Leader of Everest team had close call

The leader of the Irish Everest expedition, Pat Falvey, says he owes his life to his Sherpa colleagues, Pemba Rinji and Nima, after he developed early signs of altitude sickness on his descent from the mountain.

Speaking to The Irish Times by satellite phone from Camp Two, 21,000 feet up the southern side of the mountain, Falvey described how he got into trouble about 130 feet from the summit as the deputy leader of the expedition, Mick Murphy, and fellow team member Ger McDonnell were forging ahead to the top early on Thursday.

"If our climbing sirdar, Pemba Rinji, hadn't stayed with me, I am not sure if I would have got down. I got a dose of cerebral oedema, lost my white vision, couldn't see the steps in front of me and had a bad seven hours. But I am a donkey and I'm much better now," Falvey said.

The Cork adventurer, who became the second Irishman to climb Everest when he ascended by the North Ridge route in 1995, said that he picked up a bad bottle of oxygen and developed hypoxia. "I stopped at the South Summit and Nima Sherpa wouldn't go on without me. He waited hours for me in a blizzard. Then Ger and Pemba put me on a rope and took me down to the South Col."

Falvey explained that Hannah Shields (37), the Derry dentist, had developed frostbite and exhaustion and also had to retreat from the South Summit. "I cried for Hannah, and for Clare O'Leary, who had to descend earlier in the week, but they gave it their best shot. We are all delighted for Mick and Ger, and all I can say is that we had a wonderful team and there wasn't a bad word exchanged between us in the 80 days we have been together on this mountain."

The four climbers have one more hazardous section of the mountain to negotiate - the treacherous Khumbu ice fall - when they return to Base Camp today. Falvey said that the weather was breaking up and no further attempts to reach the summit would be made.

However, the Northern Ireland expedition on the opposite side of the mountain says that it intends to make one more attempt after two of its climbers reached the Second Step, which is within 1,000 feet of the summit, before being driven back by high winds.

Richard Dougan, the team leader, broke several days' silence when he made contact by satellite phone yesterday.

He described how he and fellow-climber David Sharp had set off on Thursday in moderate snow and wind.

They cleared the First Step and reached the top of the Second Step, two rockfaces which are the final obstacles before the summit.

A spokesman, Mr David Malone, said that the two Northern climbers had to turn back when they were just 280 vertical metres from the peak.

A Nepalese Sherpa set a record for the fastest ascent of Everest yesterday by reaching the summit in 12 hours and 45 minutes, the Nepal Tourism Ministry said.

The record comes a week before the 50th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay and it was achieved on the same route they had pioneered. Pemba Dorjie Sherpa (25) started out from Base Camp at 17,550 feet at 5 p.m local time on Thursday and reached the summit on Friday morning. Normally, climbers take about a week to get from Base Camp to the top of the 29,035-foot mountain.