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Exclusive interview with Makalu Gau, who barely survived the Everest 1996 tragedy that claimed the lives of eight other climbers. Photos and transcripts of the story never before told in the Western press.
Eight people died that day, but one man survived the deadly terror of a night out on Everest above 8,000meters.
Both the popular and mountaineering press has reported the horrifying details of the deadly storm that struck the summit of Mount Everest that fateful day in May. The tragic deaths of world-renowned guides Rob Hall and Scott Fischer are by now well documented in books such as Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and Anatoli Boukreev's and Weston DeWalt's The Climb.The debate generated by those books has spilled over into films, magazines and the Internet to stir in people around the world a craving for all things Everest. And a TV movie based on Krakauer's book, coupled with the widespread release of the IMAX film Everest have only furthered this hunger for information. The incidents of the terrible night of May 10-11 have become part of mountaineering legend, and - because of their widespread dissemination - perhaps the substance of what may be the most infamous climb in recent times.
But never before told in the Western press is the whole story of one climber's private ordeal: Taiwanese climber Gau Ming Ho, who survived the storm-ravaged night above 8,000 meters. (Gau is widely known by another name: after making an attempt on the fifth highest mountain in the world, Gau claimed the moniker of Makalu Gau.) During the long, dangerous May 1996 night on Everest, Gau was bivouacked only a few yards away from Scott Fischer, who was bivouacked nearby where he had collapsed earlier. Gau survived to be rescued, albeit with terrible consequences, while Fischer did not.
It was dark... the jet stream winds were raging. Makalu noticed that his face was covered with an icy mask, his nostrils were plugged with chunks of ice...
Gau, along with Texas physician Beck Weathers, eventually was helped down the mountain by climbers Ed Viesturs and David Breashears of the IMAX crew, and Peter Athans and Todd Burleson of the guiding service Alpine Ascents International. In what is certainly the most dramatic helicopter rescue in Everest history - an heroic effort by Nepalese Army helicopter pilot Madan K.C., who twice flew to above 21,000 feet to retrieve the two men, and was the agent of their eventual survival - the pair was airlifted to safety from a flat spot near Camp II.
Gau lost his hands and feet to the frostbite he suffered on his bivouac, but he remains thankful that he survived. For the first time since those fateful events, Makalu Gau has shared his incredible story in an exclusive interview with The Mountain Zone.
In the spring of 1996, Makalu Gau, 41, and Chen Yu Nan, 36, were poised to make an attempt on the summit of Mount Everest. By May 9, the pair had reached Camp III (24,000 feet) on Everest's South Col route. With their Sherpa teammates, the Chinese climbers were hoping to reach the summit by the 11th. But that night at Camp III, disaster struck suddenly. Chen crawled outside the tent to relieve himself and not wearing his boots, lost his footing and fell 80 feet down the steep slope and into a crevasse.
Quickly extricated from the crevasse by other Sherpas on the mountain, Chen, according to Gau, did not complain of pain and seemed to have suffered no serious injury. However, by morning, Gau said, as he and his Sherpas decided to start out for Camp IV on the South Col, Chen told Gau he wasn't feeling well enough to climb higher and would rest for several more hours at Camp III before starting up. So Makalu Gau and the others set out for the higher camp with the expectation Chen would follow later in the day.
But Chen apparently decided to try to descend to Camp II and Sherpas coming down from the South Col found him incapacitated below Camp III. The Sherpas carried Chen down another 1000 feet before he suddenly died. Members of the IMAX team climbed up from Camp II hoping to revive him, but it was too late. David Breashears said he had to close Chen's eyes with his hands. Bringing Chen back to base camp, Breashears said, was a difficult and disturbing experience.
Breashears immediately radioed Makalu Gau to inform him that Chen had collapsed and died. Gau was shaken; his friend's sudden death put an icy dread on Makalu Gau's spirit.
In that moment, I had no thinking about Mr. Chen. I think it's impossible why he's died. For a short time I had no language to explain to anybody. I just sit down in the tent inside Camp IV, Gau recalled. With the winds at the Camp still gusting and his partner now dead, Gau expected the summit was out of reach.
But near midnight, a Sherpa carrying tea and hot noodles greeted Makalu Gau in his tent. Conditions were favorable, he understood, and the climb was on; the wind had died and the sky was full of stars. It seemed a perfect morning for climbing Everest and Gau was cheered as he looked up the mountain and saw the twinkling headlamps of other climbers. It reassured him to know that he and his Sherpas would not be alone on the upper mountain.
To himself, Gau repeated, One step...one step...very slowly, slowly going up. Although he had nearly perished on McKinley, and failed on Makalu, tonight his oxygen canister was on a generous flow, which allowed him sufficient oxygen to climb. After many hours, Makalu and his Sherpa team arrived at the base of the Hillary Step.
The Sherpas seemed agitated as they waited at the Step among a throng of climbers waiting for their turns on the fixed ropes. Gau and his Sherpas had arrived later than they had planned. Urged by his Sherpas to descend to safety, Makalu was tempted to do so, but feeling strong allegiance to his country, thinking of Chen, and facing the fact that the summit was a short distance away, Gau decided to go for it. If one member can summit, the whole expedition is a success, he said.
On May 10th, 1996 at approximately 3:00 pm, Makalu Gau summitted Mt. Everest.
From the summit, my first photograph was an unobstructed view of the Himalayan Mountain Range, but the next shot, taken just 10 minutes later, was a precursor to what became a nightmare. Of the second shot, so strange the sky seems, Gau said.
Dark storm clouds were at this time quickly moving up the flanks of Mt. Everest. On the summit, Gau's Sherpas were near panic, shouting that they must quickly descend. By now, Gau had been climbing for 50 hours on just four hours of sleep. The descent was arduous, Gau's energy level had deteriorated from severe to critical. The weather had turned treacherous and the climbers' situation suddenly was desperate. Gau's oxygen was depleted, and he was now on the brink of exhaustion.
From below, he heard Fischer say quietly, to no one in particular, I'm sick, I'm sick...
When the last of the three headlamps burned out and Gau and his two Sherpas were literally and completely in the dark, they came upon Lopsang Sherpa sitting in the snow. Lopsang was facing uphill and was trying to help an obviously troubled Scott Fischer, the Mountain Madness expedition leader. Fischer was just below Lopsang, sitting down, apparently pulling himself down the mountain by his heels. Gau's Sherpas spoke with Lopsang and continued to descend, Gau could not go on and sat down.
Lopsang, Gau said, was chanting, Oh, Scott, oh, Scott, as he dug out a small area for Fischer just 15 meters from Gau. Lopsang, apparently going for help, then continued to descend, leaving Gau and Fischer alone at 27,000 feet. Gau knew he was precariously near death, his survival unlikely. Fischer, said Gau, seemed unaware of Gau's presence.
From below, he heard Fischer say quietly, to no one in particular, I'm sick, I'm sick, as he rocked back and forth to keep warm.
Makalu Gau, shivering with cold, eventually fell into a delirious sleep. When he woke, he said, his face was covered by an icy mask and his nostrils plugged with chunks of ice. My nose is small ice bar. I have to take out the ice bar, then I can get a good breath, Gau recalls. He had urinated, wetting the pants of his down suit. His hands and feet were completely numb.
For Gau, the ordeal began to blend with delirium. With his extremities frozen and his thought processes clouded, he struggled to stay awake knowing that sleep would mean death. He tried to warm himself: first thinking he could cover his face with his backpack, but soon realizing it too was frozen, and then thinking he could find his lighter and burn the pack, also an impossibility.
Gau rolled from side to side and breathed deeply. He thought of his family and friends to inspire him to survive and soon began to hallucinate. Like watching a movie on a screen, I saw my small son at the doorstep of our house, he was talking to me, telling me, Come home, daddy, I want you to come home Gau remembered.
Then the movie switched, I was seeing my friends in Taiwan, being supportive and telling me to return, and then I saw the team waiting for me at Base Camp, they were all very, very worried, they wanted me to come home. For Gau, these strange hallucinations in his mind's eye helped him stay alive.
When a faint orange glow graced the horizon of Tibet it marked the end of Gau's horrifying night out and he let himself believe he might live. The sky is becoming a red color. In Japan, the snow is not so big; storm is a little down. So I talked to myself, Oh, I must be half alive, he said.
One by one, the mountains were lit by sunlight. He believed if he could just make it until the sun shone on him, he might survive. When the sun finally bathed him in light and warmth, Gau fell asleep. He awoke to Sherpas trying to rouse him. I heard, I heard somebody call me, 'Makalu Sir, Makalu Sir?' Then I open my eyes. Then I find out, one, two, three...three Sherpa, Gau recalls. Oxygen, hot tea and hope revived him. Despite extreme frostbite injuries to his hands, feet, and face, Makalu, tied to a rope and being led by his Sherpa, miraculously made it down to camp IV.
As he lay at camp four, Makalu realized he was in desperate condition. I was not sure if I was going to be able to make it down. When I put my hands together, tink - tink- tink, like two glasses coming together. His feet were two frozen chunks of flesh and blood. He knew his fight for survival was far from over.
By that time, a rescue was being mounted at Camp IV. Todd Burleson and Pete Athans had climbed up to the South Col from lower camps, abandoning their own attempt on the summit to try to save Gau and Beck Weathers, who had spent most of the night out in the open but nearer to Camp IV. With the assistance of other climbers, Burleson and Athans managed to assist him all the way down to Camp II in the Western Cwm. There, climbers from three expeditions administered what first aid they could as they awaited word on a helicopter rescue. The climbers at camp II knew that trying to transport both injured climbers through the Khumbu Ice Fall would be difficult and time consuming.
In what became the highest helicopter rescue in the history of Mount Everest, Colonel Madan K.C., from the Nepal Army Air Force put his life on the line, landed his helicopter at 19,800 ft. and airlifted the near comatose Makalu off Mt. Everest.
Makalu spent over 10 months in the hospital. He lost his arms from above the elbow, feet and nose, which has since been reconstructed through plastic surgery. His feet have been somewhat reconstructed using tissue from his arms, his mobility is severely limited, but he is alive and his spirit returned.
Now everything looks nice for me because now I can write, I can use a pen, I can use chopsticks, I can eat everything by myself. Before it's not possible. I only have the hook of my right hand, but I training and can do very well by my right hand, Gau said.
