It was the family hiking trip that first inspired it. Pat and his brother went climbing in New Zealand, and then in the Canadian Rockies. Above all, this new addiction that was slowly seizing him gave him a great satisfaction as he scaled dizzying heights –conquering acrophobia.

Pat followed the Rockies with the French Alps, and then tackled the Gouter Route to the summit on Mont Blanc –the highest he had yet experienced at 4,810m.Then came the greatest challenge: Spantik in Pakistan. The mountain dwarfed Mont Blanc at an incredible 7,000m height.

This could have been the turnaround for his mountaineering dreams. It was not a smooth ascent by any means, and the party finally had to turn back and descend at 5,550m as a vicious storm approached that made it severely dangerous to attempt to climb any higher, or even to remain and wait it out.

From the moment that the party had been forced to turn around, however, an intrinsic need was realized in Pat –a compulsion to beat the elements…He set his target on the most famous mountain of all: Everest. 

This was no mere daydream. From that point onwards, RPS Managing Scientist Pat has trained hard, with his goal kept firmly in sight. Spantik was followed by Ama Dabla in Nepal where high-altitude pulmonary oedema forced him to turn around, then Denali in Alaska which he climbed after sustaining a knee injury. Last year, he climbed Baruntse (Nepal) and Cho Oyu (Tibet) – the 6th highest mountain in the world, at 8,201m. During these climbs he met experienced sherpas Lakpa Sherpa and Sumit Joshi –who are the Sirdar (Head Sherpa) and Base Camp Manager accompanying him on the Everest climb, along with Angkaji Sherpa and Jangbu Sherpa. Add to this some three-four hours of intensive training each day –in the gym, aerobics classes to optimise cardiovascular health, and strenuous walks with a heavy rucksack.

With RPS as primary sponsor, and co-sponsorship from Men’s Advisory Network –the male well-being charity, offering advice and support, and tackling depression in Western Australia (www.man.org.au/) that Pat is supporting in his climb - alongside several large Perth businesses, Pat began the ascent on 31 March –leaving from Ghat, Lukla, which is 2,800m above sea-level, and heading for the Base Camp.

 

From camp 2 onwards the route he is taking is that led by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in May 1953. The successful climb –following the southern route is as dramatic in its risks as it is in its views. The Base Camp is located near the Khumbu Icefall –a dangerous river of ice at 5,486m- issuing from the Khumbu glacier whose fast-moving transitions can open new crevasses in the rock with no forewarning. The glacier can advance up to four feet each day in milder weather and the tumbling seracs (ice-blocks) it dispatches at random intervals range from car to hotel size lumps. 

From Camp 2 onwards, much of the journey requires ropes and some serious climbing skills, and as the air steadily thins the climbers need to supplement their supply with bottled oxygen carried in their kit. After Camp 4 is the most daunting stage –the completely exposed knife-edge south-eastern ridge just before the 12m high almost-vertical rock-face of the Hillary Step at 8,790m –halfway between the South and actual Summits. From there to the ultimate peak it is loose, rocky ground, and climbers must adapt quickly from the rope climb to keeping a steady footing.

The climb was not without hair-raising moments, as Pat’s blog records:

“…masses of ice and snow came pouring down from above.. a really big wave –it was like we were in the channel as a 20ft clean-up set bore down…50m to the left was being decimated. The hissing of the ice afterwards…The sense of shock, and then relief was almost the same.

…there is a massive and constant roar coming from Everest –the jet-stream winds are in full flight! The winds were blowing snow UP the north face of Nuptse –like a reverse avalanche. Camp 3 is uninhabitable at the moment because of the winds, as is C4.”

The adverse weather delayed the party by a day, but the 8,850m summit was proudly reached on May 17th at 1300h Perth time (0500h GMT). Standing on the summit, an exhausted but euphoric Pat recorded his audio blog –the microphone on his PDA buffeted by the wind:

“It was quite a long climb –took nearly an hour …it was slow-going, and a bit frustrating. It’s pretty cold up on the summit, there’s a bit of a wind blowing. The views are really spectacular.

Thanks to Sumit and Lakpa …Thanks for helping me get up here! I want to say thank you to the sponsors, to the guys at RPS…all these individuals who’ve supported me.”

Gruelling weather delayed the subsequent descent, but Pat finally reached base on 19th May, thankful to have arrived safely after the combination of sheer physical exhaustion and a potential 1000m drop as he descended the Lhotse Face. Weary but elated, he noted:

“…this exhaustion –the kind where after taking ten steps you have to sit down in the snow and search somewhere deep within to find the energy to repeat the process –But that doesn’t matter now; we are back safely.. if you want to love your fellow man, climb Mount Everest with him, and you’ll love him for the rest of your life!”

And as for what lofty target is in his sights for the next challenge – we will have to wait and see…

Contact:
Pat Hollingworth
T: +61 8 9211 1111
E: Patrick.Hollingworth@rpsgroup.com.au