Dave Hahn

Early on, there was certainly concern about how all these teams were going to be able to work together. My fear was that there would be some troubles if too many people were heading for the top on the same days. That may still be a problem, but not for us, as I think we are safely well behind the pack in acclimatization and the need to get home.

The first "multi-team" problem to address was the rope issue. Some of us were worried because we'd gotten in far enough behind the first team that they'd already made substantial progress fixing rope. We'd normally been that first rope fixing team on other trips, and although that entails more work, there is some benefit. You put the route where you feel good about it, you tie the knots you like on anchors you feel comfortable with and importantly, you then dictate who may use these lines and for what compensation.

It certainly isn't a matter of looking to make money or gaining some unfair advantage over those who come behind. It is just that if you are not the one dictating terms, then you are the one being dictated to, and that takes a little getting used to. You are asking for a privilege, in effect. We found ourselves in that position a few weeks ago, as did Russell Brice (our friend and fellow guide). Russell had been delayed by the same road troubles and was consequently not "in the driver seat" for the early roping.

The word we had was that the Chinese/Slovakian team had fixed rope to the North Col by the time we'd reached base camp. When the Chinese leaders of that team came to meet with us at base camp one afternoon, we welcomed the chance to clarify the situation and contribute accordingly.

One of the men at the meeting was a high official of the CMA (Chinese Mountaineering Assoc.) and the meeting was conducted by a TMA (Tibetan Mountaineering Assoc.) man, so it definitely seemed like it had the ring of authority. They'd held a meeting the day before with several other teams on the same subject, but no conclusions were reached.

Being guides and repeat expeditioners has some advantages. We knew some suitable and fair solutions to the rope problem. Russell spoke right up with the idea that teams and individuals could contribute with material (rope and anchors), labor (carrying or placing those materials), and finally with money if nothing else. We even had some ideas for how much money, and how it would be held and disbursed. This was just what the Chinese leaders were interested in. They didn't really want to set a price that was deemed unfair and unworkable; they wanted the teams coming in to set a fair plan in motion. We came away from the meeting sure that we had just such a plan. In our particular case, I'd just sent a fair bit of rope and anchor material out on Yak backs to ABC and so meant to direct my team to donate it there to the cause represented by the Chinese/Slovakians. So much for good intentions.

First off, I couldn't talk so well then to my fledgling ABC. Guess it would have helped had I gotten the solar panels they needed for the radio setup in the first load of yaks. But it gets tough sorting loads and I didn't want to leave out something equally important like the Twinkies or something. Those guys in the first wave were doing alright without my static. Bob Sloezen knew I wanted him to make the rope donation that would enable us to use the existing rope to the North Col. That is why he was perplexed when greeting the Chinese/Slovakians at ABC and making such a fine offer, they pretty much told him to go pound salt. They didn't want anything from him, and no, he could not use the existing ropes.

Slowman didn't spend much time being perplexed. He went out the next morning with Richard Alpert started laying rope alongside the existing rope. That got the Slovakian attention (since they were the ones expressing opinions) they were impressed. Apparently they'd expected Slowman to ignore them, use the rope they'd put in and just further a non-cooperative climate that would brew until 16 or 17 climbing teams were involved in ice-axe assaults, tent robberies, and general mayhem that would make the editors of Outside magazine salivate. The Everest Circus, of course. Nope, sorry.

Bob and Richard, with our Sherpa team, roped the heck out of the North Col. They put the line in parallel to the already in-place rope, and in such a way that it complimented it. There could now be an "up-rope" and a "down-rope," and with the greatly increasing numbers of climbers, it was apparent to all that this was just what was needed. Problem solved, or so it seemed.

I got to ABC and wheezed up to the col a few times, admiring the "Slowpert expressway" while Richard and Bob went down to BC for rest. Coming down to ABC one afternoon, I was surprised to host a quick meeting of a few teams that had just gotten in to ABC and had just been rebuffed completely by the Chinese/Slovakians. The South Africans (I mistakenly named them as a commercial/guided climb in an earlier dispatch), and a few Japanese teams had been told flat out that they could not use "the ropes" by the Slovakians and Chinese at ABC. Even in my dehydrated, post Col-carry daze, I could start to sense that Slowman's work was going to pay off big for us. "By all means, use the American ropes." Which got us, and me, a bunch of big smiles and handshakes.

Russell was there, and I figure then he knew how to break up this "non-cooperative" stuff for good. He started to organize a big, all-inclusive meeting for the next day at ABC. He knew that, although the Chinese/Slovakians had gotten a jump on everyone else and were thus enjoying some petty power at the moment, they were stalling out. Their team was without Sherpa support and the big teams now amassing at ABC had many experienced and strong Sherpas. If the first teams in did not want to cooperate, they would actually be passed and left out of the significant roping that would be done higher up.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

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