Illness kept him from reaching Everest peak, but Winnipeg firefighter already thinking of another attempt
Cory Funk | CBC News | Posted: May 29, 2019 7:42 PM | Last Updated: May 29, 2019
'If I didn't train enough to be able to do the job up there, I would have been more upset,' says Chad Swayze
From the moment Winnipeg firefighter Chad Swayze embarked on his first backcountry hike at the age of 14, he knew he wanted to climb Mount Everest.
And this spring — after years of dreaming, training, and saving — he finally had his chance.
But unfortunately for Swayze, bad luck and health struggles made it impossible for him to reach the world's highest peak.
"My legs were shot, my mind was shot. I was blacking out," said Swayze, who had to cut short his attempt to climb Everest last month.
Things could have ended far worse. At least 11 people have been killed on the mountain in this 2019 climbing season — the highest death toll since 2015.
Swayze's Everest attempt began on April 18, when he arrived at base camp after first climbing a nearby 6,189-metre tall mountain called Island Peak as a warm-up.
"You stand on top of that peak and Everest is still two-and-a-half kilometres higher," Swayze told CBC News.
"It's pretty awe-inspiring."
At Everest base camp, though, Swayze caught a case of Khumbu cough — a common condition caused by high altitudes and low humidity.
"Everyone walks around camp with a slight dry cough. It's irritating, but it's not terrible," he said.
"But mine progressed to bronchitis to the point where I could barely breathe."
Airlifted to Kathmandu
As his condition worsened, he was forced to take a helicopter to Kathmandu, Nepal's capital, to be treated.
By April 28, he was back at base camp. But his illness didn't stop there.
Swayze came down with a painful stomach flu and was stuck in bed.
But after two days spent struggling to keep his food down, Swayze and his Sherpa guide, Furtemba Sherpa, decided it was time to go up.
Swayze and Sherpa began their ascent at about two in the morning, when the ice on that part of Everest is most sturdy. But after only a few hours, things went south.
"Because of the lack of food I was taking in … I didn't have enough to go on."
Swayze and Sherpa talked about pushing up the mountain for another hour or so, but Swayze's body was telling him otherwise.
"I said, 'If I push further, I don't have the energy to come back down.'"
As the two descended, so did Swayze's mental state. A seasoned mountaineer, Swayze needed Sherpa to help him clip and unclip his ropes while they rappelled.
They made it back to base camp, where Swayze spent another few days lying in bed, hoping to recover enough to give the mountain another try.
But day by day, he only got weaker, and he once again needed to take a helicopter back to Kathmandu for treatment. He never went back to base camp.
Swayze arrived back in Winnipeg earlier this month, 26 pounds lighter.
He's still recovering from his stomach flu, but finds comfort in the fact that fate — not failure — was the only thing that stood between him and the peak.
"If I didn't train enough to be able to do the job up there, I would have been more upset," he said.
"But because it was something more out of my control, it's a little bit easier of a pill to swallow."
'It taught me a lot'
Swayze seems to have been bitten by the Everest bug, though. He's already thinking about his next attempt.
"It was going to be a one-and-done deal," he said.
"In five years or so I'm thinking of giving it another try."
The trip cost Swayze around $38,000 US — about $10,000 of which went to permits for the Nepalese government, he said.
Despite not making it to the peak, he says it was still money well spent, and he managed to raise around $14,000 for the Never Alone Foundation, which aims to improve the lives of cancer patients.
He also arrived home a little different than when he left.
"Every mountain that I've done, you learn a little bit about mountaineering, but you also learn a little bit about yourself," he said.
"It taught me a lot as far as what I can put my body through and what I can mentally block in my mind."