STREAMING VIDEO Everest Summit May 22, 2000
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My brother took me rock climbing in the Shawangunk Mountains one time. It is close to where he lives and where I once tried to grow up. I'd been to the Himalayas a few times by then and although I hadn't stood on top of anything over there, I was starting to believe I had some potential for "success" in high, lonesome places. But I wasn't so stupid as to believe those murky talents carried over to low and well-populated venues.

Reminding me of this was the heinous sandbag of a rock pitch that my bro conned me into leading. I flailed and I fretted and I couldn't get pro in and my legs were twitching and wobbling while my voice quavered with pleas of "Watch me, Hal...you got me?" But my brother was troubled not by this display of cowardice and ineptitude. He was busy telling every passerby (of which there were many) that I had been to 28,000 feet on Mount Everest. "Without oxygen!" he'd announce as they stopped to watch me crater.

"In 1994 I was the first person of the year to make it up and down alive on the Tibetan side. Last year, Conrad Anker and I were the second team to make it..."

Most of these fine New York folks were giving me the benefit of the doubt. At least, they weren't giving me the Bronx cheer, and they weren't pitching old vegetables at me...perhaps they were thinking my toes and fingers had been badly damaged in my epic journeys...how else to explain the way I flailed and generally stunk up the Gunks on a well traveled 5.6?

I am careful now though to avoid such public displays of dysfunction. Having recently gotten on top of Everest for my third time, I'm not eager to bring dishonor upon that great mountain by failing at simple things in public view. I don't really want more people than necessary shaking their heads, nodding in my direction and smirking as they call Everest a slag heap. So when I get my pencil-like arms clicking away on some rock problem (I'm down to 5.5...5.5b on a good day...trad though, not sport...) you can bet I won't be wearing any old expedition hat, shirt, or patch.

Anonymity will work just fine in plenty of places for me, including climbing stores. I'd just as soon putter around checking out the latest combo pliers/stove/watch/GPS system without getting into some big ethics discussions with the clerks. Everest summits don't confer moral authority for such yammering, but they sure can make one a yammering target.

	Everest

There are downsides to all of the Everest summit glory that others would believe is mine. People make assumptions they shouldn't. When I tripped over my big feet walking across some complicated restaurant floor, the laughter was never easy to take, but now when it is big guffaws with "Everest" thrown in... oh the shame. When people seek me out assuming that I must certainly have some philosophical answers to their big heavy questions...and they look deep into my eyes and see...dead brain cells floating about. When folks assume that I've got some great plan to it all and that I must have reason and rhyme to all my climbs and I let them all down by shrugging and saying "My boss sent me there."

Specific questions about the weird game I play are no problem. For instance, people ask me now to compare Everest North and South. I can easily respond because just a short time ago that particular curiosity was motivating the heck out of me. I wanted to see the same mountain from two countries and from two opposing ridges. As it turns out, the inside of a cloud looks very similar no matter which way the old compass is pointing and no matter whether one is standing in Tibet or Nepal. Despite the whiteouts, I got to know the South Side summit terrain to my satisfaction.

I liked the climb from the South Col and was surprised at how business-like it is. Not a lot of level ground to that summit day. Up three thousand feet over what seems like a short distance. Steep and continuous, reminding me of climbs in the Alps...but beginning at 26,000 feet which is like no Alp I'm aware of. Elegant and involving when it comes to the stretch from South Summit to Hillary Step.

My appreciation for Hillary and Tenzing (the first men to summit Everest) and what they accomplished in 1953 has grown markedly. To have climbed it all in a day with no more than the rope that joined them to each other and a hunch that it was possible is an impressive feat. Likewise, in any given season, for those who get up early and either don't have fixed rope to follow or are placing it as they climb, it is dicey and difficult work. Or take any day in May when it has snowed a bunch and you are the one charged with breaking trail to the top... my regards.

Me? I had all the advantages this time; rope fixed well and copiously, and a strong Sherpa team ahead and kicking a path through the snow as well as carrying heavy oxygen bottles to useful places. Additionally, I was there with a well-supplied, well-equipped and well-guided team looking after themselves.

"I found the plunge from the South Summit far more straightforward than the silly little traversing rock ledges and steps of the Northeast Ridge that have trapped me and others high in Tibet over the years..."

And with all of the advantages, I guess I felt I could push things a bit when it came to "summit or not summit" time. I could go a little later into the day than is now traditionally acceptable on the South Side. I could go alone and in newly falling snow and swirling cloud. In terms of comparisons, it is far easier to get down the Southeast Ridge than to negotiate a descent of the Northeast Ridge.

Chalk some of that perception up to my personal advantages in descending the Southeast Ridge. Steep snow and ice has got to be considered my specialty after 15 years guiding on Rainier and Denali. So, naturally I found the plunge from the South Summit far more straightforward than the silly little traversing rock ledges and steps of the Northeast Ridge that have trapped me and others high in Tibet over the years.

For me, this summit was much more easily attained than in '94 and '99 but some of that was by design. In those years up North, the teams I was on were the ones "pushing" the route. In 1994 I was the first person of the year to make it up and down alive on the Tibetan side. Last year, Conrad Anker and I were the second team to make it after the first suffered death and injury. This year, the team I was on had no good reason to be so far out in the lead. We were solidly back in the pack of summit-bound climbers. The route was in and the ropes had been tested. Furthermore, in my experiences from the North Side, team members were much more actively engaged in building the pyramid of rope and camps and supplies that got us up. The South Side tradition has become one where the Sherpas do it all....