Jon Reiter: ‘I probably won’t go back’ to Everest

When the enormous earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, Kenwood mountaineer Jon Reiter was at the Everest Base Camp, where the resulting avalanche took the lives of at least 18 climbers.

Reiter is in the final stage of his attempt to climb the Seven Summits – the highest peaks on each of the continents. Everest, at 29,029 feet, is the last on his list, and the highest mountain in the world.

His first attempt to summit Everest was last year, in 2014, when an avalanche took the lives of 16 Sherpa and climbers. It swept through the Kumbu Icefall, a living glacier spilling off the flanks of Everest.

Reiter returned from Nepal over the weekend. We asked him about his fateful second attempt at Everest.

What was climbing the icefall like?

Every expedition has a team of Sherpa that climb with them, those are the climbing Sherpa. But there’s another group that sets the route up the mountain, the ‘icefall doctors’ – they put up ladders and ropes and make it so we can get through the icefall.

It’s the most dangerous job on the mountain by far. These guys are literally superior human beings, physically and emotionally – they can handle some serious stuff.

There were 32 of us in the icefall, and the center 16 got killed. We were just a long line going up the icefall that night. It was so close, but I spent whole days digging dead guys out.

I didn’t think I’d be going back. But then I started thinking, what are the chances of that happening again? It was the worst accident in history last year. Of course, we topped it this year.

The earthquake struck Nepal just before noon, local time. Any premonition or worries leading up to the quake?

Nah. As a matter of fact I was back in base camp an hour and 20 minutes earlier, I was sitting there in the dining tent with my friends. I had been gone a few days, down to Kathmandu, and had just gotten back.

They were saying, “Jon, it’s been so boring these last few days, so quiet – you haven’t missed anything. We’ve all just been sitting around playing cards.”

What was the impact of the avalanche on base camp?

It took out the middle third of it, about 40 percent. It was devastated. People’s tents were blown 100 yards. We walked through there and thought, “If this had been at night. …” It was like a war zone.

Look at the pictures – it’s just gone. And people are buried in that.

Where was your camp when the avalanche hit?

We were just to the south of it, about 100 yards south. When the avalanche came off, we ended up being the medics, we ended up being the field hospital. They brought them all to our camps, and we took care of them.

How many were lost? Well, I don’t know. We took 18 (bodies) down the hill, but there’s at least another dozen missing. So probably about 30 guys.

The Sherpa name for the mountain is Chomolungma, the Mother Goddess. What was the reaction of the Sherpa to these avalanches?

Last year was the biggest deal in Everest history, a lot of people got killed and it was the first time in 60 years they closed the mountain. It was a big deal and the reason was because the Sherpa were like, this is the Mother God and she’s telling us not to climb her, and we’re not going to climb.

It was a big deal, for a lot of reasons – one, because so much of the GDP of Nepal is based on Everest. And by doing that, so many people went back to Tibet this year, to climb from the north side. It was the first time in history they closed the mountain.

And this year?

It took (the Sherpa) four days last year to make that decision. This year, two hours after that avalanche, they’re walking off – those that survived, their entire camp was wiped out. Those that survived are walking down the hill. They didn’t say a word to anybody.

You know, the Sherpas are very superstitious people. A lot of us Western climbers, not as much. But everybody walked off this year, saying, Really? Something’s up. Two years in a row that many people get killed …

Do you think you’ll go back?

I probably won’t go back … I don’t know if anybody in Sonoma would even know what’s going on or even care about it, really, what happened up there.

I think it’s a lot bigger deal for me and the people that are in Nepal and the people who were at Everest, what happened over there. I think it’s the biggest mountaineering event that’s ever happened.