Testimonials

WO1 Dave Bunting Army Physica from United Kingdom writes:

THE EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME – EVEREST WEST RIDGE 2006

In May 2003 I began the organisation of an Army expedition to climb Mount Everest via the formidable West Ridge – a route unclimbed by any British team and only completed by 19 individuals during its daunting history. This route would fit exactly what I and co-creator John Doyle had in mind with hard technical climbing, isolation from other teams and it would demand a huge team effort to achieve it. So after 3 years of intense preparation and organisation our carefully selected 21 strong team arrived at Base Camp in March 2006 and it was here that we would operate from for the next 8 – 10 weeks. The logistical movement of the equipment and team, which now included Sherpa's and a film crew, was complex with 13 tonnes sophisticated electronics, food and climbing gear it took 210 yak loads to move everything finally into place.

The first few weeks on the mountain itself were a period of exploration and truly hard graft rotating the lead and pushing forward through Camp One and on up the first major obstacle of the 1300m steep French Spur. This period saw setbacks with extreme weather but ultimately the team leapt forward at every opportunity making up for the loss even when the weather was marginal. After around 6 weeks the Spur was fixed with Camp Two at its centre and Camp Three towards its end at 7300m we were set to step foot onto the West Ridge itself. The teams were all going strong and very quickly completed the easier angled but exposed West Ridge section and Camp Four was in place at 7600m and our launch pad for committing to the North Face.

At this point of the expedition the commitment level heightened and following re-jigging of each small team we used the strength of the members to push across the face and set up our small and extremely isolated Camp 5. In a large rock at 8000m this was a lonely place, with climbers operating on supplementary oxygen and absolutely no margin for error. At this stage our supporting teams performed outstandingly leaving a safe passage to Camp 5 for our first of 2 summit teams.

In late May and after 7 weeks of some of the most exhausting and difficult climbing that first summit team left Camp 5 late at night after a short period of taking on fluids and within minutes it became obvious that it was going to be really tough going – the snow was ranging from below the knee to thigh deep and when the snow was tested for stability it was clear that there was a huge risk. After 2 ˝ hours of the most horrendous of physical effort, sinking and stumbling up to 8100m and now at the bottom of the final obstacle – the Hornbein Couloir, they stopped to fully assess the danger. In confirmation of what they already feared they found the mountaineers worst nightmare – windslab avalanche risk. With much sadness the incredibly difficult decision was made for the small team to descend all the way to back Camp 4.

Once this decision was made the only choice was to withdraw all teams from the big hill back to Base Camp to allow a period of consolidation and to discuss further plans. When the discussions began and we observed the film footage taken of the conditions it began to become apparent that giving it another go right now was unfeasibly dangerous and that due to the altitude of the problem the chances of the snow pack significantly changing was unrealistic. I, along with my leadership group now lay in the terrible position of weighing up all of our options but quickly realised the realities that we were not going to make it. Sending anyone back up into those conditions would have been inexcusable knowing what I now knew and I was completely unwilling to do that and things were not going to improve in the short time remaining. With huge regret and after deep debate the decision to abort the attempt was made and the moment I told the team will stick with me for ever. The importance of everyone’s safety must be remembered however and our team was still fully intact, in control and without any serious injury.

I am incredibly proud of my team that achieved so much during this long 3 ˝ year project and believe we all gained so much from the experience. This experience, due to the sophisticated equipment we took along with us was able to be shared with the world via our fabulous website, reality TV adverts on primetime TV and the many media items which came from this exciting period. The website received in excess of 1 million hits, 55% of the British public knew about the expedition, the Army held one of its most successful ever recruiting campaigns and the team received many inspiring messages from the public that followed, both young and old.

None of this would be possible without our supporters and sponsors who provided valuable backing and state of the art technology that helped our success. Lind Electronics played a key part in this vital chain and their reliable and hardwearing equipment allowed every success in the passage of information to our many sources from this extremely remote and difficult location. Without them the Everest West Ridge 2006 expedition would not have reached so many people and I, along with the team owe them a great debt of gratitude.