The MountainWorld™ Blog

Charles Houston & The Brotherhood of the Rope

Last night, at the American Mountaineering Center here in Golden, Colorado, I was fortunate enough to see a presentation on the life and climbs of Dr. Charles Houston and his new biography, The Brotherhood of the Rope, written by Bernadette McDonald and published by The Mountaineers Books.

The evening would have been amazing simply for the crowd it drew out of the history of American mountaineering: Tom Hornbein, Dee Molenaar, Bob Craig, and Bob Bates to name a few. Charlie Houston of course was there, too, sharing stories from his times in India directing the Peace Corps, his work on high altitude illness, the new Altitude Research Center, and of course his epic journeys to K2 - the world's second highest mountain, in 1938 and 1953. (See Houston's classic book K2: The Savage Mountain for the full story of the 1953 expedition.)

I have written a bit about the concept of the brotherhood of the rope recently on this blog, and David Zinger has some great pieces on his blog as well. 

As I listened to Houston recount his team's experiences on K2 so many years ago, their harrowing rescue attempt to save the life of teammate Art Gilke, and the dramatic arrest of the falling team by Pete Schoening, I couldn't help but think of my good friend Dave Hahn and the climate on Everest these days.

Much has been written about the tragedy of David Sharp's death on Everest last spring, and the stunning survival of Lincoln Hall several days later. Sadly, the events that continue to unfold on the mountain - and on other peaks - have cast somewhat of a negative shadow on the climbing world, casting climbers as a callous lot seeking self-fulfillment at the expense of all else.

This may indeed be true of some, but it is not indicative of the whole any more than the unethical acts of the Enron's of big business are representative of business as a whole.

On Sunday night, after reaching the summit of Everest for an amazing 9th time, my good friend Dave Hahn and Phinjo Sherpa came upon Usha Bista, a fallen member of the Nepal Democratic Team expedition. She was unconscious, clinging to life through a haze of high altitude cerebral and pulmonary edema at 27,500 feet.

Tired, exhausted, but not swayed, Dave and Phinjo immediately went to work, dragging Usha downhill, administering first aid and medication as needed. It was undoubtedly a heroic effort, and resulted many hours later in getting Usha to the tents of a medical expedition at Camp III on the Lhotse Face.

Simply put, without Dave and Phinjo risking their safety to help, Usha would be dead today. Period. Do Dave and Phinjo deserve a medal? Perhaps. Dave earned the David A. Sowles Award in 2001 along with other members of our 2001 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition for a heroic rescue high on Everest that year.

However, Dave and Phinjo did not stop to help Usha with the hopes of getting recognition. They did not do it for a pat on the back, articles in the papers, or an interview on CNN. Rather, they did it for Usha.

They did it to save a life. 

They did it, simply, because it was the right thing to do.

Back in 1953, Charles Houston and his team struggled against the odds to bring Art Gilke down K2. Things looked grim. The outlook was not good, and the risks were huge. In their attempt the entire team nearly died.

But, as Houston said last night in his lecture: None of us, not a single one, could have left Art there on that mountain. We were a team, we did this together or we didn't do it at all.

Dave and Phinjo, Houston and his team...it is the Brotherhood of the Rope at work.

I'll ask again the questions I posed a week ago:

Am I willing to risk my goals to help those in need?

At what point do my ethics supersede my ambition?

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

For those of you interested in reading more about the ethics of Everest and the events on the mountain this year, please visit these great sites: The Adventure Blog, The Adventurist, and Alan Arnette. 

Super Sherpas - The Backbone of Himalayan Mountaineering

This spring on the slopes of Mount Everest a timely (and, in my opinion, long overdue) documentary will be created: Super Sherpas. Focusing primarily on two amazing Sherpa climbers, Apa and Lhakpa Gelu, the film will document their ascent of Everest via the traditional Southeast Ridge Route.

For Apa Sherpa (pictured at left in 2002 at Khumbu Basecamp), he will attempt to summit for a record seventeenth (yes, 17th!) time, breaking his own record set last year of 16 summits of Everest.

Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa set a world record on May 25, 2003, by reaching the summit from Basecamp in an astonishing 10 hours 56 minutes - that's a climbing speed of roughly 1,000 vertical feet per hour!

Together, Apa and Lhakpa Gelu will help show the world the true backbone of Himalayan climbing: the Nepali Sherpa and other Nepali tribesmen (see my article here on the The Sherpas (and sherpas) of Nepali Climbing).

It is sad, but not surprising, how little attention and recognition the Nepali people get for their contributions to Himalayan climbing. From the very first attempt on Everest in 1921, Sherpa climbers were chosen in Darjeeling, India, to accompany the 1921 Reconnaissance Expedition and assist with climbing and load carrying. The following year, 1922, seven Sherpa were killed when a massive avalanche swept them off the North Col Headwall. George Mallory, who was with the 7 Sherpa on the headwall and barely avoided dying himself, wrote to his wife Ruth of the tragedy:

The consequences of my mistake are so terrible; it seems almost impossible to believe that it has happened forever and that I can do nothing to make it good. There is no obligation I have so much wanted to honor as that of taking care of these men.

And, of course, it was Sherpa Tenzin Norgay who, in 1953, forged the way up the final steps of the Southeast Ridge Route with young Edmund Hillary and, on May 30, 1953, the two became the first people to reach the 29,035 foot summit of Everest. Edmund Hillary would later be knighted for his accomplishment; Tenzin Norgay never received such accolades. (Through his efforts and love for the Sherpa people, however, Sir Edmund Hillary has given back in strides to Tenzin's countrymen through The Himalayan Trust and other initiatives.)

These days, little has changed for the Sherpa and other Nepali people who climb in the high mountains. They still do the lion's share of the work - setting fixed lines, carrying tents, food, oxygen, and equipment into The Death Zone and the Khumbu Icefall - and sadly get the mouse's share of the credit for it.

For many of us, names like Edmund Hillary, Jim Whittaker, Ed Viesturs, Reinhold Messner, John Krakauer and more are common and known. But Apa Sherpa, Lhakpa Gelu, and my close friends like Man Bahadur Tamang, Danuru Sherpa, Panuru Sherpa, Karma Rita Sherpa, and others are basically unknown - even though they have all climbed Everest multiple times and other 8000 meter peaks as well. (See my newsletter from June, 2006, for a tribute to my friend Ang Phinjo Sherpa who died in the Khumbu Icefall last year.)

And, I am guilty, too. Even though I give back to the Nepali community regularly - by being a Board Member of Porters Progress, sponsoring Kancha Tamang through school and helping him get a foothold in life, sponsoring a child through Educate the Children, and my time studying and working in Nepal - I still have gained a great deal more from my climbs on Everest and elsewhere in the Himalaya than my Nepali and Sherpa climbing friends.

In my keynotes, I speak about this when discussing the importance of teamwork in reaching our life summits. The recognition (or lack thereof) the Sherpa receive for their efforts in the high mountains can only be considered a failure of teamwork.

They give their all, regularly and without fail, in the most inhospitable environment on earth. They risk their lives daily to help others reach their goals. And they do it all with a smile, a gracious Namaste, and a humbleness which is uniquely Nepalese. Through their efforts, members of the climbing team reach their goals, realize their dreams, stand on the summit, while many of the Sherpa return to lives of subsistence farming in one of the poorest countries on earth.

For a team to function fully and effectively, each and every member must be recognized for their contributions. Whether they sweep the floor or give the press conferences, a functional team recognizes that each member of that team made the success - or failure - possible.

So, when choosing your partners for the next climb, make a mental note to acknowledge their contributions, from the bottom to the top. If your teammates and your partners feel acknowledged, feel that their efforts have been recognized, the entire team benefits and the summit prospects improve.

Just ask Apa or Lhakpa Gelu...

- Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.   

Teamwork Revisited

I have written about teamwork in past posts here, and it is a critical component in my keynote presentation Climb Your Everest. Since it is such an essential component to success on Mount Everest and, likewise, on the Everests we all have in our personal and professional lives, I wanted to come back to it today.

Interestingly - and coincidentally - I received a link in email today to an article entitled Rewriting History - A New Peak by Pat Booth from the website Stuff from New Zealand. In the article, Booth recounts elements of Sir Edmund Hillary's famous ascent of Everest with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953, and his historic jaunt to the South Pole in 1958. While writing about the former, Booth recounts a segment of a letter he received from Hillary three months after Hillary & Tenzing's ascent of Everest. In it, Hillary speaks candidly about their climb and the teamwork necessary to make the ascent:

Never in the history of Himalayan mountaineering has the responsibility for success been so widely spread amongst members of the expedition. If [Sir John] Hunt had been anything less of a brilliant and determined planner; if [George] Lowe had failed to make a safe and practicable route up the steep Lhotse ice face; if [Charles] Evans and [Tom] Bourdillon had not succeeded in pioneering the route to the South Summit; if all the numerous arduous and difficult jobs had not been performed with courage and resourcefulness our attempt would certainly have failed.

Tenzing and I were given the opportunity to cap off this accumulated store of hard endeavour. That we were successful must be entirely to the credit of the whole expedition. (quoted from here)

This is a point I stress in my keynote presentations: to succeed on a mountain - be it a physical or metaphorical one - teamwork is essential. Each and every member of the team must be selflessly dedicated to the end goal. No one can be out for their own best interest, no one can be looking out for number one at the expense of the team goals.

The only thing I would add to Hillary's account is that there were many others involved in the team success in 1953. There were Sherpa like my friend Ngawang Gombu, who was only 16 and carried loads to 26,000 feet. (Gombu would later summit Everest with Jim Whittaker in 1963 and become the first person to reach the top twice with his ascent in 1965.) There were also low-altitude porters and yak herders who played a less romantic but no-less essential role by getting the equipment from the lowlands to the base of the mountain. There were families back home in the UK and New Zealand who offered their support, both emotional and financial; there were planners and fund raisers who helped bring the expedition from dream to reality.

Of course Hillary did not mention every one of these people in his letter to Pat Booth so many years ago. He summed it up perfectly in that last paragraph: Tenzing and I were given the opportunity to cap off this accumulated store of hard endeavour. That we were successful must be entirely to the credit of the whole expedition.

And that is my whole point: climbing our mountains often leads to a solitary achievement, to a single person standing on the tippy-top. But, the way is paved by the efforts of many, by the sweat, toil, tears, and laughter of the entire team. We should not forget them while we bask in the glory of achievement, and we should always remember that all we accomplish is directly thanks to the efforts of the team.