Four SA women tackle Mt Everest
There are all sorts of ways you could lose your footing
Deshun Deysel fears plummeting into a crevice, Tumi Mphahlele dreads a sudden change in the weather, Lisa Gering’s family is more worried than she is, and Alda Waddell fears nothing – in fact, heights excite her.
Meet the four women determined to become the first allwomen team from Africa to summit Mt Everest in 2020 – at a cost of R1.25m each.
Gering, 43 , Waddell, 45, Deysel, 49 and Mphahlele, 45, are all experienced climbers but Deysel is the only one to have attempted Everest before.
“I got to 500m from the top but I had to turn back because of the weather. It took me years to get over the disappointment, but they say the third time’s the charm,” said the mom of two.
Deysel’s biggest fear ahead of the climb is falling into a crevice. “Falling is a real danger and there are all sorts of ways you could lose your footing.”
According to Himalayan Database, here have been 296 deaths on Everest. Most of the bodies have been left on the slope because the weather, terrain and lack of oxygen, especially in the “dead zone” (above 8,000m) where the oxygen is so thin it cannot sustain human life.
Their preparation will begin in September 2019 with a climb up Mont Blanc (4,810m above sea level) in the European Alps and Mt Aconcagua (6,959m) in Argentina in December.
According to Richard Sailsbury, who maintains the Himalayan Database, only four SA women have summited Everest. Catherine O’Dowd was also the first South African to summit, in 1996. She is also second on the SA list because she repeated the feat in 1999, but from the Chinese side. Sailsbury said 32 South Africans have summited the mountain 37 times.
The women will be attempting the climb with the logistical help of Ronnie Muhl, a mountaineer and founder of Adventures Global expedition company, who will also help them raise funds for the expedition.
Gering, an accountability coach at The Real Entrepreneur, a business coaching company, said she wasn’t afraid of anything ahead of the climb.
“I’ve heard that once you get to the mountain, your fears come out. My friends and family do worry about us not coming back, but at the moment I’m not afraid,” she said.
Waddell, who works for BMW SA, is the least experienced in the group.
“I have only climbed Killi [Mt Kilimanjaro] and local mountains, but that has me working really hard to get ready. Everest can take two and a half months to climb and the challenge will begin from day one,” she said.
The mother of 17-year-old twins likes to push herself and can’t wait to climb the metal ladders across crevasses, a particularly dangerous part of the climb. “I had a car accident in 1991 and badly injured my back, pelvis and ankles. I was listening to a radio show where some SA celebrities had climbed Killi and I thought if they can do it then so can I. If I can do Kilimanjaro then I can do Everest. You need a strong mind and willpower,” she said.
Mphahlele, an entrepreneur in the renewable energy sector, has completed three of the seven summits (the highest mountain on each of the seven continents).
This will be her first climb since having surgery for external iliac artery endofibrosis (EIAE), a disease that affects a number of athletes. It affects the arteries and the effects are similar to having cholesterol.
“This year I will be running the Comrades again before we start climbing,” she said.
Mphahlele has summited Aconcagua, Kilimanjaro and Elbrus, but Everest will be the hardest.