Stephen Koch Takes On Everest


The team approaching the route- "Looking up at 9,000 vertical feet was intense."

In the summerof 2003 Stephen Koch performed what might be the closing act in his decade-long Seven Summits Snow-boarding Quest. On the north face of Mt. Everest at 23,000 feet, he stopped climbing, put on his snowboard, and turned through the deep snow in a run he described as “a dream come true.”

Since his 1993 descent of Argentina’s highest peak, Aconcagua, Koch has snowboarded from the summits of Denali (Alaska, North America), Elbrus (Russia, Europe), Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, Africa), Vinson (Antarctica), and glacial remnants on Carstensz Pyramid (New Guinea, Australasia).
For this final quest on the world’s highest summit, 29,035-foot Mt. Everest (Nepal and Chinese Tibet, Asia), he teamed-up with two other local mountaineers, photographer Jimmy Chin and Eric Henderson. Their story, written and photographed by the team as the adventure unfolded, was followed by thousands online at www.stephenkoch.com.
These selected passages reveal a snapshot of their amazing journey. Look for their feature article in Men’s Journal, and go online for the complete collection of dispatches and photographs.—JH SKIER


Koch rides his board on the north face of Mt. Everest.

July 16 Leaving Kathmandu, Eric reporting—After six days in Kathmandu, we are finally leaving for Tibet, China. Kathmandu is a place of peace and organized chaos—chanting monks, swirling incense, and loud-ass car horns. Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians live together in a state of harmony. This morning we met with Lama Thulkhu, a seventh-generation reincarnated Lama, who blessed our team. We are ready for the next stage of the journey.
July 19 On the Road, Stephen reporting—Abruptly stopped by a large mudslide, we watch as local entrepreneurs ferry travelers across the muddy blockage with motorcycles, charging 300 rupees (about $4). A local man, La Lama, invited us to his home for lunch. I was impressed with the “clean” mud floor in the kitchen where we ate “dal baht” and fresh ox yogurt with our hands. In the upper loft we sampled racksy, a homemade rice brew. La and his family grow rice and corn, eating what they need and selling what they can. They live an uncomplicated life and I admire their contentment.
August 1 Yak Trains and ABC, Stephen reporting—The trip from base camp to Advanced Base Camp (ABC) took seven hours instead of the normal four, due to an exciting river crossing and yak drivers who work on “Tibet” time (even more lax than “Jackson” time).
August 4 Dukpa Chechi, Eric reporting—We awoke to 15 cm of fresh, wet, and heavy monsoon snow. Ginger-milk chai in hand, the five of us layered-up to hang our prayer flags and perform a puja to the mother goddess, Everest. We hung the flags in the four cardinal directions, and offered food, drink, and smoke to the Goddess. After a warm lunch the weather broke and we hiked to 20,000 ft. The views were amazing and our bodies told us we were finally acclimating to life at 18,500 ft. The following day, Stephen led a charge to the glacier for a morning of ice climbing. The dry glacier below ABC has miles of amazing blue-ice tours that form an endless labyrinth to explore.
August 18 Getting High, Stephen reporting—We just arrived back in ABC after spending three nights at 6,600 meters on the shoulder of Changzheng Peak. The high pressure (beautiful sunny weather) that we had for the better part of a week ended a few hours after we set up our tent. This was a relief, since we are working on our acclimatization and are not ready to attempt Everest. I guess this is one of the couple ‘breaks’ in the monsoon weather. We hope that we get another!
We received 30 cm of new snow while on Changzheng, and took full advantage of the great skiing and snowboarding conditions by making multiple laps on the headwall above our camp.
August 30 Summit Attempt Aborted, Jimmy reporting—Lakpa yelled as he fell up to his armpits in the crevasse. Stephen held the fall. It was one a.m. and we had been post-holing up to our knees for six hours at over 20,000 feet. We finally pulled Lakpa out and threw our packs down to rest. The night was warm and misty.
As our packs hit the snow, we heard a distant rumble that quickly escalated into a deafening roar. Roped together and surrounded by crevasses, we had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Staring into the dark with our headlamps, we saw the massive cloud a few seconds before the air blast hit us. Stephen, Lakpa and Kami dove onto their packs as I was blown 25 feet away, pulled taught on the rope. My pack and several ski poles were blown several hundred feet away. We gathered our equipment as the mist swirled around us and slogged back to Camp One.
August 30 Summit Attempt Aborted, Stephen reporting—We were all very fortunate to be unharmed. Qomolungma gave us a clear sign last night that the time was not right. We bailed for multiple reasons: snow, fog, warm temps, lateness, fatigue—all of which are easy excuses. But in the end, if She doesn’t give herself up to you, there is nothing you can do.
September 9 A Second Attempt, audio—This is Eric Hendersen from the north face of Everest. I just got off the radio with Stephen, and he said the climb is going quite well. They climbed 600 meters so far this evening. The moon is still out, there is no precip. on them up above Camp Two.
September 10 Halfway on Japanese Couloir, audio—This is Eric again from Camp One. Stephen and the team now halfway up Japanese Couloir. Beautiful weather, getting tired. Will make camp in a couple of hours.
September 10 Waist deep at 6,800, audio—Eric Henderson here. The climbers are at 6,800 meters and they’ve encountered some waist-deep snow. They are having a meeting right now, so stand by and I will update the website within the next three hours and let you know if they are continuing upward or coming downward. Thank you.
September 11, Down and Safe, Stephen reporting—Several thousand feet up the north face, we stood breathless after hacking out small platforms to stand on in the steep snow. The sun lit the surrounding peaks as we sank our axes into the ice. We had been climbing all night without headlamps, the full moon lighting our way. We moved independently, without ropes, swinging our axes, breathing, breathing, kicking steps. Finally, climbing!
We only had a few hours sleep in the last 60 hours. Fatigue and deep snow had slowed our upward progress considerably. We knew this was our last chance at climbing the mountain. We considered the risks and decided to turn around. It was a difficult decision, but both Jimmy and I have known many people that didn’t come back from their expeditions, and we agreed that our goal was to live and climb another day. Humility is one of the greatest gifts you can receive. More than ever we stand humbled and in awe of Mount Everest’s lure and beauty.
For the descent I took advantage of the deep-powder conditions and enjoyed some great turns on my snowboard descent on the north face of Mount Everest. It was incredible—a dream come true.

After the expedition, reporter Michael Pearlman wrote a feature in the Jackson Hole News&Guide, and quoted Chin as saying, “I felt more vulnerable and exposed on that face than ever before. Looking up at 9,000 vertical feet was intense.” Pearlman continued, “According to Chin, the day after the team left the face, a fracture-line was visible across the top of the couloir right above the team’s turnaround point,” and this quote from Stephen Koch: “For this peak in particular, it wasn’t about summitting and snowboarding, but about the process, about the path. I couldn’t have asked for two better partners, and the sherpas were awesome as well. We had the whole mountain to ourselves for two months, and that’s an experience hardly anyone has nowadays.”

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