To learn more about the seven summit climbs, I read two books this month. The first is Beyond Everest: Quest for the Seven Summits written by Pat Morrow and published in 1986. The second was Seven Summits: The Quest to Reach the Highest Point on Every Continent edited by Steve Bell and published in 2000. Both books were fascinating and helped me to understand just how difficult these climbs can be.

To read the full book review click here.

Start your own quest for the Seven Summits and join one of our upcoming expeditions:

Aconcagua, Argentina, South America

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• January 14-February 3, 2012
• January 12-February 1, 2013

Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa

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• January 20 – February 2, 2012
• July 13 – 26, 2012
• September 1- 14, 2012
• December 21, 2012 – January 3, 2013
• December 28, 2012 – January 10, 2013
• January 18-31, 2013
• February 8-21, 2013

Mount Elbrus, Russia, Europe

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• June 29, 2013-July 14, 2012
• June 28, 2013 – July 13, 2013
• June 28 – July 13, 2013
• July 12-27, 2013

Mount Vinson, Antarctica

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High Adventure is a rather humble retelling of the first successful summit of Mount Everest. From the reconnaissance mission of 1951, to the Himalayan training exercises of 1952 and finally the successful 1953 expedition, the book traces his long road to the summit. Hillary tells his story in a very straight-forward manner with a degree of nonchalance. The events of the story are often dramatic and the accomplishments great, yet he writes as though he is describing his morning routine rather than the climb of an 8000 meter peak. However, the intensity and difficulty of the 1953 Everest Expedition is not lost, and the book will leave you with respect for Hillary, Tenzing, the 1953 Everest team and high altitude climbers today.

An informative, and at times, page-turning read, High Adventure lacks a personal element and tells the reader little about Hillary himself. In contrast, View from the Summit, reveals much more about Hilllary’s personal life and experiences in a thoughtful and honest way. Though his writing-style does not change much, he lets down his guard and reflects upon his life with a hint of nostalgia. While reading the book, I often felt as though I was sitting in a cozy den listening to Hillary recount his life’s joys, hardships and adventures.

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The book begins with a concise, colorful, and ultimately, more interesting retelling of the 1953 Everest Expedition. It is more opinionated too. To start, he admits that he was not John Hunt’s biggest fan and he describes his anger about discovering that Eric Shipton would not be leading the expedition. Perhaps the most interesting addition to the story of the Everest climb was the description of his realization that he, a simple bee-keeper from New Zealand, had become a celebrity overnight and his life would never be the same. It took him a few speaking tours to figure out how exactly to handle the publicity and he soon learned to embrace his status and to use it to help improve the lives of others. He started the Himalayan Trust in order to raise money for development projects throughout the Himalayas and the organization is still going strong today.

Many people know about Hillary’s summit of Everest and his humanitarian efforts, but most now little else. View from the Summit tells the untold stories of Sir Edmund’s life. He led a team of tractors to the South Pole (a much more difficult endeavor than it sounds), led an expedition to search for the yeti in Nepal, and jet boated up the Ganges River making it all the way to the headwaters. After summiting Everest, Hillary did not have much luck with high altitude climbs – in fact, he suffered from cerebral edema several times and avoided death only by relying on the rescue efforts of his fellow climbers. Also, he lost his wife and youngest daughter in a plane crash and sunk into a dark period of guilt and sadness. He remarried in the late 80s and became the New Zealand High Commissioner to India in the 90s. Up until the last months of his life he was still visiting his friends in Nepal, building schools, hospitals, dams, and other infrastructure to improve the lives of the people there. Now that is a life well-lived!

If you’re looking for an account of the first successful summit of Everest, then consider reading High Adventure, but if you’re more interested in learning about the life of a fascinating and inspiring man, then View from the Summit is the book for you.

Thousands of trekkers and mountaineers fly into the Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla every year to begin their journey through the Everest region. To hear of a crash at Lukla is not surprising to many anxious flyers who are wary about what the History Channel has listed at the top of its “Most Extreme Airports” list. However, historically, incidents at the Lukla airport are rare. Very few planes attempt travel there during the monsoon season. Because of this, there have only been six previous incidents in the entire history of the airport, and only two of those involved fatalities.

Also, to clarify a little, the fateful flight on August 24th did not crash at the Lukla Airport. Due to heavy rains, the pilots had decided to turn around and head back to Kathmandu, rather than attempt a landing at Lukla. It was outside a small town about 50 miles from Kathmandu that the plane unfortunately went down.

All of us at Berg Adventures would like to send our thoughts out to the families and friends of the passengers and crew at this sad time.

Lukla airstrip

Read the daily dispatches to follow their adventures.

Everest Base Camp sends off fairly unwelcoming signals, like being jarred from sleep by the roar of thunderous avalanches or in causing you to wrestle for air from the altitude. But for Dr. Luanne Freer, founder of the world’s highest medical facility, these are some of the easy challenges to this unique setting.

Since 2002, every spring climbing season (April through May) the Everest Base Camp Medical Clinic comes to life, providing emergency treatment for climbers on a strike for the summit. With over 1200 people at Everest Base Camp this past climbing season the clinic was busy. As she explains, for her and her Everest ER staff, even the mundane is unique when running a medical facility at 17,600 feet. “Simple IV infusions become logistical quagmires and require ingenuity, innovation and improvisation to make them work. We tried several IV warming devices – nearly all had some sort of problem at our clinic – either getting them charged or keeping them working was troublesome. In the end, for one patient we ended up having his climbing partner keep the IV bag in his armpit. It gave him something to do – we ran the IV tubing inside his down jacket to the patient’s down jacket sleeve and back up his arm. This kept the IV flowing, the fluid warmed to body temp, and kept his friend engaged and feeling useful. And it gave us 24 hour monitoring bedside. A win-win.”

Dr. Freer’s experiences have opened her eyes to what we take for granted here in the western world.

“Things like simple immunizations; I saw my first case of tetanus in Kathmandu. The patient went to her local blacksmith complaining of a locked jaw. Seriously! I’ve never seen it in my western practice. In Nepal I am appreciative of practicing medicine the way I had always fantasized that it would be – kind of a Marcus Welby approach – doing what I think is best for the patient independent of legal, economic, business concerns – and there are no insurance forms to fill out!”

In 1999 and through a coincidence, Freer found herself in the Khumbu Valley – home to the world’s tallest peaks – and within three years she was back, this time with a mission that would forever change the Everest landscape. “We have now served over 1,600 people within our clinic,” explains the emergency physician and director of the clinic managed through the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA).

This fall will find Dr. Freer and Dr. Eric Johnson, another veteran of Everest medicine, returning to Everest Base Camp as faculty members on a Berg Adventures operated continuing education trekking experience. The dates are October 1 – 21, 2009.

Edmonton based Track & Trail Adventures; one of North America’s top academic retreat producers, is pleased to be working with Dr. Freer and Berg Adventures International on the upcoming “travelling conference”. You are invited to join them en route to Everest Base Camp, Nepal for an unprecedented adventure.

For additional details on this trek October 1-21, 2009 visit the expedition section of Track & Trail’s website: www.tandtadventures.com/adventure.php?adv=4

For more on BAI’s Deluxe Khumbu & Everest Base Camp visit: http://www.bergadventures.com/v3_trips/asia/everest-basecamp-description.php

Photos provided by: Everest Base Camp Medical Clinic: www.everester.org

Other links:
• Dr. Freer’s experiences, recently chronicled in Outside Magazine: outside.away.com/outside/culture/200905/luanne-freer-everest-er.html
• Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA): www.himalayanrescue.org