Beyond the Summit Page #4

open a Mt. Everest Weight-loss School

and guarantee our participants

in writing the loss of weight.

There's no way you can maintain

your weight up here.

And that's we're sorta facing here

as we wait out the weather.

Sherpas continue to make progress

on cleaning up the high camps

amidst deep snow and harsh weather...

We have 324 oxygen bottles.

Expecting another approximately

Trash-wise, we brought a bunch of

trash down from Camp II,

and that's been mostly food waste,

old tents, tent poles, gas cans,

there's some batteries, and the total

on that is approximately 500 pounds.

We're picking up some of the oldest

bottles, and the heaviest bottles

earlier teams which were helping out with cleaning-up

didn't bring down

because of their weight.

All of the oxygen bottles that've

been brought down are dated,

and this particular bottle was

manufactured in June of 1951.

The first team to go up was in 1952,

it was a Swiss team.

The leader, a gentleman by the name

of Lambert, and Tenzing Norgay,

reached the place we call The Balcony,

at about 27,000 feet...

In other words,

they almost made it to the summit.

They came very, very close,

and we believe very strongly that

this is one of those bottles

from that very first attempt.

Or, in other words,

the very first oxygen bottle

that was ever dropped

at the South Col.

There were a number of

these little fat ones...

We've all seen pictures of

the Hillary-Tenzing climb...

This is the exact bottle that Hillary

and Tenzing used on the '53 climb.

This style of bottle was

only used by that team.

It was a military bottle that was

manufactured for the British military.

After that all climbers were

getting their bottles from Europe,

and they were privately manufactured.

So we have 2 real antiques.

Finally, after nearly 7 weeks,

Bob Hoffman receives the weather

report he has been waiting for,

the summit is clear...

What this is giving you is

a constant feed of O2...

at 2 liters, 3 liters,

whatever, per minute.

You'll probably find that you, up high,

will wanna have your mask

on most of the time.

I'm kind of conflicted about it.

On 1 hand, I find it very constricting.

I feel as though I'm being asphyxiated.

I wanna rip the mask off, and yet,

I can feel my fingers getting warmer,

my toes begin to warm up,

and I move faster.

And so, I think the benefits

far out-weigh the negatives of

using an oxygen apparatus.

This is the glamorous side of

mountaineering, right here.

I was just checking E-mail

from my youngest son,

and he says, Dad, be careful,

I don't wanna lose you now.

And I thought, God, what am I doing

to the people at home?

I got a tear in my eye thinkin'

I've got this 18-year-old kid

afraid I'm gonna die.

And I have no intention of dying,

but we always have that risk.

I think not enough exposure is given

to this side of mountaineering,

because it really is in some ways

a selfish sport,

because I don't think enough of us

pay attention to what effect

it has on others...

So I just think about the glamour

and beauty and all the height.

It's good on the climbing.

It's good to think people back home.

The anxieties and in some case

the sufferings they go through.

On Sherm's 3rd Everest trip,

one slip in the middle of the night

nearly cost him his life...

I think we were just below the

Balcony and suddenly boom!

I don't know exactly what happened,

I think I just misplaced a crampon.

I went down, and when you go down

on a steep,

icy surface you begin to enjoy the

effects of uncontrolled gravity.

A crevasse saved Sherm from falling

off the 5000 foot face of Everest.

Bob Boice witnessed Sherm's fall and

traversed in the dark

along the icy balcony to reach him.

Boice abandoned his own

summit aspirations

to short-rope his injured friend

the 5 hours down to Camp 4.

Others joined in the rescue effort,

in what would be an excruciating

two-day descent to Base Camp.

Sherm was evacuated with severe,

multiple injuries that would take

nearly a year to recover from...

Hoffman's team will be one of the

last expeditions to the summit this season.

Additional clean-up Sherpas will

accompany the climbers to the summit

to do a final sweep of

the upper mountain.

As long as we don't get any more snow

tonight, we'll be all right.

I'm just concerned about more snow,

because that could give us

avalanche danger.

But if we don't get any more snow

tonight, we can cut a trail on up.

The wind is from the south...

and it's never good when the clouds

are moving in outta the south.

That's always what

I've always looked for.

We normally get the winds off

Everest going in the more northerly,

ah, easterly direction...

But sh*t, movin' outta the south...

And until that wind shifts,

we're gonna continue to have this.

I think all of the waiting

around was worth it.

I mean it was hard for everybody,

including the people who were

making decisions about when to go,

but now we're up here and

I think we're ready to do it.

We still have a long way to go...

I don't know if the weather's gonna

be on our side or not...

But I mean who knows,

the spirit of these mountains

can do very funny things...

and if not,

today might have been just

a long training exercise.

The weather up here is a crap shoot,

and if what Apa said yesterday is right,

from here on out it's monsoon season,

so, we should stay up here,

and give it a crack.

So I want everyone into Camp 4 by

noon-time, so we'll get an early start...

We'll be hydrating and resting,

and then we'll start out for the summit

somewhere between 10:00 and

Climbing through the night...

Our goal is to be on the south summit

between 6 and 7 o'clock in the morning,

and on the summit between 8 and 10,

and then back down to 4...

Stay the night at 4... 2... 2

back here to Base Camp,

and then it's party time.

Chuck Huss and Dan Smith are stricken

with altitude-related illnesses,

and will stay behind at Camp 4.

Six American climbers and 12 Sherpas

depart for the summit before midnight.

The team leaves the night before to

give themselves extra time

to reach the summit and descend before

the periless afternoon storms arrive.

For the next 7 hours, the team will

climb in complete darkness.

As dawn breaks, the sun is out...

but ominous clouds form below and

the winds above begin to increase.

Apa and 3 Sherpas are out in front,

breaking trail...

Apa fixes the rope lines up the 40-foot

exposed face known as the Hillary step...

From the summit the first

transmissions are heard...

Apa and three Sherpas went to the summit.

Apa Sherpa summits Mt. Everest

for the eleventh time

and establishes a world record...

His moment of personal glory is

fleeting as Apa descends

back into the worsening storm,

looking for Sherm Bull.

Nearing the Hillary step,

Apa encounters Lily Leonard,

Jim Williams and Francis Slakey.

All three will soon summit each

for the first time...

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