Everest Expedition

The first ever New Zealand expedition to Mount Everest in 1977 was the subject of our talk this morning. It was given by Mike Mahoney who is a Life Member of the N.Z. Mountain Guides Association, and the Parish Priest for six parishes on the West Coast. Mike came clad in the windsuit he wore for 80 days on the expedition and he brought and passed around a boot with crampons that he wore.

In the 1960s and 70s only one group from each country was permitted to climb in the area each year. Mountaineers from Otago decided in 1967 that they wanted to attempt Everest, but the first year they could book was 1977. By the time that came around those original men were tied up with other responsibilities, and the booking was liable to lapse. It was offered by the Government to the NZ Mountain Guides Association, of which Mike was then President, and the Association agreed to take it on.

At that time the average cost of such an expedition was $900,000, and would include 15 climbers and 30 Sherpas. The NZers decided they would have a Minimalist Expedition, with eight climbers, no Sherpas, and no oxygen, except emergency medical oxygen. Usually an expedition would have 50 Sherpas to keep the icefall open, plus one or two for each climber. This was the only expedition ever to have no Sherpas, and previously there had never been an expedition where no-one died. They were obliged to take a local army officer, and a base camp manager. They managed to keep the cost to $40,000, the cheapest ever. The Sherpas referred to it as the N.Z. Misery Expedition.

The group didn’t bother trying to get fit beforehand, realising that the 400 km walk to the base camp would be enough to improve their fitness. Their equipment was donated by the American Firm REI, and their food by Edmonds, a well-known Christchurch company. Some wore motorbike helmets and goggles, others had women’s felt hats, which could be used to hold melting snow and keep the wearer cool. The food was packed into sealed tins, to avoid having it pilfered on the way through. It took a month for them to walk from Kathmandu to Kundi, through paddy fields. Their porters walked barefoot, although they’d been given new boots which would be saved to sell later. At Kundi they were given a blessing by a Buddhist Abbot, and changed to yaks for transport. Doctors from Harvard University measured the retinas of their eyes before and after climbing to see what the effect of the high altitude was.

The distance from the Base Camp to the summit of Everest was 25km, and most expeditions took 50 ladders to use to cross crevasses. This group took just one. They reckoned they would come across abandoned ladders and took nuts and bolts and hacksaws so they were able to salvage and re-use the abandoned ones. At one stage a storm came up and they were marooned in their tent for five days. Four of the group took sleeping pills and slept well, the others suffered broken ribs. Mike showed breath-taking slides of their journey, and kept us enthralled with his descriptions.

Mount Everest

The two front climbers got to within four hours of the summit, and decided at 2.30pm they needed to turn back. If they hadn’t they would have lost fingers and toes. They had proved that it was possible to climb Everest without oxygen, and the following year someone did reach the top without oxygen. When the eight New Zealanders returned to Kundi they found Sir Edmund Hillary was so impressed with their feat that he had flown out to meet them.

In the 1977 season there were 18 Expeditions and only four got to the top of any mountain. Last year there were 62 expeditions, with hundreds of people. Now there is a rope all the way to the top of Everest, a blue rope going up, and a red rope coming down, to avoid traffic jams.

It was a most amazing climb
unprecedented at the time