Introduction to Everest 2007

The first time Gavin Bate climbed Everest was on the south-east ridge in 2000 when he turned back at the South Summit, at 8748m just a 100 vertical metres from the top. That was part of a 7 Summits odyssey, to climb the highest peaks on the seven continents in one year for the Millennium.

The team used full Sherpa support and bottled oxygen and were the first to summit Everest in the year 2000. In all respects it was a successful expedition but one that personally left Gavin with unfinished business.

Not only had the Seven Summits been climbed inside one year (physically achieved by friend Andrew Salter), but Gavin had organised it all single-handedly and taken a total of 140 people with him, raising £1 for every foot climbed, for charity - a little over £140,000.00.

The second time he tackled Everest was by the North Face/Northeast Ridge in 2002 with Northern Irish friend Will Canning. This time no bottled oxygen or climbing support was used. They climbed successfully using only two camps above ABC.

 

It was a tough trip and they reached the height of the Second Step, at 8728m, when Will dislocated his knee in a freak accident. It took the two men three days to descend back to Advance Base Camp, much of it in the teeth of a storm. Presumed dead, their descent was hailed as one of great courage and determination.

For Gavin’s third expedition to climb Mount Everest in 2005 he again attempted the South East Ridge, alone and without bottled oxygen or Sherpa support. He used the original 1953 Base Camp and put in only one camp at 21,350' (Camp 2).

He went to the top and back in 32 hours without stopping but failed to touch the summit because of a queue. As the only person on the 30th May climbing without bottled oxygen, he decided that to wait would be dangerous.

In 2007 Gavin plans to traverse the mountain, alone again and without any bottled oxygen, from Tibet to Nepal over the top of the world. His plan B if weather and circumstances force a retreat will be to climb as high on the north side as possible and then travel back to Kathmandu and climb by the SE Ridge.

The expeditions all have a purpose, to raise funds for a charity he started called Moving Mountains which improves the lives of many hundreds of people in Nepal, Kenya and Niger.

 

Gav says: "I have been exploring and expeditioning all my life now and have seen some remarkable things along the way. But time and again I return to the people I have met, both in the slums of Kenya and in the rural villages of Nepal, whose lives and friendships have so deeply affected my own.

"If my expedition to climb Everest can make these projects happen with the Moving Mountains Trust then all my efforts will have been worth it.

"For me, as far as personal achievement is always going to be a major motivation, far more powerful is the desire to use this expedition for a more worthwhile purpose."