My four previous attempts

August 1991: ascent via the North face and the Hornbein corridor in August 1991 in the middle of a monsoon. Because of the frequent falls of snow and avalanches, we were unable to get past the foot of the Hornbein corridor (7 200 m) where camp 2 was located. An immense rocky outcrop, usually bare, was completely shrouded in snow.

Autumn 1992: ascent via the classic route of the South Col as part of an expedition led by the French mountaineer, Bernard Muller. Since, for business reasons, I had been unable to join the expedition in time, I had decided to acclimatize in Belgium using the decompression chamber method kindly made available to me by the Belgian Air Force. But on account of the tragic events unfolding at the time in the former Yugoslavia, the chamber was requisitioned by the Army. As a result, I arrived in the Himalayas very late and without being able to acclimatize to the altitude. Just six days after arriving at base camp, I reached the South Col. I then made an attempt on the summit while most of the other expeditions were in the process of leaving the mountain. Result; at 8 400 metres, in magnificent weather, I suffered a violent attack of nausea and, without doubt, an incipient pulmonary oedema.

Autumn 1994: as with my attempt in 1992, I set off on an expedition with Bernard Muller and chose the classic route, without oxygen. Once again, bad luck was to work against me. Despite being in great physical shape, we were hit by violent winds of more than 160 km/h once we reached the South Col. We waited there for two nights, holed up snugly in our tent. As the bad weather was showing no signs of abating, we were forced to go back down without attempting a fresh ascent.

Autumn 1996: once again as part of a Muller expedition, this time I was accompanied by Didier Goetghebuer and Daniel Mercier, a French mountaineer with whom I will be attempting a world first in the Antarctic at the end of the year 2000. After the traditional phase of acclimatisation, we were ready to make an attempt on the summit when a group of climbers in mid-ascent towards the South Col was overwhelmed by an enormous avalanche hurtling down the Lhotse slopes; the avalanche had no doubt been set off by the sudden break in a ledge of the summit ridge of the neighbour to Everest. This avalanche cost the lives of three climbers, including two sherpas and injured Manaram's back. We then had to retrieve the bodies and take them back down the mountain, which naturally held up our progress. Despite the fact that the sherpas were traumatised by this dramatic accident and were refusing to go back up the mountain, we set out to fit out the route again so that we could make a final attempt. Making our way as best we could to the place called "Genevan Spur" (7 800 metres), we were beset by bad weather and violent winds: as a safety measure, the expedition was halted and we had to climb back down to the base camp, thus abandoning all hope of making the climb again that year.