64 | AG Outdoor
Japanese and Italian teams had climbed the
South-West Ridge before by slightly varying
routes, but both teams had employed siege tactics
to climb it. The ITP planned to do the route’s first
alpine style ascent, climbing fast and light with
a minimum of equipment. Will Steffen writes:
‘Their first attempt ended in typically swash-
buckling ITP style. After five days of climbing on
the Japanese route, a storm forced them off the
ridge at about 6500m and down to the Italian Col,
below the point where the ridge bifurcated. They
abseiled down the steep rock wall below the col,
leaving their four 50m climbing ropes in place
to use when they would climb back to the col.’
Which brings us to that old Mountain Designs
ad. The ITP hadn’t realised there was still one
more rock band blocking their safe return to base
camp. With no ropes left they were forced to
join all their slings and whatever else they had
together. Craig Nottle, who took the photo in the
ad, wrote in an article for Wild called ‘Wasted
Youth’: ‘Having anchored the chain’s upper end,
Mark lowered himself down the chain hand over
hand. At its end he was still ten metres from the
snow slope below. A moment of indecision passed
before he yelled out, “Oh well, no use hanging
around,” and let go of the chain.’
Luck was on their side that day and a soft snow
drift at the base of the wall cushioned his fall, and
the ITP lived to climb another day.
Five days later they started back up the Italian
route, tearing up 2000m of hard mixed terrain,
coping with temperatures down to -20°C at night
with no tents, just sleeping bags and bivvy sacks,
getting to the summit and back in six days. By
comparison, the Japanese team had used 2.5km of
fixed rope and taken 33 days to get to the summit.
Mark’s brother Richard remembers Mark
returned from the combined European and
Himalayan trips physically wasted. Despite this,
big plans were in place for coming years. In 1983
Mark planned to climb Makalu with Kiwis Bill
Denz and Peter Hillary and Queenslander Fred
From, while the following year he was focused on
the potential first Aussie ascent of Mt Everest.FROM TRAGEDY IS BORN A LEGEND
As we know, Mark never made it to Mt Everest.
The Makalu trip ended in double disaster. But
at the time there was nothing to suggest the trip
would go so badly. Peter Hillary tells me, they had
a very strong team:
‘...Fred was just this all-round powerhouse, very
big intellect, very smart man; Bill Denz, obviously
the greatest mountaineer in Australasia, with the
most incredible drive and determination; Mark
was quite an ascetic fellow, again very smart, a
wonderful rock climber. So you know we had awide range of skills: if the rock was really hard we
had Mark, if all round robustness was required
you couldn’t get better than Bill Denz, and I have
to say Fred was of that ilk as well, just pretty bul-
letproof in all directions.’
Why did they keep going after Bill’s death?
Peter says: ‘We went back to base camp and it
was a terrible soul searching time, but strangely
enough we felt that we had climbed so high on
the route that in a way it would almost be a testa-
ment to Bill, as much as ourselves, if went back
up. Obviously in retrospect you go, well, I wish I
hadn’t made that decision.’
Peter tells me that at the time they were solo-
ing most of the easy ground. It saved time as it
meant they didn’t have to fix ropes, but it was
also safer because moving quickly meant they
spent less time at altitude. ‘We were doing a lot
of soloing,’ Peter says, ‘He [Mark] was facing out
on quite difficult terrain – but we were feeling
very at home on it – he locked his feet up with
his crampons and that just vaulted him off the
ridge and, of course, unless you self-arrest in a
split second you are gone. He lost his axe and
on steep terrain like that you are doing very high
speed and that is the end of it.’
Why did they take such risks? Peter suggests
that you have to understand the zeitgeist of the
era. ‘What was happening in the ’70s and ’ 80s wasMark hanging out in the
Pines at Mt Arapiles.
Pic: Glenn Tempest