This is a first-hand account of what the Mount Everest Summit Observation team of Nepal experienced, 20-21, May 2019, at the South Col and the summit survey that followed. These were the challenges and difficulties faced by the survey team and how they tackled them.
The South Col
When our survey team arrived at the South Col on May 20, we had to tackle unforeseen circumstances. Weather problems and wind turbulence were present. And we risked failure due to limited oxygen supplies. There were not enough oxygen bottles stored at the South Col for us, due to the negligence of the expedition-operating company who had the responsibility for managing oxygen and other accessories.
Realizing the difficult situation, the main Sherpa of the team, Tshiring, told me that the mission was almost impossible and requested me to descend to the second camp, and to ascend further only when enough oxygen could be managed. Having had previous experience at the Mount Everest Summit, I knew that the mission would fail if we descended. I realized that if the team, which had now reached about 8,000 meters, descended to the second camp (6,500 meters), the team would not be able to climb again due to depleted energy, and the mission would fail completely.
I faced a great dilemma: risk our lives or give up this mission. I felt heart-broken at the prospect of giving up this mission. As the team leader, I had to make the final decision. Becoming sentimental, I laid on the snowy ground and cried with emotion. I said to Tshiring, “No! I cannot give up this historical mission at this final moment.”
In such a tough situation, I decided to borrow some additional oxygen and persuaded everyone to stay that night at South Col.
In fact, the survey team took an extremely high risk in the death zone by staying overnight on May 20, which in itself represented a dangerous and life-threatening situation. When I think about it now, I made a very daring decision at that time.
The experience of prior expeditions also helped me make some wise decisions, even in this challenging situation. I had previously experienced a successful climb to the summit of Mount Everest in 2011 as the part of the “Nepal Civil Servant First Mount Everest Expedition – 2011” and hence became the first civil servant and surveyor to stand on the summit. Many of my well-known friends and Sherpas were also at South Col on May 20th, and they helped me a lot in this sticky situation.
By the morning of May 21, we were able to arrange for the required additional oxygen bottle at the South Col, with the help of other Sherpas. At around 2 PM the same day, I decided to start our final journey from South Col to the summit. I knew it usually took climbers 10 to 15 hours to reach the peak of Mount Everest from South Col depending on the strength of the climbers.
There were two main reasons for the decision to leave for the summit so early in the day. The foremost reason was that I did not want the survey activities to get disturbed by the expected crowd of climbers at the top. Secondly, I had reviewed some relevant literature at basecamp regarding the observation time for achieving good quality GNSS data. So I made up my mind to obtain precise-positioning data with less error by taking observations at night. This greatly reduces the errors caused by sunlight (i.e., Ionospheric effects are minimal if GNSS observations are carried out at night).
We left South Col at around 2:00 PM local time and reached at the top around 3:00 AM the next day, after about 13 hours of hard climbing. We took the risk not only for the sake of successful completion of a historical mission, but also to ensure data-acquisition quality.
The summit
Obviously, the top of Everest could not have been free from climbers as it was the favorable climbing season of the year. Had there been too much of a crowd on the peak, our technical work would certainly have been disrupted. Due to this fact, we planned the summit for the nighttime, as the crowd would be much less during the night. During the daytime, the persistence of high wind turbulence and snow glare is also a troubling phenomenon.
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There were four Sherpas in my team: an international mountain guide Tshiring Janbu Sherpa, as well as Lakpa Sherpa, Dorji Sherpa and Pem Ngima Sherpa. Tshiring and Pem Ngima each had previously twice summited; the other two Sherpas were completely new to Mount Everest. Pem Ngima Sherpa, who accompanied us up to the South Col, fell ill after a night’s sleep and was unable to ascend. So, we also had to carry the equipment and supplies he was to have carried. Ascending towards the top, along with this extra weight, in such topography and with the harsh conditions, was even more of challenge. However, we moved forward.
When we summited Everest, initially there were no other climbers. The first climbers we met were two Polish climbers. Forty-five minutes after installing the GNSS antenna, we witnessed a large crowd of climbers approaching. Realizing that the crowd could be harmful for data quality, we restricted the flow of climbers by surrounding the working area with ropes and persuading the climbers that it was a historical mission, and how their help would be beneficial to the elevation determination mission of the Government of Nepal. Working on the top of Everest is a challenging task; the conditions were rough since the very beginning, but luckily the conditions did not deteriorate further during our work.
The tripod was specially designed by me to work on Everest. Unlike the tripod provided by the manufacturer, this tripod was lightweight and short, allowing for greater stability in the wind. It had a locally designed special type of iron screw, one foot long, enabling us to fix it in the packed snow at the summit. My previous successful climb informed my design of the tripod, as I was aware of the topography and conditions.
Of course, holding the tripod on the top of Everest was a great challenge as there are strong winds at times. Furthermore, the direction of those strong winds was also random, sometimes from the north and sometimes from the south. To stabilize the tripod during such strong winds, we lay down on the snow and held hard the foot of the tripod. When there was no wind, we would still lay down in an attentive position, but without touching the tripod. I was quite aware of the detrimental effect to positioning that would have occurred, had there been even a slight displacement. For the first half of the measurement, I was laying down along with a Sherpa, and for the second half, I deployed two Sherpas for the same.
While the R10 GNSS was collecting data, we performed the ground penetrating radar (GPR) observations to determine the depth of the snow and ice on the summit at that time [it can vary seasonally]. This was to provide resultant elevations of both the top of the ice and snow and underlying rock. The pattern of the GPR observations would enable determination of the highest point of the rock base. The GPR was a Geophysical Survey Systems Inc. (GSSI) SIR 4000, provided to us by the U.S. National Geographic Society. We scanned the surface around the top, an area of about 15 to 20 square meters, with the GPR for about 10 minutes, without disturbing the GNSS antenna.
Once we reached the top of Everest, we were so excited that we did not even care about the oxygen supply and the harsh conditions and continued to work for almost two hours. Unlike other climbers whose motive is to scale Mount Everest, click a few photographs and descend as soon as possible to safety, we, being a part of this historical mission, had no such privileges.
We had to stay there for the installation of the equipment and collect primary observation data for as long as we could to ensure its quality. Due to extreme cold, we could not take off our big mitten gloves. This created havoc as it was exceedingly difficult to operate the knobs and screws of the equipment with such heavy gloves. Therefore, we took a risk by taking off the big mitten gloves and worked throughout with fleece gloves, which resulted in numbness and cyanosis in our fingers—but we continued our work.
After having worked for about two hours, the crowds of climbers approaching the summit increased and it was difficult for us to deter them from coming near the working area. Owing to this situation, we decided to descend. After all, we already had observations lasting for nearly one and a half hours, which we thought would be sufficient for further processing. Plus, we had a limited stock of oxygen remaining.
Despite all the challenges we faced, we continued our work and fortunately, nothing serious happened, apart from the numbness and cyanosis in our fingers. However, while descending to South Col, I became unconscious at the altitude of around 8,200 meters and lay down over the blue ice near the South Col. I stayed unconscious for about two hours and only woke up after an unknown climber kicked me from behind—maybe he thought I was already dead. After I woke up, I found myself alone. As we were on the descent and near the camp, Tshiring (the Sherpa leader) possibly concluded that as we were in a less risky area, I was simply lagging and would come to the South Col by myself.
This long unconsciousness cost me part of the tip of my left toe forever, due to frostbite. Normally, when a climber loses consciousness and assistance is not timely, it is difficult to wake up again. Luckily, I woke up. I feel this was the miracle of my life.
Additionally, due to weather conditions, we surveyors and the Sherpas would spend a total of three nights (20, 21, and 22 May 2019) above the death zone. Normally climbers spend only one night above the death zone (above 7500-meter MSL). However, we managed to return safely.
This, indeed, was an historic event and a matter of pride that I, as a leader of this great mission, would represent survey professionals all over the world. This was in many ways a first for a dedicated surveying team, reaching the top of the world, along with the technical equipment and devices to measure its elevation. Coincidentally, I have become the only civil servant surveyor to date to have successfully climbed Mount Everest twice; I also became the first to establish a GNSS station at the highest altitude of the world. This, I believe, proves that survey professionals strive hard to collect geospatial data and inspire fellow survey professionals to strive hard for professional achievement.
The topmost pride for me is that the Government of Nepal Survey Department assigned and entrusted to me this historic, important and challenging job. And I, as the team leader, successfully completed the assignment and handed over the data to the department.
We fought all the challenges and were successful in obtaining reliable measurements on the summit, which was only possible due to the passion of the profession. Had we not had this professional passion, we would not have mustered enough courage to risk our lives to scale Mount Everest, perform observations and return safely.
Read more about the Nepal survey; methods and technologies used, and announcement of the new elevation in the companion article: Surveying the “Head of the Earth Touching Heaven”.
