What should have been one of the best days of a Victoria climber’s life was marred by tragedy. But for Chris Dare, it was also a story of heroism.
Dare was on a nine-year mission to complete the “Seven Summits,” a mountaineering challenge in which climbers ascend the tallest peaks on each of the seven continents.
Mount Everest was last on his list.
Due to bad weather, this climbing season on the world’s tallest peak has been among the most deadly, with 11 deaths over a matter of days.
Dare wants people know about the decisions on Everest which saved lives, including his own on May 23.
“This story you will never hear from anywhere else but it is one that I feel you all need to know about," Dare said in a recent Facebook post.
"The personal strength and courage from numerous people that day saved, at the very least, two lives."
Ongoing vicious weather on the mountain meant a backlog of climbers, all of whom were pushing for the summit on the same day. Dare called it “a recipe for disaster.”
He and his Sherpa had teamed up with a group from 360 Expeditions, sharing resources, expertise and friendship in the weeks leading up to the final push.
When the weather broke, they started out hours earlier than is standard, hoping to beat the rush of climbers. But a half-dozen other teams also had the same plan, creating a traffic jam. As they waited to get through bottlenecks, the weather turned sour.
Chris Dare's team of fellow climbers on Everest. (Chris Dare/Facebook)
Dare called it "the most dangerous and terrifying movement I have ever experienced."
He and his Sherpa, Nuru, pushed on and summited successfully, but instead of the usual six to nine hours, it had taken them over 11 hours. They stayed on the top of the world for less than 10 minutes, before starting down.
“It was already too late and we were getting hammered by the winds and cold all the way down.”
Then things only got worse.
“Personally, I truly believe I was in danger of dying up there. I barely made it back but a combination of Nuru's encouragement, thinking about friends and family at home and my repeating the words, 'I'm not dying here today,' I stumbled back into camp 3."
There, the misfortunate of another climber who had to turn back just before the summit because he was running out of oxygen, helped save Dare’s life.
“I was in such a daze, instead of sorting myself out, I ended up sitting exposed outside my tent in the snow and wind hunched over. Since Jamie had turned around, he was already back at camp. He saw me, yelled at me and pulled me inside the tent.”
Dare, Nuru and Jamie spent the night shivering, toes turning to ice, as they shared one cylinder of oxygen among them. With each passing hour, they became more and more concerned about their colleagues who had yet to return.
“We all thought they were definitely going to die but there was nothing we could do as we were virtually paralyzed ourselves.”
The others gradually stumbled in with terrifying stories.
One climber had run out of oxygen at 8,600 metres and was ignored by other climbers who either couldn’t or wouldn’t share their oxygen. Finally, a Sherpa gave him oxygen and stayed with him until he knew he was OK.
“We'd definitely like to know who this miracle Sherpa is so we can all thank him,” said Dare.
When they heard another member of their group was in trouble, their leader, who had turned back early, mounted a one-man rescue.
When he found the climber, she couldn’t stand and her hands were frozen. He carried her back to camp.
At that point Dare believed his friends were all OK.
The last member of their group, an Irishman named Kevin Hynes, had turned back hours earlier, and had already descended to a lower camp.
Dare saw him before he went down.
“As I passed him, I patted him on the shoulder and wished him luck. After moving back to Camp 1, he promptly ate, hydrated and went to sleep with oxygen. He was reportedly still snoring away early that morning while the rest of the team was still at Camp 3, just hours later he would pass away.”
One light in all this darkness for Dare has been the money he has raised for BC Children’s Hospital with his climb. He has far exceeded his goal of $8,848, one dollar for every metre of Everest's height.
Dare said at that elevation there is only so much any human being can do to survive and the rest is out of their control.
“Despite all our technology, support, and modern gear, it's the mountain that's still in charge.”
