Everest 2013: Interview with Guy Cotter – Boss and Climber

Guy Cotter

This interview with Guy Cotter is one of an ongoing series I do each season with Everest climbers. In addition to the regular climbers, the world’s leading guides occasionally pause to answer my questions.  I welcome suggestions for anyone climbing in 2013 I should interview. Now here’s Guy:

There are a handful of companies that professionally guide the world’s mountains year in, year out. Adventure Consultants is one of the in the world running trips to every corner of the globe and has for over two decades.

Guy Cotter has been running the company since 1996 with a strong philosophy of keeping it small, and safe. But he is not a behind the scenes boss, but rather climbing with the of them, including Peter Hillary recently.

I climbed with Guy or his team three times: Ama Dablam, and Everest twice. An Adventure Consultants expedition is well run with a team of Sherpas who have seen it all. Guy prides himself on not competing on price but rather charging what is needed to ensure personal attention to each of his members.

Guy, a native Kiwi, lives on the South Island of New Zealand in the amazing town of Wanaka on the shores of Lake Wanaka. He takes total advantage of everything his country offers from climbing to skiing to mountain biking. As the owner of Adventure Consultants, his company supports the of New Zealand by being part of world-class movies, and running guided trips to their pristine mountains and ski slopes.

I caught up with Guy just as he was leaving for Nepal to lead the 2013 Adventure Consultants Lhotse and Everest teams.

Q: Adventure Consultants just moved into a large headquarters in Wanaka New Zealand. Business must be good! Tell us about the new place. 

The building we’d been in was getting too small so we renovated a nice old building right near the centre of our small alpine town called Wanaka. Wanaka is close to Mt Aspiring and has heaps of outdoor activities close by and really good weather so it’s a natural hub for climbers. The building has excellent views across Lake Wanaka and the surrounding mountains. It’s nice to have the additonal space of the bigger building. One benefit of the new location is that the staff get better views of our local ski hill meaning that on a good looking ski day the office might be empty!

Q: Peter Hillary came to your grand opening. I understand both your fathers climbed together. I guess it was more history in the making with you and Peter together and climbing again?

 Both Peters father and mine were climbing together in the early 1950’s and were on an expedition together to a peak in the Garwhal called Mukat Parbat (7135m). After the ascent two members were invited by Shipton to join the Everest reconnaissance but my dad was too broke to join so didn’t get to go that one. The rest is history! Peter and I decided it’d be nice to get back in the hills as he was coming down to help us open our new premises so we took the time to climb of Mt Aspiring, a classic peak near Wanaka. We had a great catch up as it’d been a while since we’d been in the hills together.

Q: You continue to be an active mountaineer as the owner of Adventure Consultants. Why is this important to you Guy?

I got into this game because I love climbing. Guiding became a natural extension of my climbing and has provided me with a fantastic lifestyle. When I was a young climber I figured I knew what I was doing but it wasn’t until I started guiding that I realised how much I still had to learn! So I figure guiding has helped me evolve as a mountaineer at the same time as enabling me to go to some amazing places and get to know some great people. I think one of the main benefits I get from mountaineering is the relationships we develop with people by sharing experiences.      

Q: At this point you have summited 5 of the 8000m mountains (Everest (4x), Manaslu, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Gasherbrum II ) and climbed on two others (Dhaulagiri and Gasherbrum I). Any plans to do all 14?

 I’m not focusing on doing all the 8k mountains. It may end up happening by default as I enjoy getting away on expeditions to 8k peaks and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future but I’m also doing lots of other neat trips too that I really enjoy. For instance I ran another horsetrek to Mustang in Nepal this year with a group of members I’m very friendly with and that style of trip inspires me too. I also want to try to find time to do more technical climbing as I got out of shape when I had knee issues that required surgery so I’m slowly dragging myself back to some semblance of technical climbing fitness!

Q: You are climbing Lhotse this year and being both guide and climber as part of your Everest 2013 team. How is your overall season shaping up thus far?

 We’ve got a good solid team for Everest this year and a nice small group for Lhotse. I’ve always maintained that small groups are the way forward for expeditioning to reduce impacts and enhance the experience.  During the recession it was interesting to see prospective members shift towards the large impersonal groups because they are cheaper, but we’re now seeing people want more than that again now. From a business perspective I’d be better to steer AC towards running large groups with fewer guides as it’d be a way to make some margins but my philosophy has always been towards doing it properly, even if that means we have very small margins. If we run great trips for our members and provide employment for our team of guides/Sherpas/admin staff then I’m happy.  

Q: Lhotse is gaining in popularity and getting more crowded. It is a more technical climb than Everest with a narrow, dangerous, rock-fall prone gully to the summit. Any concerns on this as the crowds grow? 

There are certainly more people climbing Lhotse these days. Timing of the ascent is important to avoid the issues that can be encountered in the gully to the summit. The winter snowfall has a lot to do with the condition of the gully and that changes year to year. I think it’s such a good looking line and I’ve been looking into it the 6 times I’ve been above South col saying to myself I’ve got to climb that one day. I hope that days comes this season!

Q: Do you believe there should be limits placed on the number of Everest climbers allowed each season? 

No I don’t believe there should be limits on Everest. That was the way it used to be and that didn’t work as it just led to corruption with officials who would let other people onto the mountain in return for bribes. At one time only people invited on national teams got to go to Everest so we guiding companies have opened it up so any motivated and (hopefully) suitably experienced person can go. I do worry about the numbers of people on cheap and poorly managed expeditions who frequently have no experience though. I don’t really know what we can do about that as I often meet people I’ve told are not ready to come on our team who have joined another expedition with lower (or no) prerequisite standards.

Q: You are quite proficient at both skiing and climbing – any preference? 

I really like all aspects of mountain activity. I tend to put more focus on climbing because I enjoy the intensity and variety. I skiing as a way to have fun in the mountains and there’s nothing like the feeling of skiing really fast on excellent snow! I worked as a heliski guide for 12 years and still go ski touring several times a year. There’s just not enough time to do all the things I like to do in the mountains! 

Q. Film work. Are you on Beyond the Edge 

Yes I’m working on the film ‘Beyond the Edge’ until my departure for Nepal in a couple of weeks. It’s a doco/film about the first ascent of Everest and while I’m not allowed to give too much away it’s going to be very cool as we are filming in 3D with Richard Bluck as DOP. Richard is well known for his work on the Hobbit. Leanne Pooley is directing and she’s very good at the doco/drama genre. My role is managing locations/safety/consultant/teaboy and whatever else comes along! I often get called for the bigger films here in NZ as I have a great team and I guess they can see I can combine management skills with mountains.

All our locations are helicopter accessed and in serious terrain so it’s a very stimulating position. The footage they are shooting looks fantastic and even though this is a seriously low budget feature film by international standards, it will look great because there are so many people working on it who are passionate about the story because the ascent of Everest is an integral chapter of our national narrative.

Q: Finally, I want to come to New Zealand and climb Mt. Cook, and Aspiring. How would you characterize these climbs?

New Zealand mountains are very much like a lower altitude version of the Himalayas. In these mountains you spend a lot of time on serious, yet moderate terrain. If you pitch your way up them you’ll never get anywhere so you have to be able to move confidently unroped in quite steep terrain. When you do get a rope out you have to be very efficient as the weather is quite changeable so you need to get up and down quickly between weather systems. The time to come is generally in the late spring/early summer. After new year the glaciers are often broken up and access becomes more difficult and the alpine routes lose their snow and ice.

 Mount Aspiring is known as the ‘Matterhorn of the South’ because it’s got that beautiful pyramid-like shape. It’s got several classic routes from the more laid back NW ridge that follows a long rocky spine to the sublime SW ridge that is a soaring arete finishing in a short steep gully through to the summit ice cap. Both routes can be done in a 10-12 hour day from the closest hut. Mount Cook, our highest mountain, is a very serious ascent as even the easiest route is reasonably technical and very alpine in nature. It is often underestimated because it’s reasonably accessible and only a bit over 12,000 feet high. However, if you are practiced at that style of climbing it’s great fun. It will generally take people 14-22 hours return from the closest hut.

It’s worth coming over and spending some time on our lower peaks as a warm up to the bigger routes but ensure you have time to do other activities when the weather’s bad in the hills. If you were to climb Mt Aspiring first you’d have a good idea about what to expect on Mt Cook which is a more serious proposition. There are other mountain regions to consider too. The Darran mountains down near Milford Sound are granite peaks in terrain that is similar to the fjords of Norway. Working around weather is the greatest challenge as we have a maritime climate that is quite changeable and often gets locked into cycles. We can get weather that enables only small windows of opportunity that will last for weeks. Other times like this year we’ve had 2 months of great weather.

Have a great season Guy. Guy’s Adventure Consultants Everest and Lhotse teams are climbing on the South side and you can follow them on their website

Climb On
Alan
Memories are Everything


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6 thoughts on “Everest 2013: Interview with Guy Cotter – Boss and Climber

  1. A really delightful interview which imparted with so much information in a manner that even an armchair mountaineer could enjoy and understand.It did not sensationalise nor underplay mountaineering. Guy filled me with confidence and I would quite happily recommend AC to my family and friends. I again look forward to following his teams this season. Thank you for making us privy to these interesting interviews Alan. Cheers Kate ( UK )

  2. Excellent interview. I well know about AC reputation so good to hear about the ethos and background behind Guy Cotter.

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