Posted: Mar 15, 2007 11:25 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) There was a time when climbers would write books on their Himalayan expeditions - some still do. Today though, most climbs are released through online reports and documentaries. Joao Garcia has come up with a cool idea to illustrate his 1999 climb on Everest’s north side: A comic book. A limited, 2,000-print edition has been published with no commercial purposes. Joao has other intentions: He wants to let people know, in the clearest way possible, what the climb took for him.

Check out some of the pictures and Joao’s chat with ExplorersWeb.

ExplorersWeb: A comic book has been made about your Everest climb! Who's idea was it?

Joao: It was a friends idea — he spoke to another friend, Ricardo Cabral, we worked together and one year later the book was published.

ExplorersWeb: How did it feel to see yourself as the main character?

Joao This was an adaptation of my Everest story book “A mais Alta Solidao (The highest solitude),” so I was not so surprised.

ExplorersWeb: How did you work with the illustrator? Did you show him pictures and video, or was it most important to let him know about your feelings?

Joao: Yes, we analyzed some pictures and video footage, but most importantly, we spoke a lot. Ricardo is not a climber, so I think he did terrific work.

ExplorersWeb: Do you think the comic tells your story on Everest better than a slide show — better than a book? What does the comic have that books and photographs lack?

Joao: I think that it makes it easily accessible for children who are too lazy to read, and it makes for a quick read that doesn’t demand technology. Last time I spent a night in a mountain hut, I left a copy there for all climbers passing by to take a look at the comic.

ExplorersWeb: You ended up badly frostbitten and lost your mate up there – the comic shows how you hallucinated about him while climbing down – was it really like that?

Yes, it was… as far as I can remember. To complete the story, I also used statements from other climbers on the spot, which saw what was going on with my mate when I was not with him.

ExplorersWeb: Your eighth 8000er (Shisha Pangma) came at a horrible price as well. Your friend Bruno fell to his death on descent, at about 7,000m, climbing down one hour behind the others. You guys left C2 and went back up searching for him but found him too late...

Joao: Well, most of the time Bruno was about one hour behind us, but otherwise he was doing fine… He summited, he took pictures, and then went back down slowly… We were a bit faster — if we had waited, we would have ended up with frostbites… But if he had just fallen next to us, we would have seen it happening! It was a stupid accident on an easy slope (about 30-40º)! Looking back at it, the fact that he fell just 500 meters above the tents makes me think he felt safe when he saw the camp so close – he probably let his guard down then, with horrible consequences.

ExplorersWeb: You climbed Everest from the north side. Do you think the events there last year (David Sharp abandoned, Lincoln Hall back from the dead, etc.) could be explained through a comic? What's your opinion on Everest and climbers' behavior?

Joao:I think there’s a lot of cruelty on Everest – it is actually different on all other mountains… Everest is more than a mountain: It is a symbol of power. Therefore most people attempting to reach that summit are not true climbers, they are rich guys searching for a trophy to take home. More and more people are using supplementary O2, each year fewer climbers try without it. The problem is O2 provides an artificial aid, which can fail at any moment. If something goes wrong with the oxygen systems, the climbers have no resources and no energy reserves to survive.

ExplorersWeb: How are the sales on the comic book doing? Will there be a follow up, from other mountains?

I don’t know, this comic is not for sale, it was a 2,000-print limited edition from the Mayor city hall… This is not a commercial book, but my two other books are doing OK (the first one from 2001 sold more than 32,000 copies, and the second one sold 18,000 in two months).

ExplorersWeb: What are your climbing plans for 2007?

Joao: This summer I am giving K2 a try.

Joao Garcia, 40, is the Portuguese climber with most 8000ers summited - 8. In spring 2006 he climbed Kangchenjunga with Ecuadorian Ivan Vallejo: Around noon on May 22, the Portuguese and the Ecuadorian shared what they both described as one of the most beautiful summits of their lives. October 23, 2006 Joao reached the main summit of Shisha Pangma - but there was no ceebration in BC: His climbing mate Bruno Cavalho perished on descent.

This year, Joao will lead a Portuguese team on K2.

More on Joao's Everest 1999: Joao Garcia reached the summit without O2 on May 8, slightly behind a Polish group. On the summit he waited 2 hours for his expedition mate, Belgian Pascal Debrouwer. Eventually he started back, but soon met Pascal and accompanied him back to the top. It was late in the evening. They went together down the Second Step in the night, but then separated.

Alone, Joao stopped, exhausted and afraid to get lost. Joao spent the night in the open above C3 without O2, waiting for daylight. He reached Camp 3 on the following morning, severely frostbitten, hoping to find Pascal there - but Debrouwer had never reached the tents. Joao then tried to go up again, carrying an O2 bottle in his backpack for his mate - not for himself, since Joao had no O2 system with him, as Pascal did. But after 200 meters he couldn't keep going on, and decided to obey his BC crew, who were by then yelling over the radio he had to turn back or die there.

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