Everest 2013: Interview with David Liano – Double Summit
This interview with David Liano is one of an ongoing series I do each season with Everest climbers. Not the famous, sponsored ones who get plenty of publicity but the regular people, who often have full time jobs, full time families and climb for the love of the climb. I welcome suggestions for anyone climbing in 2013 I should interview. Now here’s David: For most Everest climbers who are suffering severe headaches, and an unsteady heartbeat it is enough to rethink their climbing goals. But for David Liano, it was motivation to hone his condition, find peace with his goals and double down, literally. This mountain climber loves adventure whether it is solo ocean racing, triathlons, paragliding off mountain tops, the 7 Summits or, the casual Everest climb. This was his wrap-up for 2012: The 2012 was a wonderful year for me. Sailed nearly 5,000 miles offshore, took courses and returned to the world of mountaineering after both the cardiologist and the neurologist told me I could climb again. I prepared for the New York marathon for the first time since its inception in 1979 was canceled by the wake of Hurricane Sandy, I participated in three triathlons, I lost 16 kilos in weight and glider flew about 40 hours on two continents. In aircraft covered more than 160,000 kilometers, enough to go around the world almost four times. He will be attempting in 2013 something no climber has ever done on Everest – climb both sides separately in one season. David is no stranger to Everest with three summits on five different climbs, so he knows what he is getting into. David lives in Mexico City thus giving him an advantage when it comes to acclimatization. Please meet David: Q: You are quite famous in Mexico and their leading high altitude climber. How popular is alpine mountaineering in Mexico? Thank you for the kind comments. In Mexico, and especially around Mexico City, we are fortunate to have amazing volcanoes with very easy access. Pico de Orizaba (5,636m) is the third highest mountain in North America. Also, living in Mexico City has a significant advantage for climbers: I live at 2,800 meters, the same altitude as Lukla in the Khumbu and that’s one of the reasons I usually acclimatize well. I’m very proud of the mountaineering tradition we have, starting with Ricardo Torres Nava, the first Mexican and Latin-American to summit Everest and then with Carlos Carsolio, only the fourth person to successfully climb all fourteen 8,000 meter peaks Q: You have an interesting relationship with Everest. 2013 will be your 5th climb with three summits yet you want to return. Before we get into the double, what is the attraction of Everest to you as a veteran climber? Every year I’ve summited I have tried a different thing. I first dreamt of climbing Everest in 2003 after reading coverage of the 50th anniversary of the first ascent. Two years later I finally reached the summit for the first time. In the 2008 season I was not being able to get a traverse permit, or even a permit to climb on the Tibet side, so I changed my goal and summited Lhotse and Everest on the South side within four days of each other. After two more years of trying to get a traverse permit, in 2010 I once again adapted my goal and planned for a double ascent of Everest with Bill Burke. Since traversing was the problem we decided to climb up and down on both the North and South side on the same season, which has yet to be done. I was successful in summiting only on the South side that year. Q: In 2010, you became very ill on the north side, was evacuated to Kathmandu for ment then returned to summit from the south. Most people would have stopped when they returned to Kathmandu, what kept you going? During my summit push I spent a night alone at the North Col and I started having chest pains. I could feel my heart skipping a beat now and then to be followed by an unusually strong beat. Since I knew that things would only get worse with altitude I decided to head back to Kathmandu and see a cardiologist. Fortunately I was only diagnosed with a benign type of heart arrhythmia and I was able to take a helicopter flight to Everest Base camp on the South side and I summited for the third time just four days later. Leaving the mountain in the middle of the expedition was definitely hard and I was ready to head home. But after my check-up in Kathmandu it was as if the sky cleared and I could see the summit again. There was nowhere for me to go but back up Q: You are as passionate about sailing as you are about climbing even sailing solo last year from San Francisco to Hawaii. Can you tell us about sailing and the connection to climbing? I started having strong headaches at Advanced Base Camp during my 2011 attempt of a Double Ascent of Everest. The headaches wouldn’t go away even after driving all the way back to the China-Nepal border. At the time I was afraid it could be cerebral edema or even a brain tumor since I only had the headaches on the left side of my head. The headaches continued for several months after the expedition and I was diagnosed with an occipital neuralgia, a damaged nerve on the back of my neck. It made sense to take some time off high-altitude mountaineering and let my body heal but I needed to set myself some challenging goals. That’s when I decided to sail around the world solo and non-stop. I will begin that circumnavigation on September of 2013. As part of the planning and preparation I raced on the 2012 Singlehanded Transpac from San Francisco to Hawaii. Mountaineering is extremely hard on the human body. I don’t know many
Wave 1 Recap (updated)
May 22nd, 2010 will be a day recorded in history: the youngest person to summit Everest and the person with the most summits in history on the same same day yet from different sides. Apa Sherpa at age 47 made his 20th summit with the Eco Everest team and on the other side of the mountain, 13 year-old Jordan Romero along with his dad and Sherpa team made the top of the world, his 6th of the 7 summits. What a day. Jordan showed his strength by going directly from camp 2 to the summit. I am not sure of the exact time but believe it was around 9 hours. They are reported to be back at camp 2 and will descend to ABC. The SPOT technology and the map produced by ESRI worked extremely well. There were only a few times when a signal was not plotted on the map – two periods of about 45 minutes, which was probably due to the line of site being blocked to the satellite. But the world watched as the flashing red dot moved in a steady pace. Yet with all this excitement, many other “mere mortals” also summited including elite Sherpa climber Ang Dorge Sherpa who made his 14th summit with Adventure Consultants. With the AC team was Mandy Ramsden, 1st South African woman to complete the 7 Summits. With the Eco Everest team were the youngest Indian climber ever Arjun Vajpai at age 16 and David Liano, who intended to climbed Everest from both sides but became ill and had to go back to Kathmandu during his north attempt, was cleared, and returned to the south to climb with Apa Sherpa! Also on that team were two members of the Finnish team: Timo Jaatien and Mika Pitkamaki plus 9 Sherpas. There were many more summits Saturday morning, including the large Himex team, and I will try to note as many as possible over the next few days. I have updated the location chart based on what I know from last night. In the next post I will begin today’s summit wave. My sincere congratulations to all. update: This from Himex guide Adrian Ballinger: All 12 members, 4 guides and 17 sherpa successfully climbed to the roof of the world, and back down to Camp 4 at the South Col. The weather was perfect, no wind, cold at the summit, but quite warm lower down. The summit was totally clear, with incredible views all around. There were very few other climbers summiting at that time, affording our climbers time to savour their triumph at the top, and meaning they did not face the traffic jams that occured last year at the Hillary Step. Half the team have opted to continue on down to Camp 2 before stopping for the night, the others will overnight where they are at Camp 4. Great job everyone! Climb On! Alan
No Everest Traverses in 2010
It seems the Chinese are playing havoc with the more ambitious Everest climbers this spring. Not content with a “simple” summit, several climbers wanted to do various forms of traversing Everest. This involves climbing from one side to the summit and then down to the other side’s base camp. Some climbers wanted to then return thus a double traverse. It is now clear the Chinese are not issuing permits for such climbs probably based on their desire to keep a successful double traverse in reserve for a national climber. However, not to be denied, two former Everest summiters, David Liano and Bill Burke, will be attempting what they call a double ascent this spring. Bill posted this on his website: My current plan is to complete a double ascent of Mt. Everest, which has also never been done: ascend and descend on the North side in Tibet, travel to Nepal and then ascend and descend on the South side. I will be joined by my good climbing friend from Mexico, 30-year old David Liano. David is a highly accomplished mountaineer, having climbed the Seven Summits and summitted Mt. Everest twice from the South side. Mingma, who was my Sherpa last year, and is now part of my family, will be my Sherpa again this year on this unguided climb. I have chosen to climb the North side first for three reasons: (1) if I am able to make only one summit (e.g., because of weather or fatigue), I want it to be on a North side climb since I have already climbed Everest from the South side, (2) generally Everest teams on the North side summit earlier in the season than teams on the South side and (3) I will be able to acclimatize on the North side without having to go through the deadly Khumbu Icefall three times (the North side does not have an icefall). There had been two other traverse plans previously announced. Gavin Turner who wanted to complete the never before accomplished double traverse and and another from Australian Andrew Lock, who has competed all 14 8000m summits. Andrew wanted to do traverse north to south without supplemental oxygen. This to be his last climb of his multi-year project. I have no official word from Andrew as to his plans but Gavin has now switched to Annapurna and still hopes to attempt the Double one day. Bill and David will be climbing with Asian Trekking. I wish all these climbers the of luck on all their efforts. Climb On! Alan