Meru Page #2

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'Cause he was- At this point, he was

starting to go on more expeditions.

Every opportunity was appreciated,

and he was basically going nonstop.

Whew.

5:
30 in the evening.

Time to start the route.

It's... crisp and cold.

We're waiting for the sun to move away.

So it'll set up and will freeze.

[ Blows 1

Uh, this is the best moment-

That... moment where everything

comes down, and you're really starting.

Of course, I said that when we left

Gangotri and when we left Bozeman.

But... now we're gonna camp

on the mountain tonight.

[ Krakauer]

Conrad first tried Meru in 2003...

and got his ass kicked.

It was super-technical climbing.

This isn't Everest.

This is a whole different

kind of climbing.

'Cause on Everest, you can hire Sherpas

to carry all your stuff...

to fix the ropes for you,

to take most of the risks.

Jimmy and Conrad have climbed

Everest four or five times.

Jimmy's even skied off the top.

But Meru is the anti-Everest.

No one's gonna carry your stuff.

If you need it, you need

to carry it on your back.

And for Meru, you need

a lot of tools to do the job.

Because the climbing covers

the whole spectrum.

This upper 1,500 feet,

the Shark's Fin, is smooth.

It's clean. it's nearly featureless.

But below that is 4,000 feet of really

gnarly climbing- this fluted snow.

Dangerous, exposed.

So, time after time, guys would do that

first 4,000 feet, light and fast...

thinkin' they're really studs.

And then they get to the Fin,

and it's a big wall.

And you gotta use big wall

techniques on the upper part of Meru.

And you gotta go slow

for that kind of climbing.

Maybe you'll only do 200 feet in a day.

Maybe it's gonna take you six or seven

days to do that top 1,500 feet.

And if it's gonna take you that long, if

you're going slow, you need a portaledge.

You need food and water and fuel.

Pretty soon, that's, like,

200 pounds of stuff.

You need a big wall rack,

5O pounds of iron.

So you gotta get that 200 pounds of crap

up the first 4,000 feet.

And none of the previous climbers-

and Conrad, his first time-

they couldn't believe that.

- They're not gonna climb that way.

- [ Groans]

Humpin' loads. Feel the altitude a bit.

[ Krakauer] But Conrad after that first

time said, Huh.

Here's the deal.

I see this, this epiphany.

You gotta do this big wall style

and get your stuff up there.

[ Footsteps In Snow]

- [ Metal Clinking ]

- [ Murmurs]

- [Jimmy] Man, how's it going?

- it's goin'-

Nighttime ops. Out climbing.

Luckily, the screws are solid.

Now, why do we do this stuff?

The view. The view.

I think it's 2:
00 in the morning.

We went for the ghetto bivy...

on the shoulder instead

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