Everest | 2019 N Col-NE Ridge

A Australia expedition to Everest in 2019 via N Col-NE Ridge, led by Rolfe Oostra. Summit reached on 23rd May 2019. 12 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 10241
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER19173
Peak ID EVER
Year 2019
Season 1
Host Country 2
Route 1 N Col-NE Ridge
Route 2 -
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality Australia
Leaders Rolfe Oostra
Sponsor 360 Expeditions Everest 2019
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 Ireland, UK
Approach Kathmandu->Kerung->Tingri->Everest BC
Basecamp Date 2019-04-08
Summit Date 2019-05-23
Summit Time 0900
Summit Days 45
Total Days 49
Termination Date 2019-05-27
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes -
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 3
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 6
Summit Members 3
Member Deaths 1
Total Hired 6
Summit Hired 3
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used True
O2 None False
O2 Climb True
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep True
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits -
Campsites BC(08/04,5700m),ABC(13/04,6400m),C1(28/04,7000m),C2(21/05,7700m),C3(22/05,8300m),Smt(23/05)
Route Notes BC 08/04 5700m ABC 13/04 6400m C1 28/04 7000m C2 21/05 7700m C3 22/05 8300m Smt 23/05 by Prestidge and Pemba Sherpa at 9 am; West and Mingma Sherpa at 9:45 am; Kaur and Bir Kaji Tamang at 11 am. All members except Hynes left C3 for the summit at 9.00 pm. The team was held up at the 1st and 2nd Steps by traffic for about one hour and a half. Ironmonger turned back about one hour below the summit because he was going too slowly and was worried that he wouldn't have enough oxygen left for the descent. Those who summited only spent about 15 minutes on the summit as they could see the weather was changing and it rapidly worsened on the descent. About 10 minutes above C3 Oostra's Sherpa, Thundu, said he felt unable to continue and so Oostra took the 3 bottles of oxygen Thundu was carrying and continued alone. However when Oostra reached the bottom of the 2nd Step his oxygen mask stopped working. He took the mask apart to see if there was a blockage but there was no visible problem and so no way of fixing it. By now Oostra, showing signs of hypoxia, decided he could not continue without oxygen and so descended back to C3. He was in continual radio contact with the rest of the team and their Sherpas. Prestidge and West arrived back at C3 about 3 pm. Kaur's Sherpa, Bir Kaji Tamang, arrived back alone at 7 pm. He said he didn't know where Kaur was. So Oostra went back up alone in the dark to find her. At 11 pm he located her between the exit cracks and the 1st Step. She had run out of oxygen, had frostbitten fingers and feet and was unable to stand or move unaided. By this time Oostra had also run out of oxygen, and it was with great difficulty that he got her back to C3 at 2 am - dragging, carrying and doing assisted abseils. The whole team, except for Hynes, stayed at C3 that night 23/05. Although Hynes made it to C3 with the rest of the team on 22/05, he did not leave for the summit with them as he felt too tired. He was showing no signs of altitude sickness, he simply felt exhausted. He stayed in his tent until it got light and then started his descent to C1 with Oostra's Sherpa, Thundu (who had turned back shortly after leaving C3), and Hynes own Sherpa, Dawa Sange Sherpa. On the descent, because of worsening weather, they stopped at C2 for about 6 hours until the weather cleared enough for them to continue down to C1 where they spent the night. On the 24/05 the team at C3 descended to ABC. Shortly before they reached C1 they were informed by the Sherpa on the radio that Hynes had passed away in his tent at C1. The Sherpa went up to C1 to recover the body on 25/05. Oostra together with Dawa Sange Sherpa left for BC with Hynes' body on 26/05. The others followed on 27/05. Oxygen: Used from C1 to summit to just above C1 by both members and Sherpas. Rolfe Oostra's Facebook Post - 28 May 2019 Three Everest’s. Perhaps not unreasonably I thought of Mallory’s camera and how it was never found. How this singular loss had sparked so much controversy and grief to his family. So I took a selfie. I hoped that when they found my body that my last image would portray the love I felt for my family, that I missed them, and that I was sorry. Looking at this image now I guess, in this, I failed. The first memory I had when I came around 10 meters below the fixed line was how my mask had suddenly stopped working, how I had cursed out loud as the thing was brand new. Also, I remembered how quickly I had given up my summit bid knowing that if I got back in one piece to camp three I would be very lucky indeed. What surprised me most however, was how quickly hypoxia coupled with madly flashing lights had set in. In the past I had quite happily removed my mask on the summit and felt no ill effects as a posed for photographs and film. Now all I could do was gasp at the desperately thin air, blink at the strobe lights and wonder how the hell I was going to get down. I’ll be fucked if it ends this way” I remember saying to myself as I scrambled back up the steeply tilting scree slope to the fixed line. As I clipped back in I wondered how I had become unconnected from it in the first place. Another blinding flash of light provided the answer; I was rapidly beginning to lose my vision, was unable to breathe through my mask and the route directly above was steep with only few good places to comfortably move around on. Plus I was just below the infamous Second Step on the north-east ridge of Mount Everest. The air here had only 30% available oxygen of that at sea level, combined these formed enough of a reason for my momentary loss of consciousness and the subsequent tumble. “Just get the fuck down”. I thought next and began my desperate groping descent back down the ridge. It is at times like this that the reality of what is happening strips away all of society’s carefully constructed veneer and an inner animal running solely on instinct emerges. From above the First Step I spotted two people also descending, I howled at them like a mad beast to stop and give me air. Abseiling down the First Step was a blur but when I reached the couple I noticed that they too were in trouble. The girl, a Chinese could barely stand up and the Sherpa supporting her was not wearing his mask either. We both asked each other for air at the same time and I quickly realised we suffered the same problem from opposite perspectives; I had full tanks but a malfunction mask and he had empty tanks and a functioning mask. Both desperate to breathe we sorted out this mess in no time flat. We sat together swapping air until my flashing lights disappeared and I felt confident that I could descend the route below without any further mishaps. Leaving him with my two full cylinders and relieved not to have their weight, I made it down to camp 3 without further difficulties. Here at 8300 meters the air is still worryingly thin but I knew we had a stash of cylinders and a spare mask. I located the tent where we had stashed our spares, went inside and began to dig around for a full cylinder. A strange movement stopped me in my tracks. Camp three is situated deep into the death zone and on steep ground. There are few level places to pitch a tent so over the years climbers have gotten busy and build flat platforms out of rocks so as to have a good as possible rest before attempting the summit. My tent was on one such platform and the front wall, facing directly down the north-slope was crumbling rapidly away. Within seconds the entire platform wall gave way and the tent pitched forward and ripped lose from the mountain. “Shit!” I yelped as still enfolded in the tent I began to roll down the mountain. Hollering loudly I thought that this had to be the most ridiculous way to end it all. Here lies Rolfe… Then it stopped, snagged on a rock but the door still open behind me allowed several cylinders to escape and tumble down the abyss yawning below me. I located the tent I was sharing with Jamie barely noticing that the wind had begun to intensify. That the storm predicted to arrive later that night had begun to brew already. Crawling inside I picked up my radio and called up to check the team’s condition. Each of our expedition members had teamed up with an experienced Sherpa and everyone was making good progress for the top. Jamie himself had already climbed the Second Step and was gunning along. Above him Sheena, Arthur, Kam and Chris were equally determined to reach the top of the world and it looked as if they would realise their dreams. I could relax, it seemed that we would enjoy a good success rate this expedition. The only person not gunning for the summit was Kevin. I had met him outside his tent when the whole team began to get ready for our summit bid and he had told me how tired he was. He asked me what I thought about him summiting that night. I told him straight that it seemed unlikely. Still he wanted to give it a go and together we began a slow climb out of camp. We stopped only a hundred meters away before he fully realised the futility of continuing. Together we returned to his tent. I stayed behind a while to ensure he had sufficient oxygen and organise for two Sherpa to accompany him back down to the north col, 1200 meters below us, when it became light enough to leave. He bid me goodbye and good luck as I started off after the team. Now more than an hour above me. I peered anxiously into the developing storm. From ragged conversations with my Sherpa team I had learned that everyone except Jamie had reached the highest point on earth but that now the weather had taken a turn for the worst. The large number of climbers who had taken advantage of this tiniest of summit windows had made for slow progress up the three technical rocky steps on the way up. Long ques had formed and people had to sand still using up valuable oxygen but the conditions had been fine. Now that the summit had been reached and the predicted evening storm arrived early going back down these steps with the same number of people would prove to be deadly. 1996 all over again? The storm intensified. Temperatures dropped dramatically. The wind began to rip lose tents around me and hurl them down the mountain. No-one appeared back from the maelstrom. The hours passed. My anxiety level rose. Then, Jamie and his Sherpa Karma popped up through the gloom. Both utterly beat. Totally done in and unable to speak. I directed Jamie to Chris’s tent. At least it was still standing and not in risk of blowing away. Karma dragged over Jamie’s belongings and then hunkered down too. Next through the door were Chris and his Sherpa Nuru. Having been out longer they were even more fucked. Nuru slurred his speech, Chris stupefied by exhaustion, covered in ice, unable to speak. They crawled in with Jamie. Three more to come home. The hour hand crept agonizingly slowly around the dial two more times. Heartrate already high was pushed into the red. Enormous amount of oxygen sucked down way too quickly. Then the wind died down and the visibility improved. Through the swirling snow I could see a cluster of people high on the north-east ridge. Two small dots were moving below them. They were Arthur and Pemba. Both utterly destroyed. Arthur barely able to walk. Pemba crying. Both survived a unique form of hell. Next down was Sheena and Mingma Sherpa. I climbed up towards her. Gave her an enormous hug. Anxiously asked if she was ok. Was surprised when she jubilantly shouted “That was brilliant, fantastic, I am so happy!!” Mingma looked and talked like a frozen zombie. Not so enthusiastic. Still one to go. Beer Angji, Kam’s Sherpa appeared. Totally spend, staggering, didn’t recognise me, unable to speak collapsed outside my tent. It took a while for him to come to his senses. When he eventually did I asked him “where is Kam?” Dazed he looked me in the eyes. “I don’t know” he said. I know people will be shocked to read this. People who never ventured above the death zone especially. People never caught in a -40 C blizzard in the death zone even more so. What motivates individuals caught in such insanity most is personal survival. Beer had a wife and kids to get back to. Next on his list of priorities was his more vulnerable companion, his paying client he knew little about. The rules of duty of care became blurred. Perhaps his battered oxygen starved brain thought that if only he could get down he could raise some help. Perhaps he hoped he’d meet some help on the way. Perhaps he thought one dead is better than two. Whatever Beer thought he began to move faster than Kam, leaving her behind in the process. More people came down. Some being dragged into camp by guides and Sherpa. All stunned. Some crying. All relieved to have survived. Still no Kam. Darkness fell. Totally expectantly. Some of the team were optimistic, “Kam has a habit of just turning up at times like this” others were not so, “not much we can do”… I felt neither way, strapped on my crampons, grabbed a cylinder and headlight and started up into the gloom and bitter thin air. It wasn’t long before I spotted a light high on the ridge above me. A tiny pinprick of light. “If that is Kam she is fucked” I thought. “There is no way I can get that high”. I signalled up with my head torch, three flashes. Three flashes bounced back. Three flashes again. Three flashes return. Oh fuck. My gut tells me it is her. Now, come hell or high water I am committed to get her. Turning the gas to full flow I begin to climb. As quickly as one can at over 8300 meters. Driven mad by the incessant signals. Cursing Kam for not trying to get down herself. The light is stationary. Seemingly waiting for me to come up. It takes ages, another hour or so pass before I can yell at her. “Is that you Kam?” a while passes before I get a response, “Hey it’s me “comes a quaky voice from the top of a near vertical rock buttress. The air is bitter cold. The terrain steep and the only places higher than us the summit of K2 and Everest. Not much point in worrying about the potential of the various outcomes. Focus on the task ahead. When I reach Kam I find her slumped into a heap. “Can’t move my hands, babe” she whisperers. “They are frozen”. Tapping into what my 30 years of mountaineering have taught me I set up an abseil and clip her into a sling. Gently I ease her down the buttress until she is dangling from my harness. I am now doing a tandem abseil, a tricky precautious procedure at sea-level. An educated guess at around 8,500 meters. It works. We get down but there is still a lot of ground to cover. Camp three might as well be in Kathmandu. Still, determined we make it work. Sometimes only barely. Sometimes with a lot of cursing and shouting. She collapses. I yell at her to stand up and move. Sometimes she cries. Sometimes I drag her. Two more tandem abseils. A lot more dragging, cursing and screaming and three hours later we get to camp three. But which tent is ours amongst the dozens of domes still left standing on the steep icy slope of camp three. “Arthur!” I holler. No response anywhere. “Arthur!” I scream again. A light pops up not far from us. “Here mate!” a voice booms into the night. “I got Kam here mate… She needs help”. The tent zips open and a strong pair of hands reach out into the night. And what happened to you Kev? What happened to the only guy on the expedition who could call the summit his own? The guy who I counted on being my co-pilot? The man whose extensive expedition experience made him virtually unique on the mountain? What I regret most is the things I never told you during the many nights we spent as room and tent buddies. How I never told you how much I respected you. How I admired your hard working ethos, your ability to walk on stilts and plaster up a flawless ceiling. How envious I was of the climbs you had done in Pakistan, Sikkim and northern India. Climbs few people had accomplished. Climbs in the purest sense of the word. How much I admired your quite, assuring way with the other team members, how when things were at a low you picked up the spirit with a few Irish jokes or limericks. How you amply demonstrated your power and resilience by getting into camp well before everyone else and never took a day off just to relax. Always meeting people, making friends. Mate I’m sorry I never told you these things. But I hope you knew that I thought you were simply the best man on the hill. There were no records set by our team as we descended down the mountain from camp three to the north col. The winds had dropped and each of us were reflecting on the fight we had endured. Each of us looking forward to the comforts at ABC. Glad now that the climb was over that soon we could tap back into this ephemeral thing called normality. But then news reached us that Kevin had passed away on the north col. Just as the sun had crept over the north-east ridge Kev’s body released his soul. Why, we can still not be sure. This incredible self-contained, brilliant man will take that secret with him. All we are left with are the memories. The life enhancing memories of an expedition filled with the finest elements an adventure could hold. Solid friendship, shared lust for life and the need to achieve together. “We struck gold here boyo” Kev announced happily as we bounced our way across the Tibetan plateau and saw the mountain for the first time “I wouldn’t want to be doing this with any other people.” And the answer to the million dollar question if I would do this again is yes. Yes not only because this is the only thing I know but because of the power of the mountain. There is only one Everest. An alien encountering earth for the first time would surely be startled by its brilliant sapphire colour. Then, I am sure it would be pleasantly surprised by the abundance of life. Stand in wonder at how many tiny lifeforms inhabit every nook and cranny of its sea and land. But, surely it would puzzle why some of these things were crawling their way up to the top of this planets highest protrusion. Perhaps it would wonder why these creatures bothered, what drives them to do such things. Then frustrated it would fly away, back into deep space, searching for its own challenge, its own Everest. And so it is with us climbers. The creatures crawling to the top of a mountain which summit pokes sharply into the jet stream and trails an awesome plume of ice-particles. The reasons for why we do this are far more profound than merely because it is there. We do this because we are alive.
Accidents -
Achievement -
Agency Himalayan Guides
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2461546
Year 2019
Summit Success True
O2 Summary Used
Route (lowercase) n col-ne ridge

Members

12 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
Roelof Hedzer (Rolfe) Oostra M 1970 Australia Leader Canberra, ACT, Australia Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Kevin Gerard Hynes M 1963 Ireland Climber Pinner, Middlesex, England Plasterer Details Other expeditions
James Ironmonger M 1978 UK Climber Gosport, Hampshire, England Police officer Details Other expeditions
Kamaldeep (Kam) Kaur F 1983 UK Climber Walsall, W Midlands, England Yoga teacher Details Other expeditions
Arthur George Prestidge M 1965 UK Climber Wappenham, Northampton, England Kitchen cabinet maker Details Other expeditions
Sheena West F 1966 UK Climber London, England Housewife Details Other expeditions
Ang Thindu Sherpa M 1994 Nepal H-A Worker Yaphu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Dawa Sange Sherpa M 1974 Nepal H-A Worker Yaphu-9, Makalu-Barun - Details Other expeditions
Karma Sherpa M 1987 Nepal H-A Worker Waku-4, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions
Mingma Nuru Sherpa M 1990 Nepal H-A Worker Pangboche, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Pemba Nuru Sherpa M 1980 Nepal H-A Worker Khumjung, Khumbu - Details Other expeditions
Bir Kaji Tamang M 1978 Nepal H-A Worker Gorakhani-4, Solukhumbu - Details Other expeditions

References

0 recorded references.