Tigers are in our Future

Greetings from Kathmandu, Nepal

So, yesterday the news filtered down that one American has been removed from his Everest expedition for having an ‘inappropriate’ flag in his expedition gear. As of now, just the single expedition member was escorted down to Kathmandu instead of the entire expedition permit being revoked…a surprise.

So, it still remains serious up there and I guess the military is doing what they said they would do to maintain ‘order’.

Tomorrow we head to Chitwan to ride elephants and do some tiger spotting...let’s hope we spot them first. To our sponsors; we are paying for this little side trip on our own. Oh and the photo above will give you an idea of what the coaches look like.

Take care and be safe out there.

Namaste,

T&K

Heli Ride Out

Hey all,

So here’ s the scene...we’re hanging out in our tea-house room waiting to hear about our flight out of Lukla with no clue when we would be able to fly out when there is a knock at the door and the lady from the tea house says we can leave NOW on the rescue heli if we hurry! The rescue heli? Yippie!! As it turned out, Fishtail Heli Service evidently had some open seats in the bird since the owner of the tea-house was headed down to kathmandu and they wanted to fill it up. Turn out the tea-house owner also owns the helicopter…very nice! So, we crammed everything in our bags and took off for the heli pad, and then off to Kathmandu! The flight was 52 minutes long and it was amazing! Hopefully we can post some pictures of the flight soon.

Okay, so even on our way home, the epic continues. We are trying to change our tickets to depart out of hear soon...its doesn’t look like it’s going to be easy, so if we fail we’re going to look at elephants in the Chitwan nation park...go figure.

Will know soon enough? Ok, take care, be safe and will be in touch...

T&K

Namche, Nepal Himalaya

Hey all,

Well, do not know where to begin as it would take pages to catch everyone up on the last month up here in the thin air. But here goes…

The last DFTE has us leaving Tangboche headed for Pheriche where the HRA clinic is located. There we sorted gear and equipment in prep for EBC.
From there it was off to Loboche then Gorak Shep for our final acclimatization climb.

We arrived at EBC to a lonely site…we were one of the first expeditions to arrive in base camp to begin setting up. Words cannot do justice to the views and surrounding peaks that filled the scene; just awesome! The next few days were spent setting up the medical base camp and getting equipment going for the season. Rather quickly more and more expeditions began showing up and the EBC area started to grow rapidly!

Weather remained awesome..out of the three weeks we were there we had only had 4 days of snow...the rest of the days and nights were beautiful.

Katabatic had a successful season completing all of our goals and then some. Our task included: Setting up the solar system to power the medical equipment; assessing the medical equipment and recommending further equipment for the following seasons and the best and funnest (is that a word?) training the climbing sherpas in rescue techniques while on the Big E. We trained them with the SKED and spine splint. Set up scenarios for lowering and crossing the ladders in the Khumbu Ice fall...patient packaging and assessment while in the care of the sherpas. There were several in the group that had taken Kristins wilderness medicine course here in January and to say the least...they were already dialed-in! Willy Bengas, Mark Tucker, Dave Hahn (to name just a few) helped organize the training; these are some of the most recognized climbing guides in the world and it was a pleasure working with these gurus! Anyway, during our down time we explored the Khumbu Ice fall and I had a chance to Ice climb with one of the climbers who is scheduled to summit the Everest…cool!

I know this is a bit of a ramble because so much has been going on since our last dispatch…please stay tuned as when we return we will post an interactive slide show on our website...it will explain it all in more detail and include lots of awesome pics!

Ok, here is the deal with all the political mess surrounding the Olympic torch and Everest this season: As you know the Chinese Gov closed the North side of Everest to climbing this season and asked the Nepali Government to do the same for the South Side (Nepal side), but they did not close the climbing but they did enact several restrictions: no summit attempts until after May-10 along with several other restrictions regarding when and to what elevation climbers could go...also, there is no email dispatches and/or pictures, videos and SAT phone calls from base camp until after May-10. All this information was obtained the day we departed from EBC from the Nepali military official who held a base camp meeting for all expeditions and medical clinic staff. The Nepali Government is very serious about these regulations and everyone is on pins and needles and self-policing each other until the restrictions have been lifted. Hence to our sponsors: we apologize for not being able to send any pictures of our time at base camp. You will have access after May-10 when folks start climbing for the summit. Please be very cautious when printing this dispatch to your sites as we do not want to cause any expedition to lose their climbing permit. As stated above, as of April-15 the above restrictions were read to us by the Nepali officals...we are NOT the messengers for the climbing community, just folks who were there were introduced to these restrictions that are subject to change.

Ok, that’s the story thus far. We are here in Namche for another two days, then we start our trek back to Lukla to fly back to Kathmandu. We will spend another week in Kathmandu touching base with the HRA headquarters there and hopefully going to the Chitwan national park to ride an elephant! Then back to Colorado for a few days then off to the Bahamas to teach a few courses to the EMS service on Eleuthra island (and of course work in a few days of paddling and Bone fishing).

Again, check out www.EverestER.org for filed dispatches and current happenings as they are allowed. One more thing, check out this months OUTSIDE magazine, Kristin made the 50 best jobs article. From what we understand via email, its pretty cool!

Hope all is well and look forward to seeing you folks real soon. For you North Cackka lackky folks...we will see you the last week in May as we are headed back for a wedding and a little surfing and climbing!!!

Oh and will someone in the Divide area please tell Joe to email us and let us know how our house and cat are doing!

Be safe and 'till then,

T&K

Mission Accomplished

This morning we said a fond farewell to the Everest Basecamp team after having completed our mission to assess their needs and completed training for products we’ve tested in our polar practice. We’re excited about getting Luanne Freer, the founder of Everest ER into partnership with some of our contacts to equip them even better for future seasons. So now after some additional prep work, we’re trekking out.

Frostbite is Serious Business

As basecamp fills, so does our clinic, having treated 16 so far for maladies ranging from pneumonia and hypoxia to urinary and respiratory infections and the ubiquitous gastrointestinal disturbances. No serious altitude issues yet, as it seems our climbing community and support staff have successfully acclimatized on the way up.




We did see a couple of bad cases of frostbite in trekking peak climbers on one of our stops on the way up. Climbers caught on a very cold night took much longer to summit than anticipated and two sustained what appeared to be full thickness frostbite to their fingers. The climbers were referred to the HRA clinic in Pheriche where they were started on ibuprofen and injuries were dressed with aloe dressings. Frostbite is serious business here and it can come fast.

What's a Puja?

Basecamp is filling up fast; this morning we awoke to see several puja ceremonies in process. A puja ceremony is basically when the Buddhist asks permission of the Earth for the team to climb and have a safe journey. We were invited to attend IMGs camp where we were reunited with old friends from past years. Their team looked impressive in their uniform-red coats and black hats. So we’re all prepared, but there is still some confusion as to whether permits will be issued to climbers.

We Finally Made It

Our team arrived at base camp April 3rd all safe and sound. Our busy bunch of over-achievers had the medical tent erected by the end of the day and we saw our first patient shortly thereafter. Our solar panels are busy charging our equipment and Anna and Steve are organizing all of the meds and suppliers.

We saw a climbing team out practicing their skills on the ice this morning and our friends the icefall doctors are working hard carrying ladders into the icefall and setting their route to Camp 1. Basecamp is slowly filling up and the climbing season is on its way. We wish all a safe season.

Happy April Fools Day

Greetings All,

We've had a good stay in Pheriche, getting our clinic supplies inventoried and up the trail to EBC with porters and yaks. We enjoyed a celebratory dinner (meeting the HRA Pheriche staff celebrating Tayloe and Kristins' 6th anniversary) at the Himalaya Lodge in Pheriche. Yesterday we went along with one of the Pheriche doctors on a follow-up house call on a yeak. The yak had been attached by a snow leopard and developed a very large abcess under the attack wound. Yesterday was the post-op checkup and the yak is doing well.

Today, we move up to Chukkung, allowing our bodies to acclimatize to the advancing altitudes. Tomorrow we'll tackle the KongmaLa pass, following our own advice to climb-high-sleep-low (we'll climb up to 5,800m then climb down a bit to sleep at 5,100m or around 15,000-ft). This is easier on the body.

We hope to arrive at EBC on April 3 and resume dispatches the following weeks.

Stay Safe,

Everest ER Team

Namaste at 13,000-ft from Tengboche Monastery

Greetings All,

The team is feeling fit, acclimatizing well and keeping a speedy pace up some pretty sizable hills. Today we arrive at Tengboche, home of an old but very well active monastery...just in time to sit with the monks during their daily prayers.

In the morning we'll be off to Pheriche where we'll convene with the HRA team and use 3-4 days to inventory all of our stored equipment and supplies that we have stored in that clinic for the past year. We expect not to be able to make any dispatches for the next 10 days at lease, so no worries family and friends, know that we're well and happy.

Everest ER Team

12,810-ft and Climbing

Greetings all from 12,810-ft in Tengboche, Nepal;

Today we trekked from Namche Bazar to Tengboche. Pretty brutal uphill climb gaining 1,000 feet then dropping about the same and then another 1,000 more up, up, up again.

Once again, the scenery is unreal as the peaks are starting to surround us and close in on us. We will stay the night here and head to Pheriche in the morning. Then we will spend several days in Pheriche at the HRA medical clinic organizing our medical equipment and gear…we do a lot of this organization. From here it’s on to the Everest.

We are getting dispatches out on the website, so check it out…for that matter, check it out. Luanne has been posting pictures as we go along on our journey. The site is www.EverestER.org.

While in Namche (really we stayed in Zorak, just above Namche) we climbed several rock routes in the area…I think there are some pictures of the climbs on the website? We had a blast, but climbing at 11,800 feet on super cold rough rock did us in...awesome none-the-less.

Yesterday we did an acclimatization hike over to Kumjung and got our first view of Everest...Holy you know what! Again, cannot even begin to describe the awe of it all...plumes of snow blowing off the summit miles long. Also, got a full view of Ama Deblam...the ‘Matterhorn’ of the Himalaya’s and the rest of the peaks in the Everest region are just awesome!

Still no definitive word yet on the status of the climbing this season on Everest. We have passed several expeditions heading up and its all the same...we will see when we get there...what a trip. A lot of folks are on pins and needles due to this crisis. Only time will tell the outcome.

This will probably be the last dispatch that I can get out from the edge until we are settle in base camp and even then it may be just the Everest ER website issuing dispatches, so keep checking back.

As always, Kristin says hello to all.

Hope all is well back your way...take care and be safe.

Namaste!

T&K