Harvard Business Publishing | 1_EVEREST_INTRO MOVIE_FINAL

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NARRATOR: At 29,028 feet or nine kilometers above sea level, Mount Everest is the highest point on Earth.

Thousands have tried to conquer the ascent to its summit, hundreds have died trying. Its

upper reaches are hostile to human life. Winds routinely reach hurricane force, temperatures

induce frostbite, and only 30% of sea-level oxygen is available for breathing. Weather patterns
can change in an instant inducing blinding white-out conditions.

JAMES P. When our team went to Everest, we were comprised of eight paying climbers, four guides, 55

CLARKE: Sherpa support personnel, and 120 yaks. This yak team carried a total of four 1/2 tons of

supplies and gear to the base camp. The packing list was over four pages in length. And as it
turned out, virtually every item on it was absolutely essential at some point to the climb. I
believe I had approximately 130 pounds of checked baggage that I took to Nepal.

NARRATOR: Situated between Nepal and Tibet, just reaching Everest is a challenge. For climbers taking in
the South Col route, the journey begins in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

JAMES P. The team first met up in Kathmandu and spent one or two days organizing and checking the
CLARKE: equipment and discussing the plan for the climb. And then we took a helicopter and relocated

to a town in the Solukhumbu region called Namche Bazaar and it is at approximately 8,000
feet in elevation. And there, we spent one week acclimatizing.

Acclimatization is a very large component of the plan for the Everest climb. The human body's

ability to acclimatize is more physiological in nature. It has to do with the ability of the blood

cells to extract oxygen from the air. This can be improved over time if people are exposed to a
higher elevation, but only up to a certain level. It's generally thought that we are not able to

acclimatize much beyond 20 or 21, 000 feet.

The trek to base camp for Namche Bazaar takes approximately one week. We would try to

gain altitude, roughly 1,000 feet a day, which is not too much. Again, just to be very careful for

the acclimatizing. And then after arriving in base camp at roughly 17,500 feet, we spend
another couple of days training at the base of what is called the Khumbu Icefall.

NARRATOR: There are four camps above base camp used by climbers on their ascent to the summit of
Mount Everest. Your sherpas will descend ahead of you in order to prepare these camps for
 Mount Everest. Your sherpas will descend ahead of you in order to prepare these camps for

your arrival. The first stop the after base camp is Camp 1 located 19,500 feet above sea level.

To reach it, you'll need to traverse the Khumbu Icefall.

JAMES P. What makes the Khumbu Icefall particularly difficult and dangerous is that it is a glacier and it

CLARKE: is essentially a river of solid ice which does move several feet a day. And as a result, there are

a very large ice blocks and snow formations which are inherently unstable. There are large
crevasses which have to be spanned using ropes and in some cases aluminum ladders, which

are lashed together and the climbers cross these to get across the Khumbu Icefall.

NARRATOR: Next, you'll climb to Camp 2 located at over 21,000 feet. Camp 3 at over 23,500 feet already

has only half of the oxygen available at sea level. This is the last stop before that death zone,

where climb and altitude make it unsafe for climbers to stay for extended durations.

JAMES P. The death zone is called as such because the amount of oxygen remaining in the air is below
CLARKE: the level that can sustain life over a period of time. So it is possible to be in the death zone for

a brief period of time without oxygen, but the body cannot process enough oxygen out of the

air to sustain itself, and a prolonged period of time in the death zone will result in just that.

NARRATOR: Hiking at this altitude, your body begins retreating into survival mode. You burn 12 to 15,000
calories a day, yet you rarely feel hungry. Most climbers will begin using supplemental oxygen

at this point.

Camp 4 at 26,000 feet is at twice the height of the tallest peak in the American Rockies, or

more than two miles higher than the tallest point in the European Alps. This is your final resting

area before mounting the summit attempt.

JAMES P. The climax of an Everest expedition is of course the summit bid. So ideally, the movement

CLARKE: would move from Camp 3 late morning or early afternoon up to Camp 4 and then rest a few

hours, and then start the summit bit itself, which begins overnight. It's an exceptionally difficult

environment for several factors. The primary one being the lack of oxygen.

Even with the supplemental oxygen you find yourself breathing 8 to 12 times for every step.

You can stagger for a couple of strides and then you're breathing another 8 to 12 heavy

breaths, which seems hard to believe, but you do experience it that way. And that's why it

takes so long.

That night, when I came out of the tent at 11:00 PM there was this incredible ceiling of stars
 horizon to horizon, just so clear. And the snow condition was pretty good. I just remember
having such a heightened sense of feeling, like the sound of the snow crunching under my

feet, my breathing-- which became my entire existence up there with those 8 to 12 breaths for

every step. But then, beginning to make that steady progress upwards and knowing that this is

something I trained for and mentally prepared for and dreamed about for years.

After clearing the Hillary Step, you do get your first direct line of sight to the summit. At that
point, it still could be an hour's walk away, but it's only 200 or 300 further yards to walk and it's

not much elevation to gain. And at that point, you basically know, you can be very confident

that you're going to make it and your anticipation grows and grows.

We reached the summit, I believe it was around 10:00 in the morning or 10:30 in the morning.

And it's about the size of a small living room. And often, there will be Buddhist prayer flags left
up there by previous climbing expeditions. And our team certainly left some sets of prayer

flags up there, as well.

I was at the summit for roughly 12 minutes, enough time to congratulate some of the other

climbers and to take a few pictures. And just have that sense to slowly stand and turn in 360

degrees and just contemplate for a moment what we had achieved.

NARRATOR: With skill, teamwork, and luck, you will reach the summit. You are nine kilometers above sea

level at 29,028 feet. You have a few short minutes to take in the view from the top of the world.

Are you ready to meet your team and begin your journey? Everest awaits.

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