The Ghosts Above | Renan Ozturk | Sony Alpha Films

I never wanted to be here, but here I am, crawling to the roof of the world. I came here on a national geographic mission that I couldn't refuse to solve one of the greatest mysteries of exploration and after 20 years of telling stories and thinking about the Himalayas. He knew what this mountain was about. This was the climb that changed everything. Such a big transition today. Leaving base camp. I just try not to forget anything. I'm going to get rid of this p because the P bottle is probably the most important thing. I have a lot to say here sorry, yes I think Everest has changed a lot since the early days.

The British expeditions of the 1920s not only invented high-altitude climbing as we know it, but also the art of sharing these high mountain cultures with the world, their efforts to conquer Everest were also the beginning of a cultural relationship. complex with the Himalayan people a hundred years later. I struggle with the fact that I am both an advocate for indigenous communities and a colonialist as a photographer. It is my responsibility to avoid clichés when I am among cultures that I revere like the Sherpas and Tibetan clichés that do not honor the depth of their character or the complexity of their lives.

We begin this trip with a puja, the ancient ceremony in which the Sherpa asks the mountain for permission to pass. More than a party these days, a questionable reflection of the commercialization of the Chomalonga camp, my friend, is now becoming real. Yeah, I think it's going to start to get pretty difficult now. Mark is the brains of this expedition and one of my oldest mentors. In 2017 we traveled. Together to remote eastern Nepal to document a Himalayan culture outside the Everest spotlight. This story is solid gold and I am very lucky to be the writer of this because it is very easy to be the writer compared to being famous.

He is the one who is the most out of control. however, I got stung on the cheek right across the Hood Miracle Highway. One of the sickest hikes I've ever done was before this expedition. We were all pretty against Everest, but Mark got a tip about the whereabouts of Sandy Irvin, who may have been. the first to reach the summit with george mallory in 1924 disappeared in the fog near the summit and never returned mallory's body was discovered in 1999 by some of my closest friends irvin's body is still lost on the north face rumored that there's your camera in your pocket with a summit photo that could rewrite history, it's hard to describe how brutal the altitude is, it's something that doesn't really translate well on camera, okay, you might want to prepare to receive this that We have been preparing for months. and I wish I felt more organized going up high, but the truth of the matter is that it's very difficult at altitude and no one feels that good, it's constant headaches, it's hard to form sentences, oh wow, that coffee looks a little thick, oh, I need it.

I need, it's hard to even talk to communicate with the rest of the team. What are we going to do today? We're waiting for the sun to come up and we're going to try to move towards the north pole and it's really very It's very windy oh we just had some gale force winds that took out the solar panel so we have to go to this place. This is very distinctive, this horizontal break here in the yellow band and I think both search areas can be oriented relative to this horizontal band. You can't climb it alone, these guys are going to be carrying some pretty gigantic loads from 21,000 to 23,000 feet, which is crazy, maybe Everest hit a tipping point this year.

The images of the conga line blocking the upper mountain went viral around the world, yes, and the media roared with disapproval, but being there I had a different reaction. Camaraderie between the teams. No one has denied me a fist bump, but I try to move quickly through this section so I don't get hit by that thing. The last steps towards the north pole. Wow, incredible. summit you can see the sun you can see the summit there's a battle buddy that's the hardest thing I've done so far I just hit a wall how about the rest yeah maybe there's not enough water or food with an umbilical cord of fixed ropes on its place?

Every inch of the way you can become complacent and even trusting, but that feeling changed when the mountain unleashed its power hitting us with 140 mile per hour winds. Holy shit, I'm no stranger to the reality of losing friends in this space and I also had some rough times a few years ago, breaking my skull and neck and cutting a vertebral artery which affected blood flow to my brain. Now it is questionable how I will handle the altitude on this expedition. It is simply inevitable that someone will get sick first. let's find out if there's a doctor in baseball, yeah, let's see if that person will evaluate Nick, then we'll just tell him directly.

If this guy gets to a lower elevation, it's a matter of life force and by the time we get here and start relating to this mountain, our life force is decreasing and our bodies are literally dying up here. I would say that even having spent a lifetime in the mountains, I didn't really fully appreciate how important it is to be there, I mean, we've been kicked around. it's the first time a storm in North Coal has made global headlines, yeah yeah, it was pretty bad going to check on Nick, no one has checked on him for the last 12 hours.

Wow, I feel like we have to be careful because if this is something. It's more serious than we thought, you know, I mean he's sitting here at 17,000 feet and he's not getting better. You know this is not beneficial for your health. An embolism is a blood clot. Yes, it can affect the heart. Symptoms. Shortness of breath. He has a heart attack. pain when coughing, yeah, it's like his symptoms lined up perfectly, in a way, Nick had three blood clots in his legs that traveled to his lungs. We were very lucky to make the call to evacuate him when we did before they hit his heart. or brain, the only other time I tried to tell a story was one specifically to bring out the Sherpa perspective on the mountain.

Death seems to always haunt the Sherpa climbers as they face more dangers to help foreigners on their way. guided ascents this risk disparity has always worried me on that trip I saw firsthand the senseless deaths of Sherpa climbers when 16 died in front of my lens the Sherpas canceled the rest of that climbing season an unprecedented display of defiance demanding a better life insurance for families and better salaries, basically the entire advanced base camp is being extracted and we are heading up the mountain, we will be the only ones up there now, what we should do soon is spend a little time talking to the sherpas, If possible, yes. fixing a lot of little things, yeah, are we at a point where we can lay it all bare now, Jamie, I have a ring?

Okay, about a year ago we came up with the idea of ​​coming here, to the north side of Everest, not so much. climb the mountain, but to see if we can find Sandy Irvine, we are probably a little lost, so we are very happy to be here with you and that you support us, they are saying that. They didn't, they didn't know our plan, so it makes their job very hard, yes, hambro, hammer, bug, mantra, moff, garnish, if you spend more than two hours there at three then it won't be good, yes, this party goes as far as everyone else, maybe.

We can, you know, just um, you know, work with them to mold it together into something that you know will work for them, basically, shanti china any, not chadni yohimal, um, I told them we won't do it if we don't have peace with these guys. We're not, yeah, we're not leaving or not, we're doing work for them, friendship, um, this, um, professional friendship, sub bass mata fernandi, I feel like we just told you, we'll work with you, we'll do whatever you want. I need to make this trip work, we're right on the verge of a full-blown mutiny, you know, thinking from their perspective like I don't know if I'd sign up to work on an expedition that wasn't summit-focused.

It seems like the summit might not be the most important thing for them, it's this 8-3 rule because they don't want to be blacklisted. Yes, we climbed to the top and acted like a normal summit team, but we reached the Hozell point, which I see fairly minor variation in the root. I'm still a little worried about what will happen when it's like Mark has his shirt on but I'm right next to him on the descent and then Mark lets go of the rope and starts descending toward the search area. I thought the Sherpas would be happy not to summit, but I was wrong, many in our team could potentially summit for the first time, a milestone in their careers and crucial to getting more work.

After much deliberation, we will go to the next camp, all the sherpas packing. so the weather is not easy the chinese authorities at the base camp send a radio message that a deadly storm is approaching even though we have a perfect forecast for the authorities all the responsibility for our lives depends on the sherpas yes obviously I want to try, the strippers call the shots here because not only do they have to sustain us at over 8,300 meters in the death zone, but they also have to break down all the oxygen on a subsequent journey that is unimaginably difficult.

They have three. times more than a small scary snowstorm above 8,000 meters there are conflicting forecasts it is a really tough day it is difficult to regulate the temperature I think we have a long way to go further than we think the yellow band is there I can't I think those guys They do this without modern equipment. When we reach high camp, everyone is too tired to set up tents, so we take shelter and abandon the ones half-frozen in the ice in a dumpster, diving in for food and fully cooked fuel. I'm going to go to the summit, it looks like we could, I'm trying to recover so I can do it, that took a lot, we reached 8,300 meters at the high camp, ready to push towards where we think Irvine is.

The summit, hopefully Mark can hydrate enough to be able to search his way down. It's going to be very difficult, we have worked a lot and it has taken us a lot to get here to connect. I think of my loved ones, my home. my friends friends of friends my world down there in the haze so distant from this world they seem like a figment of my imagination but they and you are the reasons I'm here to show you what it feels like and what it looks like 10 30 We just slept in some abandoned tents here in the death zone, we search for some random food and against all odds, we set off to try to solve this mystery and maybe even make it to the top.

The underdogs show how you feel about going rogue in the. At the end of the day, let's hope those guys climbed, at least they made it this far now that we're in Irvine, no more like I don't get it, it's your willpower, the higher we go the more bodies we'll see, even some of this season. I foolishly throw my backpack on the ground and my oxygen regulator breaks on a rock. It is awful. I'm more lethargic immediately. I feel like I'm dying. I distract myself from the pain by looking at the camera the few moments I can lift.

Everything that has brought me here swirls in the jet stream hypnotically hypoxically. I stopped about 10 feet from the summit. I'm not sure if it's out of fear or respect, but I promised myself I would never step on their god's head. We are the only team on both sides of the mountain. A lucky moment during such a busy season, so sometimes we collapse using bodies as backup and the Sherpas collapse with us worried for our safety, watching us carefully so as not to die under their watch. but they know we're looking for iron, yes, Mark can't bear to continue without looking and throws it into the void.

I wish Mark success, but I also feel the stress of sherbus. We are risking our lives but also their livelihoods. just to rearrange some names in the record book, but for us it was never about who got to the top first, it was just a detective story, more than just a sonnet, I went to Hozell's place, there was nothing there, I went against the Sherpas, which I feel. Really bad, I almost didn't go, but I spent so much time studying that place that I just had to go there even after going to the summit. Seriously, this is the hardest day I've ever had in my life after being awake for 24 hours. back to high camp 28,000 feet a place of torn up tents and wind strewn garbage the highest landfill on earth just below its highest cemetery a part of me is amazed to feel the privilege of being on the shoulder of the mother goddess of mountains capable of Seeing the entire world, another part of me is shocked and heartbroken, aware now that the ambition it takes to reach the summit of Everest tends to twist and contort all that come I never wanted to be here in the death zone surrounded by

ghosts

, but it's so strange.

Beautiful, I can't make you.