Without Oxygen Endeavour: Everest

Is it possible to climb Everest

and stand on its summit at over 29,000 feet without oxygen?

Even more important, is it possible to return

without fatal brain damage or madness?

The pilot and crew of this plane

have been using their masks from 10,000 feet,

but Reinhold Messner has used nothing.

As they climb towards the summit,

he wants to see what happens.

Will he be able to stay conscious and rational?

On this flight, I could only feel that it is possible

to stay doing nothing on the top of Everest

and enjoying the view, enjoying the climb.

But flying up about 30,000 feet without oxygen,

that is not a proof that we can go

with our forces above the top of Everest,

near the top of Everest without oxygen.

It was only proof that we can stay there not dying

and enjoying the whole mountain area

and the whole climb.

Not dying? But of course he is.

Man cannot survive for long periods over 18,000 feet.

This is the lower limit of the death zone,

where the human body steadily deteriorates.

How long is it possible to survive at 29,000 feet?

No-one quite knows.

Namche Bazaar is at an altitude of 11,300 feet.

And the Sherpas live and work there as if it were at sea level.

The way oxygen is bound to their red blood corpuscles

is different from Europeans.

Perhaps as a result of living

thousands of years above 10,000 feet,

a genetic adaptation has taken place,

accounting for their extraordinary fitness at high altitude.

For Europeans, there is no easy way.

It's the treadmill of extreme physical fitness

and gradual high-altitude acclimatisation.

Peter Habeler is a ski instructor from Austria.

The climbs he has done with Reinhold Messner from the Italian Tyrol

have astounded the climbing world.

Accompanying them to film at high altitude

and to make his own oxygen-free attempt is Welshman Eric Jones.

Leo Dickinson, Britain's leading adventure film-maker,

intends to go with them as high as possible.

The approach march is a key part of every Himalayan climb.

It enables the body to adapt to the scarcity of oxygen.

If a helicopter is used to fly unacclimatised mountaineers

direct to Everest base camp at 18,000 feet,

within hours, they would collapse,

gasping for air, acutely sick and exhausted.

If no oxygen were available, they would be fortunate

to avoid death from pulmonary oedema or a stroke.

Everest is the dwelling place of gods

and is cruel to the weak or unprepared.

The monks at Tengboche Monastery

are quite prepared to placate them, for a fee.

GONG SOUNDS

HORN SOUNDS

BELL RINGS

INSTRUMENTAL CACOPHONY

It wasn't the first time Everest had been attempted without oxygen.

This old Sherpa, Dawa Tenzing,

was with the 1924 British expedition

which came within 1,000 feet of the top

and ended in one of the most famous and mysterious tragedies

in mountaineering history.

Two expeditions had already failed,

but a route had been found from the Tibetan side.

There were high hopes for this team,

with sports jackets and nail boots

more suitable for British hills than Everest.

Andrew Irvine, at 22, was the youngest and fittest member.

George Leigh Mallory, on his third attempt on Everest,

was one of the finest mountaineers of his generation.

Accompanied by Norton, made their bid without oxygen on a perfect day.

Although Somerville was coughing blood,

they climbed to over 28,000 feet before exhaustion turned them back.

The summit seemed tantalisingly close

and they were sure it was attainable.

Five days later, Mallory and Irvine set out,

taking heavy and unreliable oxygen sets with them.

Instead of attempting the face route

that had been tried by Norton and Somerville,

they decided to stay on the ridge.

This was cut in places by steep, rocky steps.

It was during one short clearing in the mists

that Odell, in the support team,

caught a glimpse of them for the last time

just below one of the steps.

They were still going strong for the summit.

It was up here that all these things were taking place.

There is the step

at which I last saw them.

And the clouds were about.

In fact, there was quite a lot of heavy mist

around about the upper part,

but there was a clearing, almost like a window.

And gazing up,

I saw two figures making their way up a snow slope

towards a rock feature in the ridge

that led up to the final pyramid of the mountain.

And these two figures were moving one at a time

and one made his ascent up to this rock step, as we called it,

and then seemed to appear at the top. I imagine that would be Mallory.

And then, unfortunately, the clouds came down and obscured them

and I never saw them again.

Eventually, the search team set out,

but as soon as the camp saw a cross of laid-out sleeping bags,

they knew the worst.

Mallory and Irvine were lost.

But did they get to the summit?

We now know that there is a steep, unavoidable rocky pitch

where the Chinese used ladders to ascend.

And it seems unlikely that with primitive equipment

Mallory could have climbed it.

At the time, it was a real mystery.

What did happen to Mallory and Irvine?

Could that extra 1,000 feet be climbed with or without oxygen?

The borders were closed for nine years

before the next expedition set foot on the mountain.

This time, Eric Shipton was with the team and no oxygen would be taken.

The party was led by Hugh Rutledge, elegant in topper,

which no doubt impressed the abbot of the Rongbuk Monastery,

as they called in for the traditional blessing.

At the start, all went well.

But the monsoon came early that year

and there were few spells of fine weather.

On the first summit attempt, Wager and Wyn-Harris

found the ice axe of either Mallory or Irvine,

perhaps at the point where they fell.

But had they fallen after they'd reached the summit?

Finally, they were no more successful than the 1924 expedition

and they returned defeated.

It wasn't until 1953

that Everest finally succumbed to a strong attack on a new route

discovered by Shipton on the south side of the mountain.

Hillary and Tenzing in the Western Cwm were already using oxygen,

or English air, as the Sherpas called it on an early expedition.

Merely by being English, it was supposed to be better that the local air.

And in a way, I suppose it was.

To give a reasonable rest, masks were also used for sleeping.

So that for several days they were breathing air enriched with oxygen,

minimising the effect of high altitude.

Nevertheless, it was a fine achievement at the time,

establishing what has become today the easy way, or the Yak route.

Since then, over 60 climbers have stood on the summit

using air bottled in many countries.

WIND WHISTLES

There were men who scorned the use of artificial aids,

particularly oxygen.

Reinhold Messner was one of them.

Everest is climbed just... maybe 15 times,

I don't know exactly how many times.

And for me, alpinism is a joke.

And I know it is possible for me to climb Everest with oxygen,

but nobody knows if it is possible to climb Everest without oxygen.

Especially for me, seeing alpinism as a joke,

it's interesting to try this climb without oxygen.

I would never come here to try Everest with oxygen.

It is not important for me.

It is not a challenge for me.

I am doing this alpinism,

this climbing in high altitude, for knowing myself.

It's not more important to explore the mountains.

Exploring the mountains maybe was necessary for 100, 200 years,

and maybe also '53, when Hillary and Tenzing climbed

the first time Everest.

But in the meanwhile, the whole mountains in Himalaya,

in Karakorum, also in Patagonia,

they are explored.

And it's not important for the human world to explore them.

What's important to explore, myself.

And if I put some technical equipment,

some important technical thing between me and the mountains,

I have never the possibility to know myself, to explore myself.

He was fortunate that his climbing partner, Peter Habeler, agreed with him.

From the moment we started from Europe,

I was sure we would try without oxygen.

I had... Naturally, there were people who told us,

"Well, you are crazy. You are idiots. You can't make it."

But then I was relying on...funny enough, on the English people,

on Odell, Norton, who did climb from the north side very, very high.

Maybe Mallory even reached the summit, I don't know.

But I was holding on to it, you know.

Making more or less an excuse for me.

It must be possible. It's possible!

If everything is going well, if we have good weather,

if we are in good shape,

if we are able to put our last bivouac about...

above 8,400 metres,

it can be possible to climb Everest without oxygen.

Maybe for Peter and me, it's not possible,

but I am quite sure that it is possible, generally speaking,

to climb Everest without oxygen.

And all the way through towards base camp, I was happy,

I was more or less relaxed,

and then, here, I-I... You know, you hear stories

and I was a little frustrated.

I was thinking of home and if I would go back

and if I would not recognise my wife any more,

which some people said when I left Europe.

Habeler was worried more about the effects of oxygen starvation

than about all the other risks of mountaineering.

Avalanches, crevasses, bad weather, or simply falling off.

He had enough experience to avoid these.

There was no trick to escape the thin atmosphere.

Above the Everest base camp, the route changes from a pleasant walk

frequented by hundreds of trekkers each year

to a savage mountain requiring all the resources

of a full-scale expedition.

The fame of Habeler and Messner

had attracted sufficient commercial support

to enable them to buy a privileged place

on a large Austrian expedition

making an oxygen-assisted ascent of the ordinary route.

Habeler and Messner had already broken trail to the next camp

without using oxygen

as the main party of climbers and Sherpas followed.

If the pessimists were correct, and their attempt failed

with blood vessels bursting in their brains,

there would be enough manpower to pull their freezing

and no doubt gibbering remains off the mountain.

The most dangerous part of the ordinary route

is the Khumbu Icefall guarding the entrance to the Valley of Silence,

the huge Western Cwm.

This is what separates the men from the boys.

The real climber from the guided tourist.

Moving at over a yard a day,

crevasses would open where there had only been flat, clear snow.

Huge stabilised towers would creak

and then, with a sigh, collapse and disappear

in a mass of ice fragments.

More people had died on the three-mile path threading this maze

than anywhere else on the mountain.

And there were other dangers,

as Leo Dickinson discovered

while doing a delicate balancing act.

RUMBLING

Eight tonnes of equipment had been brought to base camp

by 130 porters and their yaks.

And most of the £65,000

the expedition was to cost had already been spent.

20 Sherpas had been retained to help on the mountain.

The most dangerous and rewarding part of the trip.

Their job was to carry food and equipment to the highest camp.

And their role is vital.

No-one has yet climbed Everest without them.

The high altitude affected everyone, even the locals.

And the expedition medical team, under Dr Oltz, were kept busy.

This patient was a typical case of high-altitude mountain sickness.

Although it did not...the disease did not affect his lungs,

in other words, he didn't have pulmonary oedema,

he was generally in a bad shape.

And the main problem he had

was a light brain oedema.

Of course, we don't know what the reason is for all this.

We know finally, it's hypoxia, it's lack of oxygen.

But what all the exact mechanisms are, we don't know.

Now, this patient also had,

and you find that very often in these people,

this patient had some lack of fluid.

Many people make this mistake when they go to high altitude,

that they don't drink enough.

And since they have to respirate very heavily,

they lose a lot of fluid via mouth.

And that was the reason why we gave him some fluids intravenously,

and I think, or I hope, that was one of the reasons

why he recovered rather quickly

when he was lowered down to lower altitude.

And recover he did.

The onset had been sudden and collapse total.

Suppose the same thing happened to Habeler or Messner near the summit.

How long could they survive?

Was a rescue really possible?

Norton and Odell had climbed to over 28,000 feet

and returned to distinguished careers.

The questions ran through Habeler's mind, doubting and reassuring.

Already, Camp One was established above the Icefall.

Insignificant between the massive walls of Lhotse and Everest.

It's easy for the doctors to tell the weary climbers

to drink 10-15 pints of fluid every day

to reduce the risks of frostbite and strokes,

but each drop had to be melted from snow

and seemed impossible to swallow after the first pint or two.

Crossing the floor of the Western Cwm

required rudimentary engineering work,

where testing the theory of flexible bridges

over a 200-foot deep crevasse

added spice to the Sherpas' day.

Ready?

During the day, when the weather was fine,

the temperature in the Western Cwm

could rise to a sweltering 42 degrees centigrade.

In bad weather, particularly at night,

it could fall to below minus 30.

The combination of high altitude

and rapidly fluctuating temperatures

called for clothing that was light, with high-insulating properties.

This was not the era of the nail boot or heavy sports jacket.

For the summit, the climbers would wear plastic double boots,

silk underwear, a fleece undershirt

and a one-piece suit of the best eiderdown on top.

With three pairs of gloves and a couple of hats,

it was possible to withstand the worst weather.

At least for a few hours.

Camp Two was in the usual place

beneath the southwest face of Everest,

climbed by Chris Bonington expedition in 1975,

and the Lhotse face, where the next part of the route

would be to the South Col.

Immediately, the ritual began of melting snow

for the essential drinks to keep the blood from thickening.

Two weeks at high altitude gives about 80% acclimatisation.

The maximum being reached after four to six weeks.

This early, many of the Europeans

were feeling the strain at 21,000 feet.

The Sherpas, completely happy at this height,

enjoyed their afternoon tea,

unaware of the disaster that had struck in the Icefall.

This is London tea.

Juice. Lemon juice.

Lemons from London.

Although technically easy in good conditions,

the ordinary route up Everest

is still exposed to all the dangers of a high mountain.

A crevasse had opened up, completely engulfing one Sherpa,

who was never to be seen again.

A second had fallen 150 feet into another crevasse,

and only prompt action by the rescue team

would give him any chance of recovery.

No-one knew quite how badly he was injured,

but they knew how important it was

to get him to the medical team at base camp before nightfall.

Five doctors did the operation,

giving the skill and care he would get in a private clinic.

To recover, he was flown out to the hospital

founded by Sir Edmund Hillary

a few minutes' flight down the valley.

The Sherpas took a day off,

and after that were prepared to continue.

The doctors wondered if the next casualty would be lucky enough

to get down to base camp alive.

YELLING

Above Camp Two, at 21,000 feet, lies the Lhotse face

and the key to the route to the South Col of Everest.

The only safe campsite is over 2,600 feet above Camp Two.

The greatest height difference between camps on the ordinary route

and a real test of acclimatisation and fitness.

The fixed ropes are laid to make a handrail for Sherpas and Saabs

as they ferry loads to the higher camp.

Mystery shrouds the effect of high altitude on the human body.

Whilst the cause of the sickness is well understood,

the reasons why one person adapts well

and another not at all are uncertain.

Where there is mystery,

rumours, particularly of the more dramatic kind, thrive.

There was a story of an aide to the Viceroy of India

who, at the regular palace parties,

could remember every guest's name, title and decoration.

On his return from a Himalayan expedition,

he was dumbfounded to find his memory wiped completely clean.

He recognised the faces, but the names had disappeared.

There is another tale of an unknown pre-war American expedition

whose members, now old men,

are mindless cabbages in asylums for the insane,

occasionally grabbing in the air for invisible holds

or chopping steps in non-existent ice slopes.

Maybe untrue, but nevertheless, 30% of one expedition

had burst blood vessels in the retina of the eye.

And it was believed that similar bleeding had taken place in the brain.

There have been many reports of minor memory loss

and of hallucinatory experiences.

The third man on the rope, invisible to one's companion,

but following in a sinister, threatening way.

All these indicated some damage to the brain.

Reinhold Messner and Eric Jones, climbing without oxygen,

well knew the chances they were taking.

To minimise these risks, it was essential to minimise

the time they were exposed to them.

To climb to the summit as quickly as possible

and get down to base camp before the damage was done.

Messner had already climbed the north face of the Eiger with Habeler

in 10 hours, half the previous fastest time.

Every day during training in Austria,

they had run 3,000 feet of vertical height,

almost the height of Snowdon, in 34 minutes.

They were in superb condition

and at this height were climbing as if it were 10,000 feet lower.

Camp Three, at 23,000 feet,

was one of the few places safe from avalanche on the Lhotse face.

It was just about halfway between Camp Two and the South Col.

Above lay the critical barrier at 8,000 metres. 26,200 feet.

Only 14 peaks in the world were higher than this.

And most climbers setting out from Camp Three

knew they were tempting their personal height record.

Above the camp, they were crossing the barrier into the unknown,

where oxygen masks were simply taken for granted.

That night, Peter Habeler became very ill,

probably from eating a bad tin of fish.

The weather seemed to be deteriorating

and he wanted Messner to descend.

But Messner was not to be stopped.

Although he couldn't make the summit on his own,

he set out with two Sherpas

to establish Camp Four on the South Col.

A decision that could have cost all four of them their lives.

I went up yesterday to Camp Three, everything was fine.

I must have eaten something wrong because everything went in front,

went in the back, and it weakened me. I couldn't sleep.

Maybe I took too many drugs. I had about eight Tonapan.

They kept me awake all the time.

And all I can say, I'm very, very tired.

And it was still beginning...

-All change again.

-..with headache?

Yeah, but not bad. A little headache.

And then you took the drugs and it starts moving in the stomach?

The body couldn't hold anything up there. Nothing.

Nothing. Everything I ate, everything I drank, came out immediately.

You see? It's the first time it seems to be I am holding something.

-How did you sleep?

-I didn't sleep at all!

It was windy, but not much, you know. It was not bad.

But, er...maybe I took too many drugs. It could be.

-So, what are your plans now?

-Er...well, rest.

I'm sure this will pass again, and rest, and then...

aiming for the same goal again.

If Reinhold isn't too far ahead, you know.

Because he went to South Col today

and he went...early,

so they should reach it.

Er...they went all without oxygen, all the Sherpas.

The Sherpas didn't like it at all.

-They didn't?

-No, they didn't.

Because they may think if they have to go up to Camp Five...

And if something goes wrong, you know, they die.

That's what they thought.

Something did go wrong.

A blizzard struck, trapping Messner and the two Sherpas on the South Col.

Conditions were bad enough at the relatively sheltered Camp Two.

On the Col, 80mph winds ripped their tent

and conditions became so bad

that the Sherpas lay down in their tent and lost hope.

Hello! Hello!

Peter Habeler had descended alone, getting sicker and weaker.

In a moment's lack of concentration,

he had missed the route in thick cloud

and only the chance find of a marker pole

prevented him from spending his last hours lost in the Western Cwm.

WIND WHISTLES

High on the South Col, Reinhold was fighting his own battle,

abusing and threatening the two Sherpas to keep them awake

as the temperatures dropped to minus 45

and the lightning flickered around their tent.

THUNDERCLAP

After two nights, they descended to Camp Three,

then tottered into Camp Two, looking like three old men.

They had been lucky to survive

and Peter Habeler began to have serious doubts

about a second attempt.

Messner was unaffected.

JOYOUS CHATTER

-How are you?

-Fine. Really fine.

What are the conditions of the final 2,000-3,000 feet, Reinhold?

From the South Col to the last camp is an easy way.

All snow and you can go, so...

It's the way I can do it.

-Also, I'm quite crazy, I can do it.

-Yes.

But the last steep...the last step is very steep.

Given good conditions, do you think you can do it?

Yes, but I need a new partner.

Maybe Peter is coming up again.

-I know Peter is the strongest climber I ever know.

-Yes.

But this year, he's almost changing.

Going 100 metres, a cloud is coming, he says,

"Ah, today, I am hurting. Let's go back."

So I did...not the whole Lhotse face.

Robert did 300 metres.

-Peter did 100 metres and the rest I did.

-Yeah.

It is too much, I cannot do all.

So they descended out of the Death Zone to base camp,

where the doctors were carrying out blood tests

to measure the degree of acclimatisation.

One theory to help circulation

was to drain off a pint of blood

and inject a pint of plasma,

effectively diluting the blood.

Happily for high-altitude climbers, this experiment failed.

The unlucky patient was very ill for two weeks.

He was, of course, one of the doctors.

During a prolonged stay at high altitude,

the shortage of oxygen stimulates the bone marrow

to produce more red blood corpuscles.

After about a month at base camp,

their number could have increased by about 25%.

Although this allows more oxygen to be carried to the body tissues,

it makes the blood thicker.

If it's not possible to drink 10-15 pints of fluid every day,

the blood gets even stickier.

This can cause poor circulation in the extremities

and even clotting of the blood,

particularly dangerous in the brain.

Even a short exposure to the 80mph winds

at a temperature of minus 40 degrees

will cause frostbite in the fingers and toes

and eventually gangrene, as the cells freeze and die.

These risks are well known.

Just when the situation gets out of control

is unpredictable, sudden and irreversible.

While Messner and Habeler recuperated,

the main Austrian team made their attempt.

Six days after Reinhold Messner had staggered exhausted into base camp,

three members of the expedition,

with their chief Sherpa, reached the summit.

They had all used oxygen.

The thin air was an insidious enemy.

The next victim was a Sherpa who had a stroke,

totally paralysing him down one side.

Once again, his only chance of survival

was to get down to a lower altitude

and the expedition doctors at base camp.

This was a very serious case.

He suffered a stroke in an altitude of 6,400 metres.

In other words, about 21,000 feet.

That is a very rare occurrence

and is one of the most severe, er...expressions

of acute mountain sickness.

We know from the literature

that it occurred in the Himalayas several times

and people usually recovered from this rather quickly.

Now, the unusual thing in this case

was that he stayed paralysed, hemi-paralysed.

I don't know the reason for this.

He had either a thrombosis, which is possible,

as a consequence of increased viscosity of the blood,

as a consequence of loss of fluid.

It's also possible that he had a bleeding in his brain.

We see very often in climbers

coming back from high altitude,

when we examine their eyes with an ophthalmoscope,

we see bleedings, haemorrhages in the eye ground.

And we know, or we have to assume,

that the same bleedings also occur in the brain.

And it's possible that this patient had bleedings

on the right side of his brain.

He was paralysed on the left side.

In any case, he didn't recover in the high altitude

and we had to lower him down and...

Well, it was rather a tough rescue

through this dammed Icefall.

It was...very heavy work.

It was a little dangerous.

It looked sometimes a little, um... a little rough.

And I think what had happened in his brain

had happened already 24 hours ago.

So I'm not sure...

there was more risk when we lowered him down.

Finally, we got him down.

Unfortunately, his condition didn't improve remarkably.

His mental state is improved a little bit

but not the signs of paralysis

of the left side of his body,

so we had to rescue him finally by helicopter

from base camp to Kathmandu.

When the first summit party came back,

Robert Schauer told me that whenever he took...

He took his mask down sometimes, you know, his oxygen mask.

And he was completely... He was dizzy, you know.

He didn't know what to say, he didn't know what to think.

And this made me think, and I was fighting against it.

And then I got a book about...

It's called Doctor On Everest.

And then I read what Odell again said.

And then I was thinking, "Well, it must be possible.

"These 200 metres..."

We climbed Hidden Peak, we didn't feel bad, and this must be possible.

So... But inside, I was always fighting.

There were two powers sort of

really, really pushing each other, you know.

And I was almost ready and willing to use oxygen.

Not to lose my brain, to be normal,

to just go up and have a nice time.

Sit maybe one hour there and take some nice pictures.

And then I tried to find a second partner.

And I told Reinhold this.

And I didn't find a partner and I was so mad

because there were big discussions

and they said I should have to go back

on the end of the line and then try.

And then I said, "Well, that's finished."

I was very, very angry and I was... for going, all for going.

And I had a big discussion with Reinhold

and we said, "OK, let's give it a try."

And he could not find a partner in one hour

and so I know now it's the possibility

to take him back in my party.

And I have only to tell him,

"Peter, you have done this and this and this and this.

"If I can do it, also you can do it, I'm sure."

And I told him also,

"You see the base camp, nobody was willing to go with you.

"Now show them that you can do Everest without oxygen."

Messner once summed up his friend, saying,

"He's like a rocket. More impressive when you light the fuse."

And the combination of being rejected by the main expedition

and Messner's confidence

dispelled any fears Habeler had.

He was going to the summit without oxygen and nothing would stop him.

They climbed quickly to Camp Three at 23,600 feet.

And next day set out on the long pull

to the South Col at 26,000 feet.

Had the rest at base camp really helped?

The speed they could climb this section would tell them

if they had acclimatised well enough to reach the summit.

Steadily, as Eric Jones filmed,

Messner and Habeler pulled ahead.

They could take 15 or 20 steps

before running out of air and had to rest.

Progress seemed grindingly slow and exhausting.

As they disappeared from sight towards Camp Four,

Messner, although completely spent, started using his cine-camera.

He had reached the South Col in a record four hours

and recovered enough to film Peter Habeler's arrival.

Of Eric Jones, there was no sign.

Eric was well experienced, very fit

and had adapted well to oxygen starvation,

but he was unable to climb at the relentless speed

that Messner and Habeler had pushed themselves up the mountain.

It wasn't until some hours later that he was to reach this point.

Habeler was delighted with his own performance

and was as confident of success as Reinhold Messner.

If on the way down I feel so bad that I have to take oxygen, I will do it.

And for me, it's quite a valid ascent.

But I am 100% sure if we can reach the top of Everest without oxygen

and if we can come down to the last bivouac, to the last camp,

we don't use oxygen any more

because I know it from other expeditions, from other experience,

that on the way down it is so much more easier to come down,

to feel again well.

But on the way up, just if you reach the Western Cwm,

there will be no more problems.

Reinhold got up the Hillary Step first

and filmed as I came up.

And I think I put the ice axe in as hard as I could to hold on,

because it's maybe the most exposed place on earth,

down to Tibet, and on the left-hand side, down to Nepal.

And I got up that part, Reinhold didn't belay me, he was just filming.

This leg, you know, was... Again, it was in my way,

I put it somewhere, the rope,

and then I got up to him and he did continue.

I went towards the top and all of a sudden, without warning,

I felt a tightening of my right hand.

My fingers were sort of going into together,

inside of my down glove and I couldn't move them any more.

And at that moment, I was thinking of the Sherpa

who was paralysed, half paralysed,

and I thought, "My God, if this is going to happen to me, I'm going to die.

"I can't go back home, I can't go back to my family

"and it's all going to be finished, you see."

So then I sort of tried to massage a little bit.

Reinhold didn't notice, he was going on further.

And when I did massage, it was better again.

HE BREATHES HARD

Within a short time, he reached the summit

and he was sitting there beside the Chinese pole

and I just remember seeing him

and in the last moment, I thought,

"Well, we are going to make it."

And I went up towards him.

And all I remember, I started crying.

I cried like a little child, you know. I fell over him.

He had to put his camera away.

And I didn't care about the camera, I didn't care about anything else,

I was just happy we were there.

I wasn't proud or whatever,

and I wasn't even aware.

And I don't think he was aware that we were sitting on top of Everest,

which we had done without any oxygen, you know.

We were just on a mountain somewhere in the world.

Characteristically, they'd hardly spoken

between the South Col and the summit.

At one point, as they gasped for air,

Habeler had drawn an arrow in the snow pointing down.

Messner immediately drew one pointing up.

The message was clear and that was the way they went.

From the highest point on earth, there's only one way. Down.

And this could easily be the most dangerous part.

And I sat in the snow

and all I realised was that the snow was breaking,

that I was in the middle of an avalanche and I was going down.

I lost control, I lost my ice axe, you know.

I was covering my mouth and waiting for the still-stand

and I was trying to make a hole so I could breathe

and then I realised I was free, I was sitting

and I couldn't see anything because my eyes were full of snow

and I had lost my ice axe.

I had lost one crampon.

I didn't think I was going to die,

but there was nothing on my mind, it was blank.

An hour after Peter Habeler arrived on the South Col,

Reinhold slid into view.

They had reached the summit in less than eight hours without oxygen,

and with only a brief stop to make a cup of tea

at the Austrian expedition's Camp 5.

A few minutes had been enough to take some pictures

and leave a token on the top,

then Peter's wild, uncontrolled descent in one hour.

It was an unbelievable performance.

Reinhold plodded into camp.

He had lifted his goggles too many times and had become snow-blind.

Eric Jones, filming, had waited in support on the South Col.

Already, his fingers and toes were frostbitten,

eliminating any chance of an attempt on the summit.

Messner had come to a strange agreement with Habeler.

If one of the pair became incapacitated,

the other must use what remained of his strength to save himself

and abandon his partner to his fate.

That night, Messner, the driving force behind the ascent,

writhed in agony from his burning eyes

and pleaded with Habeler not to leave him, and he didn't.

Three days later, they were enjoying a heroes' welcome at base camp.

Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!

High-altitude climbing would never be the same again.

They had not gone out crazy with ambition

and returned crazy in the head,

as some experts had forecast.

They had proved conclusively that there was no place on earth

too high to be reached by strong, intelligent men

who had the ability to withstand pain

and were prepared to risk everything.

BEEPING

RADIO: "This is Radio Nepal. The news, read by Rita Radcuro.

"Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler

"of the Austrian Sagarmatha expedition

"scaled Mount Sagarmatha yesterday without using oxygen.

"The two started climbing from the fourth camp on the South Col

"at 6:00 in the morning yesterday

"and reached the summit around noon.

"They returned to the fourth camp by 2:30 in the afternoon."