Kumbhakarna

Local mountain climbers first
North Americans to conquer
remote Himalayan mountain

THREE NORTH Shore
men were among an expedi-
tionary group of five
climbers. to make the first
. Successful ascent by North
American climbers of the
25 »294-foot Kumbhakarna
Gannu) * mountain in the
= remote’ area of Eastern
‘Himalaya in Nepal.

-; By Michael Becker °
- News Reporter

‘The local climbers recently
returned to the North Shore, .

Although considered a climb of
moderate technical difficulty, the
hazardous trek to the site and the
icy mountain terrain presented ex-
treme physical and mental
challenges. :

Dr. Rob Driscoll, 30, of West
Vancouver, and 34-year-old Mike
White, a North Vancouver resi-
dent and a West Vancouver
firefighter, reached the summit of

- Kumbhakarna on April 15. The
pair made their push to the peak

,-Alpine-style and without oxygen
“support.

.. Expedition leader Ken Legg, 28,

of West Vancouver, was forced to
‘return to the team’s base camp,
.weakened by illness caused by an
injury sustained a week prior to
the departure for Nepal.

‘The group left Canada on Feb.
28 and arrived in Kathmandu on
March 1.

- The first obstacles were bureau-
* cratic and were met head-on upon
~ arrival.

-- “A $3,000 “peak fee’’ had been
wired, ahead three months prior to
departure. .

‘Said “Legg, ‘We arrived in
Kathmandu,’ and they had never
heard’ of. us, and they never saw
; the money. We spent the better
' part of 10 days in the basement of
_a. dark bank with handwritten
ledgers trying to find an entry for
this money.

“Its 'a sequential thing: if you
“don’t have. your climbing permit,
“you can't get a trekking. permit,.
, and if you don’t have a trekking
permit. you can’t start moving in

that direction;”’ he said.-

‘iscoll. says. the rules were -

anged at the last minute.

‘ROB DRISCOLL... It was just
“Thank God I can 2° down

now. {don’t want to
higher.” . 7 .

**Normally’ if you 1 have a climb-
ing permit that allows you to trek
into the base camp. They changed
the rules and said you need a
trekking permit to walk to the
base of the mountain.”’

A $3,200. “‘trekking permit’’

. wiped out the-group’s contingency
fund.
_ A donated $50,000 cellular tele-

go any

- Kathmandu.

Kumbhakarna .
CAMP #1: ELEVATION 17,000 FT
CAMP #2: ELEVATION 16,200 FT
CAMP #3; ELEVATION 19,600 FT
CAMP #4; ELEVATION 21,000 FT
CAMP #5: ELEVATION 21,860 FT
CAMP #6: ELEVATION 22,800 FT
CAMP #7: ELEVATION 24,000 FT

SUMMIT: 25,294 FT

phone communications system

‘with satellite uplink was never us-

ed because it was scized by
authorities in Nepal.

The climbers improvised and
communicated basically, passing

handwritten notes between camps

_ for the duration of the expedition.

On the safer side of the bureau-
cratic crevasses, the group faced
its second major challenge: the
bus ride from hell.

Said Driscoll,. ‘For two days
you're in these cramped buses
with people sitting on the roof

“and Hindi music wailing out.

“They drive like absolute idiots.
It’s the ultimate game of chicken
there. The buses charge each other
honking their horns.’’

Legg, who was nursing injuries
sustained back in Canada when he
was struck by a toboggan while
skiing, still winces when recoun-
ting the ride.

“I was sitting in the back of the

bus with cracked ribs getting toss-

ed around,”’ he said.

To further compound the
challenges yet to come, a sixth
climber © failed to show in
By Himalayan

standards, a sixeman team is

‘small. The group continued. with

KEN LEGG... was forced to
return to base camp before
reaching the top cf the
Nepalese summit.

five climbers supported by two
sherpas.
The climbers made the summit

‘by working their way up with a

series of seven camps,

All five ‘climbers, including
Steve Langley and Bill Durtler of
Calgary, made it to Camp Three
at the 19,600-foot mark.

Legg and Durtler had intended

_you’re healthy,

Photos Rob Drisa oll

EXPEDITION LEADER. Ken Legg during the ascent of 25, 294-foot Kumbhakarna.- The leyn mountain
terrain presented extrome physical and mental challenges for the group.

to make it to the top, but turned
back a day before Driscoll and
White completed the, climb.

“I had cracked. ribs. I took a
lot of anti-inflammatories —
muscle relaxants. Higher up on
the mountain I developed an ulcer
from al! of the pills I had taken,
and that’s what led to the throw-
ing up.

“In a high-altitude environment
you | lose body weight. Even if
you can’t” eat
enough food to maintain the
energy level you are putting out.

“Being sick and not being able
to keep food down, you get realiy

-weak,’’ said Legg.

According to Driscoll, a
climber’s metabolic rate in-reases
“phenomenally”’ at high altitude.

. Said Driscoll, ‘‘To give you aa
example, my resting heart rate is
normally around 60 or so. One

night in a tent in Camp Three, ly-.

ing calmly, my resting pulse -was
‘You're breathing 40 times a
minute when you are working
harder and your heart rate is
constantly above 150. You just
can’t even generate enough heat to
keep warm.”

Above 22,000 feet mountaineers
enter what they call “‘the death
zone."’ Regardless of the efforts
taken, the body deteriorates... -

“No matter how much'you eat
or drink, your body just melts
away. You use up all of the

MIKE WHITE reaches the summit: at the top of the ‘mountain sits’
a trlanguiar chunk of ice with a 10,000-foot drop ¢ on one side and”

a6,0€0-foot drop en the other.

ghicose in your body, and then
you start melting away your sius-
cle,’” Driscoll said.

He lost 20 pounds during ‘the
climb. Legg lost 40 pounds. White
shed approximately 25 pounds for
his efforts.

A cherubic choir did not sing
hallelujah as Driscoll and White
reached the Kumbhakarna sum-
mit.

“People expect that when you
get to the summit the clouds part
and you get this great sense of
exhilaration — not at all, not one
sense of joy or happiness or hug-
ging each other. It was just an

overwhelming sense of relief, ”
Driscoll! said. a

At the top of the mountain sits’
a triangular chunk of ice with a.
10,000-foot drop on one side and -
a 6, 900-foot drop on the other. It .
isa "place of precipitous beauty. -

Said Driscoll, ‘‘You’re in a jet
stream of wind blowing about 40
miles an hour, There is only room .
from one climber on the perch at.
a time. .

“It’s about 4:15 in the after-
noon. The sun is starting to set.
Everything is tinged in gold. It’s

See Slide page &