A personal experience. Recommendations for climbers who are thinking about joining a commercial Mt. Everest expedition
The Mount Everest Expedition:
Mt. Everest expedition guided by Kari Kobler: in spring 2007 I attempted a Mount Everest expedition guided by Kari Kobler of Kobler & Partner company. We approached Mt. Everest (8,848m/29,028ft.) from the Tibet side (China). The whole expedition was supposed to take approximately 8 weeks. We needed a visa for the entry into China and a climbing permit for Mt. Everest.
This expedition takes a lot of training and preparation. The experience having climbed other difficult and high-altitude mountains is mandatory. Attending a commercial expedition is an expensive endeavor and for most people a once-in-a-lifetime adventure using life savings to make their dream possible. During this expedition I got to know great people such as the members of the French Monaco expedition and Thomas Bubendoerfer. With Simen from Norway, Thierry, Ludovic, and Lionel from France I have met several nice and smart climbing colleagues who where to share the adventure. The following is my personal evaluation of this expedition and its quality of guiding.
In order to acclimatize well we have started the tour in Lhasa (Tibet) and along sightseeing went step-by-step higher to finally reach the Mt. Everest base camp (5,300m/17,400ft.) where the real experience was about to begin. There it normally takes a few days up to a few weeks to adjust to the altitude. Once the acclimatization process is in progress the next step is to go to the advanced base camp (6,400m/21,000ft.). The vertical difference in altitude (1,100m/3,600ft.) and the horizontal distance (20km/12,4miles) are big. This step is critical and has to be considered carefully. Unfortunately, Kari Kobler sent the expedition members up at the same time despite myself and others not having adjusted to the altitude yet. Looking back now, this has caused an enormous risk on me. I can recommend to everybody to rather take an additional day, which a considerate guide should support. In my case I had to go down again, acclimatize, and then I fought my way up to advanced base camp. However, the guide's seemingly wrong decision had a big impact on my schedule and energy level, having lost far more days than initially taking more time to acclimatize in base camp the right way while Kari Kobler has pushed further along with two other climbers.
Every climber should be aware that the less comfortable advanced base camp is the real base for weeks of the high altitude climbing on Mt. Everest. From here a number of load delivery trips to higher altitude are necessary in order to completely acclimatize and to get ready for the summit push. The high camps are at 7,000m (23,000ft.), 7,500m (24,600ft.), 7,800m (25,600ft.), and 8,300m (27,200ft.). Once the acclimatizing process is completed the climbers usually go all the way down to base camp in order to recharge their body before they push for the final summit approach.
At any time it is critical for the success of the
expedition not to catch an infection or a diarrhea. Hygiene is very
important! Despite the sometimes unsatisfying situations in the camps
every climber has to keep high standards of personal cleanliness.
In my opinion it is another critical part of a well guided expedition to keep a group together as long as possible. People can support each other and share their experience. However, in his own quest for success Kari Kobler has preferably pushed himself and a Swiss climbing member of our expedition. I had the impression that his decisions where mainly focused on his third summit success and the summit success of the Swiss member. Along with another climber they were using the sherpas with summit experience for their final push for the summit on May 16, 2007. Other members of the commercial expedition, at this point about to get ready for their summit push a week later, however, could not expect well-rested sherpas anymore since they already were used by the expedition leader himself. I personally have not heard of sherpas having been able to summit Mt. Everest twice within a week or so. As a matter of fact, to be on the save side I even had paid extra for a personal summit sherpa before the expedition started, to make sure not to be on my own at summit day as this would be too risky for a climber. Another team member and myself finished acclimatizing later. It certainly was not a good feeling staying in base camp for a few days, getting ready to go up, and hearing that Kari Kobler has been using the experienced sherpas for his own summit success on client's expenses and not leaving additional rested sherpas for the rest of the group. A responsible guide on Mt. Everest should, in my opinion, consider all possible safety standards for every client's well-beeing. To me it seemed very irresponsible that clients had to go up with already tired sherpas on such a tough mountain! The following reflects the positive and the negative parts of this expedition guided by Kari Kobler from my point of view.
Pros of the expedition:
good food and cooking,
acceptable equipment,
good weather forecasts and weather information.
Cons of the expedition:
not enough consideration of the paying client's needs (although we were only a small group),
the safety and even the life of expedition members have been unnecessarily put in danger,
mainly through pure luck a major incident has been prevented (I am convinced of that),
bad guiding and management had negative effect on team members,
expedition members were not treated equally. Decisions seemed to have been aligned to Kari Kobler's own interests. I had the impression that he was not overly interested in a summit success of certain expedition members at this Mt. Everest climb.
for those reasons I personally saw this as financial rip-off.
Final conclusion and recommendation:
For me personally the final conclusion and recommendation for non-professional climbers is to think more than twice about joining a commercial Mount Everest expedition. Fine if you are a professional climber and are invited by a professional expedition. If you are not, but are so obsessed about going and joining a commercial tour, then there are a lot of things to consider. My recommendations are based on my own experience, on my observations during the expedition, and on conversations with other climbers:
It is very critical to intensively check the credibility of different commercial guiding firms and their guiding at Mount Everest. You have to be aware of the fact that this is an industry in which, like in any other industry, profit has to be made. Important factors are reliability, quality, safety(!), and costs in order to select a commercial mountaineering company on Mt. Everest.
Find out as much information as possible about the mountaineering company and their guiding on Mt. Everest. Make sure their management is professional! Kobler & Partner has not negotiated an overweight agreement with the airline before the 2007 expedition. Instead Kari Kobler has tried to put his foot under the scale while checking-in at Zuerich airport. That should have been a red flag to me at the start of the 2007 Everest tour already.
Make sure you are guided by somebody who actually cares about all clients. Critically look at the personality and character of the tour guide before the expedition starts! Mt. Everest is a tough mountain. A guide with a bad personality or missing leadership skills can make such an adventure a torture. Don't accept such crap as the guide secretly checking on the organization in your tent when you are not around.
Check the safety standards of the tour guides. Sometimes people lose their lives on Mt. Everest (as a matter of fact most of them die on the way down from the summit)! Find out about the past of the mountaineering company. If there were safety issues get all the background information. If clients of theirs have died in the past find out under what circumstances. Kari Kobler has lost a climber on Mount Everest a few years ago (and actually lost another climber in 2008!). Unfortunately, I have not done any research about the circumstances under which this person died. Now I think I should have done so.
Be not overly impressed about a professional website of the mountaineering company. A well looking website can be done easily by a computer specialist and may only include positive feedback.
Check the financial side. Do not accept an advance payment in full! Negotiate. Only pay a portion of the fee beforehand and make the rest of the payment dependent on the performance of the mountaineering company and especially the guiding. I believe this strategy pays off well for you.
If you decide to hire an extra sherpa make sure that you are the person in charge. Organize yourself. There are plenty of Sherpas available in Kathmandu or Tibet. Only in this case your sherpa really works for you and not only for your guide. If you hire and pay a personal sherpa through the mountaineering firm there is a risk that this sherpa will have to report into the guide rather than into you. In addition, you can save quite some good money by hiring a sherpa directly.
If you intent to tip a specific crew member (such as sherpas, cooks, others) make sure to give them the tip yourself in order for them to actually receive it. You want to make sure that they really can keep the tip. Usually the sherpas and the local supporting staff are great, caring people with big hearts! I personally do not know of many humans having saved lives with such unselfish characters.
Good luck from the deepest of my heart! Make sure you survive. Do not forget safety and humanity up there! Think clearly. Congratulations if you then make it to the summit and safely back down.
The Mount Everest Expedition:
In my opinion it is another critical part of a well guided expedition to keep a group together as long as possible. People can support each other and share their experience. However, in his own quest for success Kari Kobler has preferably pushed himself and a Swiss climbing member of our expedition. I had the impression that his decisions where mainly focused on his third summit success and the summit success of the Swiss member. Along with another climber they were using the sherpas with summit experience for their final push for the summit on May 16, 2007. Other members of the commercial expedition, at this point about to get ready for their summit push a week later, however, could not expect well-rested sherpas anymore since they already were used by the expedition leader himself. I personally have not heard of sherpas having been able to summit Mt. Everest twice within a week or so. As a matter of fact, to be on the save side I even had paid extra for a personal summit sherpa before the expedition started, to make sure not to be on my own at summit day as this would be too risky for a climber. Another team member and myself finished acclimatizing later. It certainly was not a good feeling staying in base camp for a few days, getting ready to go up, and hearing that Kari Kobler has been using the experienced sherpas for his own summit success on client's expenses and not leaving additional rested sherpas for the rest of the group. A responsible guide on Mt. Everest should, in my opinion, consider all possible safety standards for every client's well-beeing. To me it seemed very irresponsible that clients had to go up with already tired sherpas on such a tough mountain!
Final conclusion and recommendation:
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