to develop skilled manpower, and to work betterment for the protection of
our mountain environment as well as the promotion of
the mountaineering activities. We feel very comfortable
with the Western climbers because the backbone of
our remote area economy is the mountain tourism. (midtempo music) - [Jim] After our
time in Kathmandu is was then time to fly to Lukla to begin our trek to base camp. There's an excitement
in the air. Some people have spent years
preparing for this journey. The flight from
Kathmandu to Lukla takes a little bit
less than a half hour. We're in a fixed wing aircraft and flying at 9,000 feet into literally the world's
most dangerous airport. At the end of the runway
there's a brick wall and at the other end of
the runway there's a cliff. - We made it. - From Lukla it's a 40 mile
trek to Everest base camp. Trek takes about two weeks. And it's designed
to take that long so we can acclimate
as we go higher. Up until last week I was just
under the preparation mode and then it all of
a sudden shifted. And now here I'm ready to go. Let's get this done. All the preparation
is culminating on this Everest trip and it's starting to pay off. I feel much more efficient
than I ever have before. Take each step with ease and
not try to rush anything, just kind of glide along as
we're going up this mountain. I'm enjoying the spiritual
aspect of being here. When I was inside the monastery I felt that connection. We're at 12,3, we gotta
go to almost 18,000 so we got a ways to go. And now it starts getting a
little bit less oxygen available so there's gonna be a
little bit slower pace, probably a little bit
more breathing going
on as we're going and I'm well prepared for that. (speaks in a foreign language) (bell chiming) (wheels whirring) (chanting in a foreign language) - No problems, no rush
through the Khumbu Icefall and to Camp One, come
back, that's no problem. Good luck from Lama Geshe. This is good luck. You keep very careful
in your pocket. Doesn't matter, no problem, every avalanche, no problem, every icefall, this
good luck for everybody. (speaking in a foreign language) - My great-grandfathers,
my grandfathers, my father, my uncles, all are working
in the mountaineering fields. My father is a very good
friend of Sir Edmund Hillary. Sir Edmund Hillary established
the Khumjung School. It is the first school
established in my region. I was one of the lucky students to admit and to graduate
from that school. - Hope. Write the spelling of hope. (speaks in a foreign language) Next number, number eight,
write the spelling of girl. Girl. Are you a boy or a girl? - The surroundings are uplifting but my body is not
feeling that uplifted, I'm feeling kind of lethargic. Wondering what's going on. But the altitude is 14,000. We're moving very slowly. I'm getting as
much rest as I can and yet there's this
lethargic feeling I'm having, not sure quite what it is, but I'm thinking it's just
part of the acclimation process and once we get on
some steep stuff I'm gonna have
the energy kick in and away we go. - The higher you go the less molecules
there are, actually, to press on the other molecules. So at sea level you have a
lot of pressure, air pressure, and the oxygen can
go in very easily. But the higher you go, the
more difficult it gets. Your heart rate is
going up, that's normal. And also the amount
of breath you take, so you breathe faster. So also when you talk, you
get faster out of breath. And this is problem
with the altitude. So it takes about four to six
weeks until you actually have the good level that
you're fully acclimatized. Just listen to your body,
especially in the morning, If you think, I feel
wrong with my head and I have a lot of symptoms. Just stay there, or maybe even go down
if it's getting worse. Just really listen to your body. As part of the acclimation
process on the way to base camp we hiked Lobuche base camp
and spent a night there to climb Lobuche Peak East. See ya tomorrow. Well, the group
behind me is my group but I'm not going,
unfortunately. I still need to
acclimate some more here. I'm lethargic, energyless. The altitude has been
sucking the life outta me and that's not typical for me. Things are not going
as I want them to go. As you can see there's been quite a little
bit of snowstorm here. Get a lot of ice climbing,
but that's part of the game. The plan is to get up at
two and leave by three, summit by probably nine and get back down here by noon. We're going up to the middle
peak there of Lobuche. It's just a training climb, but it's a long ways from here. (gentle music) (coughing) Air capacity going. It's not what I want it to be. Acclimation process
still is not there. I can still do it, but it's not as fast
as I wanted to go. So I don't know. It's just moving at
really good pace, that I need to move to be safe. So right now I'm
not safe zone yet. - Pasta for you, buddy. How are you? Good to see you. I think Jim, like any
of us on this trip, had been training
incredibly hard to mitigate the physical nature of pounding out 12 hours. I think it really hit
everybody in different ways. - I was seeing
that at some points it wasn't easy for him. - This is more difficult
than I thought it'd be. Still trying to acclimate. I shouldn't say try. Still acclimating
to this altitude. My body just doesn't seem
to have caught up yet. I was startin' to feel
like I wasn't fast enough. I started noticing it takes
longer for me to recover. It's been a challenge for me. (gentle music) Finally. Finally we're gonna get to
Everest base camp today. We're very glad to
get there finally after the two week trek. It's literally
hundreds of tents. There's 39 companies there. And it's about a mile and a
half from one end to the other. It takes about a little
over an hour to walk. Several, well, probably
500 or more people. The feeling that I
had yesterday was we're finally here, we're
gonna begin the real climb. - [Producer] Wanna sing
a song or anything? Or I heard that you wanted to do a little
dance or something. - No, I don't wanna dance,
I just wanna sit, rest, exhausted. (chanting in a foreign language) - When we come here
at Mt. Everest, when we want to climb it, we know that there
will be death. We know in advance there
will be Sherpas dead, climbers dead, guides dead. It's a known fact. - You are prepared for
that when you got Everest. (singing in a foreign language) - [Alain] People die every year. So you have accounted
that into the equation before you go there. - Many of us have been climbing in a lot of big mountains
around the world and been exposed to situations where you maybe lose a teammate. - I mean, in the Alps you
have 200 deaths each year, the Alps, Europe. So there are deaths everywhere. Mountaineering equals deaths. - Come down to the, face the ladder. Either of these. More than likely you're
gonna hit the ground before the rope
catches ya anyway. Think about hooking the back
two points of my crampon, hook the back two
points, then step down. Hook the back two
points, then step. (tense music) - The backyard's one thing. Icefall's a whole
'nother matter. - [Producer] What's the big
deal with the icefall anyway? - Well it's where the
glacier is spilling over of the upper mountain, throwing all kinds
of seracs and ice. So that's what we have
to negotiate tomorrow. - Greg Vernovage. I worked for International
Mountain Guides. I'm the expedition
leader for Mt. Everest. The icefall's gonna be dangerous
tomorrow and next year, it's the Khumbu Icefall,
it's a dangerous place to go. The reality of it is you find your acceptable
level of risk in the icefall. If that's an acceptable
level of risk to you you'll go in there
and you'll climb and you'll get through there. If it's not an
acceptable level of risk then maybe you need to
reevaluate what's going on and perhaps not
climb through there. (tense music) - The day we went
into the icefall we got about 1/3rd of
the way up the icefall. And just my condition
at that point, particularly being
up at 19,000 feet, I didn't know if I was
in good enough shape to come back down. And that's where I said,
we've gotta turn around. I'm way under-prepared. Not where I wanna be. Okay, let's get outta the way. (somber music) Run down. - Small jump. - Aw, jeez. Very impressive. It's a long ways back.
- Yeah. Yeah, just wanna
make sure we're, stay focused on
the way back down. I know you're disappointed
and everything, but. I wanna make sure
we get back safely. - That's what I wanna do too.
- Okay. - Put 'em up. - Let's take a quick break here. The best skill in mountaineering
is to have the ability to turn 180 degrees
and walk downhill. Jim certainly had that ability to know his physical
limitations. (coughing) - I wanna know what's happened. My energy level's dropped. Even walking across the
mess tent I'm outta breath. - [Doctor] Any headache? - No headaches, I'm
sleeping pretty good, I'm eating, my
appetite's pretty good. It's just a mystery. - So your saturation's at 84%, pulse is 92. So everyone's resting
heart rate here is higher than it
would be at sea level. Obviously we also
take it very seriously if you have symptoms with it, so the number by itself
doesn't necessarily mean. Focus on keeping yourself strong and we'll review again
in a couple of days and just see how
things are going. - Awesome.
- Okay. - [Jim] Good, thanks
for your time. - No worries. - Because the energy to
go to the top was gone. I was pretty much decided
that I'm not going. - Every once in a
while you get an out. And you may need
it or you may not. In some ways you don't know, but that's certainly
what happened here. - We've all read about things that can
happen on Mt. Everest or in the icefall and I think for a lot of people it all became real that day. - First I heard this noise
from up in the icefall. But right afterwards I heard then the radios
stared to go off there and I realized that
we had an accident. - [Reporter] A developing story
from the top of the world. Crews in Nepal are
looking for hiking guides who went missing on Mt.
Everest this morning. It was just before
6:30 in the morning. That's when a massive
cleaving of ice and snow came crashing down the mountain. The accident on Mt.
Everest happened at the Khumbu Icefall
just below Camp 1. Those missing are
said to be Sherpas. (helicopter whirring) - [Geir] They told me something wrong is
going on the mountain and one person has been injured. - [Man] There were potentially
four to five people. - [Man] Then it's
well seven missing. - [Reporter] Latest
reports say that at least 12 people are dead and more are seriously hurt. - [Jim] This is real stuff. These are dead bodies. - [Reporter] In the
single deadliest disaster on the world's highest mountain 16 Sherpas were killed. - All guides known as Sherpas, those experts who
risk their lives helping others conquer Everest. - This is the biggest incidence
which happen on Mt. Everest in the history of
Everest expeditions. (somber music) - But Jim Geiger, a
38 year old climber, is alive and well. - Why am I here? What do I do now? I haven't made a full
decision yet, but it's becoming clear
that I need to be safe. And yesterday was just a
very big wake up call for me, and I'm sure everybody else too. - It was just one day, but
then we would have been there. And I think that
dawns on many people when they see dead
people coming down there. - Even if I'm used to medical
emergencies, catastrophes, I'm never comfortable
with death. I always had the problem
to see a dead person. Even if I'm used to
tragedies in the hospital. And the amount of bodies
was quite impressive. - [Shelly] Hello? - Hi, Shelly. - [Shelly] Daddy! How are you? - I'm at base camp right now and it's so good
to hear your voice. - [Shelly] Oh my god, you have no idea
how lucky you are. Are you gonna go, are
you gonna continue? - I don't know, I'm
not sure I want to subject our family to
that pressure anymore. And the mountain is still there, it's always gonna be there. The record is immaterial
to me right now. You guys are most
important in my mind. And I just wanna get back home. - [Shelly] Yeah, well
we want you home safe, that's the most important thing. - Yeah. - Most definitely. They are a selfish pursuit. - Bye.
- Bye. - Stay away from your
family for a long time and you put yourself, your
own life at risk here, and that will definitely
affect your family. - Wow. Man, I needed that. - Many of the climbers
are from my village, from Khumjung, as well as the
surrounding areas. (woman sobbing) (speaking in a foreign language) They are a very
dedicated people. They work very hard. And they expose
themselves to this risk and endanger their
precious lives. There are 47 children
from these families. (baby cooing) - [Steve] Mr. Geiger, this
is Steve Large at Chanel 13, how you doing? Given what happened,
are you still planning on trying to summit Mt. Everest? - Well right now there's
not even a certainty that anybody will
be able to do that. The Sherpa pretty much
closed everything down for the moment. They all went home to their
families and the funerals and they're due back today,
later today or tomorrow morning. (chiming music) - Then we had this
puja, this memorial, where I felt everybody
stood together during this very beautiful
Buddhist ceremony. But then something happened, it started to
change a little bit. Because of what happened on
the 18th 16 lives were lost. This Nepali climbing community would like to make
something out of this event, make something positive. So as a great request
from the workers they have put together some
demands towards the government. One of the biggest
request from the workers is this base camp is to not
continue in climbing this year. We know that's a great, big ask, but it's somewhat small
compared to the 16 lives we've lost in this
mountain on the 18th. So we hope you will
cooperate with this demand. - There was an element
brewing in camp that was quite
activist in nature, understandably so, among
the Sherpa community. That's the agitating for change, which is long coming
and much needed. But also really to make sure
that no one was gonna go to that icefall or
up the mountain. This had changed from
just being a tragedy to being something that
had a larger agenda. (speaking in a foreign language) - So I would say that most
client wanted to climb, this is my impression, they wanted to climb and the companies
wanted to climb. - As mountaineers I
can only do my job which is to be a
great mountaineer, that's all of us in here. Anybody who works up here,
anybody who makes a living, the guys coming up the
valley to make a living, to put their kids in school, all that starts with
how great we are here and how great we are up there. How great those 16 guys are that we're remembering
every day we wake up. I can't speak for one side
politically or the other. - To put the pressure
to the government, I hope that all the
Western friends, brothers and sisters
from all over the world, and all the Nepalese Sherpas,
my friends, my brothers, let's put our hands together and let's request the government
to support these people. Thank you very much, guys. (applauding) - As the leader of the
mountaineering community I request the government
to set up a fund, a climber's welfare fund. - I couldn't climb that mountain without a lot of support and a lot of Sherpa support. And again, we took the
decision then to go. - Sunday at 10, not
expecting any major news, one of the guys
come in and said, hey, we got a meeting. The expedition
has been canceled, we're pulling off the mountain. There is a sense of relief
knowing that this is over, I don't have to make
any more decisions, it's been made. I don't have to worry about
going through the icefall and oh, am I gonna do this? And is there any chance that
I would still stay around and go through the icefall? Well, that's all
been taken care of, it's done, we're over. (helicopter whirring) (gentle music) I went up to base
camp for a purpose and that was to
climb Mt. Everest. Now that it's over I
just look at things a little bit differently. I'm not a super dude. At 68 my priorities have
changed since the accident. It's not about the mountain. Getting to the top is not about the record
getting to the top. It's about respecting the
Sherpa and respecting my family. But it's gonna be okay. Yeah, I'm disappointed that
we didn't have a shot at it. This is the biggest tragedy
in mountaineering history and so it is what it is. - This very shocked
and sad incidence which happened on Everest
on the 18th of April. - It was a very, very
difficult time for me up there because I was there in that
accident zone the day before. And to see those 16
gentlemen on that poster was just like, that just brought
it right back again. To see him and know
that he knew these guys, it's very sobering. Things just show up and they know when
it's right thing to do. Across the street from the
super was this building where they had butter
lamps on the top floor. So I saw the 16 butter lamps. I didn't know where to do it, I didn't know how
to have a ceremony, I just knew I need
to light 16 candles. Here goes. It was a way to
release that emotion. That's how I said my
goodbyes to the Sherpa. I'm okay with not
having summited Everest. I was that close to
being able to find out but it wasn't meant to be. But now the story is changed and now there is a different
ending to the story that we had hoped and maybe even a
better ending this way. And there they are. - [Tram] Welcome to Terminal
B, please proceed to-- (cheering) - I'm shocked that
everybody's here. I'm glad to be home. It was quite the ordeal, just a heartbreaking
disaster that happened. And so, - Let's see if we can
get some live comments. Jim, you're live on
KCRA3, welcome back. - Thank you so much, I'm
very glad to be back. - [Reporter] Well, welcome back we'll let you get with your
friends and family here. - Thank you so much. - All right, great. So this is a triumphant
return for Jim Geiger who has just come back from-- - National Sacramento
climber Jim Geiger who's trying to become
the oldest American at 68 to climb Mt. Everest has
finally arrived back home and how's it feel to be
back on American soil? - I am thrilled to be back. A little disappointed that
we weren't able to climb, but to have this homecoming
is just pretty special and I didn't expect anybody here except my daughter
and my grandson. All these friends are
here, my goodness. - Give you a hug. - And I didn't even
climb the mountain, so, just glad to be home. - [Reporter] Thank you
so much, congratulations. - Thank you. - Big hug. (children exclaiming) You gonna be a mountain climber? - I don't know. I'm not because then I will die. - Oh, maybe not,
I didn't die yet. - With the book.
- Oh, with the book. What I experienced over there having not climbed Everest is far more impactful on me than had I summited. Ego is the one who
wants to be fed with all the
accomplishments, the money, the gratification and all this, and that's so fleeting. If we get rid of the ego then the love can come forth. And so I didn't summit therefore the ego
couldn't be fed but now I'm
experiencing this love, this outpouring of love for
the first time in my life. Pretty special. (gentle music)
