Conquer Cancer Conquer Everest

Posted on July 23, 2011 by Tamagotchi

Another amazing climber I met this year (May, 2011)  is Sharon Cohrs from Australia.  She is a breast cancer survivor and she reached the summit of Mt Everest (8848m)!! She became the 1st Breast Cancer survivor in the world to achieve this.

This is very impressive.  I did not even know when I first met her at the base camp that she had such a hard time.  She looks just a normal person and so as Laval and James.  They are very approachable. But after I heard about her, I admire her more.  Going up there is already tough enough but she achieved more than that.  In Japan, we have saying that ” Illness starts in the mind “. I always belive that positive energy brings positive results. So I can see that she must to be very strong mentally and physically to do this.  Her achievement will inspire many people.  She dedicates to a breast Cancer research and she raise money  through her campaign;

Climbing for a Cause

All the amazing climbers I met are laid back people but I can see their determination once they are up there. You are facing death or alive, it is easy that things go wrong.  No mistakes allowed.  You need to train hard and learn survival skills.  I used to play Tennis competitively in school and my coach used to say that ” Make lots of mistakes!  You will learn from mistakes. ” I guess this is not that case for climbing.  I like trekking and I am curious to step up next level to see their challenge.  But it won’t be that high.

I also met a young ambitious climber from England. Everybody wants to be ” the first…. “ .  So last year in May after he climbed Cho Oyu without oxygen, he wanted to go for Everest next but other climbers adviced him to try other mountains first.   He needs more experience.  Usually people around 40 years old ( also financial issue, too ) is the average age to climb Everest.

He came back to Nepal this year and climbed Lhotse. Last year, he was very ambitious and it looked like he was not listening to senior climbers but I think he grow up a bit.  He is still eager to learn and asking questions to other climbers including a photographer who climbed Lhotse very long time ago, like 10-20 years ago, he does not even remember the details.  I think he will be a great climber.

It is very interesting to see them and .hearing their conversation. Thank you to my boyfriend and his boss ( Dan Mazur – He is also a very funny and laid back climber and he has a lot of great experiences) who gave me this opportunity.

Usually when you go for Everest Base Camp trekking, you do not stay at the base camp. You will stay at Gorak Shep. It’s about 1.5-2 hours away from the base camp.  Some expedition companies may arrange an overnight trip to the base camp as a part of trekking package.  Or you can just walk around the camp.  Nepalese base camp allows to do that not like Tibetan ( Chinese ) base camp. From mid May to the end of May, many expedition will finish, so if you hang around the Western restaurants in Tamel, Kathmandu, there will be many climbers there.  They seem to like to go to ” Everest Steakhouse”, ” Fire and Ice “, ” Roadhouse Cafe “, ” Rum Doodle “, ” Sam’s Bar “, and ” Tom & Jerry Pub”. They are craving for meat, good coffee , Pizza and bakery or anything western food, I guess.  They will eat the same food for 2 months in the mountains.  So if you go there, you may have a chance to talk to them.

Everest Steakhouse

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Frostbite … What it looks like?

Posted on July 21, 2011 by Tamagotchi

Speaking of frostbite, I heard sausage fingers should be fine.   It will heal but once it gets black and hard, it’s warning .

I met this great and very funny Canadian ( Laval St. Germain ) who climbed Mount Everest summit without oxygen last year in Tibet / Nepal. ( He is the first Canadian to summit without oxygen because another Canadian who tried earlier unfortunately passed away on his way back… ) .  He climbed from the Northside which has a base camp in Tibet.   I asked him what he felt up there. If he felt sick. Which I was already at 5400m.  He said he was not sick but he was very cold.  If you do not have enough oxygen, you will feel much colder than others who use oxygen. He is very strong even without oxygen and reached the summit first among his expedition team but he got frostbite.

This is his fingers.

Now he lost the tip of fingers.

I admire his challenge and I may do the same thing if I am capable but I do not want my boyfriend to do it…

Treating his fingers in Kathmandu.

Before shot

After they climbed the Summit and came back to the base camp.  I was lucky to be there !! The first team in the base camp dining tent .  They are stronger and came back early.

At Fire and Ice, a great pizza restaurant in Kathmandu.

Both 1st & 2nd team celebrating their achievement.

Summit Climb does not offer a guided climb. They have highly qualified expedition leaders. For climbing, a guide means somebody always be with you. One to one.   On the other hand, a leader will be around but he or she will look after a whole group, so it is not one to one.  They will assign a climbing Sherpa to support clients for summit day but one Sherpa may look after one or two climbers.  If clients want to have a personal Sherpa, then they can do so with extra fee.

Summit Climb offers an affordable expedition. Their tent and meal seems to be more basic than some of the others but off course safety is first, so nothing to scare about.  It seems that Expensive expedition company have nicer base camp tents and meal.  They includes 5 star hotel in Kathmandu.

So it seems that more experienced and laid-back climbers join Summit Climb expedition team. Summit climb has great strong Sherpas and their success rate seems to be higher than others.  When we came back to Kathmandu and ran into many other expedition teams, many of them said just a few climbers reached the summit.

At 5 star hotel, Yak & Yeti with Everest summiteer from another expedition team.

One in white, James Wilde, is a founder of Global H2O.  His charity organization supports people in Africa to provide clean water.  Also they help hospitals and schools.  Another inspiring climber.

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Who can jump off in the Himalayas at 8000m??

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Tamagotchi

Have you seen this movie called “Vertical Limit ” ?

I was watching this movie on TV the other night.   I am not a climber but I can tell this is so unreal. My boyfriend is a mountaineer, he climbed Everest (8,848 m -29,029 ft) , Lhotse (8,516 m =27,940 ft) , Cho Oyu ( 8,201 m =26,906 ft) and so on , and he calls this  a joke movie.

Who can jump off to rope off all the way down to other side of cliff  at 26,000 feet ( = 7925 m)  ?

I don’t think you can fly into 7925m and across a long rope over deep valley.  First of all, you need to acclimatize the altitude by climbing up from lower elevation.   Who put that rope anyway?

They do not wear a heavy down-suit.  They just carry a little backpack with no porters.  ( Even just going to K2 base camp, there will be so many porters carry necessary equipment) .

This is what a sherpa carries for a client ( climber ) .

There are still more tents and camping equipments at higher camps.

This bag is just for last push to summit.

It was super heavy!! I could not even lift at all!

They ( in the movie )  expose hands, face and eyes.  You will get frostbite and snowblind !!

I heard many stories from my boyfriend and other climbers at Everest Base Camp and Kathmandu.  One of the sherpa tried to help his client and he needed to take off his gloves. In just a few second, he got frostbite and he lost 8 fingers. Another client took him to Spain and they put his toes to his hands and now he can hold a pen or something so he can work.  He run “Asmita B&B”  in Kathmandu.

When I was at base camp, a climber came down with very bad snowblind and frostbite.  I heard all the fingers are like huge sausages.  Even without taking off a goggle, from the air pressure or something, people can get temporary blindness. He could not see so he was slow.  That is why he got frostbite.

Another sherpa tried to help a client but he lost his mind from altitude and he punched the sherpa. He lost his goggle and he suffered from snow-blind when he came down.

My first time when I watched this movie, I realized only unreal scene but now I can see the details thanks to these stories.

One of the Everest expedition team members made this video. You can see what it looks like up there.   I heard she is very fit and climbed many mountains but she said it was very hard  challenge. She was planing to fly off  Everest with a paraglider but the weather was very bad and she could not try it, even she tried twice.  Somebody asked her if she was disappointed or if she wanted to try again. she said

She is happy that she summited Everest and

ALIVE!!

Do you want to see more?

You can get a DVD. Vertical Limit

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