EVEREST 2008: Himex Out, David Tait Switches to South, Russell Brice Rumors Silenced…and more

Teams are still trying to jockey for position as departure dates linger for the 2008 Spring Everest Expeditions. Many teams planning an expedition from the North side of Mt. Everest have been forced to abandon their hopes of making a summit bid due to China’s refusal to allow anyone to climb from Tibet. Some Expedition members and teams, who were planning on going up from the north, have been lucky in securing a permit for the south side as well–others have not been so lucky.

Himex Out

Himex, or for the long name-Himalayan Experience–has pulled their expedition that was set to take place on the North. Himex has been one of the leading Expedition companies over the course of the last few years, with Russell Brice leading many of the biggest attempts, while others tagged on for logistics.

Russell Brice, who in 2006 and 2007 helped with the Discovery Channel’s ‘EVEREST: Beyond the Limit’ series, has been contacting expedition members over the course of the last few days and notifying them that this season’s climb on Everest has been cancelled.

One Himex Expedition member, Megan Delehanty, had this to say on her blog:

“I am still trying to contact people either through phone or mail but we had to cancel our north side expedition this year because the Chinese closed the mountain due to local protests and their plans to carry the Olympic torch to the summit. The option to climb in Nepal was presented but we decided not to crowd the south side with any more climbers. One team member, David Tait, who has previously reached the summit twice from the north and is raising money for charity, will climb from the south without using supplemental oxygen. Best of luck and safe climbing to David and all south side climbers!”

Megan goes on to state that she will be back on Mt. Everest in 2009 with the Himex team. My guess is, and this is only a guess and has not been confirmed by Himex, is that Himex offered all expedition members the chance to return in 2009. Other expeditions are making the same offer to many of this year’s participants, as well as paying the sherpas that would have went along this year.

David Tait Switches to South

David Tait, another high profile climber who was scheduled to go up with Himex this season, has switched sides. He will be making a no O2 run, as Megan stated previously, from the South Col. He has made two successful summits of Mt. Everest in the past, with his most recent coming last season. David’s strong climbing abilities helped him to lead the way up the North last season, then continue on to traverse down the South Col Route, where he ended up breaking trail down the South. This single climb paved the way for the South Col climbers to be able to make successful attempts from the South a couple days later.

From David’s Blog:

“I leave for Everest again [and for the final time] on
the 29th March 2008, and hope to return having summited without
supplemental oxygen - we shall see. I am climbing for both the NSPCC
and the Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity.”

David will also be putting up a serialized version of a book that he has written detailing his exploits during the 2007 Everest Traverse, mingled in with pieces of his past related to his own bout of dealing with childhood sexual abuse. The book, Deptford Park, should be of interest to anyone that has suffered through any kind of child-abuse or has followed David for awhile. Should be a great read. He will be putting up Chapter one on March 28th, with other chapters to follow every 3-4 days-The Introduction to the book is already up. Click the link for Deptford Park.

By the way, in 2007, I had the opportunity to interview David here at the Adventurist. You can check out both parts, one before he summited and one just as he was coming off Everest after his successful summit. Click: PART ONE Click: PART TWO

If that is not enough on David Tait for you, be sure to check out his 2007 video from the Summit of the world’s tallest peak. Click: Video

EVEREST: Beyond the Limit

One of the Discovery Channel’s leading series’ may not be back for a third season. Discovery Channel has been relying on Himex and Russell Brice for logistics and coordination on Mt. Everest. The previous two seasons both occured on the North, which has been placed on a strict climbing expedition ban by the Chinese until May 10th. Earlier, I mentioned that Himex will not be climbing on the North (or the South) for that matter, so this could possibly be the end of a pretty good series. No official word has been noted on Discovery Channel at this point, but one has to speculate: Why not do at least one season from the South?

Russell Brice Rumors

A couple of weeks back, it was being mentioned that Russell Brice may be lending a hand to the Chinese Olympic Torch Team, lending Sherpas and setting ropes to the summit. With the recent news of Himex pulling out of the Spring Everest season, this looked a bit unlikely.

I recently had the opportunity to discuss this issue with David Tait.

“Russ is definitely NOT helping the chinese and has suffered as much as everyone else because of this ludicrous torch event.”

That suffering includes loss of money not only for the expedition companies and climbers involved, but also many of the Sherpas who rely on these expeditions in order to support their families. Also, with such a short notice of the north being closed, many expeditions had already sent many packages of equipment and such, into Tibet and the Mt. Everest region.

By the way, let’s remember that these words are from David Tait, and not Russell Brice. The Chinese have threatened to take away expedition permits if the leaders were to speak out against China over the issue of climbing on Mt. Everest. Wouldn’t want that to happen-

Finland Gives Up on Everest Bid

ExplorersWeb is reporting that the Finnish Airborne Rangers have decided not to pursue an attempt on Mt. Everest this Spring. This news comes after the team recently skied to the North Pole without support–the first time in history.

“All the Warrior and Adventure spirit have done
little good against the Chinese Everest Olympic spirit this spring
though. The Finnish Airborne Rangers had planned to climb the north
side, but this morning a message arrived that due to the ban they too
are postponing Everest for next year instead. “

And we thought this season was going to be BIG…wait till next year when all these members return to the North–