Mountaineering: This is an account of the seventh Irish ascent of Mount Everest, and the first by an Irish woman climbing from the north side. In part one, Grania Willis explains her motivation and transition from the comparatively more dangerous world of equestrian three-day eventing to her climbing of Mount Everest, writes Frank Nugent
She does not hide her self-belief or competitive nature. She profiles herself as a party animal, someone with a wicked sense of humour, and chronicles her early life and pursuit of equestrian sport, brought to an abrupt end by a serious back injury. The writing style is fluid and quickly brings the reader through her many accidents, operations and life-threatening injuries, to her decision to "quit the saddle" and participation in a trek to Nepal in 2002. A flight over Everest started her thinking about climbing the most hauntingly beautiful thing she had ever seen. Reading a book by a young man who had broken his back in a parachuting accident and later climbed Everest consolidated her resolve. A return trek to Everest base camp during which which she reached an altitude of 5,545m resulted in her leaving Kathmandu "in love with Everest".
A voluntary severance package from The Irish Times in September 2003 facilitated the rapid realisation of her dream. She initiated a mountain training programme with the help of friends and mountain guide Robbie Fenlon, which included outings in Ireland, Scotland and the French Alps. In 2004, she climbed two 6,000m trekking peaks. On Fenlon's advice she contacted New Zealander Russell Brice, who operates very successful commercial expeditions to Cho Oyu and Everest. She secured places on his October 2004 Cho Oyu and summer 2005 Everest expeditions.
Willis relates a telephone conversation with mountaineer Dermot Somers, who advised against her plan to participate in a commercial expedition. "You need to be independent, self-reliant, and that only comes with years of experience," he said. She rebuts his advice, writing that the screening process "and the mountain itself will usually weed out the weakest before they become a danger to themselves or to others".
Part two of the book focuses on the Everest climb. She relates the relationship-building with fellow Everesters during the acclimatisation period on the lower slopes and camps; the tortuous waiting for a settled weather window, and later her unsure relationship with Karsang - her assigned Sherpa. She explains the Himex Team commercial structure orchestrated by Russell Brice, which supported 37 of the 60 climbers who successfully reached the summit out of the 400 climbers who attempted the mountain last summer. Fixed ropes extend from the foot of the North Col from one camp to the next to within the final slope of the summit. In some places there is a rope for those going up and another for those coming down. Each camp is supplied with tents, sleeping mats and oxygen put in place in advance by teams of Sherpas. Willis shares her feelings, fears and joys as she ascends and meets other climbers in descent, some with the wrap-around grins of success and others sick and exhausted with the vacant glaze of defeat. She gives details of the deaths of six climbers - all men - who paid the ultimate price. She tells of the horror of passing dead bodies, one of someone she had known and spoken to at base-camp.
This is a flowing, honest and modern telling of how Mount Everest is climbed today. The system facilitated Grania Willis, a 49-year-old "ordinary woman" with loads of pluck and determination, to achieve her dream of climbing the mountain.
I hope she continues her climbing career and invests in further developing her undoubted climbing ability with her many new friends and that she's prepared to take on the sharp end of the rope as "purists" do on non-commercial climbing expeditions. I'd prefer to see her climbing peaks under her own steam, than be hand-held on a celebrity quest for the "Seven Summits" or other such commercial ventures. Self-reliance is an absolute pre-requisite for peer and self-respect among ordinary mountaineers.
Frank Nugent is a mountaineer, deputy leader of the First Irish Ascent of Everest 1993, former chairman of the Mountaineering Council of Ireland and author of Seek the Frozen Lands: Irish Arctic Explorers 1740-1922 (Collins Press 2003)
Total High: My Everest Challenge. By Grania Willis, Red Rock Press, 216pp. €14.99