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Queue grows to scale Everest
28/03/2007 12:25 - (SA)
Kathmandu - Human guinea pigs, record-smashing "super Sherpas" and a man in shorts are among those gearing up to battle Mount Everest, set for a busy season this year thanks to Nepal's peace process.
"We are expecting more expeditions as the political situation has improved a lot compared to last year," said Narayan Prasad Acharya, an official from the mountaineering department of Nepal's tourism ministry.
This year, the cost of a permit to climb the world's highest peak will range from $10 000 to $25 000 per person - a massive amount of money in impoverished Nepal, where the annual average wage is around $240.
The main summit attempts will come in May, when a small window between the spring and summer monsoon make climbing most feasible.
While some climb for glory, others for cash and fame, Mike Grocott, a British intensive care expert, is in it for the science.
"A problem that we see very commonly in our patients is hypoxia, low oxygen levels," Grocott, lecturer in intensive care medicine, said as his massive research expedition left Kathmandu to set up its multiple laboratories.
His research team is seeking to discover why some people cope with lack of oxygen better than others, and the findings could help patients.
"What we have with Everest is a perfect natural laboratory where oxygen levels are low," he explained, adding that the team would study around 200 trekkers who had volunteered as guinea pigs and would also conduct tests during a summit attempt.
At Everest's base camp, there is only half the oxygen there is at sea level. At the 8 848m summit, there is just a third.
"It will take us around five years to analyse the data. By June we will have 15 000 blood samples and 2 200 exercise tests," said Grocott, whose team is taking 20 tonnes of medical and mountaineering equipment to base camp.
Sharing base camp with Grocott's Cauldwell Extreme Everest Expedition will be another interesting medical case - a half-naked Dutchman.
Wim Hof, known as the "Iceman" for his ability to perform extreme endurance feats in freezing conditions, is planning to attack the icy slopes wearing just shorts, boots and a backpack.
"He will not climb all the way in shorts, only in sections, but we plan to set many new world records," expedition leader Werner de Jong explained by telephone from the Netherlands.
Temperatures at the top during the main summit season range between minus 25 and minus 30 degrees Celsius.
"He has four extra Sherpas (high altitude mountain guides)," the team leader said. "Overnight and during tea breaks he will wear clothes."
Also out to break records are a mountaineering dream team - Appa Sherpa and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa.
The "super Sherpas" are two of Nepal's most famous high-altitude climbing guides, and will be joining forces for a small and probably lightning fast expedition to the summit.
Appa Sherpa already holds a world record for his 16 successful summit attempts, and Lhakpa Gelu Sherpa smashed the world record for a speed ascent of Everest in 2003, getting to the top in just under 11 hours.
First scaled in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, the peak has now been climbed 3 067 times, according to Ang Tsering Sherpa of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
This year, around 550 people will be attempting the peak from both Nepal - where a peace deal signed last year with Maoist rebels has brought an end to a decade of civil war - and the northern flank of the peak in China.
The mountain is viewed as sacred by Tibetans and the increased commercialisation of summit attempts continues to cause furious debate in the mountaineering community.
The peak was particularly deadly last year, with 11 people killed while trying to reach the summit. Many of the bodies still litter the upper reaches of the mountain.
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