DavidBreashears

Generally several months of smoking and drinking heavily to stress my body for the rigors of climbing on Everest.

The 1996 Everest disaster was a terrible tragedy and many peoples lives were greatly affected by it. It is only normal in life that people observing the exact same event will later on recount it in a different manner, especially life threatening events. This is a known phenomenon none of us is an objective observer. The truth usually lies in the middle of many different opinions.

Yes, many but I am not free to talk about it ;-)

I've made a documentary about Mallory and Irvine, and co-written a book about Mallory and Irvine and consulted with many prominent climbers about the route and its challenges. My thinking is there is no chance whatsoever they could have climbed the route with the gear and technical abilities of the era.

Actually, I take training very seriously and spend two months leading up to an expedition doing both cardiovascular and strength training. I pay particular attention to developing a strong heart as the climb places tremendous workload on your heart. I use a heartrate monitor to achieve the best results. But, far more important than training is spending time on other mountains to develop the skills and experience to become self-reliant and independent while on Everest. This not only brings greater satisfaction to the experience but increases your safety margin considerably.