Climbing a mountain because it's there

Discovery Channel sends a team to Mt Everest and discovers why it's the most difficult summit to reach.

Humility," says Major H P S Ahluwalia, a member of the first Indian expedition to the Mount Everest, "is one thing that mountains teach you the most."

And, it was one of the first things which he experienced after scaling the highest mountain peak in the world.

While Ahluwalia was successful in completing his expedition almost 40 years ago, there have been many who have had to cut short theirs, even when they have been within touching distance of the Everest summit. One such expedition led by a Discovery Channel team last year had to return even though they were only 3,000 feet away from the summit.

Says Tomi Landis, executive producer, Discovery Channel, and one of the people who went on the expedition, "We wanted to document a journey of the human condition "" not only reflected in the glory and accomplishment of reaching the summit, but also in the intense limitations and difficulties that an expedition of this magnitude places on the human body and spirit."

The Death Zone, which is supposed to be the toughest part of the trek, is only 3,000 feet from the summit, but the crew had to abandon the expedition at that point.

There have been quite a few people who have had to come back half way or just after a few hours of trekking. For instance, Graham Hoyland, who has previously summited himself and has been to the Everest eight times, caught a severe chest infection and had to recuperate at the Base Camp before turning back.

Russell Brice was the expedition leader and has 25 years experience on the mountain. Impressively, he has taken 137 people to the summit without any casualties. But he has also had the experience of losing some of his closest friends to the Everest.

Says Russell, "In my lifetime, probably 80 per cent of my mates have died from climbing, and it's a privilege to survive this long." Brice is known to be an uncompromising leader who oversees every aspect of an expedition. But this expedition tested him to new limits.

All climbers on the expedition had previous mountain climbing experience, with various levels of expertise, although none of the climbers could be considered professional mountaineers.

The group included men from all walks of life "" including a double amputee, an ER doctor, a firefighter, a biker and an asthmatic.

Santosh Yadav, who is one of the few Indian women to have scaled the Everest, too recalls one of her most terrifying experience on the Everest when she got frost bite on the descent and was literally being blown away by strong winds. "Somehow I mustered the courage to move and tried everything to keep myself warm and, of course, was fortunate to survive."

Apart from extreme weather conditions and other testing circumstances, there was the problem of people not heeding Russell's orders. Two men from the expedition disobeyed his orders and put the lives of themselves as well as others in grave danger.

Loss of weight is another common problem experienced by climbers. Jake-Drake Brockman lost almost 18 per cent of his body weight.

A few members suffered from extreme cough problems including the soundman of the channel whose ribs broke due to extreme cough. The chronicles of the expedition will be aired on Discovery Channel over the next six weekends.

Talking about the programme, Landis says, "The series will vividly show the very real dangers in the treacherous high-altitude sections, as well as the incredible problems that inexperienced climbers pose for everyone on the mountain."

Landis feels that apart from the physical problems, impaired thinking also leads to quite a few casualties on the mountains. Although, fortunately, there weren't any casualties on this expedition.

"Apart from everything else, the most important thing has to be luck while climbing the Everest," says Ahluwalia.

Recalling his 40-year-old expedition, Ahluwalia feels that you may have prepared well but even a sudden change in the weather could cripple your expedition completely. The temperature drops to close to minus 76 degree on the ascent.

Mark Inglis, who is a double amputee and had summited the Everest earlier, sums it up perfectly:

"The main thing is to always know that nothing in life is too hard, and you never know until you give it a go." Sometimes, even when you give everything, you still come back leaving a task of this magnitude unaccomplished, but yet take back a lot from it.