April 1999 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
April
1999
Thursday 15th,
April 1999
The lure of Everest and succeeding in conquering it endures. Alain Hubert is not the only Belgian to be making an assault on the giant. In fact, there are three other pretenders. They may certainly be less qualified and less experienced than Alain, but they are pretenders nonetheless. And the reason for telling you this little story today is to illustrate the way things happen in the foothills of the Himalayas. First point: in order to avoid going through the administrative mill that takes up so much time and energy, serious mountaineers often become involved in commercial expeditions. By doing so, they no longer have to deal with the paperwork, permits, logistics and organisation involved and, in principle, they simply arrive at base camp, fresh and ready to go. There, they can share in the infrastructure of the expedition that they are part of, but still remain in control of their choice of tactics for making the climb. This is exactly what happened with Alain Hubert. For his previous attempts, he was part of expeditions run by the French climber, Bernard Muller - in 1992, 1994 and 1996. This time, though, he has found a small Belgian agency "Montagnes du Monde" which, as its name suggests, specialises in high altitude trips to the Alps, the Andes and also the Himalayas - whether simply trekking or as fully-fledged expeditions. Leading this particular company is Pascal Debrouwer, 
formerly a sergeant from the Ardennes Chasseurs, who has been on unpaid
leave for the past three years. Just like Alain, Pascal has always been
fascinated by really big mountains and has already tried Everest twice.
Short anecdote: two years ago, the ex-sergeant reached the final storage
spot before the summit, 8 300 metres up the mountain. It was then that
he realised that he had been robbed. "No
doubt some unscrupulous Russian climbers,"
he explains when asked. With no stove, no reserves of food and no jumar,
there was no question of trying to reach the summit. So Pascal had to
come down again.This time, his little agency - i.e. him - has handled all the infrastructure side of the expedition that Hubert has joined. He has spent the vital acclimatisation part of the climb in the area around the Makalu base camp accompanied by four other people in the expedition: the high mountain guide with whom he usually works, Joao Garcia (a Portuguese climber), a French client, Vincent Propotopof (who wants to make the climb via the Hornbein), a Belgian tourist who has been in Katmandu for a number of months, Jean-Marc Monterisi, and the sherpa cook with whom he has been working for a number of years, Langpa Sherpa. In fact, their outing at altitude did not go at all well: poor weather, numerous avalanches (despite the lack of snow this year), waiting for the less fit climbers (Monterisi and Propotopof) at the top of the cols, a rock that struck Pascal on the knee, causing him to wonder for a while whether this incident was going to prevent the expedition from continuing. Third Belgian: Luc Fonteyn. An unknown from the battalion of climbers, but who has nonetheless succeeded in finding a small sponsor (software publishers, Sybase) to go to Everest. In fact, Fontyn is a salesmen for a company that makes sports and business clothes. The highest mountain he has ever succeeded in climbing is Mont Blanc; but it would appear that the medical tests have shown his physical and mental fitness to be sufficient for him to make an attempt on the world's highest mountain without oxygen (the website editors will try to find out more about him). His acclimatisation: 17 days of trekking in the Khumbu region, totalling 170 km of trails, 11 500 metres of change in altitude, 4 nights spent up above 5 000 metres and two above 5 500 metres. Final compatriot: Jean-Marc Monteresi, who we have already mentioned and about whom nothing is known except that he has been living in Katmandu for a number of months and who made the most of a trip to Pascal's Nepalese capital to ask him to be part of the team; it was only after an interview covering his ability and background that the sergeant agreed to take him. In addition to the Belgians, there are a number of other people in the expedition: Pascal's assistant, Joao Garcia, who is Portuguese, two Brazilians who are trying for the summit for the third time in tandem, Helena and Paolo Pinto - plus, of course, the indispensable cooks and sherpas.
|
