South side of Mount Everest

The fog is clearing. The climbers mentioned in my last blog post have spoken. For days, the false report had been tenacious that Tenjing (mostly called “Tenji”) Sherpa and Lakpa Dendi Sherpa were the only mountaineers this season to climb Everest without bottled oxygen. “I think the confusion arose because Sherpa Dendi radio ahead of us on the summit to say we had all made it,” Jon Griffith, Tenjing’s British rope partner, wrote in a comment to my article on Facebook. “Given that Tenji was attempting a no O2 climb and given that radio comms is pretty poor from the summit I suspect that Base Camp assumed that he had climbed without O2 and hence the rumour spread.”

Griffith: Not a bad intent

Tenjing’s post on Instagram

When they returned to Base Camp, Jon said, they had no Internet connection either, because the transmission tower of the Nepalese provider had fallen down: “I don’t think it was an attempt by Iswari [Poudel, head of the expedition operator Himalayan Guides, who spread the news] or anyone to be dishonest, just a lack of information combined with excitement in the Nepalese community that Tenji had (incorrectly) summited without O2, and a heavy dose of the rest of our climbing team being cut off from the internet for a week after the fact.”

Wait for confirmation

Back in Kathmandu, Tenjing Sherpa had informed via Instagram that he had used  a breathing mask above the South Summit at 8,750 meters due to strong winds. What can we learn from it? That expedition operators sometimes overshoot the mark, full of enthusiasm for team’s success (and probably also for marketing reasons). And that it is therefore advisable to wait for confirmation instead of spreading it immediately on the “news market”.

Seven days over 7000 meters

Lech (l.) and Wojciech Flaczynski in the rescue helicopter

Also a summit success of the Polish climbers Lech and Wojziech Flaczynski on Makalu had been reported hastily. In the meantime, Wojziech has clarified this matter. Only he had reached the highest point at 8,485 meters on 24 May, without bottled oxygen, he informed on the Polish website “wspinalie.pl”. His 69-year-old father Lech, who used a breathing mask above Camp 4, had to give up just below the summit. He had suffered from such severe stomach ache that he had been hardly able to move. Therefore, said Wojziech, they had called for emergency help and made an unplanned bivouac at about 8,200 meters.  Due to strong winds and because Lech became weaker and weaker, they had to spent a total of seven days above 7,000 meters. Wojziech reports that it was not until 31 May, a week after his summit success, that they were flown out of Camp 2 by rescue helicopter; his father underwent surgery in a hospital in Kathmandu and is currently recovering. Get well soon, Lech!

Everest (l.) in the first daylight

Actually, it’s quite simple. An Everest summit success without bottled oxygen means that the climber did not use a breathing mask. And that’s exactly why the only two alleged climbs without bottled oxygen reported this spring season from the highest mountain on earth were indeed only summit successes, but nothing more! The German mountaineer and journalist Billi Bierling, head of the chronicle “Himalayan Database”, informed me today that on 24 May Tenjing Sherpa (often also called “Tenji”) had used bottled oxygen from the South Summit at 8,750 meters, 100 meters below the main summit. It had been windy, the 26-year-old had not wanted to risk frostbite, Billi said after the debriefing with Tenji and his British climbing partner Jon Griffith. The chronicler informed me that Lakpa Dendi Sherpa had used a breathing mask even above the South Col, at nearly 8,000 meters.

No correction

On the summit day, it had sounded completely different. Iswari Poudel, head of the Nepalese expedition operator “Himalayan Guides”, had told the newspaper “Himalayan Times” that both Tenjing and Lakpa Dendi Sherpa had not used bottled oxygen during their ascents. Was something misunderstood during radio communication? Hadn’t people talked about whether the climbers had used breathing masks? Or was a false report deliberately launched in order to make headlines? Anyhow, the information that Tenjing and Lakpa Dendi had climbed Everest without breathing mask spread worldwide. And neither the two climbers nor the expedition operator subsequently set it right. I find that not only unsportsmanlike, but also dishonest.

False report also from Makalu

Makalu

Unfortunately, it’s not unusual any more. So it was reported this week that the 69-year-old Polish climber Lech Flaczynski and his son Wojciech had reached the summit of the eight-thousander Makalu. According to Billi Bierling, however, only the son was at the top, but not the father. Later Lech had to be flown out by rescue helicopter because he was suffering from severe stomach pain.

There are more and more cases where primarily expedition operators bend the truth or withhold important details. I find this development worrying – and a pity. How about some honesty?

Update 8 p.m.: I have to correct myself in the sense that Tenji Sherpa posted on Instagram three days ago that he was using bottled oxygen above the South Summit. However, nothing of the same could be heard from the expedition operator.