My Everest Adventure! - Martin Barnett

Author Note - Martin Barnett is a good friend of mine and his journey from an Average Joe living abroad in Breckenridge CO. (He is Welsh) to finally following his passion to climb the world’s tallest peak is remarkable.  This is his story from his own words taken from notes that he had written while on his quest.  I applaud Martin for what he has done and envy his strength to accomplish his goals no matter what obstacles, issues or fear he had thrown in his path to the top of Mt. Everest.

-Kenyon Salo

 

 

North East Ridge.   

29^th March – 6^th June 2007

 

My personal summit push happened without any major issues but that did not stop me being in a world of trauma as events around me got progressively worse.

 

The start of my trip gave me cause for concern straight away. Before I eventually got to Base Camp, I had already developed a cold. Although this doesn’t sound life threatening, which it isn’t, at 5135m it is a big issue. Try to imagine getting to a place where your breathing is limited and you wouldn’t dream of a quick walk, never mind a jog, and then block all you’re breathing tubes and hit your sinuses with a hammer. Don’t forget to throw in your usual bout of diarrhea and remember you are sleeping on the floor with it being minus temperatures outside. Let’s just say that it was a less than comfortable situation to be in. I really was in limbo whether I should go down or not. The rest of the group had already gone up and I was starting to get a little restless and nervous. I ended up deciding to stay so I could try to recuperate at Base Camp. A few days passed by and many wonderful drugs tried as I slowly started to improve, well, when I say improve I mean my cold turned into a dry hacking cough. This is quite normal practice and I usually wouldn’t think anything of it but under these circumstances, that was all I needed. When I say cough, I really mean more of a dry heave. I had heard stories of people actually breaking their ribs due to extensive coughing. I always thought this was a bit of an exaggeration until the doctor I was talking with said that she had actually done it herself. As you can imagine, this didn’t exactly cheer up my spirits.

 

One week later and I got my chance to make my first attempt to IBC. (Interim Base Camp) Although it was like walking with a plastic bag over my head, I was finally on my way up. Over the following weeks I made a couple of acclimatization climbs. First, to the top of the Col 7050m then back to Base Camp, then the second up to 7500m and back again. This was done without oxygen and boy, didn’t I know it. When I say without oxygen, I actually mean supplemental oxygen but when I was doing it, it actually felt like no oxygen at all.

 

It was early May and Kevin and I were repeatedly discussing different scenarios over our summit push. Weather forecasts were questionable to say the least as they varied so much. Other members in our team had decided to go down to a local town to rest for a few days but we decided that we were going up to ABC (Advanced Base Camp). This was so we could be in a good position for our summit push once the first good weather window arrived. There was some stable weather due soon, but when? Having been at ABC (6300m) for just a few days, we woke up to a beautiful day. We had strong winds for the past week and it seemed that something had changed. Kevin, Mike, Phil, a few Sherpas and I decided that now was the time and that we were going to go for it. Unfortunately, so did half of the other teams in the camp. We finally reached the top of the Col (Camp 1) in just over 4 hours. We were quite pleased with that as it took us about twice that length of time the first time we did it. After a freeze dried meal, we bedded down and tried to get some sleep. - Yeah, fat chance. Over the past couple of weeks, the snow had melted under the tent and reformed in the shape of a bowl. It was like two people trying to sleep in an over sized wok!

 

After a terrible night of sliding, we got up and ate some Oatmeal. Another great day lay before us as the sun was out and there was no wind to be found, great we thought. The Mont-bell suit went on and then we were off. This leg of the climb took us up a Snow Ridge which looks much shorter than it is and then up a Rocky Ridge section to Camp 2. One hour later and I was melting, it was like being a ‘Chocolate Bar’ in an oven. The top half of the suit was folded down which helped a little, but not a lot. When there is no wind, the sun reflects off the snow and it becomes stifling hot. You can’t take your suit off completely as the weather can change so quickly up there, you could easily get caught with your pants down and you would be in serious trouble. Kevin even joked that he had his house heating off all winter to train for this, whereas he really should have been going to the Bahamas. We decided to put oxygen on around 7400m as it really helped give us a boost. I had been quite slow that day as I was drained from the heat but we all finally got to Camp 2 (7860m) after 8 hours of climbing. Our camp had been set up extremely hi as Camp 2 could have been anywhere in between 7500m and 7900m. This provoked quite a large amount of profanity within the last hour of climbing as we just couldn’t wait to get there. We settled down in our tents to another evening of boiling water and a night on oxygen. The heat from the stove isn’t as hot at altitude so it took us hours to prepare our meals and drinks. What a day!

 

After a better nights sleep, we were up and off. It only took us four hours of steep gradient climbing before we arrived at Camp 3 (8300m) and what a place this is. There were old torn and collapsed tents dotted around everywhere. Unfortunately, you would know exactly what you would see if you opened some of them. Bodies! This doesn’t exactly improve morale so we just walked past them silently hoping that we were not going to be next to join them. We now understood why Camp 2 had been pitched so high, it made for a shorter day today and gave us some time to sleep before our summit push later that evening. – Sleep, ha! The tents were pitched flat but on a 30^o angle. We found anything we could such as backpacks and oxygen bottles to level ourselves out as we started to prepare for the evening. Our appetites had depreciated and our minds were in a world of their own. Breathing was an exercise in itself as it took a few minutes to recuperate even when you coughed, which you did often. I showed signs of Hypoxia as my lips were slightly blue but it wasn’t too bad once I turned my oxygen flow rate up a little. One of our other team members who summited that morning came back in a pretty bad way, so he slept in the same tent as Phil which meant that Mike came in with Kevin and me. This was extremely snug but not too uncomfortable. We spent most of our time trying to boil water, talking and being in our own spaced out zone. None of us got any sleep, probably due to the excitement and expectation of what we knew lay before us.

 

May 15^th - 10:30pm and we were finally ready as we took our first steps towards the ‘Top Of The World’, little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for. The temperature was quite chilly and it constantly snowed throughout the whole night. During the first hour, Mike had been moving quite slowly and he was hot, so he decided to take a layer of clothing off. We left him with a Sherpa and carried up and along the long ridge. During the night, I asked Kevin if his feet were cold as my toes were, he replied that his weren’t cold at all. I wasn’t overly concerned as I could still feel them and it is when you can’t feel anything is when you should really worry. I tried to keep wriggling them and we went on our way. ‘Mushroom Rock’ is an area just before the second step where members often change their oxygen bottles, they will put on a fresh one and pick up the half used one on the way down. We had decided not to do it this way lower down but we took a break here anyway. I did not change my bottle but in some confusion, Kevin changed his. We climbed up the second step quite quickly and made our way towards the Third Step and then the Summit Pyramid. During this time, a Sherpa and I broke away and found ourselves quite far ahead of the others. This was fine as I would just wait for them on the Summit. I thought nothing of it until I realized that I was going to run out of oxygen way before I reached the top and the Sherpa that had my oxygen was with Kevin and Phil. As I didn’t know how long the others would be, I decided to turn down my O² flow rate and wait for them at the top of the False Summit Snow Slope. 45 minutes later and lots of climbers having passed, I was starting to get pretty cold. I swung my arms around to try and keep warm but there is only so much you can do without wearing yourself out completely. They finally reached me and I was so happy to see them, and my full O² bottle. At this point, one of our Sherpas had started to develop frostbite on his fingers so he decided to go back down.

 

Kevin was starting to struggle a little so I decided to stay with him. We carried on up the Summit Pyramid where Kevin had a slight disagreement with a guy who was trying to come down. He was totally out of it and obviously had altitude problems and I even believe that he had no idea that we were even shouting at him. We finally got past him and then we had an episode of our own. Kevin got confused and frustrated with the fixed lines on quite a steep section. He stopped, sat down and started shouting. He unclipped his safety carabiner and pulled off his mittens leaving his bare hands exposed. Oh no I though! I have read about this so many times where people go through a delusional stage and once they sit down, they don’t get back up again. I was going to make dam sure this was not going to happen to anybody I was with. He was trying to unclip his Jumar but due to a lot of shouting and a little persuasion, we headed back up. From this point on, I talked to him all the way to the top. I don’t know if he could understand anything I was saying as I had my mask on but I think he got the picture. In fact, as we turned from that slope onto the last ridge, I actually talked myself into tears as the roof of the world lay just a few meters away from us. We finally reached the summit along with about 40 others at 8:30am on May 16^th. Kevin lay in a slump and we tried to take some pictures, we had made it to the point where you can walk no higher. It was very cold and we were fairly disorientated and extremely tired, but we were elated. I managed a smile under my oxygen mask for a few seconds before I went back to my spaced out look. I knew we would be able to celebrate once we had made a safe decent so I wasn’t too concerned.

 

Half and hour had passed and we decided to head down. We met up with the others and Mike asked me how much longer it was to the summit. I said it was about 30 minutes and then he commented that he was still on his first bottle of oxygen. The Sherpa that was supposed to have stayed with him had wondered off and was already on his way down. This was not good as he had Mikes’ second bottle of oxygen. I told Mike that he would probably have enough O² to get to the top but not enough to get down and that is how people die up here. We suggested that he should descend and we could all go down together. He did what most people would have done in that situation, said he would see us later and carried on up. At this point, Kevin told Phil that he had used all of his energy getting to the top and that he felt he was going to die. The word ‘DIE’ can easily be written, but when it is right in front of your face, it is quite a scary visualization. As you can imagine, this was the last thing we needed to hear as things were starting to get totally out of control. I was feeling quite strong considering, so I decided to stay with Kevin the whole way down. With some encouragement, we slowly made our way back along the Long Ridge.

 

We finally reached the Second Step which is usually quite a definitive point. The only problem for us was that Kevin had just run out of Oxygen and needed to get back to his cashed half bottle near Mushroom Rock. I gave him some of mine and then I made my way down to the half way point to wait for him to come down. As he got to the bottom, he was in a huge frantic state saying that I needed to undo his Rainbow zipper for him around the back. I actually thought he had fallen and had cut himself. Once it was open, he darted across the ledge and had a huge ‘dump’. Bare in mind that there was a 10,000ft drop one side of me and he was on the other, I really couldn’t go anywhere. There really isn’t a lot of privacy when you are on these expeditions so I didn’t think much of it at the time but looking back at it now, it really does make me smile. I was just glad that he was relieved as he was obviously in quite a lot of distress.

 

We made it down the step and although Kevin’s bottle was just ten minutes away, he was experiencing very bad ‘Pins & Needles’ due to the lack of oxygen. We had a break where Kev had some more of my oxygen to help him get though these issues. Following this, we then finally made a dash (5 steps, rest, 5 steps, rest etc.) to reach his bottle. From this point, the rest of the way back down was comparatively easy. Once we got to the Exit Ramp, my old friend ‘the sun’ was shining so once again, it started to drain my energy. I was most defiantly stumbling into the snow from exhaustion but my biggest problem was actually getting back up and out of it again. We finally made it back to Camp 3 where we were thoroughly worn out and shattered but extremely happy. Phil rolled in about half an hour after us but the only problem left was, where was Mike?

 

We were planning on going back down to sleep at Camp 2 but this was out of the question as there was still no sign of Mike. Night fall came and we heard somebody’s voice. In our half comatose state, we thought it was the radio as there was lots of discussion about what we should do. We thought nothing of it and tried to get some sleep although I actually had a disturbing night. For some reason, I found that I couldn’t wear my oxygen mask all of a sudden as I had a claustrophobic feeling. This was weird as I had been wearing it for the past 36 hours and it was actually helping me breath. I would drop off to sleep in my Mont-bell sleeping bag for an hour but I would wake up and start shaking and with a lot of profanity, turn 360 degrees and then take a few hits on my O². I would then drop off to sleep again and the cycle would continue throughout the night. I wasn’t shaking because I was cold but I think it was some kind of nervous reaction connected with the lack of oxygen. We woke up about 8am and there was still no sign of Mike. Although the weather looked nice outside, it was bitterly cold so we decided to stay in our bags until the sun hit the tents. Kevin and I tried to light the stove but we just couldn’t do it. This was terrible as we had hardly drunk anything for the last 24 hours. Our pee was like ‘frothy foam’ as we were thoroughly dehydrated and we really needed some liquid for the way down. Then, we heard a familiar voice, it was Mike! We were overjoyed to find out that he was okay and he had no signs of frostbite. He told us his story of how he scavenged old oxygen bottles on the way down and finally got back to Camp 3 as it was getting dark. He couldn’t find our tents but he did call out for us. He ended up staying in a tent with two Italian guys just to get away from the extreme elements of outside. We could finally relax a little now as it looked like we were all going to make it down safely.

 

As we started to descend, Mike had vision issues. Snow blindness! He had been wearing sun glasses the whole time but he had them sitting on top of his oxygen mask. This meant that the sun reflected off the snow and under the bottom of his glasses. Kevin stayed just in front of him so Mike could see where to go but by the time we got down to Camp 2, things were not looking good. We then picked up the rest of our gear, and carried on to Camp 1. I went on ahead and made some drinks for when the others arrived, as we really did need it desperately by this point. By the time Mike got to Camp 1, he was pretty much ‘totally blind’. He could just see dark shapes but that was about it. Not really a good situation to be in when you need to head down the Col knowing it was going to get dark soon. We deliberated on whether we should stay there for the night or not but the final decision was that it would be better for all of us if we got down that day. Kevin and I took it in turns to be in front of Mike to tell him exactly where to put his feet or to place them there for him. A Sherpa was behind him with extra safety support and Phil was commanding the exercise. I think it was quite a traumatic and exhilarating experience for all of us, as it is quite scary descending a ‘steep’ angle when somebody can’t see where they are going. What amazed me was that we were going through a real life situation with somebody that had a very serious problem and there were two guys from the ‘Discovery Channel’ walking around filming us. It really is a crazy world sometimes.

 

We finally made it to the bottom of the Col around night fall where we were met by a few others who had come up from ABC to help us. I congratulated my team mates as it was all relatively easy from this point and I knew we had achieved our ultimate goal, a safe accent and decent of the worlds highest mountain. I was offered a celebratory Can of Coke which I greatly appreciated but I could only take a few sips as it sent my stomach into eruptions. We arrived at ABC to further congratulations, a seat and a nice mug of milk tea. We rested for a day but still felt in a daze. We knew what we had all achieved but it was still difficult to really comprehend the actuality of it. All of my toes felt numb and like wood but there was no sign of discoloration. Kevin’s big toe was black and full of fluid but you could tell it would heel in time and that he wasn’t going to loose it. Mike saw a doctor and eventually regained his sight back slowly after a couple of days. Kevin and I headed back down to the thick air of Base Camp a day later where we recuperated before we finally headed to Katmandu for some real celebrations.

 

I would just like to thank Mont-bell, Panoptx, Purity Products and 123 fit for there help and support to help me achieve this unbelievable goal.  Was my adventure worth all the hard training, expense, pain and discomfort? Of course it was, and I will have that memory forever.