Posted: Apr 23, 2009 06:13 am EDT
(MountEverest.net) In May 1999, Joao Garcia summited Everest north side without supplementary oxygen. 2 hours later Joao went down and brought Belgian mate Pascal Debrouwer back with him to the top. The triumph turned into a disaster on descent; when Joao separated from Pascal on the second step.

Joao spent the night in the open, and the next day tried to search for Pascal with emergency oxygen he had fetched in C3. Still without O2 (as Pascal had the only mask and regulator) and severely frostbitten Joao didn't make it far and his friend was lost.

This was only the beginning of Joao's hardship in high Himalaya, where he is currently attempting the snow-loaded and highly avalanche prone Manaslu. With 11, 8000ers summited Garcia is Portugal’s most accomplished Himalayan climber and ExWeb caught up with him in BC for a chat.

Here goes the first part of the interview, about past expeditions, friends found and lost to the mountains – and the scars they left.

ExplorersWeb: How's Manaslu? You guys were first to reach BC hoping to be done by April 18. Now work has forced Jean-Luc Fohal and Johan Perrier back home. Will you be alone for the remains of the climb or will you hook up with others such as Pauner and Co?

Joao García: There's lots of snow on Manaslu this spring. I noticed there was almost no snow during the winter so while some people say we came too soon, I dare say we came too late...

Yes, I have been climbing alone but on summit day I will climb with other teams like the Russians, Spanish, Italians... some of them know me and some are friends so being alone does not really exist here...

ExplorersWeb: How do you feel about Everest now, ten years later, and how are your injuries today? Are they affecting your current climb?

Joao: I feel great, very happy to have survived, but of course I wish I had my hands back! Before Everest I was a multi-climber, strong in rock, alpine and Himalayan climbing. My hands are no longer good for difficult rock but I can keep doing what I like most, alpine- and Himalaya climbing and I think that that this is one of the most important things in life - to be happy.

Pascal was a sad lesson, one that it is impossible to forget, but it was also positive in the sense that I know I did my best at the time to help someone, a friend in need. It feels good on my conscience, even having people on the radio telling me: ‘Joao come down, you can not do anything for Pascal’.

Some years later I did another "stupid" climb, at midnight to help another climber in need after my summit day. It was hard and no one else came along... when I got to him he was delirious but now he is alive and I feel good about it again.

ExplorersWeb: You climbed Kangchenjunga with Ecuadorian Ivan Vallejo in 2006; you both described it as one of the most beautiful summits of your lives. How come? Could Manaslu prove a rerun?

Joao: Kangchenjunga is a beautiful story. At the start of the expedition I had to bring a Portuguese friend with appendicitis to Kathmandu. 10 days later, after his surgery, I returned to BC were all the others were ahead in acclimatization.

I tried to summit with them but couldn't and soon found myself abandoned in BC. I phoned a friend in Kathmandu who "bought" BC food for me and sent it with Ivan and Fernando. I kept doing my acclimatization and was determined to keep climbing alone if needed as the last of the season on the South side.

The Spanish/Basque summit attempt was unsuccessful due to bad weather. Coming down the team informed me that Ivan was waiting for me in camp 2 for another try. By now there were only the two of us climbing. We were both strong and motivated, and did all the tracks ourselves in the soft snow. It was very hard physically and in addition route finding on that mountain is terrible; no ropes, no sticks - nothing but our strong conviction that we could do it. Turning by a big rock we noticed that we still were very far from summit. "What do you think," Ivan asked. I said nothing but continued, exactly the response Ivan wanted, I think!

Manaslu could never become a second Kangchenjunga, it's too crowded right now. It could have been if it was just me and my climbing mates or the Korean team with whom I have already collaborated going to C1, C2 and C2+ (6800m). Or in the last stage, if everyone goes home and I endure to stay until May 22nd for a final summit push...

ExplorersWeb: Later that fall (after Kang) you lost your climbing mate Bruno Cavalho on Shisha, descending from the summit he fell only 500 meters above high camp. What happened and how do you cope with the triumphs and disasters of high altitude mountaineering?

Joao: It's difficult to cope with accidents involving good friends. Bruno was another such case and only he knows what happened... we just found him right there, lying in the snow. Bruno was really a great guy, we had much fun climbing in Portugal, Pumori, Ama Dablam and then on Shisha Pangma...

ExplorersWeb: Do you think that after a few losses mountaineers become less sensitive?

Joao: Maybe some do but it's the opposite for me. These accidents sometime make me wonder whether it makes sense to keep climbing... I haven't got less sensitive but for self protection, I tend to make fewer friends in the mountains - I was not like that before!

ExplorersWeb: You climbed K2 in 2007, in the remarkable joint international summit through the Abruzzi ridge. It wasn't without complications; a young Italian perished on descent and his team was later criticized for lack of involvement. What happened then and how do you feel about what happened on K2 last year?

Joao: I can not comment on that; the Italian team should. The only thing that I would like to say is that accidents happen in these great mountains because they are very dangerous and that is precisely what young climbers are looking for...

The evaluation of the danger...when things go wrong we pay the consequences but when victims perish, it's the family who suffers. To me this was the big mistake of the Italian team; to try and hide or delay the news until Stefano's family had to hear it from other teams.

ExplorersWeb: You were among the first down from the summit bid - how was your own K2 climb?

Joao: You don’t want to know... well, in the end, it was a great international cooperation but until C4 I was so mad about the other teams' "bluffing".

We had 3 days of good weather and planned to use the second of them to push for the summit. We intended to go to C4 on the first day but the snow was too soft. Only I, Amin and Chris with his friends were breaking trail so we had to improvise a C3+ below C4.

All the others (Russians, Koreans, Sherpas, and Italians) arrived one hour later. When they found that there was no more trail they left their O2 and other stuff and went back to C3 saying "we will come back when trail is made to C4!"

I couldn’t believe it. This should have been our summit day in order to have another day of good weather for safe descent to BC. Instead, the five of us broke trail to C4 the next day and camped there. At this stage no one was speaking to anyone about their planned departure for summit that night - it was like a poker game.

I left about midnight and everyone was on their way. A Nepalese Sherpa fell a few hours later and the other Sherpa came back down. At this stage the Russians on O2 were in front and I have to say they did a great job putting the fixed line under the Bottleneck. After that, it's just enduring altitude for another 300 m, no big deal!

I knew this was our last day good weather so once I got back to the tent in C4 I called a friend (Vitor Baia) who had provided me with weather forecasts for some years. I asked him if the expected winds were confirmed and should I descend that night. He told me there was a delay of 12 hours but we should be below 6000 meters latest 6:00 am as 100km/h winds were arriving.

Fog and wind was already there when we left C4. I used my GPS to find C3 at times looking back to save my face from the wind. I noticed about 8-10 climbers behind me that didn’t have a clue if even I knew where I was going!

There was a lot of snow and I could only recognize the slope where we had spent hours making trail. I also recognized the big serac above our improvised C3+. Just when I thought we were about to reach C3, my GPS battery died. To my surprise at this point the quite and scared people behind me were screaming of joy - we could see the tents of C3. We descended to C2 that same day, rested a while and reached BC three hours after that. By then the Russians seamed like different people, they hug me, gave me vodka to drink, snapped pictures... It was the only summit day on K2 in 2007.

ExWeb interview with Joao Garcia, part 2 final: "Mountains are fair, only the commited get the top"

Portuguese Joao Garcia (born on June 11th, 1967) is currently climbing Manaslu. Should he succeed, he would only have Nanga Parbat and Annapurna to go, in order to complete the 14x8000ers list.

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