Dave Hahn

Heck of a nice morning at ABC. Looked great up on top too: no winds, blue sky and sunshine. I thought it was odd at first that the usual Sherpa army was not heading for the Col at flank speed. That was the pattern that had developed in the last week. Sherpas out from a bunch of trips, early with big packs and fast. Down by mid-morning when the international slow walkers and rough breathers would be jugging slowly up the big white wall to 23,000'.

But this day had just a few obvious "non-Sherpas" starting out. It seemed a rest day by popular decree. Additionally, I was told it was a hum-dinger of an auspicious date on the Tibetan calender. Puja day at ABC. A Puja is the ceremony our Buddhist climbers (Sherpas) need seeking favor from the gods before a dangerous undertaking.

Sherpas were climbing some big rock walls to one side of camp, stringing long prayer flag lines between the crags. The line is chock full of prayer flags. When the wind blows, the flags wave, the Gods get the message... simple. Before I knew what was going on, I was pressed into a place of honor at the Japanese Puja ceremony going on in our neighbor's camp. A few minutes to contemplate life while some prayers got chanted, a chance to get in a mid-morning shot or two of liquor at 21,000' and the opportunity to throw tsampa (a type of flour) in the faces of my new found friends. Pujas are good fun — don't climb high without them. I also hoped that this one got me in the right spirit of friendliness for the "big meeting."

The big meeting was going to be down in the South African camp, but it didn't fit. Outside we went. It was supposed to be a meeting of leaders, but darn near everyone interested was there surrounded finally by about 40 Sherpas who were enjoying the heck out of the day off. I was trying to look leaderly... wiping my face often to get rid of left-over Puja tsampa which could take away my statesman-like qualities. I knew that my one big role might be to break an impasse by grandly inviting whoever to use "our" ropes, thereby compelling the stubborn guys to see the light and join the group effort.

Russell had been doing the leg-work for this meeting, getting lists of how many climbers, how many Sherpas, how much rope etc. He started the ball rolling, speaking quietly as he detailed how we'd come to the present situation and meeting. The obvious spotlight was going to come to focus on the Slovakians and the Chinese, as in "where do you guys want to go from here... or shall we ignore you." They didn't want that, it was clear, and the speeches began.

The Slovakian leader began a gruff talk about the teams that had been there and been doing the hard work. I was tickled that somehow, us Americans had slipped into the "good guy" category. Now an assortment of Sonys were making their way through the crowd to whoever had some public words, or even a good throat clearing. Lenses were coming in from everywhere, capturing stray tsampa and a lot of burned and battered faces. The elbows were starting to flail a bit as good shots materialized.

I thought desperately for something important-sounding to say... no soap. The Chinese leader then waded in with a heck-of-a-speech. Can't really tell you just what he said, but I marveled at how speech-like it sounded. The key, I saw clearly was to have your own interpreter, as this man did. And if I ever give a speech, I'll be sure to stop every 15 seconds so some guy can put it into some other language.

He did say that it was kind of crowded, some teams, like the Americans, had done good work, etc, culminating in a translated "we all want to get to the top." Lots of thoughtful and agreeing head bobs. It was then left to Russell to organize a donation of labor and material for a project of fixing rope to 8300 meters in the following days. Simple. No reason for all not to agree and work together as everyone was getting a big bargain. No need to stop prematurely, a few words were thrown in about how stealing from other people's camps wasn't going to fly. And it turned out to be a fine time for discussing proper waste disposal at ABC.

A few good hand-shakes and some milling about, and we'd had a fine international 21,000' assembly. World relations... easy stuff. Next day, climbing... hard stuff.

— Dave Hahn, International Mountain Guides' Expedition Leader

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