Dave Hahn

The view from our camp at the Col is a little too grand for my way of thinking. We missed out on the spots with the serac barrier to the west, and we seem to have too good a view down toward ABC out east. In other words, we are out on a cornice where the scenery is amazing and the penalty for sleepwalking is severe.

We've tried to make up for our poor position, wind-wise, by bringing our past experience to bear. We brought lots of equipment just for lashing our Camp IV to the North Col.

"A passing Sherpa started laughing when he saw the thing and began to give us the John Travolta disco moves..."

We've each endured a few nights at the Col now. They aren't easy. I usually put on my down suit for time at Camp IV and above, and just sleep in it with a light sleeping bag thrown over. It is a claustrophobic existence, jammed into a tent with another person also in six inches of clothing. You can make it really fun by hanging a stove between you. Then you will have something to spill when you move around, and it is always exciting adding another layer of pretty Gore-Tex to the hot stove casing when you forget the thing is hanging there. Sometimes, in your endless quest to turn snow to water, you find yourself staring at the stove, angry that it is using your precious oxygen.

This year, we figured we'd try a new game. We got this really cool "eight-foot dome" tent from Mountain Hardwear. It is more poles than tent, and it has no floor. We built it at Camp IV, anchored it down with a hundred feet of rope and cut benches inside it. It is quite Colorful and has windows and logos all over. A passing Sherpa started laughing when he saw the thing and began to give us the John Travolta disco moves. But we aren't putting a mirror ball in it, just a few stoves. It has been great so far: get away from your sleeping bag into a place where the sun magnifies nicely, sit up like a human and cook and eat with plenty of ventilation. We call it the pleasure-dome, and life at the Col is looking up.

Speaking of looking up, gazing at Mount Everest's North Face from the Col is about as close as you'll get to hovering there in a helicopter. The amazing scale and steepness proclaim that, without a doubt, you've arrived. There are many spectacular mountainsides in the world, and somebody trying to rank them for difficulty, size and worthiness is always due a good chuckle. It sure is hard though, while trying to take in Everest's North Face from the Col, to entertain thoughts of any other mountains. It is a real attention grabber being face to face with the North Ridge, the Great Couloir, the steps of the Northeast Ridge, the unreal drop of the lower face to the Central Rongbuk. All of it incredibly close at hand and mind numbingly inaccessible at most times.

We have a great view of climbers on the North Ridge from our camp. When they return to the Col, we have a disturbingly good view of them. It is a really tough thing for a climber to come down the several thousand feet of moderately angled North Ridge snow slopes, hit the low point of the Col and then walk steadily up the first few uphill steps to where the tents are. Even the very best and strongest climbers have to rest on those uphill steps. Those uphill steps are just about twelve feet from our pleasure-dome and man it is exhausting to watch people not able to take the next step.

Having felt that little uphill a few too many times myself, I still don't think I can explain just why those steps are so hard, something about the body that has recently been to 25,000' or above and switching gears from downhill to uphill... something painful and grueling... think we'll build a snow wall high enough so that we cut off just a little of the view at the Col.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

DISPATCHES

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