James Little: explore editor
Back to Banff
Andrew Brash (left) with explore contributors Geoff Powter and Christie McLaren
A couple of posts ago, I wrote about some of my personal highlights from the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festivals. Afterwards, it occurred to me that I forgot to mention an interesting chat I had with Andrew Brash.
Andrew is the Canadian who made headlines back in 2006 when he and the rest of his team gave up on their attempt to climb Mt. Everest to help rescue a stricken Australian climber near the summit. Andrew wrote about that incident for us in our September/October 2006 issue.
Andrew returned to Everest in the spring of 2008 to try again, and that time--despite the fact that the Chinese closed the mountain for part of the season—he successfully reached the top of the world. (See our July/August 2008 issue.)
At the festival, I asked Andrew if he'd ever considered climbing the mountain without oxygen. Andrew explained that he was uncomfortable with the risk. In his opinion, climbing at that altitude without oxygen definitely results in damage to the brain. In fact, Andrew is certain that he has experienced some damage himself during his trips in the Death Zone, even though he's used oxygen.
Of course, many people have climbed the mountain without oxygen, since Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler first did it in 1978. But so far, no Canadian has summitted Everest without using supplemental gas.
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