Makalu Gau, who jokingly refers to himself as having "blood type M (for mountain)," has had a lifelong passion for mountaineering, and despite the tragic price he had to pay for summiting Everest, he continues to face the future with positivity.
"I've knocked off the most difficult peaks all in order to push my own limitations and overcome my own narrow perspective and cowardice," says Makalu Gau, who has spent his life climbing mountains.
On May 10, 1996, after a decade's preparation, Gau finally realized his dream of reaching the top of Mt. Everest. However, a few hours into what should have been the proudest time of his life, he was caught in a sudden snowstorm and left trapped overnight at an altitude of 8300 meters and a temperature of -60oC. Even the Sherpas, natives of the Himalayas, had given up on him, and yet he miraculously survived. Suffering severe frostbite, after his rescue Gau had to have his fingers, toes, nose, and part of his feet amputated.
After undergoing surgery, including reconstructive surgery, 15 times, Gau was discharged from the hospital to face his new reality. He began his new life having to relearn to wash his face and brush his teeth, and after he had learned to walk again, he eventually returned to the world of climbing, visiting places like Tibet and Xinjiang to continue to record climbs of China's famous 100 peaks. Since his recovery in 1998, Gau's madness for mountaineering has seen him tackle 25 more of those hundred, and he is predicting to have the remaining 55 done by 2010.<>
Wednesday, 10 May 2006 | www.nerve.in | tags: Nepal
By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, May 10 - The controversy surrounding the greatest tragedy ever on Mt Everest, when eight climbers died while climbing the world's highest mountain, has reopened, with one of the survivors asking Nepal's new government for a fresh investigation.
Mountaineers regard May 10, 1996 as the blackest date in the history of Mt Everest. That day, eight climbers died while attempting the 8,848 m high peak.
Four men and a woman who were part of two commercial expeditions climbing from Nepal and three men from a 39-member Indo-Tibetan Border Police team via Tibet perished on a single day, apparently due to a freak storm.
'The new government of Nepal has begun with clean hands,' said Yoichi Shimatsu, a former Japanese journalist who met Makalu Ming-Ho Gau, who was leading the Taiwanese expedition and whose role in the incident had been called into question.
Shimatsu was struck by Makalu's story and decided to tell it to the world, resulting in the making of a 30-minute documentary called 'Prayer Flags'.
'We are asking it to start an inquiry, find out which officials misused their positions for money and take action.'
The most widely read account of the tragedy is 'Into Thin Air', a 'personal account' penned by American journalist Jon Krakauer, who was sent by Outside magazine to cover the Everest expedition led by New Zealander climber Robert Hall's Adventure Consultants agency.
Hall's team suffered the maximum casualties with four climbers, including Hall himself and a 47-year-old Japanese woman, Yasuko Namba, dying. The fifth victim on the Nepal side was American Scott Fischer, whose Mountain Madness climbing agency was taking nine clients to the top.
Of the people who managed to reach the peak May 10 from Nepal, only four survived.
Besides Krakauer, they were Anatoli Boukreev, a Russian guide with Mountain Madness, the agency's high-profile client socialite-cum-journalist Sandy Hill Pittman, and Makalu Gau, the 47-year-old leader of the Taiwanese expedition.
Krakauer's book has been scathing about all three, portraying Boukreev as not caring for the safety of his clients, Pittman as being a selfish social climber, and Makalu Gau as a slow climber who delayed others, was callous about the death of his teammate the previous day and broke his promise that he would not attempt the summit May 10.
Krakauer's version, which gained wide publicity especially as it was made into a film, was first contested by Boukreev, who wrote 'The Climb' to project his point of view.
And now, 10 years later, Makalu Gau has broken his silence to give the world his version of the tragedy in 'Prayer Flags', which questions Krakauer's version and suggests the deaths were actually due to greed and corruption.
Makalu Gau, who came to Kathmandu to release his documentary, says he was the first climber to be issued a permit for climbing Mt Everest in 1996 by the Nepali government. He had applied in 1993.
Several commercial expeditions, including Hall's and Fischer's, got their permits as late as 1995, by resorting to massive diplomatic lobbying and bribery.
He also says the celebrated IMAX expedition that summited that month and filmed the ascent with American film director David Breashears as its leader too got a permit in 1995 after a US embassy official in Kathmandu lobbied on its behalf.
'I received my permit in 1993 after paying the required fee of $50,000,' Makalu Gau says. 'But some months before the expedition, Nepal government officials asked me to pay another $20,000, saying otherwise they would cancel my permit. It was obvious someone was trying to prevent our climb.'
Makalu Gau also says the overcrowding literally drove his team to the edge. Though his team was the first to get permission, yet when it began the ascent, the climbers found that others had already the best positions.
On May 9, a member of his team, 36-year-old Chen Yu-Nan slipped while coming out of the tent, fell down and received injuries leading to his death. Makalu Gau feels Chen would have been alive if the tent had been in a better position.
Prayer Flags for Death Zone---Nepal News
2006-05-16
Exactly after a decade of the biggest disaster in mountaineering history in the Himalaya, Makalu Gau, The survivor of Taiwanese expedition, revealed on Sunday his account of the real ordeal in the Death Zone at Everest during the night of May 10, 1996.
Enough had been enough for him, and so 10 years after losing all his fingers and toes to frostbite, Makalu through a newly released documentary entitled ¡¨Prayer Flags¡¨ clarified some of amazing myths and errors that werw falsely perpetrated in Jon Krakauer¡¦s best selling book, Into Thin Air.
Apart from featuring Makalu¡¦s return to mountain where he had come so close to death, the documentary also features the human cause of the 1996 Everest disaster.
Makalu also claimed that some events in the book were clearly cooked up and some facts were fabricated to an extremely unethical degree.
¡§I haven¡¦t given any kind of interview to Jon Krakauer and the way he ha portrayed Taiwanese climbers as in competent and inexperienced is absolutely false,¡¨ Makalu told reporters.(PR)
Studio Photography & Design : Makalu Gau's 100 Peaks
2005-08-07
100 Peaks
July 27th, 2005 10:01 AM EDT
By Lauren Lochetto
Standing at 29,028 feet, 41--year--old Makalu Gau was literally on top of the world. It had cost him his fingers, nose, toes, heels, and his climbing partner, but on that day in 1996, he became the first Taiwanese mountaineer to climb Mt. Everest from the Nepalese side.
After being plucked from the summit that eight men in his group never reached, Gau feared his dream of capturing the majesty of China's mammoth mountains through photography would never happen.
Gau was the visionary behind the "100 Peaks of China" project--sponsored in part by SanDisk--which had drawn him to Everest's peak. But the project, begun in 1992, would have to wait. He spent a year in the hospital, underwent 15 surgeries, followed by another year in physical therapy.
"I kept thinking, 'I haven't fulfilled my dream,'" recalls Gau. He decides to put all of his efforts and energies into finishing the project. .(.....more in Exporatory notes: 100 Peaks .
After one month trekking in Kunlun mountains for take photos Makalu just come back Taiwan.
In Kunlun mountains Makalu get a accient when fall to river with donkey He dameges the camera of digital and tradional type both come from Nikon.
Makalu Gau, who jokingly refers to himself as having "blood type M (for mountain)," has had a lifelong passion for mountaineering, and despite the tragic price he had to pay for summiting Everest, he continues to face the future with positivity.
Wednesday, 10 May 2006 | www.nerve.in | tags: Nepal
Exactly after a decade of the biggest disaster in mountaineering history in the Himalaya, Makalu Gau, The survivor of Taiwanese expedition, revealed on Sunday his account of the real ordeal in the Death Zone at Everest during the night of May 10, 1996.
100 Peaks
After one month trekking in Kunlun mountains for take photos Makalu just come back Taiwan.
