International Mountain Equipment Catalog winter 1991-1992

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Ed Hartouni

Trad climber

Livermore, CA

Topic Author's Original Post - May 25, 2015 - 11:24pm PT

Found this tonight looking through the map box...

with the story of the 1991 New England Mt. Everest expedition lead by Rick Wilcox

the article is reprinted... here is what appeared in the catalog:

1991 New England Everest expedition leader Rick Wilcox was on top of the world for the second time in a month Saturday night.

Presenting his first slide show since conquering Mt. Everest on May 15, the 43-year-old Eaton resident was saluted with a three minute, heartfelt, standing ovation from the capacity audience at Purity Spring Resort in East Madison.

Looking fit and ten pounds leaner then when he left on the expedition in March, Wilcox seemed genuinely moved by the warm reception given by friends, family and strangers.

I've never experienced anything like that in my life. I mean, put yourself in my position. I almost cried," said Wilcox this week.

He has received similar friendly greetings from townspeople in the Mt. Washington Valley area. "It took me an hour to go shopping last week because everyone kept stopping me in the grocery store to say congratulations," he laughed.

Last weekend's lecture - the first of many fund raisers planned for several locations this summer - was a homecoming of sorts for Wilcox. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he first came to Camp Tohkompeupog when he was eight, the son of a former Tohkompeupog camper. He returned every summer until his senior year in college, eventually leading hiking trips as a counselor. When he married fellow climber Brenda Einstein (leader of one of the New England Expedition's two support treks) in 1981, it was fitting that the wedding and reception took place there.

Young Rick was first taken up Mt. Washington at age 6 by his dad, the Reverend Richard Wilcox. Upon their return to Purity Spring, they were greeted by Camp Tohkompeupog founder Milt Hoyt, who scolded Rick's dad by asking, "What did you do that for? Now what's he got to look forward to?"

Years later, it's now easy to see that the aspiring young climber had a lot of mountain climbing left to do after Mt. Washington. His interest in climbing was heightened when he attended a talk in Boston given by a member of the 1963 American Everest Expedition led by Jim Whitaker. He later worked on an Alaskan Yukon expedition the summer of his senior year in college.

Wilcox moved to North Conway to manage the Eastern Mountain Sports store after college, and eventually purchased International Mountain Equipment and International Mountain Climbing School. In the back of his mind, through it all, was Everest.

"I felt mountaineering is not a sport where you just go and climb Everest. You need to pay your dues, you have to learn and you have to acquire some experience," he said, noting that he obtained some of that experience by climbing four peaks in the Himalayas in recent years.

Having proven his climbing expertise, Wilcox applied for a permit from the Nepalese government to climb Everest in 1986, and received his permit in 1989 to climb the mountain this year.

Only 200 people have ever made it to the summit of the 29,028 ft. mountain, while 200 have died trying. Of the nine climbers who stood on the summit this spring, only four have never been there before, and all four were members of the 1991 New England Everest Expedition; Wilcox, climbing leader Mark Richey, 33, of Boston, MA, Barry Rugo, 30, of Jamaica Plain, MA, and Yves LaForest, 36, who became the first Quebec resident ever to climb the mountain.

Members of the expedition who were not successful in reaching the summit included Marc Chauvin of Bartlett, NH, Director of the International Mountain Climbing School, Dr. Mike Sinclair of Allentown, PA, Gary Scott of Boulder, CO, and Dr. Dick St. Onge of West Newton, MA. Of the four, Wilcox most highly praises Chauvin, 33, for carrying more than his share up and down the mountain, a factor which led him to a state of physical exhaustion and high altitude sickness.

Wilox is most proud of - and grateful for the fact that his expedition succeeded in it's goal without any injuries or deaths.

The climb represents a milestone for the credibility of New England climbers. Most American expeditions have been based in the western part of the country, but the New England group represents the first time that an expedition comprised mostly of Easterners has reached the top of the world.

Wilcox is also proud that his group packed it's own supplies to Camp IV instead of relying on Sherpas, as most expeditions do. They reached Camp IV without supplemental oxygen, using the trek from Camp III to IV as a test of each climbers stamina. Under the group's self-imposed rule, any climber who failed that test would not be allowed to climb to the summit.

The New England group succeeded in climbing the world's tallest mountain, but they also accumulated a mountain of debt in doing so. The expedition carried a budget of $135,000 which broke down to approximately $17,000 per climber.

The expedition was officially sponsored by the Seimens Nixdorf computer firm of Burlington, MA, which provided communication equipment and funds.

Additional funding was prodded through the sale of space in two support treks, with $1,000 of each trekkers $5,000 land cost donated to the expedition. Wilcox succeeded in liquidating much of the group's equipment before leaving Nepal, but more fund raisers will be required.

HIGH WINDS THWARTED the groups initial quest for Everest in early May when the group turned back at Camp IV. Returning to Everest base camp, they rested May 5-8, and set out again on May 9. They were accompanied by Chauvin, Sinclair, Scott and four Sherpas, although Chauvin was forced to turn back below Camp II.

Among the expeditions on the mountain was a Sherpa expedition, led by Peter Athens of Boulder, CO. They succeeded in their fourth attempt of the spring, and reached the summit May 8. Instead of being encouraged by that success, however, Wilcox said his expedition of Rugo, LaForest, Richey and himself were concerned. "Peter is a very, very strong climber, as are all of the Sherpas. We ran into them at Camp II on our way up and their way down, and they told us the day they summited was very lousy, with very high winds," said Wilcox.

The time to climb Everest is when the jet stream shifts from just below the summit north into China in the spring. Climbers know that the jet stream is marked by a plume of snow that usually hangs below the summit at an elevation of 26,000 ft. When the plume is there, Wilcox explained, a summit attempt is virtually out of the question.

Everest once went four consecutive years without an ascent because the jet stream never moved. As they climbed, Wilcox and his crew kept an eye on the plume, ever hopeful that it would shift.

The party packed it's gear, and began the 12-hour climb from Camp II to IV at 4:30 a.m. They were accompanied by Scott and one Sherpa. Because they had already packed much of their heavy gear - sleeping bags, a cookstove and oxygen - to Camp IV on their first attempt two weeks before, the going was much faster on their second ascent.

Ropes, set in a cooperative effort by the Sherpa expedition, also aided the team as they climbed from Camp II's elevation of 22,000 ft. to Camp IV at 26,000 ft. The slope they followed was all ice, and rose at an average of 45 degrees although some stretches were as steep as 75 degrees.

"The entire route from Camp II to Camp IV was set with 8,000 ft. of rope. Lhotse Face is about as steep as a staircase, and as smooth as a lake. Without ropes, it would be very dangerous, because you'd slip and you'd die", Wilcox related.

The final obstacle below the South Col is Geneva Spur, a ridge of rock located just below Camp IV. It was at this juncture that the group last saw Gary Scott.

Scott, recovering from respiratory ailments, had been stymied in his attempt on May 2 to make a solo record ascent of the mountain. Not fully recovered, he was now having trouble at the spur, and agreed with Wilcox's group that he should turn back and go to Camp III.

Without Scott, the lead party reached Camp IV at 4 p.m. on May 13. The weather continued to be virtually wind-free and clear, a meteorological occurance as rare there as a clear day on Mt. Washington is in this part of the world.

Wilcox and his mates rested. The plan was to sleep, energize their depleted blood with oxygen and begin a summit attempt at midnight.

The goal was to reach the summit by noon, and then descend before the arrival of the winds and clouds which typically set in once temperatures rise at mid-day.

Resting in camp, Wilcox - at 43 the oldest member of the group - said he was too tired to go if the group decided to make a summit attempt that night Richey felt strong, LaForest and Rugo were tired, but feared that the weather might turn bad and nix their chances if they were to delay a summit attempt.

As fate would have it, the party did not make it's attempt that night because they searched for Scott instead. Making radio contact with base camp, they learned that Scott never showed up at Camp III, where Sinclair and one of the Sherpas were resting.

The party donned it's gear and searched for Scott, finding him at the base of the Geneva Spur at 1:30 a.m. on the 14th. "He was in pretty bad shape, delirious. But he had put on his down suit, which helped, and we got him in the tent and gave him some oxygen. I'm sure we saved his life," said Wilcox.

Recovered by the morning, Scott set off on his own and descended. Sinclair, meanwhile was also having respiratory problems, but eventually climbed solo from Camp III to Camp IV on the 15th and then descended.

The weather miraculously continued to hold, much to the amazement of all. The climbers rested inside their two tents, pumping their blood with oxygen.

As if to remind them of the precariousness of their survival in such a harsh climate, the body of a Sherpa - dead some six months - lay preserved outside the group's tent at Camp IV, frozen solid in a sleeping bag, surrounded by the shards of what once was a tent. On their first stay at Camp IV on May 3, the New Englanders had availed themselves of the dead climbers half-full oxygen tanks.

Just past midnight on the 15th, on the last day of their permit, they began climbing, marching toward the South Ridge to make the 3000 ft. ascent to the summit. There was no wind and no moon, but the stars were presenting a show of their own. The temperature was 30 degrees below zero, according to Wilcox.

"There hadn't been wind for two days now, so we couldn't believe our luck. There had been a little during the afternoons, sure, but you could light a cigarette. Whereas our first time, to just go outside when nature called was life threatening," Wilcox said.

Following the light of their head-lamps, the four set out for the South Ridge, trudging across the South Col terrain of flat rocks and then ice, living in a world illuminated by the beams of their lamps and the stars.

LaForest and Richey were first, followed by Rugo and then Wilcox. They climbed unattached to one another, with the general consensus being that if one climber fell, it was better to lose one than two.

Gradually, the terrain increased in steepness, eventually reaching the pitch of 45 degrees. Because they were on the lee side of the South Ridge, they had to break trail through deposits of snow which had been blown into the protected gulleys below the ridges.

At 5 a.m., five hours into the climb, the first rays of sunlight hit the South Ridge proper. The ridge dropped off steeply on either side, offering a 10,000 ft. tumble, into China on the right or into Nepal on the left, if they slipped.

By 6 a.m., they reached Everest's 28,500 ft. South Summit. Ahead lay a two hour ascent up a precipitous knife edge. "I wasn't prepared for the steepness of the route from the South Summit to the summit. I mean, we're talking a route which was definitely serious!" he said.

By that time the group was spreading out, with Richey and LaForest up front, followed by Wilcox, who was 40 minutes behind, and then Rugo, whom Wilcox had passed earlier. The least experienced high altitude climber of the four, Rugo appeared to have been pushing himself to stay up with LaForest and Richey, a tactic which later caught up with him, according to Wilcox.

Everest throws one last obstacle at the climbers, halfway between the South Summit and the true summit a 40 ft. cliff known as the Hillary Step, named after the man who in 1953 followed the same route to make the worlds first successful ascent - and descent - of the mountain.

To get over the Hillary Step, the New Englanders grabbed hold of the green ropes set by Athen's Sherpa expedition the week before, and then followed the low ridge across cornices of snow toward the 29,028 ft. summit.

Richey, celebrating his 33rd birthday, received the birthday present of a lifetime when he and LaForest reached the clear, windless summit at 8:30 a.m. They were on their way down the mountain when Wilcox passed them just below the summit.

Wilcox reached the summit himself just after 9:45 a.m. and was joined just after 10 a.m. by Rugo, who was beginning to show signs of fatigue. They got on the radio and talked with base camp, exultant and tearful, but not overly fatigued. "Brenda was watching me with a telescope from near base camp. Of course, she assumed I'd be last, being the old guy, so she was cheering on Barry the whole time, thinking it was me," he said.

They posed for each other's photos on the summit with the American flag, just like young Rick had always dreamed of back in those early days of climbing Mt. Washington.

He recalls feeling jubilant, having made the summit in ten hours, but in the back of his mind, he was also very much concerned about his depleted oxygen supply and getting out of there alive. As he noted, "it doesn't count in mountaineering if you don't make it down."

AT 10:30 AM., IT WAS TIME to leave the world's highest piece of real estate and begin the descent back to Camp IV.

Richey and LaForest reached the South Col camp first at noon. Rugo had trouble keeping up with Wilcox, but told him that he was feeling all right and that it was OK for him to go ahead. "The last thing I said to Barry was that I was going to go ahead because I knew I was going to run out of oxygen," said Wilcox.

Wilcox made good time descending the 1500 ft. snow slope below the South Ridge in 20 minutes, a route which had taken 5 hours to ascend. He reached Camp IV two and one half hours, arriving at 1 p.m.

An agonizing wait for Rugo ensued at Camp IV. Exhausted by their effort, Richey, LaForest and Wilcox melted ice to make drinking water and tapped into their oxygen supply. Their concern for Rugo increased when clouds and wind socked in just after 1 o'clock. They also knew that his oxygen supply had probably expired.

By 3 p.m., they were convinced Rugo had fallen off the South Ridge. Joining them at Camp IV was Sinclair who had climbed on his own from Camp III. He was suffering from respiratory problems, and he, too, was exhausted.

Finally at 5 p.m., the four climbers saw Rugo's dark blue figure at the top of the snow slope, a half-mile from the groups two tents. "We could see him through the clouds, now and then. He was at the top of the snow slope with no oxygen," said Wilcox.

The four discussed a possible rescue effort, but - harsh as it may sound - dismissed that plan because they were all too exhausted to leave their tents. They knew their own lives would be in peril if they tried such a mission.

They watched as Rugo arduously made his way down the slope, stopping and falling, and they wondered with each fall whether he would get up. He was having trouble in the same area where the the others had come across the bodies of four climbers, including Alaskan climber Ray Genet and his girlfriend, both of whom perished on their descent from Everest "six to eight years ago," according to Wilcox.

"Seeing him having trouble near the bodies made it all the more scary. We figured that was what happened to Ray and his girlfriend, they must have summited and then ran out of oxygen at the same place where Barry was in trouble," said Wilcox.

Wilcox was all the more apprehensive because he knew that Rugo's brother had died while climbing in the Himalayas ten years before.

Rugo reached the camp at 6:30 p.m., 18 1/2 hours after he had left the camp and eight hours after he had left the summit. Whereas the other three climbers had been able to retrace their steps in the snow during their morning descent, the afternoon wind had covered the tracks so Rugo was unable to descend at a steady pace. The clouds blocked his visibility, and the wind blew snow into his goggles. "He said he had to stop and wait for the clouds to break so he could see our tents on the South Col," said Wilcox.

When he reached camp, Rugo was given oxygen. "He was in better shape than we expected, so we kidded him. Then he collapsed. Watching him come down was the scariest part of the whole climb in terms of worrying about other people," Wilcox admitted.

The team had wanted only to spend two nights at Camp IV, but Rugo's late descent from the summit forced them to spend a third night at the camp at 26,000 ft. Together with Sinclair, they descended the morning of May 16. Wilcox said he felt strong, although Rugo, Richey and LaForest experienced some discomfort on the descent, due to their frostbitten feet, and Sinclair felt weakened.

Unlike most expeditions, they retrieved all their equipment from Camp III on down, with Chauvin coming up from base camp with a team of Sherpas to assist them.

It wasn't until everyone was back at base camp on May 19 that Wilcox began to feel relief. "The Khumbu ice fall just above base camp is where 50 percent of the accidents happen, so I wasn't really relaxed until all the Sherpas were back in camp the next day. It hit me that we had had a mission with a 50% success rate, and no injuries or deaths. That's when I laughed to myself and said, hey, this is going to surprise a few people," he related.

Impressed with the effort, the Nepalese government assured Wilcox that any future permit he sought would be granted within a year, quite a tribute when one considers that it took three years to obtain permission to climb Everest and five years overall to undertake the mission.

Richey has already been talking about another team climb - possibly up Kashmir's K2, at 28,250 ft., second in elevation only to Everest - but Wilcox is noncommittal for now, noting that he wants to tend to his business and watch his two young children, "grow for a few years".

Before leaving Nepal, at a victory celebration at the Rumdoodle Bar - a climber's hangout described by Wilcox as the "White Horse Pub of Kathmandu" - Wilcox, Rugo and Richey were given the ultimate honor. (LaForest had already departed for Canada and was not present.)

On a mounted board behind the bar containing all the signatures of climbers who have scaled Everest, the former Camp Tohkompeupog counselor and his friends were asked to sign their names.

Wilcox knew exactly where to put his. "I signed right between Sir Edmund Hillary and Jim Whitaker," he beamed.