Everest | 1988 S Pillar-SE Ridge

A New Zealand expedition to Everest in 1988 via S Pillar-SE Ridge, led by Rob Hall. Summit reached on 14th October 1988. 5 members recorded.

Expedition Details

Field Value
ID 485
Imported 2026-03-06 18:04:49.359634
Expedition ID EVER88309
Peak ID EVER
Year 1988
Season 3
Host Country 1
Route 1 S Pillar-SE Ridge
Route 2 S Col-SE Ridge
Route 3 -
Route 4 -
Nationality New Zealand
Leaders Rob Hall
Sponsor Robert Hall Autumn 1988 Everest-Lhotse Expedition
Success 1 False
Success 2 True
Success 3 False
Success 4 False
Ascent 1 -
Ascent 2 -
Ascent 3 -
Ascent 4 -
Claimed False
Disputed False
Countries -
Approach -
Basecamp Date 1988-09-09
Summit Date 1988-10-14
Summit Time 1700
Summit Days 35
Total Days 0
Termination Date -
Termination Reason 1
Termination Notes Success disputed
High Point (m) 8849
Traverse False
Ski False
Paraglide False
Camps 4
Fixed Rope (m) 0
Total Members 5
Summit Members 1
Member Deaths 0
Total Hired 5
Summit Hired 0
Hired Deaths 0
No Hired False
O2 Used False
O2 None True
O2 Climb False
O2 Descent False
O2 Sleep False
O2 Medical False
O2 Taken False
O2 Unknown False
Other Summits Lhotse W Face to 7800m (for acclimatization on Sep 27)
Campsites BC(09/09,5350m),C1(12/09,6100m),C2(14/09,6500m),C3(25/09,7300m),C4(7900m,13/10),Smt(14/10)
Route Notes BC at normal site C1 at top of Icefall C2 in Western Cwm C3 on Lhotse Face. This party were officially members of the Czechoslovak team to the SW Face, but they were actually a separate group. They went up Lhotse's West Face to acclimatize, then Ball, Hall and Atkinson ascended the South Pillar with Ball gaining a high point of 8100m on 12 October. The woman member, Lydia Bradey, did not attempt the pillar, went up only the Lhotse Face, reached the South Col, was seen at the South Summit and said she got to the summit by herself on the 14th. Her claim was disputed by others, including the New Zealanders, who even issued a statement saying she could not have done so, but a Spaniard who summited on the same day as she says she did, believes her detailed account. She was the first woman to scale Everest without bottled oxygen. Ball to 7800m on Lhotse on 27th Sept and Bradey to same altitude on 30th for acclimatization. 12th Oct Ball, Atkinson and Hall went to Korean's C3 on S Pillar route on 7500m; Ball alone to 8100m on same day at bottom of SE Ridge. 13th Oct Bradey to Col and 14th above Col (left Col 2:00 am and on S Summit 2:30 pm on hands and knees (seen by Spaniards there). Hall, Ball and Atkinson left BC on 14th. Reported by radio at BC that Bradey reached BC safely and without frostbite, but whether she summited or not was not reported. Later she claimed success, but doubted by other NZers and Spaniards. NZers really were reported by team from Czechoslovakia: relations were not good since NZers paid $25,000 to participate in the climb with Czechs to provide all gear, food, etc., but gear badly delayed on shipping and this, NZers feel, cost them the summit. NZers had no intention of climbing on the middle of SW Face like the Czechs, but to follow the Korean's Pillar route after the Koreans finished. NZers asked Tourism Ministry for permission to climb via S Col and this was refused. Bradey went to Col in defiance of this written refusal. Bradey - 3 Nov 1988 Bradey is now not claiming summit because she believes penalty against her will be lighter than if she did press her claim. Still has no doubt that she reached summit, but she has given Tourism Ministry a statement that she may have been confused. Lydia Bradey - 1 Nov 1988 12 Oct - BC to C2. 13 Oct - C2 to C4 where shared a tent with a Frenchman Denis of TV group. 14 Oct - 2:00 am left C4 at same time as several Spaniards and Ang Rita and another Sherpa. They moved well ahead of her while she proceeded slowly. She saw them far ahead just below S Summit (time not known since had lost her watch). They went out of sight and she took a long time to climb the ridge to South Summit, rested and daydreamed, then realized she was losing lot to time and began to move again. Tried to move quickly and got to S Summit at about 3:00 pm (Spanish said it was about this time) and sat down. Spanish were on the way down and had a walkie-talkie; one asked her what her name was, but she didn't want them talking about her on the radio, didn't want people at that time knowing what she was doing. Spanish said "should go down" and she was thinking slowly about going on up or down and decided to try going up. Spanish party moved on down while she went up. She kept trying to have pattern of steps and breathing and didn't sit down to rest any more. Walked up Hillary Step which has some rope and steps, then around the left of a crevasse and on to summit where saw nothing. Was there at about 5:00 pm. Rested sitting down very few minutes and then down (left nothing there). Constantly moved down to 8200m (she faced out almost all of the way) after moving more slowly with rests. Spanish 3/4 hour ahead of her at C4 at Col; they said she arrived at 8:30 pm, 1/2 hr after night fall. Spent night in same tent but alone after heating snow to drink. 15 Oct - through C3 where met Americans and on to C2. 16 Oct - to BC by lunch time. When arrived at Spanish tent at col to ask way to her, had all gloves and overboots, not missing anything watch, took 15+ and minutes to go slowly and carefully to her tent. "It was there in the moon" and I wanted to try. S Col was only route had equipment on. Had some in C2 and were in C4. Had ambition to be 1st woman without oxygen on Everest summit but feeling inside wanting to climb that motivated her. Belvis, Spanish Everest - 28 Oct 1988 Spanish summiters descending from summit met Lydia Bradey 100m below S Summit. She was on her hands and knees going up. She returned to S Col at same time as Spaniards, who moved very slowly because they were taking a frostbitten teammate who had stopped on the way up. Frush and Allison, US Everest - 27 Oct 1988 Serious doubt that Lydia Bradey actually reached summit of Everest on 14 Oct. Spaniards descending met her on hands and knees near South Summit on her way up. She returned to S Col 1/2 to 1 hour after Spaniards [when she returned she was minus a gaiter and 2 gloves but not frostbitten - from a NZer not on her team]. Very unlikely at all one could get up Hillary Step on hands and knees. Lluis Giner - 16 Oct 1992 Spanish Everest Summiter in Oct 1988 He believes Bradey reached main summit of Everest. He descended to C3 same day as she and they went to C2 together, talked in detail about problems of final ascent and she must have done it herself, not merely read about it. 10 Nov - Agony and Acrimony at the Top of the World, by Richard Cowper (Financial Times) (Excerpted paragraphs) A New Zealander claims to have made mountaineering history by becoming the first woman to have climbed Everest without oxygen. No one disputes she got to within 200m of the summit, but few believe she got much higher. Her claim has given rise to bitter and protracted argument. .... Enough doubt was cast on the validity of Bradey's claim to have reached the top of Everest to ensure it was never officially accepted by any of the world's recognised climbing authorities. But, two years on, new evidence I have collected from four members of the Catalan expedition - and from tapes of walkie-talkie conversations between them and base camp - suggests that she was telling the truth. ... Deeply angered by her lack of team spirit and the 'selfishness' of her lone attempt on a route for which the New Zealander did not have permission, Hall feared the whole team would be banned from climbing in Nepal and he did much to undermine Bradey's credibility. In statements made to the Nepalese authorities and to the New Zealand Press Association he accused her of 'irresponsible misconduct' and of making 'ficticious' claims. In an attempt to ensure that he, Gary Ball and Bill Atkinson escaped penalty for Bradey's action he wrote disassociating the team from her 'illegal foray' and alleged that information about her physical condition and the timing of her movements from the Spanish climbers on the South Col route at the same time made it clear she could never have reached the top. ... Bradey seemed to do little to substantiate her claim and much to undermine it. She had carried no watch to ascertain the times at which she reached crucial stages of the climb, had no photographic proof of her ascent, and had made enemies in unfortunate places. Least helpful of all, when she got back to Kathmandu she temporarily withdrew her claim to have reached the top. Nevertheless she does have plausible explanations for everything she did. ... The Catalans were reported by the three New Zealanders to have radioed base camp at 2:30pm on the afternoon of October 14 to let them know they had 'met Bradey 100m below the South Summit crawling on her hands and knees in 'distress.' Fearing for her life, Ang Rita, a Sherpa, who had just made history by ascending Everest for the fifth time, tried to persuade her to come down but she refused. Bradey's compatriots were told of the content of the radio call at base camp and chose this point to leave the mountain altogether. Later the New Zealanders reported the Spanish as saying Bradey had returned to the South Col camp between 6:30 pm and 7 pm on the evening of October 14. If these statments are correct Bradey could not have possibly climbed the mountain in the time available. But the Catalans never made a formal statement to the authorities and new evidence gleaned from their diaries, the recorded tapes of conversations between the climbers and base camp and the memories of those on the mountain at the time, shows up startling differences from the New Zealand account. Jeronimo Lopez, one of the Catalans who climbed to the summit that day and who met Lydia on the descent, has attempted to set the record straight. "I have talked the issue over in detail with Lluis Giner, who listened to all the tapes again, Sergio Martinez and Josef Casanovas, the deputy leader who was in base camp on October 14 and operated the radio. We now agree that: The meeting with Bradey took place on the South Summit at around 2:30 pm when a radio call was made and not 100m below it. (This 100m is crucial to whether you believe Bradey had enough time to climb Everest, because at that altitude 100m could take two hours to climb). Bradey was in poor condition and Lopez asked her to retreat. We saw her crawling but, in retrospect, this may have been because she was resting. We are adamant she was not in 'distress,' although we understand that Ang Rita told her she would die if she tried to go to the top. Nil Bohigas made a rapid descent in about 2 hours arriving at the South Col at about 5 pm, four hours before the rest. (This may account for some confusion in the reports made by the New Zealanders). On the way down Bradey overtook Martinez (the injured Spaniard), Giner and myself at around 8:30 pm at 8200m. We arrived back at the South Col Camp at 9:30 pm about half an hour after Bradey." If these times are right (and they come from three out of the four Catalans on the mountain at the time) then Bradey had roughly 6-1/2 hours to climb from the South Summit to the top and back down again, not the four hours suggested by the New Zealanders, a feat within the bounds of possibility for a strong climber, though not at all easy without oxygen. Says Elizabeth Hawley, doyenne of mountaineering in Nepal and someone who has followed the case closely: "She's a very strong climber. She would be physically capable. She is in the Wanda (Wanda Rutkiewicz: the world's top woman mountaineer) class and ten years younger." Bradey's own version of the crucial stages of the climb now becomes more likely: "I was not delirious. I wasn't hallucinating. When the Spanish left the South Summit I was on my own. I just took it stage by stage. There was some rope on Hillary Step. I used it to help me up. I presume it took me about 1-1/2 hours, maybe two hours, to the main summit. I don't really know. I probably got to the top about 5:30 pm. I hardly stayed any time at all. Then I was back down at the South Col around 8:30 pm. Heaps of people climbed Everest that season. It was no big deal. There were large bucket steps for me to follow. There were holes for ice axes. It wasn't like Messner soloing." Even if the 'new' Spanish times are accepted some experts remain uncertain. One authority says: "She appears to have got stronger rather than weaker as she went up. Normally at that altitude you are getting worse. In my book I must place a question mark against her ascent. I don't know whether she herself even knows whether she got to the top. It will probably remain a mystery." Others give her the benefit of the doubt. Says Doug Scott, Britain's most successful mountaineer: "After communicating with Lydia I am convinced she did it. She's a phenomenal climber. She's a big girl. She's strong. The timing is just possible for someone that good ... She strikes me as the sort of person who would not lie about this. I do not think she would risk the damage to her self esteem."
Accidents None
Achievement 1st woman atop Everest without oxygen
Agency -
Commercial Route True
Standard Route True
Primary Route False
Primary Member False
Primary Reference False
Primary ID -
Checksum 2449572
Year 1988
Summit Success True
O2 Summary None
Route (lowercase) s pillar-se ridge

Members

5 recorded members.

Name Sex Year of Birth Citizenship Status Residence Occupation
William Peter (Bill) Atkinson M 1947 New Zealand Climber Twizel, Canterbury, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Gary Ian Ball M 1953 New Zealand Climber Twizel, Canterbury, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions
Robert Edwin (Rob) Hall M 1961 New Zealand Leader Christchurch, New Zealand Manufacturer of mountaineering equipment Details Other expeditions
David Kilcullen M 1953 New Zealand Climber Seacliff, New York Commercial diver Details Other expeditions
Lydia Margaret Bakewell Bradey F 1961 New Zealand Climber Christchurch, New Zealand Alpine guide Details Other expeditions

References

6 recorded references.

Expedition ID Journal Author Title Publisher Citation Yak 94
EVER88309 AAJ Hawley, Elizabeth - - 63:203 (1989) -
EVER88309 MM - - - 125:10 (Jan 1989) -
EVER88309 CLMB Child, Greg Stealing Everest, The Rise and Fall of Lydia Bradey - 150:122-128+ (Feb 1995) -
EVER88309 NZAJ Ball, Gary Everest 1988: Lesson One - 43:70-73 (1990) -
EVER88309 - Bradey, Lydia Going Up Is Easy Penguin Books, New Zealand - -
EVER88309 - - http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/12198920301/Asia-Nepal-New-Zealanders-on-Everest - - -