Peril and Stress of Mountain Climbing Told As Scientist Recalls Everest Expedition

When James Lester found out he was going on an expedition to climb Mount Everest he decided to go for a practice climb in the Sierra Nevadas of California. Lester pooped out at around 11,000 feet, and decided to turn back.

Lester, a behavioral scientist, went on the 1963 expedition that climbed Mount Everest to study stress among the participants. He spoke Monday to a seminar at the Ed. School on human behavior in extreme environments, following a slide presentation of the expedition.

At a cocktail party to raise the $200,000 necessary to finance the expedition, Lester met the leader, Norman Dhyrenfurth, a Dutch mountaineer who invited him to go on the expedition. Dhyrenfurth thought it would be easier to raise money if he could tell people he had a behavioral scientist along to study stress.

The 18 man team started in Katmandu, Nepal, where 900 unionized porters were hired at 65 cents a day to carry up the 22 tons of supplies.

Lester himself made it to about 21,500 feet. He said that if he had insisted, he might have been given a chance to go to the top of the world, but he would have made some enemies since oxygen and supplies were rare.

"In a way it was a competitive thing. It was not decided by any one person who would do the summit. The criteria for the selection was, who'd worked the hardest and the strongest," he said.

According to Lester, Everest expeditions average 2.5 fatalities apiece.

"Most of the climbers on the expedition had already lost a companion in a climbing accident," Lester added.

A shift in a glacier caused a giant ball of ice to roll on top of Jake Breitenbach, one of the youngest members of the pary, in his mid-twenties, killing him instantly.

Twelve years later the amputated toes of two of the climbers serve to remind them of the costly mistake they made by reaching the summit of Everest just before sundown. Unable to return along the ridge in the darkness, they huddled together through the night against the cold. Their toes didn't bother them till they returned to base camp three days later and their feet began to thaw. Because of the pain in their toes they had to be carried down by porters.

Dramatic and Vivid

"Everything seems to be more dramatic and vivid when you're risking your life. They would rather experience life deeply than have a bland life that lasts long," he said.

Lester said that when he set out to study stress he didn't realize that most people who are serious about mountaineering are happier in the mountains. They experience more stress in society, "trying to meet schedules and involve themselves in relationships that are ambiguous," he said.

"The theme that came up in conversations with other team members again and again was that they feel their life is fragmented when they are living what you and I would call an ordinary life. In the mountains they feel like a whole person."

He said that, except for two of the climbers, the professions of the group involved the hard sciences such as physics and engineering.

"My hypothesis, which I hate to state since I haven't tested it, is that people who work in those hard-nosed fields need a place where they can experience their subjective selves and let themselves go."

He said that the climbers who made it to the summit felt a distinct emotional letdown after their feat.

"It's not at all rare. You build yourself up so strongly for that one thing and then suddenly it's done."

Lester acknowledged that the thought of returning to the routine of society contributed to the letdown.

Lester said that many members of the expedition admired the comparatively simple lifestyle of their Sherpa guides, in addition to their physical prowess.

"Our pulses would go up to 180-190 at times, while the Sherpas' was only at 90."

Lester acknowledged that western climbers are more oriented toward the goal of reaching the peak, while the Sherpas are more in the "here and now," and enjoy every step of the way.