Everest | 2009 S Col-SE Ridge

A USA expedition to Everest in 2009 via S Col-SE Ridge, led by Mike Farris. Summit reached on 22nd May 2009. 1 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 6382
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER09115
Peak ID EVER
Year 2009
Season 1
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality USA
Leaders Mike Farris
Sponsor American on Everest
Success 1 True
Success 2 False
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach Pangboche
Basecamp Date 2009-04-08
Summit Date 2009-05-22
Summit Time 1339
Summit Days 44
Total Days 47
Termination Date 2009-05-25
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 1
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 0
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired True
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent True
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical True
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(08/04,5400m),C1(19/04,5900m),C2(21/04,6400m),C3(04/05,7100m),C4(20/05,7900m),Smt(22/05)
Route Notes Farris left C4 at 10 pm on 21 May. He was going by himself. He had been carrying his own tent and oxygen during his expedition. Weather was clear and calm until about 11 am, then wind started. He thinks that something was wrong with his oxygen as he had slowed down significantly on upper part of mountain. He stayed 5 minutes on summit. He was on his own on summit. He descended to South Summit without problems. Then things started to become hazy. He was hypothermic at Balcony. After dark Walter Laserer and Bernice Wotenboom (Laserer's Everest Expedition) found him at Balcony. He was without gloves and jacket. He was still on fixed line. Laserer gave him oxygen and handwarmers and radioed Russell Brice. Farris talked to Brice, who told him to come down. Laserer and Bernice carried on to summit. Farris managed to descend to South Col. He stopped just outside camp at end of rope but could not see tent. He might have passed out again until Phurba Tashi of Himex woke him up at sunrise on 23 May and took him to his tent. Phurba Tashi gave him oxygen and tea. Phil Crampton sent Sherpas to C4 to help Farris down to C2, where he arrived in afternoon. On his descent from C4 to C2 he used oxygen due to his frostbite. He was not short-roped; he descended to BC on 24 May and went to HRA tent, where he was treated. He had just missed a helicopter. On 25 May he took a horse to Pheriche and spent 26 May in Pheriche. On 27 May he took a helicopter back to Kathmandu and went straight to CIWEC. Doctors say he might lose a few fingertips and toe tips. Following was emailed to Billi Bierling from Mike Farris - 11 March 2010 On May 19 I arrived at upper Camp 3 (7200m) and chopped a tent site. On May 20 I packed up my entire camp and left about 8:30 am. I had to wait well over one hour to ascend the steep pitch on the Yellow Band due to heavy traffic coming down the fixed ropes. I moved very slowly up to and across the Geneva Spur and arrived at Camp 4 (South Col, 7900m) just after dark. This meant that I needed to spend a rest day at C4, which I did on May 21. My original plan was to summit on the 21st. I used no oxygen below C4, I went on oxygen at a rate of IL/min at 5 pm on May 21 to practise with the equipment before the ascent. I continued this until departure that night. This oxygen bottle was left at C4 for use after the climb as necessary. I left C4 at 10 pm on May 21. I was carrying two bottles of oxygen and was using oxygen at a flow rate of 2 L per minute using a Topout mask. I initially made good progress and appeared to be catching the people in front of me (part of the guided IMG group). But after two hours I began to slow down, and at 1 am I was overtaken by two climbers from the IMG group. One of them (Justin Merle or Jon Shea; to be determined) looked at my regulator and I had used about a third of a bottle of oxygen, which matched my expectations. After this I felt like I was climbing more and more slowly, and the group above pulled away from me. It took me five more hours to reach the Balcony (8400m). At this point, my first bottle of oxygen should have been empty (or nearly so) The regulator indicated somewhere between one third and one half of the oxygen still remained. I switched bottles and proceeded to ascend. This occured at 6 am on May 22. After changing bottles I felt like I was moving faster again. The ridge up to the South Summit is snow, except for a short rocky section. I met the descending IMG group as the last members were descending the ropes that led to the bottom of this rocky stretch. We chatted and they pointed out which rope to use. This must have occured about 9 am or slightly after. Since there were no other teams summiting that day, these were the last people I was to see until after midnight. I arrived at the South Summit at 10:45 am. As I was climbing the ridge below I had established a turn-around time of 11 am for the South Summit. While this is still late by modern guiding standards, the continous fixed ropes and good weather meant that there was little chance of an accident on descent. I stashed some gear I didn't need in the above [climb] below the South Summit and proceeded up the Hillary Step. The stretch to the summit above the Hillary Step seemed very long and I arrived at 1:39 pm. It was very windy and I stayed only a short time on the true summit. I mvoed down 30 minutes and shot a few seconds of video, then descended slowly but without accident to the South Summit. I gathered my gear and began descending the ridge. I descended the steeper slopes below the South Summit and crossed over the rocky stretch indicated above. As I descended further I looked upward and was surprised to see the South Summit so far away. I wondered if somehow I had descended past the Balcony. Windblown snow had covered the ropes and filled in the tracks of the previous group. However, it was clear that I could not climb back up even I had gone off route and I was following ropes that were clearly new, so my only choice was to keep on going down. At some point in the late afternoon I made radio contact with two friends who had climbed Makalu and descended to their Camp 1. Roland Hunter and Mick Parker talked to me but I have no memory of the conversation. While I spoke more or less normally, Mick remarked to Roland that I wasn't quite right. At approximately 5 or 5:30 pm I felt like I was suffocating, and I assumed that I had run out of oxygen so I took off the mask. I radioed the Altitude Junkies base camp but received no reply. From 5 pm until sometime around midnight I only have a couple of clear memories. I decided that my pack was too heavy and that I would leave it behind and come back the next day to pick it up. I believe that I did not remove the oxygen cylinder before making this decision, and I left my pack slightly above the Balcony. I also remember being cold and shivering. During this period I continued to descend past the Balcony. I put my headlamp at some point. That evening it was determined by IMG that I had not arrived back at C4. I was apparently was in radio contact with my BC via relay through IMG in the evening. At midnight or shortly afterwards I was found by Bernice Notenboom and Walter Laserer. I was clipped into the rope with my descender, but I had taken off my Feathered Friends down jacket, Black Diamond Guide gloves, and my wool hat. I still had a thin Smartwool balaclava on my head and thin poly liner gloves on my hands. They immediately roused me, put my clothes back on, gave me oxygen, and gave me a hot drink. Bernice gave me the chemical heat packs she was using for use in my gloves. They asked some obvious questions: who was I, where was my team, and so on. They tried to reach their base camp by radio but were unsuccessful. The only other frequency they could remember was that of Himalayan Experience. They talked to Russell Brice at 1:21 am, then spoke to Russell and told him that I had a tent and spare oxygen at C4. I told him that I could move on my own, and Russell, Bernice and Walter agreed. The Himalayan Experience team that was climbing up from below would help me as I needed. I remember none of these conversations. Walter and Bernice continued on their summit bid and I continued to descend. I met at least three other parties as I descended from the Balcony to C4. I passed the first ascent team led by Dave Hahn. He later told Walter and Bernice that I was descending fine under my own power. I passed the Alpine Ascents International team led by Vern Tejas. I recall saying hello but not much else. At 3:14 am I encountered the Himalayan Experience team. Guide David McKinley gave me some oxygen and I continued on my descent. I have a very clear memory of falling about 15m (50 feet) at some point while it was dark. It may have been before I met Walter and Bernice or afterwards. At the time I felt that a rope had broken, though it is equally likely that I failed to clip in properly. I recall sliding down the snow next to some rocks. I did all of this on my stomach and did not tumble. I had no obvious injuries to indicate that I actually did fall, but the memory is very clear. I had no hallucinations that I can recall. After passing the last team, I was monitored by Phurba Tashi, Sirdar for Himalayan Experience. Phurba Tashi was directing his team from the South Col (C4); both the route and the light from my headlamp were visible from C4. At about 5 am I stopped moving so Phurba Tashi came to collect me. At that point I was very close to the tents and was asleep, in the middle of a very vivid dream. He woke up and walked me to the tents in less than 10 minutes. It was clear that I had frostbitten my fingers and nose. I had probably frostbitten my feet as well but we didn't remove my boots so that I could descend. The only other issue that I had was a slight cloudiness in my vision which preventerd me from resolving things like written text. This visual impairment went away after a couple of hours. Phurba Tashi gave me oxygen, hot fluids and food. Phil Crampton, leader of Altitude Junkies, organized aid for my descent. Soon after I arrived in C4, two Sherpas departed C2 on oxygen for C4. Tawa Sherpa (Altitude Junkies) and Da Dendi Sherpa (Japanese team) arrived at C4 around midday. They collected my gear and the three of us descended with me using oxygen. I was able to walk down on my own, though the Sherpas needed to sometimes clip and unclip carabiners to speed things up. I spent the night of May 23 at C2. The next day we descended to BC in 4 1/2 hours, with the Sherpas carrying my Camp 2 and Camp 4 gear. I went to the Himalayan Rescue Association medical tent where I was seen by Dr. Eric Johnson. He immediately authorized a helicopter evacuation and then examined me and gave me medication. Unfortunately, weather in the lower valleys prevented the helicopter from flying that day. I was carried back to our base camp where I spent the night on oxygen. On May 25 it was snowing and the weather forecast was poor. We decided that I should ride out on a horse and have a helicopter pick me up at a lower elevation. The horse was supposed to arrived at 10 am but I didn't leave until 2:30 pm. It had now snowed several inches and was still snowing heavily. My horse was actually a small pony which I rode for three hours through the boulder fields. In Lobuche I switched to a larger horse and descended three more hours before reaching Pheriche. The hair-raising descent below the Everest memorials was done in the dark, in the snow, with the terrified horse and rider being dragged down the hill by Chewang Palden Sherpa. We arrived in Pheriche at 9 pm. That night I experienced severe "boiling oil" pain that was so disabling that I could not pick my blankets up off the floor. I laid there whimpering and crying for hours until the pain finally subsided near dawn. The weather on May 26 would not allow a helicopter flight. I slept much of the day and awoke at the arrival of Phil Crampton and his Sherpa. They reported massive amounts of snow in Base Camp, broken tents, and general destruction. I was lucky that I left the day before even though the horse ride was miserable and dangerous. That night I experienced pain that was slightly less severe as that experienced the night before. We had no pain medication and the Pheriche HRA clinic was closed for the season. We awoke to excellent weather on May 27 and I expected an early helicopter. We ran to the landing area when we heard a helicopter at 8:30 am, but it turned out that the helicopter was for uninjured members of another expedition. That helicopter returned two more times to pick up more members, and another helicopter landed to pick up other trekkers. Finally at 2:30 pm a helicopter arrived to pick me up. Chewang Palden Sherpa and I were flown to Lukla where Chewang disembarked and four other members from our base camp got on. We then flew to an Army base where we waited for 90 minutes while our helicopter delivered parts to fix another helicopter involved in a rescue on Kangchenjunga. We finally arrived in Kathmandu around 6 pm. Jamie McGuinness (Project Himalaya) took me to the CIWEc clinic where my hands and feet were cleaned and dressed. Since I was otherwise fine, I went to my hotel. My travel insurance company arranged my flight to the USA and with the aid of Scott Woolums (Adventures International) I departed a couple of days later in the midst of a general strike. We had to use the CIWEC ambulance to get to the airport. On August 11 I had surgery to remove portions of seven fingers, both big toes and portions of six smaller toes.
Accidents Frostbite on both hands and feet
Achievement -
Agency Explore Himalaya
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2461258
Year 2009
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) s col-se ridge

Members

1 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Michael Alan (Mike) Farris M 1955 USA Leader Northfield, Minnesota St. Olaf College biology professor Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.