Everest | 2000 S Col-SE Ridge

A Canada expedition to Everest in 2000 via S Col-SE Ridge, led by Byron Smith. Summit reached on 21st May 2000. 16 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 3544
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER00117
Peak ID EVER
Year 2000
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Canada
Leaders Byron Smith
Sponsor AGF Everest 2000 Expedition
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 356
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Lukla->Khumbu Valley
Basecamp Date 2000-04-01
Summit Date 2000-05-21
Summit Time 0800
Summit Days 50
Total Days 54
Termination Date 2000-05-25
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 200
Total Members 7
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 12
Summit Hired 7
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(01/04,5375m),C1(06/04,5975m),C2(17/04,6500m),C3(20/04,7200m),C4(20/05,8000m),Smt(21/05)
Route Notes Interview with Byron Smith - 30 May 2000 Lhakpa Tshering summited Everest 4X (Khunde) Ang Dorje (Chuldim Dorje) summited Everest 6X (Pangboche) Karchen Dawa (Khumjung) 1st time. They left high camp at 10:30 pm and they all reached the summit by 8:00 am. Lela Bahadur and Tsering Phinzo reached South Summit. Tim Rippel reached 8400m turned due to lung infection. They saw Babu at South Summit on their way down, they summited in very strong winds. Byron was the only Westerner to summit that day. Live broadcasts from C2, C3 and all other camps; that is why they needed so many Sherpas to carry all communication equipment. Byron went from BC -> C2 in 4 hours C2 -> C3 in 2 hours and 58 min C3 -> C4 in 2 hours and 18 min John and Ann Armstrong (BC only) left BC on 10 April. Ann wanted to stay but John hated the isolation and being on the mountain, so Ann went with him. Brad Wrobleski was dismissed from the expedition by the leader and left 10 April. George Gallont left 5 April, this was his normal scheduled departure - he was only trekking to BC camp (BC only). Virginia Robinson - (BC only). Tim Rippel - 20 March 2001 Byron Smith was a very difficult person. He (Smith) kicked Brad off the expedition because of friction shortly after arriving at BC. Smith said Brad left because he was afraid of the icefall which was definitely not true. Smith came down to C4 at 10:30 am after claiming he made the top at 7:30 am. He left the col by midnight carrying nothing but a water bottle [and oxygen] going up. All summit party members down to C4 at about 2:30 pm. He had many cameras with him to the top and 1 Sherpa with camera, but no summit pictures. Rippel not to top because it was cold and it would not be possible to do live video from summit because of strong winds that prevented taking gloves off. Other people in Canada have expressed doubts that Smith actually reached the summit because of the lack of pictures and the rapid ascent and descent times. Ben Webster - 29 May 2001 Webster's Sherpas were told by Smith's Sherpas Smith did not reach summit, but 20 Aug 2001 Toosi's Chewang Dorje said Smith's Sherpas said Smith summited. 27 June 2001 - Sherpa showed Asian Trekking people his photo that shows Smith on top. Byron Smith - 4 July 2001 Smith faxed details of his ascent to Elizabeth Hawley. "When I was above the Hillary Step I looked and saw some of my Sherpas behind me and Michael Down who was at the South Summit, I waved and carried on." "Once I was over the Step and again when I was about 30 steps from the summit, I radioed down to basecamp. This is documented on CBC Television tape which I did not know at the time. Once I reached the summit, my first concern was radioing to basecamp so they could patch me through to the CBC in Canada. The first thing I said on the radio was 'I can't go any further, I am on top of the world.'" "On the summit we had extremely high winds and it was not safe to set up the two, flat foldout satellite antennas and hook up all the video broadcasting equipment necessary to do a live video broadcast. I did not want to compromise anyone's safety. As four Sherpa and myself sat upon the summit, two more Sherpa arrived. Lhakpa Tshering pulled out his camera and tried to take a picture but the camera did not work. I took mine out of the front liner of my down suit and tried but it did not work. Mingma Dorje (I have since found out it was Ang Dorje's camera) took a photo in my direction. I radioed basecamp that we were heading down because of the high winds. We were only halfway home and my concern was for a safe descent in 85-knot wind's and not a picture of myself." Mingma Tenzing - 1 Oct 2001 Smith definitely reached top - so many Sherpas to top above to carry equipment to telephone from top and take many pictures (video including) but too strong wind to hold up flag and put up a equipment - Smith "very strong climber, stronger than some of our Sherpas." From Byron Smith's Sworn Statement of 10 Nov 2004 "On May 21, 2000 at approximately 7:05 am Nepal time, I arrived and stood on the very top of Mount Everest. With me at that time on the top of Mount Everest were my expedition Sherpa's - Lhakpa Tshering (Sirdar, Khunde), Ang Dorje (Pangboche), Mingma Tenji (Thame), Tenzing Dorje (Phortse), Mingma (Thame), Norbu Ongchu (Pangboche). They were beside me as I radioed down to base camp saying that we had arrived safely. The radio transmission was relayed from the radio base-unit from base camp through a satellite phone directly to the CBC Television control center in Toronto Ontario Canada. CBC broadcasted my live radio call all across Canada on live National Television." "We were not able to set up the broadcast equipment to broadcast live TV images back to CBC because of the very high winds [85-knot winds as stated in fax of 4 July 2001]. We had carried up to the summit all the broadcasting equipment." "During my radio transmission I saw Lhakpa Tshering who was on my right, take out his camera and try to take a few photos of me and the others but his camera did not seem to work. I know this because he looked at it and gave it a shake implying something was not right. Another Sherpa took a few photos in my direction of all of us at the summit. I pulled out my Leica camera but it would not respond, nothing would happen when I pressed the button. I used it on the way up when I was just below the South summit. I wanted to capture the sunrise over Tibet and the Pyramid shadow over Nepal, etc., but I could only get it to make a clicking noise. I tried repeatedly, I believed it had froze up which made the batteries very low or dead. I had the spare video camera in my pack but didn't even think of using it, the thought never entered my mind. The photos and videoing were to have been done by Tim Ripple (sic) a climber who I had hired to be my expedition cameraman. Tim had turned back below the balcony." "It was clear, cold and very windy on the summit with a snow plume blowing off the summit. I was able to look out and see the Himalayan mountains fall off below me, the views were spectacular." "It had taken us approximately 2-1/2 hours to descend from the summit. I could see Tim holding the video camera shooting film of me walking towards our tent, someone from another expedition yelled out a congratulations to me, I waved to him and entered the tent. When I got to the tent I went inside and rested, Tim had made a thermos of hot lemon water, which I drank. I knew and could feel that Tim was disappointed that he had not summited so I did not say anything other that hi, and some casual conversation at first. I laid my head back, put my hand to my head and closed my eyes for a moment. Then a flush of emotion came over me - I had summited. Tim filmed me as I told him about getting to the summit." "It was very emotional in the tent at this point for me as well as for Tim. Tim put the camera down and broke down with uncontrollable sobbing. I tried to comfort him and told him that he could still go for the summit." Mingma Dorje - 19 Nov 2004 One Sherpa summiter, Mingma Dorje (aka Mingma Thamo), came to see me and Richard Salisbury on 19 Nov to present his statement that Smith had been on summit on same day as he. Mingma explained that Tim Rippel was very slow climber towards summit and did not get to top to take movies of Smith at top. Rippel and Smith had been good friends until summit day, then Smith became very angry at Rippel when he returned to the South Col because he failed to summit with him and thus no video was taken of Smith's success. Mingma Dorje showed us a photograph of himself on the summit taken by another Sherpa. The weather conditions appeared to be very cloudy and snowing with very low visibility. Mingma affirmed that there were no photographs or video taken of Smith on the summit that day. Bikel Adhikari and Mohan Singh, Asian Trekking - 17 Feb 2005 They recalled that photo produced by Mingma Dorje showed a Sherpa fall faced and at edge part of side of another person's face but profile covered by oxygen mask. Bikel kept photo a month, then returned it to Mingma without having made a copy since it was impossible to recognize 2nd person in it. They were on a summit and Mingma Dorje said 2nd person was Smith. Bikel asked for full roll of film but was told this was the only one of Smith. Smith had asked Asian Trekking to get photos of him on top and send them to him. Ben Webster - 23 March 2005 I asked Ben Webster today to reconfirm his statement of May 2001 that Smith's Sherpas told his Sherpas that Smith had not reached the summit. Webster's comment was "Absolutely." He said the Sherpa chat took place in 2001. When he himself tried to talk with Smith Sherpas, they smiled but refused to be drawn into a conversation. They acknowledged that Smith had paid them extra money; whether that was to say Smith had summited or not to talk about the climb, Webster didn't know. Webster volunteered the comment that "to this day, I don't know whether he (Smith) summited or not. I heard so many rumors." Webster said that Tim Rippel told him the he (Rippel) was the only person on the team that had an operational video camera.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Asian Trekking
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference -
Primary ID -
Checksum 2457691
Year 2000
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) s col-se ridge

Members

16 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Ann Armstrong M 1968 Canada Climber Penticton, British Colombia Manager Details Other expeditions
John Armstrong M 1965 Canada Climber Penticton, British Colombia Scientific researcher Details Other expeditions
Timothy Leonard (Tim) Rippel M 1961 Canada Climber Nelson, British Columbia Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Virginia Robinson F 1968 Canada Exp Doctor Hamilton, Ontario Physician Details Other expeditions
Byron Raymond Smith M 1960 Canada Leader Vulcan, Alberta Ford dealership owner Details Other expeditions
Brad Wrobleski M 1965 Canada Climber Exshaw, Alberta Photographer Details Other expeditions
Lhakpa Tshering Sherpa M - Nepal H-A Worker Khunde, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Tenzing Sherpa M 1977 Nepal H-A Worker Thamo, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Karchen Dawa Sherpa M 1965 Nepal H-A Worker Khumjung, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Nuru Wangchu Sherpa M 1977 Nepal H-A Worker Pangboche, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Chuldim Dorje (Ang Dorje) Sherpa M 1964 Nepal H-A Worker Pangboche, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Tenzing Dorje Sherpa M 1970 Nepal H-A Worker Phortse, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Sherpa M 1977 Nepal H-A Worker Thamo, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
George Gallont M - Canada Member - - Details Other expeditions
Lila Bahadur Tamang M 1966 Nepal H-A Worker Khaimrang, Sardikhola, Kaski - Details Other expeditions
Tshering Phinjo Sherpa M 1973 Nepal H-A Worker Khumjung, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.