Duke Xtreme Everest 2 Recap
In 10 days the team trekked 40 miles and climbed 8,300 feet to the final Everest Base Camp altitude of 17,651 feet, where the barometric pressure is typically 400 mmHg (slightly higher than one half of the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level). Before commencing their descent a few of our team made the arduous climb to the top of Kala Pattar (altitude 18,192 ft). After 17 days at high altitude in the Khumbu Valley the Duke team returned to Kathmandu on April 21st to relax for a couple of days before flying home.
Final Preparations for Everest Trek
By Christopher Young, MD
We are fortunate to be able to participate in the upcoming Xtreme Everest 2 trek and to have gotten support from a number of individual and corporate sponsors. We would like to highlight one of those sponsors today, MobileDemand.
Everest Team Reaches Base Camp
The Duke team was happy to see former Duke faculty member Dr. Monty Mythen, chair of Anaesthesia at University College London. He is shown here with his daughter Charlotte at the Namche Bazaar High Altitude Lab, altitude 3,440 meters, 11,286 ft.
Update from Pheriche
Xtreme Everest 2 trekkers have passed the 4000-meter mark and are now in Pheriche at 4270 meters (14,009 feet) in altitude. We are now on a scheduled 2 day “rest” as part of the acclimatization protocol.
We spent 3 days in Namche where we were able to catch up with Nelson Diamond from Duke (3rd-year medical student) who is working at the Xtreme Everest lab there under the able guidance of Monty Mythen.
Update from Namche
The team spent a couple of nights at the Summit Hotel in Kathmandu, where we were briefed on the journey by our trek leader. In the photo below are, from the left: Peter Moon Anna Grodecki (former Duke Fellow), Richard Moon, Petrus Fourie, Chris Young, Hementa Maharaj, Mike Teamby, Ken Stapleton, Gene Moretti, Rob Wymer (trek leader). We all volunteered to be study participants in an experiment on nitrate absorption. We survived the low nitrate diet and the 3:30 am blood draw and headed for the airport for the short flight to Lukla, said to be the most dangerous in the world.
Namaste! – From the Everest Team
3 flights, 3 airports, 21 hours in the air, and about 14 hours in airports later…we arrived (along with all our luggage) in Kathmandu.
Namaste!
Everest Preparations: March 21, 2013 – The Hats
Well, we are getting closer to our departure date (Tuesday) and receiving all kinds of good luck wishes from friends and colleagues. Our friend and Surgical ICU RN, Amanda, while putting her own eyesight at risk (have you ever knitted dark blue wool? I’m told that it’s no treat) worked her fingers down to the bone to finish her gift to the team: 3 hand-knit hats in Duke Blue for Drs. Moon, Moretti, and Young: can you guess which hat goes to which person?
THANK YOU AMANDA