So when did it all start? I suppose like most as a young teenager reading about Everest expeditions and particularly the early/mid seventies when Chris Bonnington, Doug Scott, Dougal Haston, Pete Boardman, et al were successfully strutting there stuff on Everest, Changabang, Annapurna and later Kangchenjunga itself.

Later in the mid eighties the YSS were in the throes of our Gouffre Berger expeditions of 86 & 88 and these became my focus. (Where I first met Chris Comerie.) However in 87 someYSS members decided the Berger was not for them but they planned a trip to Merra peak in the Khumbu. (Namely Garth Barstow, Neil Robinson, Jeff Knight, Bob Kletz, Alan Bailey,Mick Ineson).

They had an eventful but successful trip, which paved the way for future trips.

Life moved on, last September Chris put an article in the newsletter about the forthcoming Medex trip. A month or so later he was planning a weekend for expedition members as a get together, he rang me and I said I’d see him up there a was warden that weekend.

On the weekend I agreed to help out with leading a trip down Swinsto. The people I met were very friendly, but on the Sunday they started a planning meeting. A couple of years before at Jeff Knights surprise 40th birthday party Garth & Neil had the same thing, I really felt Out of it as maps, photos & kit came out, with talk of rest days, number of porters required etc. I was not going to miss out this time. I made my mind up there and then I would go on the Medex trip and stuff the cost!

Some planning meets were arranged in the Lakes in Jan & March, which I attended with Richard Oxley, he soon decided to go. John Hirst was also there and soon after confirmed his intentions, the YSS contingent was now 4.

Various weekends were arranged, climbing in the "Roaches", Scottish trips, even a camping weekend punting on the Cam and yes we did fall in! All good getting to know you weekends. The unique aspect of this trip was that the main purpose was medical research, monitoring the effects of high altitude on the body, looking at ways to combat altitude sickness along with some climbing objectives, Ramtang 6700m. & Tengkongma 6230m. So much so that in July 98, 60 or so assorted Medex members were being poked, prodded, wired up, bled and having the indignation to carry gallon containers of urine around London East End pubs & restaurants in the name of science!

Chris’s climbing team was separate to the Medex Expedition, but using the same base camp and involved with the research and some logistical support. Chris’s team left for Nepal mid August in the height of the monsoon, the rest of the Medex groups left at staggered intervals from mid September to early October. Richard & I were in the same group leaving on 20th Sept with John leaving a couple of weeks later. After having to overnight in Karachi our group 7 arrived finally in Kathmandu on the 22nd Sept. First culture shock the sights, sounds, smells, noise, colour & pollution of a Kathmandu mini bus journey to our hotel in Thamel, quite an experience in itself!

After settling in and completing a few formalities, (visa extensions, trekking permits, radio permits, climbing permits, national park permissions, dog licence) you get the gist, Richard, Bill & I hit the shops to purchase gear we could not ship from the UK. The next morning we were back at Kathmandu airport for a 10.00am flight to Biratnagar (40-seat turbo prop) in the Terai, from here we took a bus, a fantastic 6-hour journey from the plains to the roadhead at Basantnapur. At one point workers were still clearing flood debris from the road that held Chris’s team up 1 month earlier! We arrived at Basantnapur after dark where our Sirdar, Tenji and Sherpa guide Ongdi, met us, escorted us through the village to a meadow and our 1st camp at 2200m. (7200ft). When we awoke we were introduced to all the Sherpas, cook team & porters. Much jostling for the lightest loads, then after breakfast on our way.

Over the first 3 days we walked in monsoon conditions along the Milke Dande ridge reaching a maximum height of around 3100m. The going was fairly hard as we were up to almost 10,000ft having come up from just above sea level at Biratnagar, Richard & Sarah suffered with some kind of stomach bug and found it tough. We were all covered in leeches & soaking wet most of the time. Originally we were to fly in to a mountain airstrip at Suketar, but because of the late monsoon this was impossible.

After reaching the high point we descended down to the Kangchenjunga valley over the next couple of days to Dhoban at only 640m. We did have a brief glimpse of Kangchenjunga through binocs from around 50 miles away, but mostly it just kept on raining and was thick with leeches, most of the group getting the little buggers on them. They don’t really do any harm just make a mess of your clothes. Despite the crap weather we did find some Beer in the village, so that dulled the pain a little. On the 28th Sept. we carried on up the valley, numerous dangerous mudslides were crossed, one was still moving as we crossed and fell away to the raging river 100ft below us, that scared the crap Out of us! After a week of walking we had our 1st rest day at Chirwa at 1240m. it was a welcome relief to dry out some of our kit. It was the first time since setting out I had dry shoes & socks.

As we went into October we moved on up the valley crossing several dodgy suspension bridges, it was here that the first real mishap occurred. It was peeing down as usual, we had stopped for lunch the other side of the bridge, a porter was crossing with his load (Kates barrel) when we heard a thud. When we looked round the porter was hanging on the side of the bridge; the load crashing into boulders in the river some 50ft below, fortunately the porter was OK. Amazingly when retrieved both barrel & basket were still intact. Take care on wet suspension bridges!

The next day we started a really steep climb up a gorge, gaining 1700m. in height, we also had sun, yes SUN. The hottest day so far back at altitude and steep as hell. At one point we had to cross very exposed traverses, including one 200m. wide rockslide with a pile of hanging death above and a 1200m. sheer drop to river below, some of the footholds were 3 to 4 inches wide and there were rocks whistling past your ears!! - scary!! - god knows how the porters managed to get their loads across that - they’re bloody amazing. By 4th Oct. we reached Ghunsa, a Tibetan settlement at 3300m. (11,200ft), about 50 houses and 200 villagers. It is the only village of any size in the upper valley and has a school, police post & post office & helipad. We took our second rest day here. I said rest day but the group all 7 of us went up towards the Lapsang La pass at 5900m. for acclimatisation. Kate & I went to 4100m. on the Yamatari glacier and saw a peak called Boktoh 6200m. Its north face sheer for over 1500m. We descended back to Ghunsa to sleep.

This is where we became aware of another problem, the group a week in front of us were at Kambachen the only village between Ghunsa & Kangchenjunga. One of the group MaIc Dyson was quite ill, he had to be got down the valley by his team. Mark Howarth, Rick & Gill Haveley (who were later to make up my climbing partners on Tengkongma) were slowly bringing him down the valley. He had suspected typhoid and kidney failure. Paul Richards in our group was the expedition doctor who agreed to stay in Ghunsa with Mark (also a doctor) to look after him until we could arrange helicopter evacuation. We passed them on the way up to Kambachen (4000m.) where we now had to act as radio relay between base camp (with satellite phone) & Ghunsa to arrange the helicopter. This was quite fortunate as we needed an acclimatisation day anyway. The next day a helicopter landed at Ghunsa with medical staff on board MaIc was evacuated firstly to Kathmandu then to UK where Typhoid was confirmed as diagnosed. He has since made a full recovery. It shows what you take for granted, it took a well co-ordinated effort by expedition members to resolve the situation and good contact with our agent Bikrum in Kathmandu. We were very fortunate to have technology on our side with the solar powered satellite phone at base camp. Once the emergency was over we could take in the scenery majestic Jannu 7719m. shaped like an eagle with wings outstretched, its huge NW face over 2000 sheer metres of snow & ice, still not successfully climbed by that route, the twin peaks of Phole 6645m. spectacular beauty.

Things could now get back to normal for a while, on the 8th October we set off up to our last camp before base camp Lhonak at 4600m. (over 15,000ft). On the walk up it was really starting to affect everyone’s breathing. Bill in particular was suffering, I started to get a headache. We were soon in the moraine of the Kangchenjunga glacier, its huge, route finding was extremely difficult, even the Sherpas were having problems, the altitude compounded everything especially when you had to backtrack. Although noticing a little wildlife a couple of Lamigars & a few Marmots did take your mind off trying to breathe. We finally reached Lhonak at 4.30pm.The campsite was in a flat-bottomed glaciated valley, surrounded by glittering 7000m. peaks, Sharpu, Mera & Chang Himal (Wedge Peak) with frequent avalanches being despatched onto the Kanch glacier far below – awesome.

The next day dawned, initially we were going to have another acclimatisation day, awaiting Paul, Mark, Rick & Gill who were on their way up from Kambachen. There was another camp near ours, which turned out belonged to Doug Scott of all people! He was attempting Dhromo 6950m. by a new route with Roger Mears, I found out from his Sirdar that he had already climbed Tengkongma to acclimatise, just maybe we could get to talk to him on his return to camp.

How plans change! Bill had been suffering with his breathing for at least 3 days, he was hyperventilating, could not sleep & had headaches, he also hadn’t properly shaken off a flu type bug from early on in the trek. After numerous radio calls between Paul, base camp & myself it was realised that Bill had to be evacuated out he had classic AMS (Altitude Mountain Sickness) symptoms. I volunteered along with Tenji to walk Bill back to Kambachen, the helicopter would be working close to its ceiling, provisionally it would be arranged for tomorrow.

We set off quite late around 2.OOpm. this gave us less than 4 hours daylight, as Bill was so bad this was not going to be easy. The walk back was very cold, odd snow flurries didn’t help, we arrived in Kambachen at dusk, Bill was in a poor condition. That night we stayed in a Tibetan lodge, the owner knew Tenji and we were well looked after. Next day Bill was only a little better for the lower altitude, he was a little emotional and very down. Our Medex leader Dr. Simon Currin and his group arrived at Kambachen that morning so medical assessment was at hand to check Bill out. Many Radio calls ensued, you would not believe the red tape you have to go through to organise a helicopter evacuation. Finally just when it appeared that we would have to wait for another day out of the cloud appeared the chopper. It was on the ground literally a couple of minutes never switching off the rotors, then off it disappeared into the cloud whisking Bill back to Kathmandu. He safely arrived back in the UK a few days later, it took him a few weeks to feel fully recovered.

This was turning out to be quite an eventful trip! Emergency over I set back off the next day to Lhonak in the company of Simons group. The walk back up to Lhonak was a lot easier the second time around for me. I knew the route by now and the descent & re-ascent had aided my acclimatisation. I arrived back at Lhonak and was amazed at the number of tents. There were 3 Medex groups, Doug Scott, A Japanese group, some Aussies & a German group most of these trekers were on the way down from visiting Pangpema base camp for a day. When I got sorted out at camp I was told Chris had come down to Lhonak with Mark Bryan (his climbing partner). They were meeting Doug Scott to discuss the route on Kanch. They were resting having pushed the route to the North Col at 7000m. I went over to say hello to Chris and was invited to have lunch with Doug Scott. All this way and bump into one of your adventure hero’s! Doug was a charming guy, both he and Roger gave me some valuable information on Tengkongma. Later that night we had a Medex party with Doug & Roger as dinner guests.

The next morning 12th Oct. we woke early to a beautiful clear sunny sky, the intensity of colour has to be seen to be believed, after breakfast we set off for our final destination on the trek Pangpema & base camp. I started out with Chris, but as he was well acclimatised he was soon way in front, Richard & I walked steadily admiring the wonderful mountain scenery & taking photos. We followed the edge of a lateral moraine up to around 5300m. where we got our first glimpse of base camp in the distance. We saw Wedge Peak shed a mighty avalanche again. Then we rounded a ridge off Wedge Peak and saw in all its glory the North Face of Kangchenjunga "The 5 Treasure Houses of Great Snows" absolutely dwarfing everything else around. I was totally in awe of this tremendous mountain, the sheer size & presence of this mountain will live with me forever. Tonight I would be camping under the shadow of the world’s third highest mountain.

The next day was spent resting, catching up with news of the other groups, having experiments done, blood collected etc. and trying to cope with the altitude. I also made plans to attempt Tengkongma with Rick, Gill & Mark in a few days time. On the 14th Oct. I went for an acclimatisation walk towards Drohmo & the broken glacier with Richard Weller who would later be attempting Ramtang peak. We ascended some very scary/ loose boulder slopes for around 300m. then Richard decided to return to base to do some research. I carried on alone over some very loose dangerous terrain to get miraculous views of Dhromo. The peace and quiet was spiritual - the isolation - at that moment I was the only person in the world - weird!! I got to around 5400m. had some food & then made my descent. It was extremely steep & loose, quite dangerous, it took all my concentration to keep a grip, I had never been so mentally exhausted before. I got back down to base camp pretty shattered with around 1/2 hour’s daylight left. Tomorrow Mark, Rick, Gill, Ian, Dawa & I would have a recce on the route up to Tengkongma.

It was now 15th Oct, Mark, Rick, Gill, Ian, Dawa, Sera & I set off to recce Tengkongma, we went up a fairly serious route close to my walk yesterday. It was very loose & dangerous again, the boulder chaos from the Dhromo glacier is lethal. After trying several gullies & routes, Sera found a possible site for our high camp at 5500m. (18,000ft) just below the icefall on Tengkongma. This was the first time we had a close up of "Our" mountain, the SE face was very heavily corniced & there were some dangerous looking seracs on the route up from the glacier to the NW ridge. This mountain was little known but thought to be not too difficult, the only recorded "Official" ascent being by the Swiss in 1939. It certainly didn’t look a pushover! On the way down I managed to get some way up a steep rocky gully, this appeared to go up to the icefall from the valley bottom, a possible route in. We got back to base camp around 5.00pm. after a full day out. I had headache again.

The next day was spent resting at base camp, getting involved in the experiments and preparing gear for the attempt. Ronnie Robb and his group had arrived at base camp, Ronnie would be attempting Tengkongma with his team a few days after us. We told him the information we had gathered and would update him on our return.

The 17th of October. This was to turn out an eventful 24 hours, I set off with Mark, Rick, Gill & Dawa. Ongdi & Dhoje were coming as far as high camp to help take up climbing gear & tents then return to base camp, leaving us at the icefall for our summit attempt the next day. Things didn’t start too well, one minute Ongdi & Dhoje were fairly close behind, then some minutes later when I looked they were gone! They had veered up a really steep rocky slope we had reccied earlier. After many shouts & confusing arm waving we had no option but to follow. Half my water supply was with Ongdi we had to go after them. The slope was unrelenting, the sun was hot, however I was taking measured stints of upward progress, it was hard work but I seemed to be going well, I was quite a bit in front of the others. Crossing a few hairy screes we reached a high rocky ridge at around 5800m. (19,000ft), to my amazement we were looking down on the icefall & camp some 250 - 300m below. Like small ants we saw Ongdi & Dhoje going down the gully I had seen yesterday on their way back to base camp!

The descent towards the gully was extremely loose, steep, downright dangerous, I was grateful I had my Mountain boots on. After an hour or so we finally were in the gully about 100m. below the icefall & camp, possibly 500m. in horizontal distance. This was when I began to feel very ill, I had a stinking headache, could only manage a few metres before having to rest and felt like being sick. Worse I had little water left, the rest being at the camp, Rick took my sack brave man, that made things a little easier but I still couldn’t keep up. Mark & Dawa were already at high camp and unaware of my problems . We were in and out of a huge boulders and although not far from them out of sight. Gill stayed with me urging me on and sharing her water, Rick by now was out of sight. With Gills help I finally made high camp, the last 100m. taking over an hour. At camp, after more water and rest I tried to move about, briefly admiring the beauty of the icefall and the glacier above leading to the summit ridge of Tengkongma. That was as far as I got, from after that my recollections were to say the least vague. From what I have since learned from Mark, the rest of the day went something like this.

Rick, Gill & Dawa cramponned up and went to find a way through the icefall, Mark stayed with me and got me in my tent & sleeping bag. He gave me some paracetamol for my headache & told me to rest and checked on me at intervals. Within an hour I was worse, the AMS symptoms were developing further, Mark suspected I had HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Oedema). He radioed base camp and discussed my condition with specialists in this. The others had returned and were very concerned. Mark decided the only course of action was immediate descent. It was now 5.OOpm it would be dark in an hour. The prospect of going down the 600m. gully in darkness was not a pleasant thought. A team was despatched from base camp to meet us in the gully with medication / oxygen. Mark & Gill helped me get my down gear & boots on, by now it was very cold well below zero. I couldn’t stand I appeared drunk (I know that’s not unusual but in this case it was different!). Mark gave me some Diamox & Dexamethasone, which I promptly threw up, he tried water, the same result. He made one last radio call to tell base that we were starting our descent. Rick, Gill, Mark & Dawa did sterling work getting me down the first section, it was now dark & we were descending by head torch, the visibility was bad also & there were snow flurries.

Progress was painfully slow, I could only manage a short way before I needed rest. I was drifting in & out of consciousness. Mark gave me some more medication, which apparently I kept down. Gill was having a hard time keeping me awake at frequent rest stops. Mark thought several times that they were losing me. Rick managed to contact the base camp rescue party on the radio, they were now in the gully, visibility was awful. Finally, we were met by Paul, Gerald, Ian, Tenji & Ongdi at around 5200m. Paul gave me oxygen and an injection of Dexamethasone, after this and more oxygen whiffs I began to realise what was happening. Still requiring help we carried on down, the others were falling, Mark damaged his knee in a fall, Dawa severely cut his hand. At 1130pm. we finally reached the valley bottom over 6 hours to get down. Everyone agreed the descent was one of their worst ever experiences. Paul stayed with me overnight in a makeshift camp to keep an eye on me. The next day after more medication & oxygen I was able to walk back to base camp with Paul. Mark, Rick, Gill & Ian set off down to Lhonak to meet up with the rest of their group for the walk out. I will be eternally grateful to those guys for what they did.

Arriving back at base camp everyone was relieved, even the guys high on Kanch wished me a speedy recovery. I spent the day taking things very easy & knew there would be no 2nd attempt with Ronnies crew - Doctors Orders! We heard good news on the radio, Ramtang had been summitted by Uli Steiner & Richard Weller.

The next day I awoke to 3" of snow outside the tent, the weather had certainly taken a turn for the worse. Ronnie & his team set off to Tengkongma, I wished them luck, and at least they could use our high camp. Later that day I was in the radio tent when a call came in from Chris high on Kanch. In a very slow & deliberate voice full of emotion, he described their precarious position from a snow hole at the Castle 7400m up on the North ridge of Kanch. It must have been heartbreaking to have to make that decision. There was really no choice, all that mattered to everyone was their safe return to base camp. I really felt for Chris, the effort he had put in not only organising the trip, but the extremely hard climbing he had done to get a shot at the summit. It saddened everyone on the expedition. Later that day we heard Chris & Mark had made it back to camp 3 on the North Col safely & relatively straight forward trip down fixed rope to camp 2.

The mixture of emotions on this trip, elation followed by despair were beginning to be commonly experienced by many. After 2 days since my little adventure I still had severe headaches, they weren’t getting any better, after discussion with the docs I decided to go down to Kambachen then to Ghunsa. I left with Temba our cook boy at about 11.00am. At Lhonak I met up with our two trekking groups 1 & 2, they were on their way up to base camp. It was here I was reunited with John Hirst, I exchanged news took some photos and carried on to Kambachen, after staying overnight we carried on down to Ghunsa. My headache had gone. I stayed at a trekking lodge to wait for the rest of my group for the walk out. Temba left the next day to go back up to Pangpema. At Ghunsa it gave me the opportunity to shower (1st time on trek so far!) & wash clothes. After I had been in Ghunsa a couple of days Ronnies group arrived back on their way out. Chris and all the Kanch team were fine, 3 more ascents of Ramtang were made. Unfortunately Ronnie did not summit Tengkongma, he got to about 200m. from the top but there were very dangerous wind slab areas plus toppling seracs. He had been over 7000m. on Everest and reckoned that the conditions on Tengkongma were not worth the risk. So for Medex Tengkongma remained unclimbed, I was sorry for Ronnie, it would have been nice for someone to get there after all the effort.

A couple more days passed and Chris & the rest of the climbing team arrived back in Ghunsa, Chris even brought some conkers out from England & taught the village kids how to play. Nice one Chris, it was good to see his sense of humour was still in tact. The next day all the rest of the groups came back to Ghunsa & I was reunited with my team. The only person left at Pangpema was the base camp Sirdar awaiting a helicopter to ferry out the research & climbing equipment. The next day the helicopter arrived a Russian MI-17 that ferried the gear from base camp to Ghunsa in two trips. Our group were left to organise loading the kit back on to the helicopter, 2.8 tonnes of kit, the take off back to Kathmandu was very dodgey, at one point we didn’t think it would make it. Those pilots certainly earn their money.

It was now the 28th Oct, our flight from Suketar was booked for the 2nd of Nov. 5 days to walk out. The going was much more pleasant than on the way in, the trail was mostly dry, warm & sunny, there was no rain at all, and NO LEECHES!! The only drawback our group had was that we exited 1 day behind Chris’s team. Every lodge & teahouse we came across on the trail had been drunk dry by them!

The walk back down the Ghunsa Khola valley was superb, bright sunshine, warm with tremendous views. Flowers were still in bloom, lots of strange looking and sounding birds, we were all very fit so even the few ups were no real problem. We finally caught up with Chris’s & Simon’s groups at Chirwa, where we finally had some beer and a party! Over the next two days we had the most wonderful walking I think I’ve ever had arriving at the airstrip at Suketar on the 1st of November. Here we had a big party for all the Sirdars, Sherpas & Porters, tipped them and said fond goodbyes. We flew out of Suketar on the 2nd, an exhilarating take off, not as steep as Lukla apparently but still a bit hairy. We arrived safely back in Kathmandu later that day and back to the hotel. New experiences here, using a proper toilet & sleeping in a real bed for the first time in over 40 days! - Sheer bliss!!

All the groups were now in Kathmandu together, people partied, shopped till they dropped and went sight seeing a wonderful time. On bonfire night our agent Bikrum had organised a cocktail reception & dinner for the expedition, with The British Ambassador & Nepalese Government representatives in attendance - quite a posh do. On Friday 6th Nov. we left Kathmandu arriving back in England in the early hours of Saturday morning feeling pretty jet lagged after over 30 hours travelling. At Manchester Richard & I were kindly met by Johnny Allsopp and swiftly transported us to our homes. What an adventure! I can’t wait to go out there again.