Near Death on the Lhotse Face – Everest 2018

I dedicate this post to क्षीरीङदोर्जी शेर्पा (Chhering Dorje Sherpa).

On May 20, John QUILLEN, Ang Dawa SHERPA, Sange SHERPA, and I had a late start from Camp 2 (6,400 meters) towards Camp 3 (7,000 meters). We were at least an hour behind the rest of our permit members (6 foreign climbers and 2 Sherpa).

C2 is located right near the Western Shoulder of Everest in the Western Cwm. C3 is located somewhat precariously up on the face of Lhotse.

From where our C2 was located, it takes a good hour to reach the other end of C2 with a weighted pack. From there, it takes another good hour to get to the base of the Lhotse face, or the bergschrund.

About a 5m walk before the bergschrund is a resting area where most people who haven’t already, put on their crampons as they ascend (6,700 meters). Unfortunately, due to the hot sun that drained us, that day it took us 4 hours to get to the resting area.

As the four of us were still approaching this flat resting area, an oxygen cylinder came tumbling down the face from the upper portion of the hockey stick path on the Lhotse face. The bottle landed only a few meters above the resting area.

When looking directly at the face, the hockey stick shaft is vertical and the stick’s rather long toe sharply falls to the right.

The four of us, along with about another half a dozen other Sherpa from other permits were resting at the crampon point before heading up the face.

Other climbers were already up on the face past the heel’s bend of the hockey stick shaped ascent path.

Shortly after, another oxygen cylinder came down the hockey stick but this time was tumbling down towards the toe end. We all stood there surprised, wondering if it had hit someone.

The Sherpa are paid for carries up the mountain. That means each bottle has a certain value to the Sherpa, and to the person who is intended to use the oxygen (technically, it’s di-oxygen). Shortly after the second bottle tumbled down, we later talked to a Sherpa at the resting/crampon area who disclosed the oxygen cylinder was poorly strapped to his pack and that he was able to recover it. Lucky nobody was hit!

Debris often falls down the Lhotse face from either amateurs ascending above or often from other Sherpa who are quickly trying to descend by arm wrapping and running down the face.

A few Sherpa climbers passed us while we were resting at around 6,700 meters, just before the bergschrund.

Not much longer thereafter, I started to capture a video of not only us but the view of the Western Cwm, the nearby visible peaks, those around us, and the Lhotse face with climbers ahead that look like ants!

During the video, speculators say someone fell. Then it changed to “a rock fell” and hit someone. Speculators around us said that the injured parties included 2 people. Then we heard that the first was female and dead on impact.

One man came to the resting area from above and sat down. John QUILLEN clearly noted he was hit. His down suit was torn open on one of his legs. He confirmed it wasn’t 2, but 3 people and the first impact was a man who was still alive!

John tried to talk to him to figure out if he was okay. The man seemed to be fine and soon went down towards C2.

We were very tired from our ascent from C2 (primarily due to the heat) but thought if it were me alive on the rope, I would hope someone would save me. It felt so inhumane how people were continuing to ascend/descend near this person who is suffering. No summit is worth ignoring an injured party who may be saved.

I decided to abruptly end my video, drop my pack, and run to this person. I was quickly out of breath, but over half way there. Sange slowly walked by me and caught up to the injured individual. I could see a lot of blood on this section of the Lhotse face and the man bent over bleeding even more!

Sange asked that I wait about 15’ down from the impact zone which left me just before the toe of the hockey stick. Ang Dawa has left his pack at the resting area and came up too. He waited about another 15’ down from me.

Sange said he asked the man his name, if he was okay, and what happened. The man was in so much shock he counter asked Sange what happened!

Sange told him he was going to take him down. The man begged Sange to take his pack. His pack contained 2 full oxygen cylinders – which if lost would cost the Sherpa a significant sum of money.

Sange took on his heavy load and walked the man towards me. I took his left arm over my right-to-left shoulder and managed to clip/unclip his carabiner as we descended to the resting area. There was so much blood. The man was holding his head and crying.

I unclipped him one last time as we got off the rope, and now Ang Dawa was helping the man walk by supporting his right side. The two of us continued to support him until we sat him down on the glacier in the resting area (6,700 meters).

Sange and Ang Dawa continued to try and figure out his name, the company or team he was working for, or any other information they could harvest. Other Sherpa also tried to get information out of him. He was talking but it didn’t make any sense.

I snagged the radio from the man’s pack and called multiple times in different languages sighting an emergency on the set frequency. There was no response. Sange also tried in Nepali to no avail.

Meanwhile, John helped open his pack to look for anything that may help identify him. The man asked for water so I immediately gave him my only water bottle which was attached to my harness. His bloodied nose and mouth covered the rim of the bottle and he consumed the water.

John found a pair of socks, gloves, and two full oxygen cylinders in his pack. John took his socks and placed them between the man’s head and hands to help suppress the bleeding. Before doing so, I handled his head and looked at the injury. It was the first time I had seen white matter under the scalp.

I asked Sange if I could use our radio to connect with our Sardar (Kaji) to inform him to connect with Lakpa Norbu SHERPA at the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA) and have him send a helicopter to retrieve this unidentifiable man for evacuation. Kaji was all over it.

With the help of other people nearby, the man was identified as क्षीरीङदोर्जी शेर्पा (Chhering Dorje SHERPA). Sange then said to me that his brother was recently killed on K2.

The four of us agreed that his life was far more important than any summit and that we will dedicate our time to help him live. The mountain is not a place to die – one should be with family.

Sange and I supported Chhering Dorje down to the middle of the Western Cwm. where a helicopter landing zone could be had, while his pack was carried by Ang Dawa. It was a long walk down during which Chhering Dorje passed out 3 times! Within the 15m of our careful descent, we could hear the thundering of rotary blades up the mountain.

While we waited for the helicopter to arrive, Sange and I sat Chhering Dorje down. He wanted to lie down and we did all we could to keep him from doing so. Others waiting in the area for climbers coming from the summit helped create a landing zone at around 6,200 meters.

When the helicopter was inbound, you could see that Lakpa of the HRA was on board. The helicopter was unable to fully touchdown, so as it hovered just above the glacier ice, Sange and I placed Chhering Dorje into the back of the heli and Ang Dawa pushed in his pack. I shut the rear door of the heli while waving and giving a thumbs-up to Lakpa Norbu in the front passenger seat as he closed his door.

We moved away from the aircraft, ducked down, and turned our bodies as the rotors spun and the craft angled down the glacier using ground effects to slip down the Khumbu.

Ang Dawa started to walk back up swiftly on his own towards the crampon point. Sange and I talked to some of the people down there and slowly retraced our footsteps.

Walking back, Sange and I shared our emotions and both cried. Had we not been so lazy and slow that morning, this man’s fate could have been one of ours!

Sange expressed how he is so sad that he has to regularly leave his wife and children (including a young 4yr old) to climb such dangerous mountains. His family never knows if he will come home alive. But he said क्या करें? (what to do?) He doesn’t have any other skills and didn’t go to school.

Neither of us wanted to end up like this man or worse, alone dying on the mountain as others walked on by.

After all the emotional tears, hugs, and silence as we thought of our families while slowly arriving back to the crampon point, we sat next to our packs on the glacier. I washed the blood off my Thermarest sleeping pad and other exposed gear and decided to leave behind the blood covered water bottle (which someone quickly picked up).

We shared a quarter liter of of Coca-Cola and discussed what just happened with many others that were as/descending through there.

After a few smiles to break up the sadness, we decided to test our luck up the Lhotse face. After all, John and Ang Dawa were already ascending the Lhotse face. We relieved our fears by saying our good karma in saving Chhering Dorje would protect us from any falling debris from above.

Because of our involvement in the rescue, we ended up arriving very late to C3 (9:30 PM), which delayed John’s arrival to C4 (8,000 meters at around 7:00 PM), and subsequently delaying our summit attempt by one full night.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was karma, but we all summited the day later in fabulous weather with next to nobody on the summit but our permit members.

Two days after our successful summits, the four of us were greeted by Chhering Dorje’s other brother (sitting next to another Sherpa who was present during the rescue), adjacent the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Centre (SPCC) tent at the crampon point of the of Khumbu Icefall (minutes from EBC).

Another Sherpa identified us as the ones who helped Chhering Dorje. Chhering’s brother was very thankful for our help. John and I were humbled and we all shared our best for Chhering Dorje’s recovery. We shared some tears with Chhering’s brother and he shared some warm tea and cold Coca-Cola.

Chhering Dorje SHERPA was recovering at a hospital in Kathmandu and has since been released.

A corroborating account by John QUILLEN: “Rocking” From Everest Summit (http://southernhighlanders.com/new/2018/05/27/rocking-from-everest-summit/)

Watch the video footage described in this story (7m21s): https://youtu.be/ZGZ7Z5B8WbY

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