Following is an article penned by Guy Cotter, the Director of Adventure Consultants, for the book 'Everest Reflections from the Top'.
It was when I was at the bottom of the Hillary step that I understood I was actually going to summit this mountain. Prior to this it had just seemed like some long and difficult journey with an illusive objective as the motivation for being there. But finally I was close and I felt a sense of elation that the objective I had been striving for months over was about to be realised. I had always considered that Everest would probably be too difficult for me or too high and that it was the abode of true climbing heroes and yet here I was, almost on top!
There is only one day which matters on Everest and that's summit day. Well that was my simplified approach to climbing the hill and I was truly amped to be there. The previous day I had made my way from Camp 2 to South Col, not even sure whether I would make it that far. I had suffered a stomach bug at Camp 2, which saw me vomiting and not eating for three days. I decided to see how far I could get above C2 on the chance that I might improve. At Camp 3 I found my feet so cold that I needed a rewarm. My friend Ned Gillette did the honourable thing and let me rewarm them on his stomach. They recovered and I found myself getting stronger the higher I got. I traversed from the South Summit to the Hillary Step cutting steps as I went.
I was guiding on the expedition alongside Rob Hall and Gary Ball, as we made the first Adventure Consultants guided trip to the top in 1992. Many of the team members on that trip, and the others which followed, became very close friends and the memories are indelibly etched as some of my most savoured memories. I returned in '93 but turned back from the front of the group to take down an ailing client and let Rob Hall summit with his wife Jan. In '95 I returned, this time with Ed Viesturs and Rob Hall as my guiding compatriots. We turned around when I was almost at the Hillary Step (Lobsang Jangbu Sherpa went on to the top) as it was getting late in the day. Then the French female climber, Chantal Mauduit, who was attempting Everest without oxygen, collapsed on the South Summit and I had to drag her semi-conscious body down the ridge to the top of the balcony. The Sherpas took her from here while I helped another climber down. I arrived after dark at the Col and spent the night reviving Chantal who was stricken with Pulmonary Edema and Cerebral Edema. She survived that time but tragically died in her tent on Dhaulagiri in '98.
I returned again in 1996 to Pumori and spoke to my friends Rob Hall and Andy Harris on the summit of Everest on May 10. I then became embroiled in the rescue attempt and walked into a basecamp devastated by the events unfolding, and the eventual loss of so many dear friends. At one stage we had 20 people unaccounted for and it was looking like carnage. Out of the tragedy there was a groundswell of human decency as everybody pitched in to assist in the rescue. It almost seemed that we weren't just saving people, but that we were rescuing mountaineering.
I returned to the summit again in '97. This time we had the 'dream team' as Tashi Tenzing so aptly named it. Ed Viesturs, Dave Carter, Veikka Gustafsson (without oxygen) Tashi and myself had an excellent summit day. We cut down the body of Bruce Herrod from the bottom of the Hillary Step on the way up. Anatoli Boukreev and others had stepped over him. We didn't want to leave him that way.
I was back again in 2000 and 2002, but this time in support for the expeditions I was taking to the mountain whilst Dave Hiddleston and Bill Crouse did the actual guiding on the hill. It's not as satisfying as being up there on the hill but Everest and I have had a long relationship and I'm saving myself for other objectives.
I haven't mentioned the Sherpas up until now. This was intentional, to stop me raving too much about what a huge contribution they have made and keep on making in Himalayan climbing. I have a deep felt feeling of open love and appreciation for many of those I have worked with, an appreciation that is built on the deepest respect for them as individuals and climbers. I think the biggest contribution they make to an expedition is as team members and friends. I will always respect them and my Everest memories are not of me standing on the summit basking in glory, but snapshots of the fine times and shared experiences where life is not just being lived, it is coming at you with the full spectrum of emotion both physically and mentally. That's living!
Guy Cotter, 2002.
