White Limbo: The Classic Story Of The First Australian Climb Of Everest

by Hall, Lincoln

  Despite a severe cough starting at 8000 metres another climber reached the summit and descended to Camp IV where he was seen to be exhausted. He was very slow descending and went into a state of near-hibernation for several days. The main worry was of possible brain damage due to cerebral anoxia but, apart from a rapidly disappearing short-term memory dysfunction, all seems to be well.

  Finally the other summiteer developed a retinal haemorrhage the day after reaching Camp I on the descent. This was close to the macula and produced visual problems especially with close work. Taking aspirin as an anticoagulant may have contributed.

  Practically all the team members have experienced some degree of “culture shock” or distancing from their surroundings since return.

  Special thanks to Dr Peter Gormley, ANARE, Dr Ian Young, Hobart Red Cross, and Dr Paul Taylor for advice and dental supplies.

  Most of the medicines were left in Lhasa for the 1985 New Zealand Everest Expedition with the request that they be donated to the local hospital on its return.

  APPENDIX A:

  MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

  Intravenous giving sets

  Rectal tubing

  Intravenous fluid

  Nasogastric tubing

  Chest drain

  Urinary catheter

  Scalpels

  Oxygen cylinders (6) and

  Artery forceps

  mask

  Needle holders

  Subnormal thermometers

  Sutures

  Nebuliser

  Laryingoscope

  Antibiotics

  Endotracheal tubes

  Analgesics

  Tracheostomy tube

  Antidiarrhoeals

  Retractors, forceps, scissors

  Antacids

  Dental forceps/syringes

  Anti-inflammatories—local

  Ophthalmoscope/auroscope

  and general

  Sphygmomanometer

  Anticonvulsants

  Inflatable splints

  Anaesthetic—local and

  Plaster of Paris

  general

  Traction kit

  Antinauseants

  Blood collecting bags

  Antifungals

  Cross matching kit

  Aunty Maude

  Syringes and needles

  Sleeping preparations

  Laxatives

  Elastoplast

  Cough suppressants

  Emergency resuscitation drugs

  Diuretics

  Tranquillisers

  Eye and ear preparations

  Dressings

  Sterilising tablets

  Bandages

  Sun screen

  APPENDIX B:

  PERSONAL FIRST-AID KIT

  Morphine, 2 ampoules

  Gauze pad

  Diuretic, 2 ampoules

  Roll of tape

  Antinauseant, 1 ampoule

  Antidiarrhoeal, 10

  Syringe and needle

  Codeine tablets, 10

  Anti-inflammatory for snow-blindness

  Sleeping tablets, 4

  APPENDIX C

  Thanks are due to the following companies who donated their products:

  Abbot Australasia

  Knoll A.G.

  Astra Pharmaceuticals

  Roche Products

  Beecham Research Laboratories

  Sandoz Products

  Schering

  Bioglan

  Smith, Kline and French Laboratories

  Bristol Laboratories

  Commonwealth Serum Laboratories

  Smith and Nephew, Australia

  D.L.C.

  Tupperware

  Du Pont

  Upjohn

  Ethicon

  Wander Australia

  Hamilton Laboratories

  Winthrop Laboratories

  STILL PHOTOGRAPHY

  Mt Everest is a tough place not only for climbers but also for their equipment, particularly delicate machines like cameras. Meltingly hot days on the glacier, freezing dawns, wet snow and the insidious dust of Tibet were all conditions which our cameras had to tolerate. Ideally, they would not only operate perfectly in these varying conditions but would be robust enough to survive a fall down the mountain, photograph low-light telephoto shots of sunsets and close-ups of snowflakes, and weigh no more than matchboxes.

  Of course this was not the case, and once again it was a matter of compromising weight with versatility and strength. Each of us compromised in different ways. Andy restricted himself to using only a small Rollei 35 mm fixed-lens camera. Everyone else used 35 mm SLR cameras of different brands and with varying quantities of accessories.

  Most of us chose as our standard lens a middle-range zoom lens (spanning somewhere between 30 mm and 105mm focal length depending on the particular lens). The advantage of this was that the same scene could be photographed at different focal lengths without changing the lens. If one wore mittens or several layers of gloves there was a constant danger of dropping the lens or of getting fluff or snow inside the camera; if barehanded, fingers became painfully cold and hence clumsy. Climbing shots often require quick framing and focussing, allowing no time for changing lenses, especially when one is trying to pay out the climbing rope at the same time. A zoom lens, though heavier than a lens of fixed focal length, is much lighter than two or three such lenses which together cover the same range as the zoom. The only disadvantage is that zoom lenses have a larger minimum aperture and are therefore slower than fixed lenses. However, we found that the loss in clarity of high-quality zooms was not considerable enough to outweigh their other advantages.

  We all had telephoto lenses of focal lengths from 135 mm to 500 mm (the 500 mm being mirror lenses). Several people had two camera bodies. My own experience indicates that the camera to take on a mountain should be one with a mechanical shutter that operates even without batteries. There is nothing more frustrating than a camera which has become useless because the temperature is too cold for the batteries to work.

  During difficult climbing, or on the push to the summit of a peak, I usually carry only a small Rollei 35 in order to save weight. The results from this camera are invariably excellent, provided that my oxygen-deprived mind remembers to make all the necessary adjustments. Tim took an Olympus XA to the summit of Everest and was very pleased with the results. Other advantages of small cameras such as these are that they fit into a pocket so they do not freeze up, and that they are always at hand when a good photo presents itself. Many of the climbing photos in this book were taken by the Rolleis belonging to Andy and me, or by Tim’s Olympus XA.

  We made no attempt to organise compatibility with accessories by selecting a particular brand of SLR because some of us had firm but differing personal preferences. Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Ricoh were all represented.

  I used a Nikon FE2 and an FM2, and found both to be excellent. Lighter cameras do exist but I have found none robust enough to withstand the knocks and shakes of climbing. Canon lent to the expedition two F1 bodies and a selection of lenses and other accessories. Howard, who used this equipment, was very pleased with its performance, but found it prohibitively heavy for use on the mountain.

  Most of the film we shot was Kodachrome, a mixture of 25 and 64 ASA. While climbing it was usual to carry one still camera and one Super 8 movie camera. It therefore made sense to have the still camera loaded with the most versatile film. For our purposes, this was Kodachrome 64, which reproduces both bright snowy landscapes and darker scenes such as the inside of tents and snow caves. Kodachrome 25 is probably better for snow shots: it captures detail in people or other comparatively dark objects without washing out the bright background. However, it is too slow for dawns, sunsets or hand-held shots in camps. Most of our 25 ASA film was shot on the glacier when we had access to tripods or other cameras loaded with faster film.

  Ektachrome 400 was good for photographs in dark monasteries and for hand-held telephoto sh
ots of people, but was of limited use once we reached regions of snow and ice. The extra graininess of this fast film also limited its popularity.

  Most of us kept UV filters on our lenses to protect them from scratches, dust and snow. Polarising filters were very useful in the glary conditions, though they can make the sky look unrealistically dark. A problem occurs when using a polarising filter while wearing polaroid sunglasses. When the lenses are orthogonal the viewfinder goes black, not necessarily at the point where the filter is aligned to the correct angle for the desired photographic effect. In addition, hands covered with mittens and gloves are often too clumsy to control the adjustment of a polarising lens.

  All sorts of restrictions limit one’s photographic capability during a high-altitude climb. Changing film while unroped on a steep face can be a delicate process, especially when one must prevent light from leaking into the film cassette in the extremely bright conditions. Beautiful dawns and sunsets are photographed at the cost of numb fingers. In extreme cold film must be rewound slowly, otherwise sparks of static electricity leave blue dots in every photo. The burden of photography, in terms of both the effort needed and the weight of the equipment, increases the higher one heads into the earth’s atmosphere. To compensate, the scenery is often so magnificent that the simplest snap can yield a stunning result. The spurs that photos dig into one’s memory, as well as the appreciation the photos bring to non-climbers, make the effort of mountaineering photography worthwhile.

  CINEMATOGRAPHY

  MICHAEL DILLON

  More vital than equipment choice is the choice of the film crew, and immediately things augured well: firstly, the Expedition climbers wanted a film crew with them, and secondly they chose the film crew. They chose friends, people they knew they could get along with. They chose people who, with the exception of myself, were good climbers in their own right, people with excellent still photography backgrounds but not necessarily with any film-making background. It was simpler and safer, everyone agreed, to teach a good climber how to film than to teach an experienced cameraman how to climb.

  As an added bonus the five climbers were themselves to be an integral part of the film crew. They joined the pre-departure film training programme and all of them filmed on the mountain, Tim and Greg even filming from the summit. Andy might have been there with them had he not been weighed down by the tape-recorder he used so effectively on the ascent.

  So it was quite a team effort! I know of no other Everest expedition where every single person (including Tenzing and Narayan who cooked and carried for us) was so fully and harmoniously involved in the film-making process and all deserve tremendous thanks. So do those who took the financial risks: Channel Nine’s Kerry Packer, Sam Chisholm and David Hill.

  With the film team settled, other questions arose. What cameras, what general equipment to use? How best to cope with the thick humid air at one end of the trip, the great scarcity of air at the other, the oven-like heat of the high glaciers, the sub-zero cold of the summit?

  The lower two-thirds of the Expedition we filmed in the conventional way, using 16 mm Eastman 7291 and 7294 negative film in a nickel cadmium battery-powered Aaton camera and a Nagra III quarter-inch crystal sync tape-recorder. But from Base Camp on, we abandoned all but one 16 mm camera—the ever-reliable Arriflex ST, its variable speed motor powered by a nickel cadmium battery and a back-up arrangement of alkaline batteries wired in series/parallel. Lenses used were an Angenieux 12–120 mm and a Canon 800 mm extreme telephoto. The latter, mounted on a heavy-duty tripod, gave excellent results provided there was absolutely no wind buffeting and this we achieved by filming from a protective screen of skis and space blankets, and sometimes by filming from the bottom of a crevasse.

  But primarily, from Base Camp upwards, we filmed in Super 8. Super 8 has its disadvantages: scratches and hairs in the gate look four times as large as they do on 16 mm film; the reversal film stocks allow less exposure latitude; and high-contrast situations (people in snow etc.) require careful handling (best achieved by using the camera’s zoom lens and automatic exposure system like a spot meter, then setting the chosen exposure manually). But against these disadvantages (all, with care, surmountable) Super 8 offers tremendous advantages. The cameras are light, compact enough to fit in a waist pouch, quickly and easily loaded, quick to bring into operation, easy to use, cheap and unobtrusive. Super 8 Kodachrome 40 film and its magnetic sound stripe, when transferred to video, are both virtually indistinguishable in quality from video transfers of 16 mm film and quarter-inch sound.

  For general use and, we hoped, for summit use as well, we took nine Canon 514XL Super 8 cameras with 9–42 mm zooms and 5.9 mm wide angle attachments. Percy Jones of Motion Picture Services, Sydney, extended their zoom handles, their on-off switches and battery check buttons so they could be operated wearing three pairs of gloves. For added power in cold conditions, he made up separate ““D” size battery packs for each camera. We gaffa taped the eye-piece diopters which otherwise tended to work loose and for general protection Anthony Hardy of Pigeon Bone made neoprene jackets for each camera.

  The Super 8 sound cameras used were robust Canon 1014XLs with 6.5–65 mm 200 m lenses and 4.3 mm wide angle attachments. We used professional quality microphones plugged directly into the camera and took plenty of spare microphone-to-camera leads. Camera noise was virtually eliminated by using the camera’s base cut and limiter facilities; holding the Sennheiser 416 directional microphone in front and to one side of the camera; and placing a lead-lined camera jacket or the hood of a down jacket over the camera.

  We used tripods whenever possible because the alternative, handholding, involves breathholding and that, at altitude, is almost impossible. Our tripods ranged from Miller Super 8 fluid heads to ice-axes fitted with tripod screws.

  In all, we shot some sixteen hours of film using the excellent Kodachrome 40 and when necessary, the grainy high-speed Ektachrome 160. The latter should never be used out of doors unless you are filming snow storms you want to look impressive. Using Ektachrome 160 instantly doubles the amount of snow.

  For “wild” sound such as interviews we had two Sony TCD5 Pro Cassette recorders and five Sony WM D6C Professional Walkmans. The latter, stuffed in a pocket, and used in conjunction with tiny Sony Electret ECM 150T or ECM 30 neck microphones, gave wonderful sound high on the mountain, including good sound of walkie-talkie conversations. Our nine walkie-talkies were Shinwa SH 404 KGs, their range further extended by high-gain antennae at the three lower camps.

  Our cameras, walkie-talkies, headlamps and tape-recorders were all amply powered by Duracell Alkaline batteries. We used almost two thousand of them, half of which were kindly donated by Duracell.

  To help contain and protect film, cameras and recorders within rucksacks, Mike Law made padded vinyl stuff-sacks and on the journey in by plane, bus, truck and yak all equipment was packed in foam inside Willow-ware holidaymaker coolers. Painstakingly developed for the safe transportation of cold beer to football matches, these sturdy containers defied all attempts by airline baggage handlers to smash them to smithereens. Field tests we carried out on 14 August 1984 proved that when they fall from a medium-sized yak, tumble 110 metres down a 65 degree slope and hit a rock at the bottom, they still won’t break.

  To approach Mt Everest from the north involves much more overland travel than from the south. Services in Nepal are a fraction of the cost of those in China and Tibet, where rates comparable to those in Australia apply for transport, accommodation and food. Consequently, the budget for our climb from Tibet was many times larger than any of our previous climbs. The Expedition would not have been possible without the support of the following sponsors. But first I would like to thank the people who helped us find our feet in the world of high finance, and who devoted their time and energy to the Everest Expedition while we were climbing Annapurna II. Our special thanks to John Allen, Ross Martin, Kevin Weldon and the firm Burston Marsteller.

  Channel Nine “W
ide World of Sports” was the major sponsor of the Expedition. Sam Chisholm, the president and director of TCN Nine, and Kerry Packer, owner of the Channel, had the imagination to back a venture which was just as likely to fail as to succeed. David Hill, the executive producer of the documentary, after throwing his hands in the air at the complexity of the task, did a remarkable job of organising the film project while avoiding intrusion on the mechanics of the climb. Channel Nine’s dynamism in the television industry well matched our determination to climb Everest.

  The Australia-China Council, part of the Department of Foreign Affairs, provided advice and a generous grant. Dr Jocelyn Chey and Richard Johnson of the Council, and Sam Gerovitch of the Australian Embassy in Beijing did their best to help the Expedition become a minor but successful part of the continuing co-operation between Australia and China.

  Mountain Designs not only continually made alterations and refinements to the equipment it made for the Expedition under its Verglas trademark, but also imported the specialised gear we needed at cost if it could not convince the suppliers to sponsor the Expedition. Without the patience and perseverance of the staff, both in the factory and in the Sydney store, the climb would have taken another six months to organise.