2006

In the pre monsoon of 2003, Andrew joined forces with Christine Boskoff to make a lightweight attempt on this, the world’s third highest mountain. Climbing without Sherpas or auxiliary oxygen, they found the mountain to be a significant challenge and Christine decided to head home. Andrew continued the climb but on the summit push, on the final stages of the ascent, he made the tough decision to turn around when he assessed the conditions to be too unsafe.

He returned to the mountain in 2006 with a very strong and experienced team; indeed they shared over fifty 8000 metres summits between them. Making solid progress, they established their camps and waited for fine weather, but a mistake in the forecast left them pushing for the summit in deteriorating weather. Compounding this, Andrew fell victim to a bad stomach ailment and was unable to eat for several days before the final summit climb. Nonetheless he pushed on, and with his team mates reached the summit a little before dusk in ever worsening conditions. There followed one of the most harrowing descents in alpine history, in a raging blizzard, at night and unable to use headlamps. Andrew describes the climb as probably his toughest to date and his portrayal of the descent sends chills through even the most hardened expeditioner.