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ACEP Now: Vol 42 – No 09 – September 2023

Dr. Mattingly posing on Mount Everest. (Click to enlarge.)

He was saved from his swirling thoughts by a 2 a.m. start to his next acclimatization rotation, a hike to the dangerous Khumbu Icefall. Soon, he realized everything he’d heard about Everest was true: It’s commercialized. It’s overcrowded. After its pandemic pause, too many permits have been issued to too many people, many of whom are unprepared for the difficulty. Waiting in the line of 50 to ascend the first vertical ice fall, Dr. Mattingly’s feet grew dangerously colder, inching toward frostbite. They pressed on, surviving a three-hour delay on the hike due to the excessive crowds. He was this close to turning back, but when sunshine poured over the mountain the next morning, Dr. Mattingly felt fresh energy to tackle the challenges ahead.

Once he completed his acclimatization hike, the next step was to rest at the base camp and wait for a good weather window. The weather worsened, so Dr. Mattingly and Pemba descended another 12 miles down from the base camp for safer waiting. After three days of waiting, they ascended back to the base camp so they’d be ready for the next safe weather window. A few days later, they made a run for it, donning their headlamps and departing for Camp 1 at 2 a.m. to avoid the lines.

They grinded it out, progressing steadily from Camp 2 to Camp 3 while overcoming oxygen shortages and excessive waits. There is only one route with a fixed line that all climbers must share, and the lines were excruciatingly long. It took them so long to get to Camp 4 that they no longer had time to sleep before starting their climb to the final summit.

“This is where being a night owl with no circadian rhythm came in handy,” joked Dr. Mattingly.

Again confronted with a clog of climbers trying to use the same fixed line, Pemba and Dr. Mattingly leaned into the “reckless” side of his philosophy. They took a calculated risk, knowing that standing still in those temperatures is unsafe, and the weather could get treacherous any time. They unclipped from the shared safety line and worked their way around eight to 10 climbers at a time, focusing on moving toward the summit as fast as they could.

“I just love those experiences on the mountain,” Dr. Mattingly said. “You’re not distracted by the noise of society. All you have to worry about is getting from point A to point B.”