Why Climb?

By Greg Child

Lhasa at last. Flight delays out of Kathmandu have held up the 2007 Himalayan Experience (Himex) Everest climbing team, but now they’re in the fabled city of Lhasa, acclimatizing to the high Tibetan Plateau before heading by bus to base camp.

Expedition leader Russell Brice, along with his Sherpa staff, are driving a fleet of trucks overland from Nepal to establish base camp for our team of 13 climbers, four lead guides and 13 Discovery Channel TV crew members. It will take an operation numbering about 100 people for this team to climb Everest.

My role this year is as a reporter for Discovery.com. Back in 1995, I made a successful ascent of Everest’s North Ridge as a member of another Russell Brice expedition. I’ve still got that summit moment logged in my mind, and I can feel the emotions and trepidations of the members of the 2007 team as they zero in on the mountain. I won’t climb to the summit this time, but I will log the progress of the expedition as it evolves.

The team is a diverse group from seven countries — America, Britain, Denmark, Japan, Lithuania, Switzerland, Norway and China. Some are seasoned mountaineers; others are newcomers to mountain climbing; some have tried Everest in the past — one has even summited before. Whatever their experience, they’re driven people, drawn to Everest for very personal reasons. It will take time before they know each other — and for me to know them.

Take Tim Medvetz — or "Big Tim" as the 240-pound, Harley-riding Los Angelino is known. Last night over a dinner of yak steaks at the Snow Land Restaurant, Tim, a storyteller par excellence, recounted in a booming voice the painful past he surmounted to get to Everest.

The journey began with a high-speed motorcycle crash in 2001 and a bout of surgeries to reconstruct a mangled foot, install a titanium cage around his lower spine, and put metal plates in his head.

"I remember waking up in the hospital, slowly focusing on doctors and nurses standing with their backs to me. I wondered why they were ignoring me and then I looked at the [TV] screen and saw the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center falling down" he said.

Recovery was a long road, but Tim bought another Harley as soon as he got out of the hospital and rode it wearing a brace to protect his back and with a crutch secured to the fuel tank with a bungie cord.

His desire to climb Everest erupted out of the dark days of his recovery after reading Jon Krakauer’s seminal Everest account, Into Thin Air. He knew right away, he says, that it was either "sit on a couch in pain, popping pills and drinking whisky, or get off my butt and do something with my life."

A stint climbing mountains in South America and on small Nepalese peaks led Tim to sell everything – even his Harley — as a down payment on an Everest attempt. When he handed Russell Brice a backpack full of Nepalese rupees in 2006, he became a team member on the Himex North Ridge expedition chronicled in Discovery Channel’s 2006 series, Everest: Beyond the Limit.

Initially, Russell’s guides felt Tim was too heavy and unfit to climb the mountain and that his injuries left him too slow to be a summit contender. But late in the tragic and much-publicized 2006 season (11 people died on the mountain that year), he surprised everyone by reaching Camp 4 at 27,500 feet (8,400 meters) and then forcing himself up to about 100 yards from the summit. When he was forced to give up and descend, he had barely enough oxygen in his tank to get down safely and he was near his physical limit. Now he’s back, fitter and with a clearer idea of what the mountain will demand from him.

In the weeks ahead I hope to delve deeper into what drives Tim and his teammates, who, each in their own way, see Everest as a goal worth digging in to the very cores of their beings for.

Even though I’ve climbed Everest and a slew of other hard Himalayan peaks like K2, I don’t pretend to know the answer to the annoying question, "Why do you climb?" Maybe, by the end of this expedition and the blog that will grow out of it, I’ll have a better idea of what it is that attracts people to the risks and rewards of climbing a mountain like Everest.

View larger images in the slide show.

Photo Captions
1) The view of Lhasa from a mountain monastery
2) Lhasa's Potala Palace
3) "Big Tim" (right) rides a rickshaw in Lhasa with cameraman Ed Wardle.
4) Everest's Southwest face from the air
5) Climber David Tait hikes near one of Lhasa's monasteries.

Photos: Greg Child/DCI

Comments

[beechew]

Beautiful photos! Send more please!!

[chris wright]

Hello Mr. Child,

I am writing on behalf of two young American climbers, Brian Oestrike (27) and Justin Hewitt (28). They will be attempting an Everest summit around the same time that the Discovery team will be on the mountain, and I wanted to share their story with you.

One year ago Brian's mother passed away from lung cancer, and Brian contacted his friend and climbing partner Justin Hewitt, with an idea of climbing Everest to raise awareness for a non-profit (LUNGevity.org) that is searching for a cure for lung cancer.

The two climbers have been fundraising for the past 8 months for their expedition, and I recently returned from Nepal, where I was with both of them on an acclimatization trek (we passed Tim Medvetz on the trail coincidentally).

They are currently working their way through China and Tibet to get to base camp. If you would like to meet them just to learn more about their story and what has brought them to the mountain, please do not hesitate to contact me. I know they would be very appreciative of your time.

For more information please reference the following site: http://www.lungevity.org/site/epage/42200_447.htm

With kind regards,
Chris

[matt hardy]

hi greg im from the uk and i watched russels last expedition on discovery and was amazed by it i cant wait to see what 2007 brings for all the climbers and if tim medvitz makes it to the summit i have been reading all your blogs and they amaze me oneday i would like to have a go at it i am only 18 and have never really climed before i hope to get into contact with russel to ask for some pointers please email i would like to hear from u i hope the montain is not to harsh weather wise and good luck to all the climbers thanks for your time
matt

my email is matty17_1988@hotmail.com

[Edith]

Greg,
Thank you for this blog. It will be the only contact we back at home have with our friends during this challenge!
Your photos are wonderful as are your stories.
Thank you.

[Outraged Climber]

Seems to be Discovery Channel is a party to murder, thanks to its support of Russell Brice and Himex

http://www.k2climb.net/news.php?id=16626

[Rodica]

Hi! I'm from Romania and I watched Russel and his last expedition on Discovery Chanel and I was really amazed by what I've seen. I curious to know what Mogens Jensen gonna do this year. I really appreciate those climbers!!!!!

[Rodica]

I'd want to know what happened with Tim and Mogens.

[Chuck]

It's disturbing that Tim Medvetz has become a bit of a media hero. After watching him on two Everest expeditions, my own conclusion is that he is a dangerous, childish fool who ignored the risk others took on his behalf. If he wants to ignore orders and advice from the guides and the team leader, he should climb solo, with no radio. That way, when he gets himself into a fix by making stupid decisions, he's only risking his own life.

[ping]

share more beautiful pictures :)

[ping]

thanks for the beautiful pictures

[Charles]

I agree with Rodica about Tim Medvetz. Although his climbs may have been good television, they were also examples of someone with bad character. He was so selfish that he put other team members lives at risk. It was his dream above other people's lives, and there is nothing honorable about that at all. I actually had my youngest daughter come in and watch so she could she how foolish this guy's actions were. This world does not need anymore Tim Medvetzs - people so concerned about themselves that they put other peoples' lives at risk.

[Rick]

It's easy to criticize Tim Medvetz when you're not the one at 28,000 feet. Criticize the man after you've attempted Everest. The world has too many armchair quarterbacks, too many backseat drivers. Get out there and experience it for yourself before you criticize someone else.

[John]

I found likeable Tim to be maybe not the best representative for America. While I greatly respect and admire his determination to summit, he did consistently endanger those around him in a selfish manner (2006). His constant commenting about the costs and past injuries just drove me crazy (2007) and made him look typecast. His jovial nature was a plus, but everyone else thanked the Sherpas (and they sure deserved that in triplicate), but Tim kept wanting his money back...or threatening what would happen to Brice if he was in L.A. This just reinforces the world opinion of America...not positively. I am 6-5, 275 lbs., college shotputer, Harley rider and have knee, ankle and back reconstructions. It goes with the territory.

[John]

I found likeable Tim to be maybe not the best representative for America. While I greatly respect and admire his determination to summit, he did consistently endanger those around him in a selfish manner (2006). His constant commenting about the costs and past injuries just drove me crazy (2007) and made him look typecast. His jovial nature was a plus, but everyone else thanked the Sherpas (and they sure deserved that in triplicate), but Tim kept wanting his money back...or threatening what would happen to Brice if he was in L.A. This just reinforces the world opinion of America...not positively. I am 6-5, 275 lbs., college shotputer, Harley rider and have knee, ankle and back reconstructions. It goes with the territory.

[youtube]

Super
youtube

[Christy Guth]

I loved Tim on the show and hey my hats off to him! I just hope he makes it back down ALIVE!!!!! Also anyone that dogs him, I'm sure doesn't have metal all throughout their bodies and yes he doesn't like authority but he has to have a lot of will just to get back for the second time and try again! I mean after all he knows what kind of hardships he's gonna face on that mountain and yet he was so determined to try and try again. I loved watching him and for another thing he in my opinion made the show. Way to go Tim and thanks for great tv and I'm soooo proud of you and proud that you are American, Christy

[Karpacz]

You should come to climb in Karpacz. It's the best place to do it!

[Manuel Pizarro]

Hey Greg,

My name is Manny Pizarro, the Canadian Climber from Montreal who was with the Kazacks. I tried to find you at base camp after I made a solo summit May 16, 2007 but I could not find you. I was bagged so went down to base camp to get some fresh thick air.

I was hoping you could write me back or call me at 514-909-2372. I had wanted to ask you some advice in regards to my upcoming climb to K2. Thanks for your time.

Manny Pizarro
www.manuelpizarro.com

[Angelica Smith]

Hello, I am researching successful recoveries from motorcycle accidents for my brother who was riding his Harley and a car slammed right into him. My brother is in the hospital and says that the doctor keeps mentioning to the staff that he is "just going to loose his foot anyway". My brother has circulation and says he can move his toes...says he does not trust the doc. So I am looking for hope, for stories like yours...if anyone has any advice, stories of courage like this one..please please e-mail me, so that I can share them with my brother, Art.

Thank you!!!! And thank god for this story...

Sincerely, Angelica