Gilian Lee's Mountaineering Adventures: Everest 2018 (Unsuccessful)

EVEREST 2018 Tibet

*It has taken a while to write up my expedition, but this is what I wrote many months ago when it was fresh. Some updates minor made since then before publishing.

INTRO (written on the plane home)

I had 5 days after the expedition to write up the expedition summary, but for some reason I was unable to do so. So many significant events in the expedition had worried me and I just couldn't let it out. But sitting on my longest flight leg (Abu Dhabi to Melbourne) I could not sleep and felt an urge to type...strange.

Lead up and getting there (the warning signs)

-There were issues as soon as I arrived to Kathmandu. I was originally promised the services of a particular sherpa, but there was a change when I got to meet the group. Instead I was assigned another sherpa that had very little experience. This should have got the alarm bells ringing. Makalu Adventure Pvt Ltd is just not up to supporting mountaineers that do not use O2. They do not have experience and do not understand the greater demands.

-I had initially planned to fly into Lhasa, Tibet, but the change of plans then dictated a crazy backroad 4wd into Tibet. What was advertised by Makalu Adventure Pvt Ltd was changed at the last minute. Another dodgy act by the company.

-What I have learnt is that many of the 'Indian-leaning' Nepali expedition companies are just plain crap. Their services are always compromised. Always running into issues with them. They are cheap for a very good reason...because they are crap and dangerous. Even the western companies using these companies for logistics are compromised. The whole expedition industry is plain BS polished up as gold.

These were clear signs that this wasn't going to plan -I had reservations about my assigned sherpa, which would be proven to be correct later.

-When I arrived at Tingri, Tibet, I caught up with my friend Boyan Petrov. We did a quick acclimatisation up the local mountain. At the top, some crazy fit old western bloke ran further across the ridge at the back. Boyan would follow him after our rest. Here we caught up since Manaslu and he told me how he planned to write a book about Bulgaria after he finished with the 14x8000m mountains. It would cover everything about Bulgaria (very patriotic). I asked him how thick it would be with a cheeky grin...he responded with his thumb and finger being around 1.5" apart. We had a good laugh. The last time I saw him was when we farewelled each other as we went our separate ways (Boyan to Shishapangma, and I to Everest). We talked about meeting up at Everest BC to try for the summit, if I had not made the attempt already.

Boyan Petrov (RIP)

After my unsuccessful high altitude C2 acclimatisation miss, I returned back to BC. When I returned to BC it was good to see the other members of the group and to catch up with them. Pretty early into my return one of the guys (Ricky Munday, Scotland) told me that my friend, a person that inspired me, had gone missing for 3 days at Shishapangma.

I thought Boyan may have just simply lost his radio but it became evident that he was truly gone pretty quickly. This messed with my mind significantly as we had hoped to meet up again.

How does one rationalise the loss of a friend that you just saw a couple of weeks earlier? Boyan had summited 10/14 x8000m mountains and was very experienced and strong. My friend will be missed.

Concerns with logistics realised

-Boyan commented about my support in Tingri and he was spot on. He said I was basically on my own as he saw the team and logistics that I had. It turned out he was 100% correct. I think this was why he always did his own thing in the way he approached mountaineering.

-Change of sherpa when I arrived into KTM.

-Lack of synchronisation acclimatisation. On the summit run I caught the change in weather -got very cold. Missed it by 1 day.

-Failure of oxygen masks x2 led to less equipment carry for sherpa.

-Nil sleeping bag causes freezing night at over 8000m.

-Sherpa suffered AMS during acclimatisation.

-Sherpa 'follow what I did' when his oxygen failed. He was then a useless safety accessory. His sole purpose was to be my safety and help carry, something he could not do effectively without oxygen.

-Poor tent setup (did as we went up instead of pre-establishment like others -waste energy). Shows Makalu Adventure inexperience. Makalu Adventure really sucked and was bordering on being dangerous.

Summit push

-Felt surprisingly good, albeit not strong when going up the mountain. This was expected when not using O2 but pace was OK.

-At 8101m I had nil headache or any issues. I thought that my vision was about to start seeing 'stars/blotches', but that could have been the result of the general brightness getting through the sunglasses rather than the impact of altitude. Hard to tell.

-Besides natural loss of power, I have never felt that good at altitude before! I thought that 8000m wasn't really that high and still really safe if you acclimatised well. Just don't stay too long (more than say 36hrs?). This proved to be wrong on the way down!

-2x regulators for the sherpa failed! I had to send the sherpa down to a lower camp to borrow a working regulator from another group. Sherpa thought that he could just do what I did (nil O2)...which defeats the damn purpose of having him there in the first place. Stupid suggestion. This meant that he could not carry load as required which significantly impacted what was carried (no sleeping bags). The primary reason for me to have a sherpa was for load carrying as I would struggle without oxygen.

-When I was rested (through the freezing night due to no sleeping bag) it was impossible to make the summit push. My body was so cold that my whole body was involuntarily shaking as hypothermia had set in. Even when I went back into the tent (though the temp difference wasn't that different between outside and inside) I could not stop shaking. Because the sherpa couldn't carry more due to failed oxygen, the lack of sleeping bag meant that there was nil reprieve from the cold whatsoever throughout the night. This was a critical mistake.

-I could not take my boots off and thus the toes suffered some mild frostbite/frostnip.

-18 May also saw the first change in the excellent weather with the wind picking up and being significantly colder (18 was the end of the small window). If I had been 1 day quicker I may have avoided the change in conditions. I could not start my summit push earlier as after the 2nd rotation I had to be at BC for a minimum period. My rotation was out by 2 days resulting from the initial period I got to BC and when there was faffing around with potentially syncing up with other group members. I should have separated my cycle immediately at the onset (I wasted a few days doing so and suffered for it later onwards).

-On the way down from C3 I started to feel weak. It came on quicker than I thought. On the way down we rested at C2 and slept at C1.

-It was horrendous getting down from C1 as I was exhausted. At the bottom there is a flat section to crampon point. I collapsed 3 times due to exhaustion as it was sunny and crazy hot (I HATE WALKING IN HEAT). I coughed up some blood and my diarrhea also had signs of blood. Things were not good at all. I had to dig very deep to get my ass moving to ABC otherwise I was just going to rest in the snow and let that be the end of it. I was carrying around 25kg and I probably weighed 53kg!...this is where the inexperience of Makalu Adventure shone through as we did not need to clear the upper camp immediately! What's the rush? Could have done it a day later with sherpas instead of a non-O2 client being smashed there and then right after a failed summit attempt! Seriously pissed-me-off!

-There was a lot of logistics rushing and lack of true planning on tent establishments.

Injuries post attempt

-Frostbite (light <Grade 1) -Painful numbness on both feet. *This lasted for a couple of months after the expedition.

-Dizziness on the brain.

-Light finger numbness.

-Massive weight loss that led to higher than expected weakness. I had a significant loss of appetite at altitude, more so than previously.

-Very bad sunburn as the suncream and lip protection remained very hard to squeeze out at colder temperatures. I was burnt to a crisp. I would have been KFC finger lickin good if you just added cooking oil.

-These injuries are pretty normal and should heal in maybe 4wks time.
*I do suffer from long term nerve damage -some light numbness in some toes. More susceptible to frostbite in the future.

Wrap-up

-Met and got reacquainted with new and old people. Interesting individuals and good people that made the expedition survivable.
-Lost a friend.

-Poor logistics company experience (bordering on incompetent and dangerous). Makalu Adventures cannot support non-O2 mountaineers. It takes a totally different approach.

-This is UNFINISHED BUSINESS...need some help to work out best logistics approach if I want to scratch this itch...but can I mentally and physically try again? What else will I spend my money on? I keep saying 'no more' -I am just too tired.

-There is no point going for the 14x8000m mountains if you cannot get the highest one out of the way. Everest is not technically difficult (very easy, quite boring with only a few 'fun' sections), it is the altitude that smacks you in the face.

Enjoy the pictures. I think they are in time sequence.

Also, the entire 'main' GPS tracking for the expedition can be found on my Youtube channel -it may take a week for all the tracking to be made available on the Youtube channel.(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwEiU2BHHhC465A92pAZtNg)