Everest for Mountaineers - Full Doc

this is me training for the northeast ridge route of mount everest i did hours and hours and hours of running on the stupid hamster wheel to help me get through the four to eight hour workouts i watched re-watched and re-watched again youtube videos on everest they ranged from great to mediocre to terrible but i always felt hungry for more information no matter the quality i have made this video series because i want to give future climbers a useful way to kill time in the thick of their own long workouts as they pursue their dream to the top welcome to everest for mountaineers [Music] my background in mountaineering comes from climbing snow-capped volcanoes in the pacific northwest of the united states i've been an avid backcountry skier with several years of 100 plus days on snow however it was a climb on denali with my good friend paco monidaro and dave kellogg that introduced me to the big mountains paco was on a mission to climb the seven summits the highest mountains on each continent before him i had never heard of the seven summits objective on denali i listened intently to his stories as well as the stories from a handful of others who are traveling the world for similar dreams 45 you don't have your ice degrees out you're dead what's your phone number my phone number is 703-585 have you seen it it's freaking insane i had become hooked on the challenge the views and bonding with these like-minded idiots [Music] [Music] after denali i ventured to africa and joined killi world-born safaris a guide group and its accompanying porters to summit kilimanjaro the next summer i met up with dave in russia for his wedding and then afterwards i guess you could call it a honeymoon dave and i skied up [Applause] climbed on our hands and knees summited and skied down mount elvis the highest mountain in europe for my next winter vacation i headed down to south america where i joined patrick whom i met on denali and together we tackled aconcagua [Music] within four years of my denali summit i was staring down the last three of the seven summits the most remote carsten's pyramid indonesia the most expensive mount vinson antarctica and the highest also not cheap and most deadly mount everest my plan was to save and save for antarctica eventually bag that peak find enough time to get out to karstens and cross that one off too then and only then i would consider the feasibility of an everest climb meanwhile in 2014 patrick had a different plan he was heading off to everest i was following his everest preparations on his website climbing on purpose more than anything i wanted to see how he did on everest to get a feel for how i may fare he put in a year of training paid his money and made it to everest base camp on the south side then disaster struck on april 18th part of the overhanging ice cliffs above the notorious kumbu ice fall crumbled killing 18 sherpa the tragedy ended the climbing season patrick's first attempt on everest went only as far as touching the ground above base camp [Music] another year of training another payment to summit climb for an everest expedition and in april 2015 patrick was back at everest base camp in the same exact spot he was a year ago he and his teammates from summit climb made it through the kumbu ice falls safely and then upon reaching camp one at 6 250 meters disaster struck again at 11 56 a.m on april 25th a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked nepal and everest when we got up there on the 25th we felt the earthquake and then we also felt an avalanche hit our our campsite this was a catastrophe of epic proportions and here's a helicopter helping us evacuate from camp one after our evacuation we came back to this rather than seeing a campsite that had a a large array of fully erected tents we saw nothing but debris spread out uh mattress pads and tent shreds all over the place sleeping bags down there was just about everything that you can imagine spread throughout camp it was a nightmare the climbing season was over patrick's second attempt on everest and he didn't even get to test his preparations past camp one patrick decided to hold off on any more everest attempts and instead completed the swimming triple crown around manhattan los angeles to catalina island and crossing the english channel he was successful on all three in early 2017 patrick and i were talking he said that he wanted one more shot at everest he was signing up for a 2018 expedition to the north side of everest and he said that i should come with him my own plan was going nowhere so i decided it was time i began my training for everest [Music] over five years patrick had fine-tuned his everest training into a detailed google spreadsheet across the top of the spreadsheet included the date the day of the week the number of days training the days left before leaving for the mountain and phase of training the teal colored column headers represented how many minutes of each exercise were scheduled for each day continuing across the top included wim hof breathing movement preparation running elliptical workouts biking lifting core strengthening swimming and stretching for each of those columns there was a corresponding column where you would put in your actual minutes doing each of the exercises many days i wanted to pad my numbers but realize that by doing so i wouldn't be the only one being cheated if there was any trouble on the mountain i didn't want to put myself or others at risk because i wasn't physically prepared so i prepared my body and in many ways my mind along with it runs along the beach hours and hours on the elliptical machine indoor [Applause] and outdoor biking lifting core exercises swimming in the ocean and yoga i also researched a guy named wim hof who tried to climb mount everest in shorts i thought well he has to be doing something right to even try and i started practicing his simple method through breathing meditation and cold immersion the wim hof method has shown to increase your blood oxygen levels tolerance to cold exposure and increase your focus for an everest expedition this is exactly what i was looking for about three the first week of wim hof breathing blew me away my entire body was buzzing with oxygen overload at the tail end of each round of breathing there is a breath hold i could hold my breath for up to three minutes something i had never been able to do before also during the breath hold i would envision myself framed in tibetan prayer flags walking happily along the top of the north car right after breathing in the morning my cold exposure routine would start cold showers these were difficult at first but became routine and it didn't stop there during the winter with the outside temperature around negative 10 degrees celsius i would stroll down to the beach in speedos there i would do a round of deep breathing before heading into the four degrees celsius water for a 10-minute swim in addition every day regardless of the temperature or weather i would ride my bike about 20 kilometers in shorts and a t-shirt by doing so i trained my body to know what it was like for my extremities to go completely numb and warm them just before frostbite pressed in meanwhile patrick and i were both using hypoxic generators tents and masks allowing us to live at sea level but train and sleep at altitude the generator changes the composition of the air you breathe from 21 oxygen what is available at sea level to about 8.8 oxygen equivalent to around 6 700 meters in order to monitor each other's adaption to altitude patrick and i shared hypoxic training data including exercise hours sleep hours saturated oxygen levels called spo2 and heart rates [Music] i started my hypoxic training in october seven months before the climb began a large two-person hypoxico tent was comfortable however in the large tent i could only get the oxygen levels down to about 12 simulating around 4 500 meters so i made a new tent a fish tank that could get the oxygen levels down to 8.8 percent simulating the 6700 meters i was looking for there were many many sleepless nights but i was so extremely focused it didn't matter the training continued that december i felt i really needed to measure up with patrick's training we decided to meet in the pacific northwest for some running climbing and skiing patrick felt great i felt great the training was working back to china the amount of time i was putting in at the gym was wearing on me to avoid a workout boredom slump i decided to get outside for workouts whenever possible i ended up climbing the local mountain fushon at 360 meters many different ways through a demolished village in the snow with students with new friends i met on the mountain and once from sea level with a full 19 liter water bottle other ways i prepared for everest included brushing up on my rock climbing and repelling skills both on natural outdoor features and on an indoor rock wall for additional fitness whenever i had a spare hour i would do a youtube fitness blender workout as excessive exercise had landed me at the acupuncturist before at the end of a long day i would roll out my sore and tired muscles to prevent injury march arrived quickly i found a cliff that was similar to the second step that you encounter during the summit night of everest with all my summit equipment on i practice going up and down the cliff it was a beautiful night the city lights were shining and it was about 15 degrees celsius perfect unless you are wearing a summit suit built for negative 40 degrees it's crazy that i'm actually going up there like you think about like being on the north coal ridge and looking out awesome getting up to camp three awesome then that last night man there's so many things that can go wrong whether it's altitude or equipment or whether you just don't know but uh you know we're gonna take it take it safe take it smart and control all the controllables that's why we're out here right now trying to figure everything out man these gloves are tough to deal with they're super warm but really hard to deal with i got a problem with my hood always coming down in front of my light so that's something i got to work out i can't imagine we'll have this plus an oxygen mask as well crampons are doing awesome i thought they were going to be a little loose on the rock but i cinched them down really tight and they feel really good really solid warm right now hopefully i'll be able to warm on top [Music] during my everest research i read a blog that when you head off for everest you should be in the best shape of your life and believe it virtually training alongside patrick my own focus and the support of those closest to me had allowed me to be in the best shape of my life and i believed it it was time to pack tomorrow i would leave for tibet [Music] from my home in qingdao china i flew to lhasa tibet entering the city i was immediately overwhelmed with nostalgia as i had been here before with dave in 2007. we rode mountain bikes from lhasa to mount everest base camp and down into kathmandu nepal with the rest of my climbing team driving up from nepal i needed to continue west across the tibetan plateau to meet them on the way i spent a day in shigatsu the second largest city in tibet thinking back to the bike trip a decade earlier i didn't have favorable memories of the city however spending a gorgeous afternoon exploring the tashi lumpur monastery and the surrounding hills helped me realize what a gem this city really is the next day i reached a small village called tingerie there i met up with the summit climb team including patrick we took a hike up to the galong monastery to catch up uh everest is to the right troy is to the left this quickly turned into a disagreement of which mountains we could see that was everest on the left and cho oyu was on the right sorry patrick you were wrong all right we'll see you got it we have it on video the next day we did an acclimatization hike up a local peak with the team it was hard to take it slow but doing so made the climb easy all right so you see these pickup trucks here they carry all of our gear to base camp it's kind of stupid the drive from tingerie heads back towards but then takes a turn south at the entrance to the mount everest national park it continues through the town of chiatzun before heading up the nauseating switchbacks of the golula pass the top of the pass at 5198 meters offers one of the best views of the himalayas coming down from goula pass you reached jashi dongsun where we picked up last minute oreos another couple of hours and we pulled up to the new wrong book monastery and permit check you'll likely have to do a handful of these as you travel through tibet all right we're here what do you think we made it almost made it we have to get past this we got some shipping container people who are going to come out and give us some grief i'm sure after a relatively minimal amount of grief we were let through finally we arrived at chinese base camp kelly yes i'm brendan nice to meet you patrick you just got to me i know yeah you remember me just got to base camp setting up picking our tents bringing all our gear sorting it out beautiful day everest's looking fantastic gail j sherpow was one of the sherpas that was with patrick during his 2014 and 2015 everest summit attempts all of us took our time putting our camp together except for this man zhangbu our head sherpa he has summited everest 17 times and was always hustling and smiling the sun dipped behind the mountains and i headed to my tent i felt a little bit of comfort knowing that jongbu was going to the summit with us [Music] i had wanted to wait for the sunbeams to get up but the whipping of the prayer flags against my tent that fellow climber martin had put up the night before urged me out we all started wrestling and got to the first order of business emptying our pee bottles patrick and i both had the 96 ounce nalgene canteen a must for any expedition too many climbers have used the regular nalgene bottles as pea bottles and mix them up in the middle of the night when reaching for a drink after taking care of the morning business we headed into our black tibetan tea house themed tent and warmed up with tea while the kitchen boys as they're called nobuntashi brought in breakfast this was the first and last time i had eggs for breakfast the rest of my days on the mountain i would stick to porridge 4k breakfast our expedition leader david from the uk gave us our morning briefing uh it's a take it easy day really today uh if you're feeling good there is a walk up this hill behind us there that you can gain some altitude and you can look over the uh the camp but uh that's you know really it's preferable to take it easy or get your gear ready so the yaks are coming on the 19th and there'll be a highlight of bells clanking all night long and that what with that and martin's prayer flags you might not have the best i got it so this is our mess tent down here base camp patrick's gonna give us the tour this is where we eat relax lounge socialize so most of the team members around here everyone seems to have found their own spot we have an unusual tent because we have a tibetan tea house motif and most of the other ones are these big dome tents that are sterile and hard to warm up and it gets very warm during the daytime and at night and early in the morning it is not yeah this is our first morning at base camp it's pretty cold this morning minus 12. just had breakfast and we're told our jobs for the day are to sort our gear that's going to go up to interim camp and then advanced base camp [Music] the sherpa sorted gear we sorted gear the goal was to get everything ready for moving up the mountain while the yaks would be constantly traveling between the camps this first big movement of equipment is when you want to organize everything you will need for higher up the better you can plan for what you need at successive camps the less shuffling of gear and carrying you will have to do later on [Music] patrick and i took things slow we drank as much water as possible it was hard to stay focused on a task as everest and all the possibilities stood in front of us staring at the peak you squint your eyes to find camp three the exit cracks and the three steps large cliffs that are known as the crux of the north ridge route to calm my nerves i wandered around for a peaceful spot to do some deep breathing i would do three rounds of 30 breaths on the 30th breath i would exhale completely and envision myself moving up the mountain framed in prayer flags the scripts on the flags are blessings and the constant tibetan winds disperse them [Music] looking out over base camp it was clear to see who the big players were and hard to not be intimidated i went to bed that night thinking that the last thing i wanted was to be put in a position where i was slowing others down on the climb or worse we've been at base camp for three days now at chinese base camp we each have our own individual tents mine is right here and the view of everest from here is ridiculous it's so hard to stop taking pictures of this mountain awesome right now the uh sherpas are weighing all the different bags for the yaks this is all for the yaks right yep just for the x all the way to advanced base camp abc looks like the boys are coming to pick up our gear the next morning team yak and its herdsmen had a ride each yak costs 350 to carry gear to advanced base camp this was the time to earn their key yaks weigh the same amount as two grand pianos they can survive winters at high altitudes where the temperatures can get down to negative 40 degrees and lucky for us they can carry heavy loads at high altitudes hey that's my bag it's cool getting to know the people on our team joking around with them playing cards definitely a lot of down time getting some reading done which is really nice definitely a little nervous about every step after this so like tomorrow is our hike up to interim camp and we're there for two days and you're always just thinking you know is it gonna be cold do i have enough stuff am i gonna sleep i'm gonna get a headache i seem to be worried a lot more than i should i'm like super positive about being able to do this so the unknowns of what's to come are daunting i guess to make use of the time i admired the view wash clothes and practice my wim hof breathing one of the afflictions that everest climbers face is called the kumbu cough a result of inhaling extremely cold and extremely dry air in order to reduce my chances of getting the kombucha off i always did my breathing with my air pollution mask on this kept the air i was inhaling relatively moist and warm at 5 364 meters having an spo2 of 95 is very high however what i find most interesting about the breathing is the breath hold at the end my spo2 and heart rate both decrease however my heart rate keeps dropping and dropping and dropping just then it had gone from 110 beats per minute to 50 beats per minute that is something i wasn't expecting i can only think that my body is learning to relax and use as little oxygen as possible during the breath hold today is day four at chinese base camp we're supposed to head up to interim camp today but because the ropes haven't been fixed on the north call we're gonna just do an acclimatization hike up this guy right over here um you can see some people up there they're super super tiny so it's way bigger than it looks patrick and i are both gonna go with pretty heavy packs just so we can get used to traveling with heavy pack because i haven't done that for since i put a giant bottle of water in my backpack and climbed fooshon a little bit different the whole summit climb team decided to make it a group effort and we all left camp together the trail was steep out of the gate passed by a valley of prayer flags and came to a cliff band where other teams were practicing their technical skills we decided to take a quick break to allow our expedition leader david tell us why the yak negotiations had taken so long that morning basically additional yaks here cost 350 which is quite a lot because to buy a yak would cost about a thousand dollars yeah and uh the act waiting fee which basically includes uh a bag of straw is a hundred dollars and one tenth the cost of a yak indeed so as much as i try to negotiate clearly these fellas know there is nowhere else to go as we got higher up the rocks became less and less stable we're on some unnamed peak we're having flashbacks of aconcagua it's a giant rock field where pretty much every rock moves we're in the same approaches that we did okay so we feel comfortable but yet stupid because we're doing the same stupid thing we did before but it's all good only a little bit to descend this hill and practice climb was not worth risking a rolled ankle so we took in the view of the camp and descended on the way down we stopped by some other team's tents including [Music] the russians the seven summits group the russian group [Music] whoa hopefully they don't have tibet wine impressive and a global team that was preparing to break a world record of highest formal dinner [Music] we got back to our tent just in time for our own dinner jangbu lit the heater the chicken noodle soup without the chicken and without the noodles that was really good [Music] it is [Music] a spoonful of popcorn makes the medicine go down then jongbu in full smile surprised us with maybe the highest apple pie in the world while we were all enjoying the comforts of base camp we knew they wouldn't last tomorrow we would move up the mountain [Music] it's our fifth morning at chinese base camp and today we are packing up and headed up to interim camp so we're going from 5 200 meters here up to about 5 800 at interim camp um we're all pretty set to go looking forward to a nice slow day that's the key nice and slow ready rock and roll all right let's do this our team left chinese base camp in a couple of small clumps everybody having their own pace and or people they felt they could enjoy the next four to seven hours with the northeast ridge route is the most popular route for those wanting to climb everest from the tibetan side the trail starts at chinese base camp and meanders at a slight grade along the north side of the wrong book glacier for approximately five kilometers until you reach the confluence of the rongbok east glacier there the trail gets much steeper as it follows the west side of the wrong book east glacier another five kilometers to intermediate base camp most teams spend a night here then the next day you have some very steep up and downs as the trail the miracle highway provides you safe passage through an otherwise impassable glacier after 11 kilometers you reach advanced base camp there the yak brigades stop our climb was just starting all right just out of camp it's 11 a.m looking at a a four to seven hour hike yeah something like that so if we nail it around six that'll be fine again we're trying to just go slow no heart rate above 110. patrick likes going fast i liked following him because he kept me moving the pink olivia flag is a token of remembrance for his good friend's daughter who died at 13 in a sailing accident he carries it with him on all his big adventures it gives him strength when he needs it most [Music] remnants of the receding wrong book glacier are all around you to the right there is an enormous glacial lake and to the left several massive boulders precariously perched on debris spires another highlight and one of the main reasons to climb everest from the north side are the stunning views you can't help but rejoice in the moment so we are just about at the end of the mellow walk people are passing we're passing pretty awesome another hour up a steep grade and we all took a break at what became known fondly by our team as lunchtime corner thank you how you feeling good it's the best egg i've ever had here the franz how you doing [Music] let's go look at the bird sitting on the back of that guy i thought it was a rock as we continued up the east rongbok glacier we were joined by tibetan blue sheep not as blue as i had imagined but more friendly than i could have ever expected to take my pack we all chugged along and before we knew it we caught up to the yaks that had left earlier that morning [Music] the yaks were very shy we learned that unless you wanted a staring contest it's best to move off the trail to let them buy you can see the tents from uh intermediate camp but we have a huge yak traffic jam going on over here so we're just coming into interim camp now i feel good uh definitely tired but i feel really good no headaches i think we're hitting close to hey patrick what's your altimeter 18 779. we rolled into intermediate base camp and it was clear that the yaks ran this spot they ate where they wanted pooped where they wanted and ran through tent lines if they wanted dom tom magnus arrived at camp we watched them come to the realization that they would be sleeping on in or around yak poop good luck so we made it intermediate camp today it took five hours and 20 minutes and we went from 5 200 meters to 5 800 meters and it was 11 kilometers uh 9.8 it's almost 10. things are good sun's going down once that sun goes down it's gonna get cold yeah so we're in we're in for the night good night we are leaving uh intermediate camp also known as yak poop camp and uh it should be what five to seven hours oh no seven to nine seven to nine yikes slowly slowly here we go feeling a little i had a little headache last night so hoping that i'll go away once i start breathing peace we're an hour outside of uh interim base camp and we've just walked into this amazing area with penitentes and a full view of everest that's amazing the trail from ibc to abc is known as the miracle highway since its discovery in 1921 expeditions from tibet have been using this route to access everest the miracle of this trail is a result of the wrongbook glacier and the chongxi glacier pushing massive amounts of earth together as they collide the glaciers move downhill and the scraped earth has moved with them creating a large undulating berm in the middle of the two glaciers called a moraine it provides a hilly safe and relatively quick passage up to advanced base camp without this miracle moraine advancing on everest from this valley may have never been an option as crossing through the maze of ice pyramids would be treacherous and time consuming [Applause] [Music] as you turn the final corner to abc the trail steepens your legs ache and breathing becomes more difficult now you are at the doorstep of everest we just got to advance base camp that is a long hike i am beat but uh i feel pretty strong and uh we're just gonna pick our tents now get some tea uh i actually don't have a headache at all which is nice that was a long hike though yeah it's a little more than a hike it's just good to be here how you feeling martin amazing beautiful abc and stop it so close so close mcknight how you doing we did it the adrenaline i had when reaching abc wore off i had a little bit of a headache to barely move went my tent to do some wim hof breathing and i don't even think i made it to 20 breaths and passed out but uh we're in a pretty cool place i'm starting to feel a little bit better so my sp02 was down at 55 when i woke up from a little nap it's pretty low my face is peeling like crazy and here's our dining tent not as nice as it was at cbc but now it's time to drink water and chill out oh it's hard today the next morning feeling better we got up and explored abc advanced base camp is a sprawl approximately a kilometer long scrunched up between the northeast face of chongxi and the east rongbok glacier as this is the last camp that the yaks can travel to all everest expeditions on the tibet side funnel through here this is another camp where you realize that depending on your tent location in the camp your climb may be an hour longer or an hour shorter than expected for us our tents were located near the bottom of abc giving us a welcome sense of relief when we arrived from ibc but adding another hour to our climb when we would move up to the next camp we're having a bit of a rest day which turned into a little hike day up to crampon point there the magnitude of the north coal climb hit us well that's a pretty big day going to the north call can you see that not only was it going to be a big day but the risks would increase exponentially we're at the camp at highest point on abc and uh summit climb is all at the bottom we probably got another half an hour to walk we got back to our tent and david our guide was chewing yaks away i was feeling a bit funky so i decided to lie down oh pretty wasted my head hurts whenever i move too fast there's a lot of pressure to get to the top school girlfriend internet i guess it doesn't matter the cold shadow of chongxie quieted the camp although i was feeling the external pressures of undertaking this challenge physically i was feeling better and joined everyone in the mess tent jongbu lighting mr heater jr is enough to let your worries slip away dinner started with soup then a main course by the time it was dark and cold we had peaches for dessert and it was time for bed this day we lounged around and made sure all of us knew how to use our gear a little late if you asked me but i was just going with the flow how's it feeling it's good good good to just learn today how to use franz is an expert now david passed on his tricks of the trade and emphasized maximizing safety and efficiency the next morning i awoke to a surprise our first snow day today was also the day of our pooja ceremony so includes some of our climbing equipment to get blessed uh but mainly it is to ensure our safe passage on our expedition to to the summit hopefully uh and there's a whole load of offerings uh which take the form of edibles and uh throwables and uh we'll have eat some of the edibles and some of the referrals will be thrown to make sure you don't get hit by the oily ones in buddhism puja can be used as expressions of honor worship and devotional attention as david said the purpose of our puja was to ask for safe passage on our expedition arpu just started out with some chanting and continued prayer flags were raised and an offering was made [Applause] [Music] we were forced to chug some bad whiskey but it was for buddha so i guess it was okay although it was cold and gloomy today was our day to practice our rope skills on the ice jongboo set the ice crews everyone else got ready little practice day here at advanced base camp good to see that nobody knows how to put their crampons on that's a full workout [Music] with no major mishaps except patrick's ability or inability to point a camera i headed back to my tent so this is my tip at advanced base camp and i just put some really good time into organizing stuff the way i want it stuff that needs to go down stuff needs to go up uh feeling awesome right now brutal though is at night like i fall asleep perfect feel great and then i wake up around midnight and from midnight to like six in the morning there's like sharks with lasers in my head just the worst headache ever and i'll get up and i'll take some uh ibuprofen and that'll help for like an hour or two and i'll wake up and just a pounding headache then i wake up in the morning i feel great again there must be something to do with breathing while i'm asleep oh check out the tent there's a bunch of notes my girlfriend wrote me in here this is the pollution mask i've been using to sleep toilet paper down there snacks shoes 8 000 meter boots keep them in here just get warm junk food area equipment and bags i don't use there's hats and face masks backpacks and bags over here and then we've got drone and this camera bag sleeping bag summit suit light puff heavy puffs uh gloves we're not using up top summit gloves socks dirty socks that are drying right here since it's snowing today [Music] ice axe crampons mountain booties and tripod it's actually so nice because they said we're gonna have to share tents up here which means half of this stuff would be outside right now getting snow on it but it isn't and it's amazing so uh yeah things are good we do climb to north top and north call tomorrow that'll be a big test and i put like 80 gigabytes of my old music on uh my iphone before i left and so i'm just jamming out right now okay it's dave matthews totally busted but it's awesome our objective for today and hopefully we're going to get to the top of the north coal at about 720 meters got everything pen legs got some pant legs i got the pant legs looking at this footage it's hard to believe how long things take and how big these mountains actually are leaving our camp at the bottom of abc it took about an hour to reach the top part of abc where the chinese team was camped from there it was another hour to cramp on point up to crampon point from our camp down at advanced base camp it took us about was that how long was that about two hours yeah and now we're shooting for the big boy here is where you slap on your crampons and take a rest as the real climb begins from here to the summit there are additional dangers such as crevasses overhanging cyrax and increasingly less oxygen the walk from crampon point to the base of the north call doesn't look far but it takes another hour before you even clip into the fixed ropes so this is one of those oven bowl hot days that i haven't actually experienced for about seven years and i think i would prefer one of the super windy cold days because this heat really saps your energy it's so hot it is so hot and uh the sun's radiation just bounces off this bowl kind of fries you right in the middle patrick and the faster guys on our team john and grant were on the heels of jongbu i on the other hand was already feeling toasted and ended up at the back of the pack just got to the bottom of the wall it's huge and straight up and it's really hot right now roasting huge the first team on the north side of everest every year is the chinese tibet mountaineering association they choose the route and fix safety ropes to the mountain allowing climbers to clip in as david is doing here with a carabiner and a jumar sherpas with their extensive experience often skip using the fixed six ropes eight hundred uh maybe a bit more six eight fifty it's probably another two hundred hundred fifty two hundred to go uh but this is a good uh it's place we've come up a long way it's been very difficult today it's been very icy the next time we come up we found more steps we'll have been cut in the ice it'll be a lot easier and this is uh this is a good turnaround place are you guys feeling good yeah it's good oh boom didn't make it but man that wasn't asking we're at like 250 meters from the north call camp just couldn't do it go down try another day the slower half of our team franz dom magnus and i descended all the way to abc it was a gorgeous morning and very quiet at the summit climb camp i hadn't heard from patrick and wasn't sure if he had stayed up at camp 1 or made it back and just then he emerged from his tent it's been a long few days yesterday we went up to the north call and we had a pretty hard push we got back here and ate and tried to sleep and now we're packing up and heading back down to rest and recover heading back down the mountain the air gets thicker and your head starts clearing your aches are still there but they don't matter you have made another step towards the objective just got back to interim camp also known as yak poop camp um yak poop everywhere there's some there's some i think we got about two more hours to go two more hours patrick threw in his headphones and blasted down i stopped often trying to enjoy where i was or maybe i was just tired [Music] yeah chinese base camp that run out takes so much longer than you think it would so we left at 10 45 this morning it's now 5 15. probably have another 15 minutes or so before i get to camp six hours and 45 minutes so that's abc to cbc now round one was over it felt great to be back at base camp it was comparatively warm the communal tent was comfy and the amenities were plentiful we could catch up on sleep check the internet shower just put some hot water in this bag yeah okay no shower is complete without some yak poop [Music] shaves not sure i trust myself with disney and recover with movie night before going to bed this is our second full rest day after coming back down from our first rotation and we're going to take a little walk down to tent city an hour later we arrived nothing really going on in tent city today i was here 10 years ago and it was hopping they also had the highest post office in the world which i also don't see could use everest though martin would you get uh i don't know either stones or plastic let's find out but the negotiation was not so hard upon returning to camp it was time to nap [Music] the food which was still very good was starting to wear on us we played cards and over exaggerated everything to keep us occupied okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right sunny and breezy here in uh beautiful downtown chinese base camp and if you look up there everest is totally socked in i think we're in better straights here being in the sun than we are in a blizzard that so tonight when i came to bed i wanted to do some reading and look what came with my awesome chinese solar panel these light bulbs so now i'm lit up got my book get my read on yeah now i'm living just waking up it's kind of a gloomy morning cold damp nothing like the shackleton adventure i just finished that book it was awesome oh man endurance if you haven't read it read it another day of bsing and hanging out in the tents came to an end tomorrow we would move up the mountain again it's about 9am and today we're hiking up to intermediate base camp uh it's cold it's snowy i've got not the best footwear for today but all my other stuff is up at abc so we might hang out and see if the sun burns from the snow off it's actually not too bad except the drifts the snowdrifts are pretty deep oh yeah it's gorgeous morning though nice and cold weather improved dramatically since this morning and we're all headed up to ibc yeah as soon as we got going the weather improved the team had split up grant was still packing heavy dom franz and martin were taking it easy patrick was rocking out as usual my feet weren't cold but they were wet the yaks continued bringing up a second round of supplies for most teams this was our second time on this trail and we started naming landmarks turtle na pigeon angry tortoise angry tortoise rock this part of the trail really feels like you're walking through northern new mexico in the late 1700s early 1800s and just waiting for the cowboys to ambush us or the native americans yeah he's kind of an idiot but an entertaining one [Music] we kept a solid pace we passed another welcome landmark that indicates the steep climb to the east roanbook glacier is just around the next corner we even spotted more blue sheep [Music] the yaks were not impressed with the sheep or us arriving at lunchtime corner grant a ship captain and avid world extreme endurance race athlete had beat us there and was taking a look over the steep drop down to the east rongbok glacier john on a mission to tackle the seven summits in a year was extremely fit i admired how he had no interest on keeping up with anyone and kept at his own pace dom franz and martin also showed up at lunchtime corner before we departed dom is a british entrepreneur franz wanted to be the first paraguayan to ever summit mount everest and martin our co-leader was from germany and everest was the last of his seven summits everyone on the team stayed with an eyesight of each other so we got the whole team together [Music] almost up to interim camp it's not going too bad there's like a bunch of fast people behind me and slow people in front of me so i just kind of dropped off took some shots and now i'm all by myself which is nice go at my own pace no pressure to go slow no pressure to go fast love it love it love it camp was quiet most teams were now staggered in their rotations with the wet snow making yak poop slushies we spent most of the time in our tent just got out to intermittent base camp i felt like it was a little harder than the first time nah no serious how long did it take um got here at 4 15 or so four and a half hours yeah [Music] because we're in this camp [Music] surrounded by it patrick and i made the best of our tent time cracking each other up with stupidity pro mountaineering tip if your feet get wet on the way up immediately dry your socks [Music] get your toes warm thank you tashi thank you cheers what's the soup the soup looks to be garlic soup nice yeah trying to keep them as close to our pea bottles as possible yeah supper unsweet we had um some chicken some fries of some sort beans on rice refried baked beans are nice and some pasta [Music] we just realized i've been in bed since four had like four kitkats eating tons of junk food listening to podcasts you only climbed for what four and a half hours today slept like 11 hours every night mountaineering is hard work it is hard man just had dinner brought to us yeah dinner in bed we don't even get up to pee [Laughter] another spectacular morning and a long hike ahead the fresh coat of snow on the majestic mountain kept us going so after ibc went up a or down a really big hill and then up a really big hill and now we're on this miracle highway moraine last time i think it took like five and a half six hours so i'm gonna try and take it slow today ah it was right there it felt like you could reach out and touch it it was peaceful and meditative how you doing pretty good feeling decent we named the lunch spot between ibc and abc martin's rock as he tried in vain to push that huge boulder off its icy perch magnus's cough was concerning it's hard to shun someone from the group as you are all a team however when your investments of several years come down to the next three weeks you try to distance yourself from illness as much as possible beautiful hard work and traps killing almost dead though almost abc abc's right in front of me maybe 50 meters the last hour was a butt kicker [Music] oh [Music] yeah the last hour was rough one of the most important things to do when you get to camp is clean your feet and then get them dry use a couple wipes [Music] i was already tucked in in reading but decided to do a couple rounds of breathing to increase my spo2 levels during this round of breathing i got my spo2 from 68 to a high of 91 and my heart rate down from 108 to 57 beats per minute good morning morning nice day nice day good weather today we have our rest day so we're just doing some gear checks a lot of bsn hanging out there's definitely thinner up here the taste of spring was in that thin air which also brought its own problems with the longer and warmer days our precious spot at abc was melting into a land of lakes patrick found his tent in the middle of one tashi had to chop at it with an ice axe to get it out on my own i took a hike about halfway up to crampon point i wanted to size up the north call again and mentally focus on my objective for the next day i could see climbers slowly making their way up and the tents on the ridge by sizing up the north call i knew that tomorrow i would be able to make it to camp one but from camp one there would still be another 1828 grueling vertical meters to reach the summit with that in mind i headed back to abc i took a ton of stuff out of my tent and started snowing so i had to throw it all back in real quick and it is a mess in here had a pretty good rest day went up about a quarter of the way at crampon point and uh nice good lunch coca-cola tomorrow north call i awoke to a sparkling day the sun was rising like an ember out of the frozen pinnacles and the moon was setting into the grasp of chongxie the north coal was bleached white the birds had been foraging for a while and the climbers were just starting to we're about to take off with north kohl sherpas have volunteered to take our sleeping bags because they are amazing a huge literal weight was off our backs now we just had to relax take it slow and put one foot in front of the other the pace was already agonizingly slow but with my failure on the last attempt i wanted to make sure i was conserving energy for when i really needed it in general though the majority of the team stuck together call this section goldie rocks the path up to crampon point continues to wind up along the side of chongxi the magnitude of this section is misleading the stretches between a valley or a rock you may recognize to another point you remember elongate and take twice as long as you think they should turn up to crampon point feel pretty good we're going really slow so should be good as you near the actual point there are some small crevasses to cross that are marked with flags you don't have your crampons on yet so you take it slow crampon point was much quieter this time around everyone was focused on conserving their energy until we saw on passang magnus's personal sherpa who was proving his worth in carrying capacity it made us all question why are we climbing this mountain in the first place maybe we don't belong here [Music] this wall is just huge feeling pretty good coming up to it but it's like enormous it's steep and it's high there's this last pitch which is definitely going to be a hard chore the day continued to sparkle while the going was tough the cold breeze helped to cool us off from the blazing sun we clipped into the fixed ropes and little by little moved up the face yeah hey feeling great good way better than last year yeah me too you david yeah as with the trail up to crampon point the route up the north call continues to have sections that once you see you remember that they just keep coming the sherpas have been amazing throughout the trip so far but from abc upwards they are the yaks their ability to carry heavy loads at these altitudes is incredible after our little rest i was now higher than i had ever been in my entire life the challenges continued before the final steep section up to camp one on top of the north call you must circle way out of your way to go around a sizeable crevasse the last section consists of a vertical ice wall including an inverted section you have to scramble over diamond magnets were going at the normal pace while pasang and jangbu were hot on their heels when we arrived it was our job to find our tents that the sherpas had put up earlier that day now the sherpas and david were scrambling as the tents were placed in the windiest of locations welcome to shay louie come on in take off your harness i'll hang it for you take off harness yeah take off on this awesome man how was it the wall is awesome it really is awesome yeah um let's let's scree crap sucks guys 78 117. i don't think i'm gonna do a breath hold now i don't know i'm just gonna keep it high it felt great to have made it to camp one as we did not have a personal sherpa we boiled our own water and made our own dinner sleeping however was not easy a continuous cycle had developed our breath would freeze on the inside of the tent and then the strong wind would throw the ice crystals off showering our faces it was not pleasant had a rough night last night headaches snow coming in from everywhere back is all filled with snow and then this morning not good i'll show you a rookie mistake for sure too much wind last night i was glad it had happened on this rotation instead of the next one as we were heading back down to abc [Music] the path beyond laid in front of us the headwaters of the east wrongbook glacier the snow slope up to camp 2 the traverse to camp 3 and the summit it was calling us louder than ever it felt so close however for this rotation this was the highest we were going we started to head back down to abc below the north coal wasn't windy and it was warm beautiful our team spread out as we went down and everyone traveled at their own pace john was taking it easy in the middle of the pack i was up front with magnus and the rest of the team was coming down the steep base or rounding the open crevasse [Music] so we just finished our second rotation which got us up to uh the north call camp one and we're supposed to do a walk up to camp too but it was way too windy so we came down and had an awesome chill day it's weird being up on the north call supposedly next time we go up we're gonna be on oxygen so it should be easier but and everything looks so close but you know it's gonna be it's gonna be a hard push that's for sure good morning the winds in the valley are really cool it's like super calm and then you can hear it like a train coming down the valley i tried to record it but the wind wasn't cooperating here coming out of abc headed down to cbc today should be about six hours but we'll see it felt like a fairy tale walking down the crisp air the sunshine the beautiful pinnacles the walk was joyful john was exploring the pinnacles close up everything was going perfect smooth as can be until the drone screen on my phone went blurry an emergency crash landing message appeared and the drone started spiraling out of control i yelled martin eyes on the drone he yelled back got it it smashed up against a pinnacle and landed in a rocket luckily it went down not too far from the path and martin retrieved it sure you can get it you see it how's it look the propellers were broken but other than that it was in good shape it was actually a bit of relief that i wouldn't have to carry it around anymore i was happy with the footage i got on the north call the day was still amazing and we continued on that's awesome [Music] arriving at intermediate camp we were all excited for the noodles doce a native tibetan stays at yak poop camp for two months straight during the season and without much else to do he has perfected the noodles yes this is the noodle shack the yak soba that's pretty good huh been working on that for the past couple days great for halfway down [Music] after the noodles it was time to get moving again it wasn't a race and everybody was walking in their own headspace coming down that's the noodle shack in this huge moraine valley it's gorgeous the blue and the white of the surrounding mountains incredible feel great the act traffic was extremely light contrary to their lows today's been a pretty relaxing walk out walked real fast and chatted with john in the first half second half got everybody spread out and everybody's on their own some people like going really fast other people like taking their time looking at rocks that's a good one [Music] oh so nice stopping just kind of taking it all in no rush it's amazing being here so i have one big goal but it's been a long long expedition but it's it's been pretty amazing being here in the tallest part of the himalayas the valley run out was more inviting than usual i was practicing what i preach of really enjoying the present moment magnus caught up with me and i let him cruise by [Music] i'm just taking it easy [Music] i scrambled up to another rock above the trail so i could get a view of base camp from the east rung book valley again it doesn't look like it should take an hour but it does yay made it to the ram just then a tibetan sandgrouse joined me here we go oh yeah i see angry tortoise rock kind of looks like comfortable camel from this side though talking to rocks now huh i keep having to stop and look behind me it's amazing to be here and just came around the corner and saw the tents and even though today it's supposed to be like a oh man we got to do that walk back down to chinese base camp it's been really awesome taking it slow i mean it's almost it's hilarious like beginning setting off and then playing around with the drone and the drone debacle and pulling out the tripod here and there going along the ridges and seeing one of the cooking guys then having these the noodles and then looking for rocks again and climbing up things i shouldn't be climbing up with nobody around taking other pictures and it's really a really special day really nice and made me think about all my friends out there around the world who made my life uh awesome and what it is and you guys know who you are so thank you very much i don't think i have to wait to get to the summit to say that hopefully i'll say it again i've got probably about a week of time and then it's go time and uh cross fingers good for hope for good weather hopefully stay strong and uh yeah i guess you have to push yourself sometimes to these limits to really appreciate what you have i appreciate what i have a lot oh here we go now acclimatization round two was over [Music] patrick is readying the gps everyone's getting ready to roll it's a gorgeous day supposedly they're up there fixing the ropes today uh just perfect tiny little bit of wind clear skies and we're about to head out to ibc the intermediate base camp and i don't know four or five hours i'm so psyched to get this going it was just wearing on me sitting there at chinese base camp forever we weren't doing anything but eating drinking sleeping reading and playing cards it's time to go we were all eagerly anticipating this final push over the last month we had done two acclimatization rounds reached 7020 meters and we had just spent four days down in tingri resting up now we pushed off one last time from cbc to get to the top of everest man that's such a ridiculous view the sights were still breathtaking the terrain familiar the yak bells enchanting we knew the pace we needed to conserve energy keep our heart rates low and spo2 high so we're just finishing the flat part past lake district speedy turtle and ramstein now we're headed to turnip hill this is where you turn and go uphill since we had arrived a month earlier the lakes and rivers were melting and we heard rock falls more often still cruising up the east romba glacier patrick put headphones on and just blasted out of here he's taking a picture and he's gone i feel like this like dry cough right in like top of my lungs i might have to gumbo cough keep it down it's just irritation from the cold air and the dust can really affect you up high if you're not careful tents ahoy there interim camp feels really good i feel like i know there's a couple big hills to go but right now i feel great almost like coming downhill i know crazy crazy mountains whoo chilly breeze just over this ridge should be ib see yak poop camp yak soba noodle shop tea and noodles yeah the soup here at the yak soba shop so good yeah it's like a ramen but then he puts like onions and like green onions and some carrots it's like magic magic soup how you say magic soup yeah thank you throughout the afternoon other members of our team arrived before we knew it it was dinner time this is our food at intermediate camp and it is awesome yeah it's a curry chicken it's all bot with rice some sort of potato croquettes and baked beans it's really nice outside right now too patrick was updating his blog posts with our gps location using his garmin inreach he could also send and receive text messages almost anywhere on the mountain i did a couple rounds of my wim hof breathing before eventually falling asleep that's an odd angle i had a rough night last night i was sliding down tense at an angle with care doche made our morning tea that got us up and moving just leaving ibc up one steep hill just catch my breath already got some suntan lotion going on i head to abc 600 vertical meters later we'll be um i'm taking a nap angle of the tent last night sucked but look ahead now if you haven't seen in the first or second rotation coming out of ibc there's a huge valley you got to go down all the way back up good to get the heart going it wasn't as bright and sunny as it had been our last two times here but with the pinnacles surrounding us and everest summit waiting for us it started out as an enjoyable hike most of the team was in step we went through our motions although it was familiar by now it is still one of the most incredible places that i have ever been and i felt very fortunate to be there [Music] after a quick lunch we made our way through the melting glacier grant caught up and patrick and him sped off so after lunch corner and martin's rock you got this huge miracle highway oh just keeps going though i think it's oh yeah it's right around that corner nope you got like two hours buddy get used to walking get comfy and do it i think i went a little too fast at the beginning these last hills killing me oh patrick and grant blasted up ahead all right stay positive step by step here we go oh man just rolled into camp this last two hours or so brutal not fun at all oh and yeah but a really good time actually um it's 1 13. we left it maybe 10. three hours that's i crazy it abc three hours 15 minutes ish 9 kilometers high as well i'm just kind of sorting my stuff base camp my heart rate's probably around 1 10. so i want to come it down to my around a whim off see if that breath hold brings it down to where i want it also my sp2 is at like 79. see if i can get that up by doing the breathing i was able to increase my spo2 from 79 to 87 and lower my heart rate from 104 to 65. that's impressive after my bad sleep last night took a little nap and uh i feel a lot better although i just run into my tent to grab this camera i'm quickly out of breath but uh sun's coming out over there but every stew it's not so supposedly on the 19th it's gonna snow but we're hoping that it's like most of the time where in the morning it's super sunny and the afternoon it snows so that way we can get up there uh 19th in the morning we leave 18th at night and do it tashi and nobu were serving dinner most dinners were incredibly enjoyable and you always left the dining tent stuck down when i did i went to sleep checking my spo2 the next morning i strolled up to the chinese camp they showed me through a telescope that several of their climbers were summiting i ran back and tried to catch them on my camera here there are two chinese climbers that you can see coming down right from the summit and then a bit later you can see three climbers atop the third step we all gathered in the mess tent for david's oxygen mask lottery in this lottery you either get a modern mask or a 1980s used russian fighter plane mask martin pulled the winner looks small looks nice david demonstrates a loser mask the oxygen is coming through here [Music] so stuff your face in a vagina if you have one of these and that breathe deeply david gave us a quick overview of the masks regulators and oxygen tank system we tested the oxygen that floor is nice huh you can really feel it coming through it was glorious so tomorrow we make our big move [Music] from abc to camp one so just chilling today should be good and then camp one camp two will be on oxygen camp one to camp two is gonna be a big day it's right like the highest part on camp two here we go next four days what's the plan today wednesday get to the north call that's in off that incident line of attack is uh nice and slow and easy it's going to be hot hot and even hotter on the slope going up to uh camp one it's going to take it easy going to take this off gonna look at the enjoyable scenery and possibly the bum of anyone who's in front of me we said goodbye to the kitchen boys and we were on our way [Music] we are coming up on metallic alley one of my favorite parts of the walk from advanced base camp how shiny that is the vase spans these advanced base camp to crampon point with the fresh snow there was more danger of falling in a crevasse but the big ones were still marked and easy to see [Music] it's kind of nice there's been some snow over the last couple days so the final push to cramp on point is all snow path and we don't have to worry about tripping over rocks you can relax enjoy the view a little bit more yeah nice walk this morning dom yeah everybody around absolutely david franz and martin were pulling up the back martin a very experienced mountaineer got his gear on quickly and decided to head up with me we're coming up to the wall it's so hot it feels like you're in a desert the solar radiation bouncing off the snow oh [Music] the north call beautiful steep dangerous and today hot the heat was zapping us but we had done this before and all knew what it would take slow movement lots of water and suntan lotion fine it's only warm the silence is great yep making our way up almost call nice and easy the fixed lines on everest are not endless in fact they're about 50 meters long at the end of those 50 meters you must change over to a new rope it seems like a simple task you unclip your carabiner from the old rope and clip it to the new rope then you unclip your jumar from the old rope and clip it to the new rope however digging your crampons into the snow positioning your ice axe bending over and going through those motions wears on you what happened to friends so this barrels down at crampon points and it is traditional that people put both their crampons and their harnesses in there so they don't have to carry it up and down from abc france left both in there and unfortunately someone has stolen his uh his harness i met the leader of the chinese team and he's uh very kindly going to donate his harness to france so hopefully we'll see how france later on at uh the north carolina wow we are a little over halfway up the north call two thirds i'm trying to do it in my head so that i think i have a longer way to go you guys just blew it for me we're just barely over halfway just started the north call we just left abc feeling pretty good and uh it was hot this morning which zaps a lot of your energy but uh slowly slowly we'll get going up here and do some deep breathing some wim hof as we got going again there was two-way traffic on the safety ropes some descending climbers were too tired to clip in at all you're good yeah good summit my dad my bad nowhere save your life you owe me one you owe me a beer other climbers were delirious from the combination of lack of oxygen and exhaustion they were on a short tether to one or two sherpas this is called being short roped as demonstrated by the person in red lots of action going on here [Music] people passing short roping people summoners coming down non-summoners coming down douche bag with the camera just talking over the whole thing huge amount of people that's they're coming down they're going up big snow slope there and we've got this final slope right here for us to get up to camp one towards that last deep pitch you have to be careful not to pull on the rope in a way that will send your teammate flying off in this situation if i was to continue i would be pulling grant off of the north call get it i was finally really enjoying the clown being healthy fit and full of energy i was pumped i could tell patrick was feeling rough hey buddy you got it again the loads of the sherpas were hauling were impressive we're just coming up to camp one the last time our camp was on the far side let's see where it is this time supposedly they moved it to a better place hey take it out of you but again gorgeous view crazy day that's a very hot day to come to the north carol makes it really exhausting really really exhausting i've never been up in that sort of heat before except the first time it's true it looks awesome behind you it looks crazy all right let's do this like a game of 52 card pickup sherpas and climbers who had come down from higher were sprawled out all over the camp i on the other hand was annoyingly chipper in both english and chinese patrick was so beat that he gave himself a timeout after all those times chasing him up the wrong book valley straining to keep up with him doubting my own strength and fortitude it was welcoming to finally see him show that he was human being the good climbing partner as he had done for me in the past i made sure i did the majority of the housekeeping i know how much it helps you get here you've got to start boiling water both so thirsty and hot we have no water so boil time oh yeah [Music] unlike the last time when our vestibule and our boots were filled with snow i wanted to make this a solid foyer gonna go get a tent bag and fill it with uh snow yeah like you're set up in the front of the tent yeah we got the vestibule going we got ours in the middle it's pretty hot good trip today yeah it was good except that it was so hot yeah but it was okay hope to stay strong for tomorrow lots of people coming down after summit they look pretty tired wasted days and wasted nights some dirty dogs it's hard boiling snow when you're retired jongbu and several sherpas had just survived from setting up camp two and some of them came back from stashing oxygen bottles above camp three we were not that tough everything's set up everything's looking good and now time to get in the tent nice sunburn today yeah nice shrimp's doing good rampart one we've got a uh 10 55 on the corner of elm and all right so to boil snow at camp one what we're doing is got a big garbage bag thanks to john it's not a deal get big chunks like this you put that in here and then it boils so you do that about a billion times and you fill up all your water bottles and your soups and this amazing soup i have oh my goodness i was able to get my spo2 up to 75 but my heart rate was still high yeah it's morning camp one and our tent inside of it is just covered and frost which is now dripping we're trying to get organized for today but we got this boiling in the middle that's a mess head up i patrick had a good sleep last night yeah just getting ready at camp one make our way up snow ramp almost to the yellow band today for the majority of us this was the first time we were climbing with oxygen david gave us a reminder of what to do if the exit valves froze as they often do yeah one hard flow and they'll generally flee up through up that valve we decided to make sure everyone was set and their oxygen was flowing before we took off looking up at the snow slope and around at your teammates you can't help but be a bit apprehensive about what lies ahead one thing was for sure on passang even with that pack on could run circles around any of us we started up the snow slope dom in the yellow suit was in front of me little did i know but the pace that he set and his attitude that day would be helping me just as much as the supplemental oxygen the snow slope was much steeper longer and more exposed than it appeared from camp one it seemed as if there was no good place to stop the steep angle of the snow slope never let up there was no place to just sit and relax here we are how's it going very well now i finally found a spot that was relatively flat we decided to take a break a half a liter feels fine another half liter would be good but it's not bad our oxygen bottles were set to deliver us a dose of half a liter a minute we had control of this and were trusted not to run out before we made it to our tents it looks a lot shorter from down there clearly you have to do it once no snow on these rocks was a telltale sign that this wind was persistent dom in the yellow suit who had been in front of me all day continued his outward positive attitude which at this point was a challenge we had just got to the beginning of camp 2 and the rumor was we had another hour or so to go before reaching our tents oh man that was really really hard this is crazy the fifth highest mountain in the world then we called it a night good morning camp two we are way up here we're down to visit some people i have to make it back up to my tent which doesn't look far but it's not but up there without oxygen 7700 meters it's not easy see let me see down there holy moly one i decided to make the early morning rounds and see how everyone was doing i was asleep last night tom good good moving yesterday you in front of me kept me going yeah you did awesome beautiful huh look how far down camp one is crazy no wonder it felt like a little bit that's [ __ ] hard [Applause] camp 2 was packing up david greeted us with his tagline that we had all become very fond of good morning yesterday we're down there all right we are leaving camp two for camp three about ten in the morning gorgeous day unbelievable how you feeling awesome can't beat today absolutely gorgeous straight out of camp two it was steep we took it slow as we adjusted our gear and could see the summit just out of reach i didn't notice at the time but i caught a couple of climbers coming down from the summit just above the third step [Music] guys taking a little break here grouping everybody together everybody's feeling good we're going amazing weather taking it nice and slow hold on the leader is going to talk yes david was right the views were worth the price of admission already we could even see all the way to intermediate camp and the pinnacles each year the chinese tibetan mountaineering team fixes all the ropes to the mountain however they don't take any down years of ropes become crumpled heaps some have even become single strands that stick like a spider's web to your suit backpack and crampons other times you just don't know which rope to choose patrick and i were cruising along we pulled ahead of the group for a bit and then had to stop as chinese base camp came into view we could even make out our little black tibetan tea house we just came around the corner and everest decided to bring the pain look at this slope [Applause] don't want to alarm you that's 8 000 meters right here we had officially entered the death zone the area where humans cannot survive long without oxygen and where most of the deaths on everest have occurred pro-tip when you see the tents don't think oh we're there there's usually like another hour and you get there and your tent's like 50 times higher than anybody else's camp three was coming up over the ridge camp one looked as if we tripped we would land there and the summit only a stone's throw away because of the supplemental oxygen my head was as clear as the dark blue skies above me and i was feeling great i remember thinking that this was one of the absolute best hiking days i have ever had in my life and if the summit night is anything like this it's going to be a blast we made it to camp 3. this place is a mess it's like a tornado came through here which probably happens every night and stuff's all beat up we were all scratching our heads we don't know which cat's ours none of the tent logos look like the ones we'd been using we had also beat all the sherpas here not even david knew which tents were ours all we could do was sit wait and take in the views [Music] it was a beautiful day up here but signs of disaster were all around us up until this camp the mountain had been relatively clean this was embarrassing and unsettling the rest of our sherpas showed up and they also didn't know where our tents were then jongbu arrived and it still wasn't clear where our tents were now it was a bit worrisome [Music] as it turns out the sherpas from different teams make deals with each other for tents at camp three one sherpa team will leave the tents up there for your team as long as your team carries them down we then were staying in other people's tents [Music] 3 30 now she got this tent that was abandoned and now we're just gonna relax david had also found his tent [Music] high above the clouds at 8 300 meters camp 3 is the highest camp in the world with a slope of about 15 degrees laying in our borrowed tent felt like we were sitting in recliners about 74 105. just got to camp three not doing any breathing tonight rimhoff lies guys we're summiting so i'm just gonna keep oxygen flowing at two right now um however i do think the wim hof showers and breathing over the last nine months definitely helped um as far as not getting sick at all there's a couple times i thought i was gonna get sick i thought i had a cough i thought i had a cold but nope and uh just the whole breathing mindset actually really helped so at cam 3 both feeling awesome headed to the summit tonight if it's anything like today we're both stoked stoked and we're trying to figure out how we can drink and be on oxygen at the same time that was the goal drink rest relax you should sleep if you can but we were both way too excited we listened to music enjoyed the views and ate just got some noodle soup oh yeah super thick i just saw jumbo eating soup out of this david jongbu and all of the other sherpas were busy boiling water checking oxygen bottles and coordinating everyone for the night's climb late that afternoon patrick and i got news that we would start our summit bid at 11 pm we were also informed that according to new chinese law we had been assigned a sherpa so that we wouldn't defect into nepal it was gelje the first sherpa i met a month ago gelje was strong focused and we knew he would set a fast pace the sun was going down over chohoyu and setting on the summit soon it would be dark and our summit night would begin [Music] just figuring out last minute order of operations here goes goggles headlamp mask how you feeling feel good oh there we go nervous at all huh nervous at all or excited or what totally pumped that is why i climb with patrick the positive attitude i was nervous but with that answer i had to shrug it off and think positive so keep track brendan looks like this patrick looks like that at 11 p.m in full summit regalia we awkwardly clamored out of the tent the night was still you ready to go i'm ready to go i'm almost ready to go david looks about ready to go you're about ready to go lj's oxygen was leaking but once he fixed it we began the steep ascent for the summits the exit cracks as they're called lead you from camp three through over and around cliffs it was proving more difficult and required more scrambling than i had imagined patrick and gail j were right in front of me the entire time gail jay was setting a relatively blazing pace patrick was right behind him once we hit the northeast ridge the wind picked up and the temperature plummeted moving your jumar and safety carabiner from one fixed rope to the next was exhausting we had been on the move now for about three hours the cold wind and lack of oxygen were taking their toll patrick's crampons were kicking out orange sparks as he was failing to gain purchase on the limestone face gel j's headlamp further up was my only indication of how steep this cliff actually was [Music] this is the beginning of the second step none of our headlamps revealed what i was hoping to see the ladders they are the telltale sign that we had made it to the second step you've got to be kidding me i thought i realized we had only reached the first step one of a series of three cliffs above 8 500 meters that you must surmount to reach the summit of mount everest despite my delusion i managed to follow gel j and patrick to the famed second step i finally saw the ladders and this time knew for certain where we were at 8 610 meters the second step is known as the crux of the northeast ridge route it is a 40 meter cliff on a ledge with a 3 000 vertical meter drop down the east base of everest i focused to stay calm as my metal crampons slipped on the aluminum rungs when i finally crested the third step i found patrick and lj catching their own breaths in front of us a summit pyramid was fading into view i glanced back over my shoulder to look down the third step the view was stunning below the blackness of space silhouetting the black fins of nearby peaks the curve of the earth was outlined by a thin strip of bright orange and yellow light with the breath of a new day we headed for the sun [Music] although every step was a challenge the rising sun warmed our bodies and spirits across the summit pyramid the path dips below a false summit and exits onto the top of the extremely exposed kangchang face where we could see the shadow of everest on the earth the footholds here are barely the width of your boot this steep rock ramp brought us to another false peak the summit ridge and the first view of the prayer flags indicating the true summit at approximately 8 a.m patrick mcknight gel j sherpa and i summited the highest mountain in the world olivia you and i made it about as large as a kitchen table we had to summon to ourselves for two minutes before the climbers behind us joined in oh yeah all right patrick's oxygen mask wasn't working too well and his thinking was a little slow the wind howled further chilling the negative 40 degree temperature and our flags were not cooperating the world changing speeches we prepared turned into a rushed jumbled mess as we tried to stay warm we said what we could i did manage to get some blurry video of my brothers and my girlfriend on the summit we took one last minute to enjoy where we were looking down into nepal looking down into tibet [Music] for a brief moment our far-off vision was realized [Music] but dwelling on our accomplishment was not an option we needed to start our descent [Music] after two days we made it back to advanced base camp actually took us all of the summit day to get down to camp one we wanted to come down to abc but we just could not move um then the next day early in the morning came down the north call something uh yesterday resting here at abc uh meanwhile the other groups got some serious serious things going on up at uh above camp three and the steps um it got really serious for some of them so we're gonna head down to chinese base camp today and say [Music] on patrick's blog climbing on purpose he gives a detailed account of the extremely dangerous and preventable summit fiasco that one of our teammates initiated for mountaineers especially inexperienced ones there are some take-home lessons in the blog that could save your life and the lives of others [Music] in brief out of our team heike decided to leave the climb after the first attempt on the north call magnus decided to turn around as he was exhausted after reaching the third step dom was having oxygen mass problems and also decided to turn around these three men made incredibly difficult but correct decisions and are alive today to tell the tales after patrick and i summited and we're on our way down grant john martin franz jongbu and david also summited my last advice if you undertake an everest climb make sure you are in the best shape of your life and believe it make sure you are self-reliant and have enough energy to make it down from the summit as the saying goes climbing up is optional climbing down is mandatory finally enjoy every moment it is an unparalleled experience that will be with you for the rest of your life good morning campus [Music]

Channel: In Deep Films

Views: 3,096,484

Keywords: Everest, Mount Everest, China, Tibet, 2018, SummitClimb, summit climb, training, wim hof, qingdao, Hypoxico, hypoxic training, spo2, saturated oxygen, seven summits, chinese base camp, how to, iPhone X Sony FDR-AX53, GoPro Session 5, DJI Mavic Pro, 4k, hd, northeast ridge, death zone, summit, steps

Id: y7wo6IwOyWc

Length: 117min 33sec (7053 seconds)

Published: Wed May 19 2021