One foot in front of the other. Left. Right. Left. Right, his feet kicking into the snowy-covered face of the mountain. He’s climbing up a more than 45-degree angle. Labored breathing from his oxygen tank accompanies his footsteps like a monotonous, polyrhythmic drum.
His legs are heavy from exhaustion, doubly burdened by the gear he’s wearing to protect against the biting wind and below-zero temperatures.
Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey is attempting, for the second time, to summit the highest peak in the world.
Mount Everest. It rises 29,032 feet above sea level in between China and Nepal.
More than 300 people have died trying to conquer this peak, and around 200 bodies have been left on the mountain, their remains unrecoverable.
Five have already died this season, according to the New York Times.
Bailey moves past one of the frozen corpses.
But he can’t even think about what happened to this person who once had just as much determination as he does. He cannot wonder what caused them to lay down and never get back up.
Bailey is worried about his own health.
Sickness strikes
He has been throwing up for the last few days, unable to keep any liquids down. A lung infection has started to develop – the same condition that prevented him from summiting last year. But, this time, Bailey is steadfast in his decision to keep going.
“It wasn’t severe enough to keep me from going to the next camp, and then the next camp,” Bailey says, now safely back home. “It wasn’t until I got to Camp Four where it was pretty serious.”
Camp Four is the last overnight stop before a 12-hour push to the summit.
Making it to the top was a goal Bailey has had since age 12 years, and the mayor is not unfamiliar with pushing his body – testing his limits.
He’s completed in an IronMan race, run four ultra-marathons of 100 miles or more and climbed Mount Aconcagua, the tallest peak outside the Himalayas.
But Everest has been on his mind for 25 years, the mountain elevating a few millimeters higher annually, according to Chinese and Nepalese surveyors.
As Bailey kicks his feet into the side of the mountain, stomach empty and nausea bubbling in his throat, his mind clears for a moment as he realizes the gravity of his situation.
He gets closer to the summit, the sickness catching up with him.
All right, well, there is a not zero chance you’re not going to make it home.
Mayor Richard Bailey
“My energy level was falling and that’s when it started becoming kind of real,” Bailey says, looking back. Then he stammers, admitting, “All right, well, there is a not zero chance you’re not going to make it home.”
Almost there
Bailey and his team have been on oxygen for a couple of days now.
The air at this elevation carries only a little more than a third of the oxygen someone would have at sea level.
His cough is getting worse, and he has to remove his mask every time his throat begs for him to spit.
We’re just too close to the end of the season, and I think it’s worth the gamble.
Mayor Richard Bailey
“I was pretty sick at that point. But, you’ve come so far and you’re like, ‘I’m not going back down to try to recover, to come back up,’” Bailey explains. “We’re just too close to the end of the season, and I think it’s worth the gamble.”
So, he puts one foot in front of the other.
And crests the South Summit at 28,704 feet.
This would be the tallest peak in the world, if not for the ultimate summit, still 100 meters higher.
He surveys the splendor.
It’s silent this high except for the beat of his heart pounding in his ears. Bailey takes in the jagged mountain, the clouds below him.
That’s when he and fellow hikers realize a storm is rolling in.
“The conditions go from absolutely breathtaking, beautiful – you can see all these panoramic views around you – to, you can barely see from me to you,” Bailey says.
The storm
He and his team are only an hour away from the summit.
Thirty-five days to get to this moment.
“This is the decision point where if you keep going, there’s an increased probability you’re not coming back,” Bailey says.
Even with the higher chance of failure – of death – Bailey and his team make the decision: Keep going.
“At sea level, I can see why most people in that situation would think to themselves, ‘I would make the right decision. I would be able to turn around an hour away from the summit.’
The reality is though, you’re operating on a caloric deficit… You’re operating on an oxygen deficit, and you’re severely dehydrated…You’re physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. And the one thing you know is, ‘If I turn around, I’m going to regret this forever.’
Mayor Richard Bailey
“The reality is though, you’re operating on a caloric deficit… You’re operating on an oxygen deficit, and you’re severely dehydrated,” Bailey says, counting on his fingers what his body and mind went through. “You’re physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. And the one thing you know is, ‘If I turn around, I’m going to regret this forever.’”
And so, with his cough, stomach sickness and lung infection, Bailey makes the final climb, reaching the highest point in the world on May 20.
Once there, he could not have been more thrilled – to go back down.
“I wish I could say I got to the summit and it was very much a celebratory mood,” Bailey says with a slight smile. “I was very happy. It was more happy it was done, just because of the nature of my health.”
Tallest man in the world
But he had just stood on the highest point on Earth – one of only around 6,500 people that have ever stepped foot on that very spot.
And for a few minutes, Mount Everest was not the tallest point on Earth.
Bailey was.
He was quite literally, on top of the world.
“It almost kind of felt like relief,” he recalls. “It was like, ‘This is something that you told yourself you would do 25 years ago.’”
Back at sea level in Coronado, a long tan line wraps around his forehead, a reminder of the mountain it took him 25 years to conquer.
Congratulations. And now, it’s time to move on.
Mayor Richard Bailey
“Congratulations. And now, it’s time to move on,” Bailey says.
