and lose touch with what is happening to the rest of the expedition. The best position for the leader of a large expedition is at the camp immediately below that of the lead climbers. Here one can keep in touch with what is going on at the front and have a good feel for how the supplies are flowing up the mountain. This was the position adopted by John Hunt at the crucial stages of the 1953 Everest expedition and it still seems a sound one on more technical climbs. Although we had been successful on Annapurna and Everest, we paid a terrible price for that success. On all four of my sieges on 8,000-metre peaks, and then again on Everest in 1982, members of the team lost their lives. It’s a frightening statistic. Were we reckless or just unlucky? I have spent much time agonising over this question for these were some of my closest friends and I have had to witness the cruelty of bereavement to their wives, girlfriends, children and parents. I don’t think it is a coincidence that all these accidents occurred on mountains of over 8,000 metres, even though some of them happened on the lower slopes. There is something fundamentally more serious about the highest peaks. Their sheer size and scale mean that climbers have to pass danger points more frequently, the insidious effects of the lack of oxygen are infinitely more acute, and storms and avalanches are more ferocious. In such hazardous terrain there is a temptation to call the expedition off once the summit has been attained, so that the team can return successful and without any loss of life, but this would be a betrayal of the other members who worked so hard to put that first summit pair on top. Despite the prolonging of risk, they also deserve the chance of achieving their ambition.
Sherpas carrying crucial loads to Camp 5 on the south-west face of Everest prior to the summit bid in September 1975. © Ronnie Richards.
HIMALAYAN BIG WALLS
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