I succeeded! Californian climbers use pioneering techniques to reach the summit of Everest

Sleeping with your head in a bag works.

Graham Cooper and Adrian Ballinger, Californian climbers whose acclimatization to Mount Everest consisted of sleeping at home with their heads in hypoxic tents designed to mimic the anxieties of extreme altitude, reached the world’s highest peak on Wednesday.

The pioneering acclimatization technique helped cut the duration of the expedition by about half, from about two months to less than a month. They also took the much less traveled northern route, starting in Tibet rather than Nepal, to avoid the dangerous crowds and chaos on the more popular southern route.

A week ago, on the southern route, a harrowing human traffic jam left dozens of climbers trudging in single file along a narrow ridge just below the summit — a pileup that turned deadly when a cornice snow collapsed beneath their feet.

Six climbers plunged toward a nearly vertical 11,000-foot rock face below. Four survived because they were properly attached to a fixed rope. Two others, who apparently were not, slipped helplessly into the abyss as the crowd watched in horror.

Growing crowds, dirt and danger on the southern route prompted Ballinger, founder of Olympic Valley-based guide service Alpenglow Expeditions, to start taking clients up the mountain’s north side.

“It’s colder, the road is more difficult and the bureaucracy required to deal with China and get the permits is an absolute nightmare,” Ballinger told the Times in an interview before the trip. “But despite all that, the Chinese are trying to regulate, so once you’re on the mountain, it’s safer, it’s cleaner and it’s a lot less crowded.”

Ballinger, who has been climbing and guiding on Mount Everest since 2009, stayed true to his principles and suspended his trips to Everest after the Chinese government closed its side of the mountain in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.

The May expedition was his first visit since then.

On Wednesday, under a perfectly blue sky with snow-capped peaks stretching to the horizon in every direction, he stood at the peak shouting into the wind, “It’s incredible!”

Learn more: California climbers train for Mount Everest from the comfort of their own beds

A total of 23 climbers, guides and Sherpas from Team Alpenglow reached the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

But there have been many obstacles along the way.

First, the Chinese government made a last-minute change to its permits, forcing a tense dance with bureaucracy and delaying entry into the country by a week. The start date was important because there is only a short period each year, usually late May, when the weather is good enough to attempt the summit of Everest, peaking at 29,032 feet. Shipments must be planned meticulously, and any delay can put the entire business at risk.

The team also had to face dangerous winds.

On Monday, as they entered the “death zone” above 26,000 feet — where most human bodies begin to fatally decompose without supplemental oxygen — Ballinger posted about the conditions on Instagram. As the wind howled and the bright white peak appeared in the distance over his right shoulder, he lowered his oxygen mask and told the camera, “The wind’s a little more reasonable now.”

“However, it’s close,” he added, “to not having the (safety) margin I want.”

Ultimately, the weather cooperated, ending a five-year wait for Ballinger to return to Earth’s highest point. It was his ninth time at the summit.

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For Cooper, 54, an Oakland biotechnology executive with an impressive track record in endurance sports, it was the physical test of his life. And that’s a lot coming from a man who has competed in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii 11 times and won the legendary Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile ultra-marathon in California’s Sierra Nevada.

The four-day drive to the summit was like running four Ironmans in a row, Cooper said in a phone interview from Everest Base Camp Friday morning.

He coughed throughout the call, and his exhaustion was palpable as he described the worst: a sudden case of acute kidney failure on the descent.

“I peed in a bottle full of what looked like Peet’s coffee,” he said. Ballinger was trying to organize a helicopter rescue when, to everyone’s relief, Cooper started “urinating clearly” again, he said.

Because of the permit issue, which meant fewer days to acclimatize on the mountain itself, the trip would have been a failure without the weeks of acclimatization by sleeping with your head in those bags at home, Cooper said.

“Without that, I would have been absolutely crushed,” Cooper said.

During the last night in the tent before attempting the summit, Cooper said he had serious doubts about their ability to achieve it. They had climbed through 30 mph winds to reach this point, and the forecast called for more of the same the next day. If things got worse, they would have to turn around.

But the weather held and, climbing from the north side, the Alpenglow team had the mountain to themselves.

“It definitely lived up to expectations,” Cooper said. “It was an epic adventure.”

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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.