Robert Link has a score to settle with Mount Everest.

The world-class mountaineer from Bend has attempted to scale the world’s highest mountain four times, succeeding once in 1990.

That year Link made it to the top with about 20 others in the historic International Peace Climb, which included climbers from Russia and China and remains one of the most successful expeditions ever on the 29,035-foot peak.

But that was on the north side of the mountain. Attempting to reach the summit from the south side in 2000, Link was forced to turn around at the South Summit (28,700 feet) because of bad weather, descending the mountain in a snowstorm. It was the third time he was unsuccessful on the south side of Everest, located in the Himalaya Mountains of south-central Asia.

Still determined to reach the top of Everest via the south route, Link, 48, will help lead three other guides from Bend, two guides from Seattle, and a Texas man hoping to complete his quest of the Seven Summits, in an expedition set to leave for Nepal later this month.

”It was painful looking at the (Everest) summit with weather closing in,” Link says. ”But we descended in a storm, so it was the right decision.

”There’s some peaks of elation and relief, but it’s pretty scary. We only celebrate when we hit base camp (after reaching the top).”

Link, the founder of Mountain Link guide service in Bend, has reached the top of Alaska’s Mount McKinley – at 20,320 feet the highest peak in North America – several times. He has also climbed Washington’s Mount Rainier (14,411 feet) scores of times. He has 26 years of experience as a guide. (Link will host a slide presentation of his previous Himalayas trips at 7:30 tonight at Pine Mountain Sports in Bend.)

Mountain Link offers expeditions, treks and seminars at locations throughout the world.

The three other Mountain Link guides from Bend who are part of the Everest expedition include J.J. Justman, Garrett Madison and Mike Lindaas.

Justman, 33, reached the top of Everest in 2004 on his first try.

”It’ll be nice going back and knowing the mountain more and the landmarks,” Justman says. ”And we have an all-star guide team going over there.”

Justman recently returned from Aconcagua (22,835 feet) in Argentina, which he climbed for the ninth time.

Chris Balsiger, a business owner from El Paso, Texas, began his quest for the Seven Summits 4> years ago. He is financing the entire Everest trip, which he says costs about $400,000.

Balsiger, 52, has climbed the highest peak on every continent – a list that includes McKinley and Aconcagua – except for Asia. Reaching the top of Everest would complete his Seven Summits mission.

”We’ve climbed the six others, but this will be the biggest one by far,” Balsiger says. ”And this will be my last climb – win, lose or draw. This is it for me.”

Husband and wife Tap and Heidi Richards of Seattle round out the crew of Mountain Link guides headed to Everest. The Richardses have accompanied Balsiger on his six other Seven Summit climbs, and on several other expeditions.

Lhawang Dhondup – who reached the top of Everest with Justman in 2004 – will be the lead Sherpa for the group.

The expedition will leave from the United States for Katmandu, Nepal, in three separate groups between March 24 and March 28. Each guide will pack eight 75-pound duffle bags, filled with food, rope, crampons, ice axes and down-lined suits.

After meeting in Katmandu, the entire group will travel by plane to Lukla, Nepal, a village at about 9,000 feet elevation. From there, they will begin the 10- to 12-day trek to Everest base camp (17,600 feet).

The climbers will spend several weeks acclimating their bodies to the high altitude before making a summit push.

There are four camps above base camp on Mount Everest. The last of them, high camp, is at about 26,000 feet. From there, it takes 10 to 15 hours to reach the summit for the average Everest climber.

Link says they intend to make it to the top on May 22, but he adds that it is possible to reach the summit as early as May 1.

”We bought a weather service so we can get a good forecast on summit day,” Link says. ”But there’s no guarantee at all.”

Indeed, the weather can take a turn for the worse quickly on Mount Everest. In a 1987 summit attempt on the mountain, Link was at advanced base camp (21,500 feet) when his group got caught in a storm. Seven people below him, on a different route, were blown off the mountain and died.

Link knows the risks, which also include rapid weight loss and mental fogginess at such high altitudes.

”You burn an incredible amount of calories,” Link says. ”It’s hard to put enough food in. And your judgment and mental clarity becomes affected. It’s definitely a fine line.”

Justman lost 30 pounds on his Everest climb in 2004 and admitted to being ”woozy” on the summit.

To help ensure that the crew is consuming enough calories, Link is bringing Jennifer Barton along as the expedition’s chef, who will remain at base camp. Barton runs Carrot Top Catering in Bend.

The goal for the expedition is for all of the climbers to reach the summit. Link, Justman and Dhondup are the only members of the group to have accomplished that feat.

But another goal is to provide those back in the United States with information on the expedition, and help bring mountaineering to a more mainstream audience.

Madison plans to send video feeds of the expedition to Mountain Link’s Web site: www.mountain-link.com.

Justman said the climbers are hoping to provide a live video feed from the top of Everest.

”We’re trying to pave the way and do something bigger and better online,” Justman says. ”We want to put out a lot of information and keep people’s interest. We want to make mountaineering more mainstream.”

Some would argue that Mount Everest has become too mainstream, with too many climbers who lack the needed skills and are ill-prepared for making guided attempts. This has led to some negative publicity and what some see as the increasing commercialization of Everest, which is climbed by about 20 summit expeditions per year on the south side.

But Link and Justman do not care.

The way they see it, Mount Everest is still the highest mountain in the world and a supreme challenge for even the most experienced mountaineers.

”Despite all the bad publicity and negative speak about it, Everest has not changed,” Link says. ”It’s still as big and bad as it ever was.”