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Observing Summit Efforts
Kathmandu - Monday, April 24, 2000

DISPATCHES

Berg

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Mountain Zone, I'm calling you from the Yak & Yeti. This is the morning of the 24th of April. This is a big day; in just a little while, Jiban Ghimere and myself will be going out to the airport to collect most of this next Everest group, Everest Base Camp Trek number two. And I'll remind you that there were some comments that were made by the last group as this — I don't know what these folks will think as they're riding in from the airport today, but remember that when we returned from the trek, from the domestic airport which is just adjacent to the international airport, or terminal out at the airport here, the comment — the astounded comment from a couple of people as we drove back through the streets of Kathmandu to the Yak & Yeti that day — was 'I didn't remember it was so modern here.'

Something tells me the reaction initially from this group today might be a little different as they see Kathmandu, probably, most of them, for the first time. Okay, I sent an image today, I hope it got to you, of a great little reunion meeting I had just recently at the Hotel Tibet with Kaji Sherpa. And I thought that was of interest this year because, you know, Kaji does have the record the time to ascend from Base Camp to the summit of Everest without oxygen. He successfully did this in 1998 and his time was 20 hours and 24 minutes. This broke a record that was set by the Frenchman Marc Batard in 1998. It was a 10-year record when Marc, after several very concerted and well-conceived and executed attempts, finally managed to do that ascent from Base Camp, leaving at 4pm in the afternoon as Kaji did and climbing throughout the night in something like 22-and-a-half hours.

I think this is of interest because you probably all know Babu Chirri this year, probably the best, athletic — or at least gifted at altitude — Sherpa climber of our current time here, is going to try to do that speed ascent himself.

One comment I have is Babu Chirri has billed his ascent as 16 hours to the summit. Kaji in fact, in all his marketing and promotional stuff around Kathmandu, he was the 18-hour man; he was going to try to do it in 18 hours.

That's all well and good for letting people know what your intention is, perhaps, grabbing the public's attention, but I'll remind you that when Batard, and later Kaji, did their efforts, they were very strong, gifted and dedicated climbers who achieved an athletic event on repeated tries in both cases. Batard had tried it a few times. Kaji's first attempt was in '94, I believe, and he finally did it in '98.

If this record will be broken, Babu Chirri is probably the guy to do it. I don't think he's going to do it in 16 hours but what he does this year is going to be interesting to watch. I've mentioned that the effort of Sherpa climbers, Nepalese climbers, is one of the interesting things to me this year. Also, we're going to be watching this women's team, with great interest. I only know one of these Sherpani women and that's Nigma Yangzi, who I've known since 1989 — great lady. We wish all of these people success.

I've watched Nigma go — she was a cook for us in 1989 — and I watched her be in a very independent and strong and competent fashion that really kind of belies the Sherpa-cultural background of most women, build her own business and pursue her own dreams. A few years ago, she got an opportunity to accompany Bill Roos in an apprentice role on a guided trip of Parcharmo Peak, learn mountaineering skills, Western guiding techniques, and now this year she's going to attempt to climb Everest with some other Sherpa women.

I saw in a brochure that I picked up around town here that part of what Nigma is trying to do, she says, is she wants women to understand the significant role women can play in society, and helping in the development of society. This is not the kind of thing you heard Sherpa women saying or even thinking about a few years ago; so it's pretty cool to watch this. And of course, all of these efforts are going to be interesting to see as they develop.

— Wally Berg, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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