Journal Entry 1
Mountaineer and explorer George Mallory was asked, “Why
climb Everest?” His now-famous quip was, “Because it is there.”
Mountains represent one of the greatest challenges to human
endurance, ingenuity, daring, and courage. We even use
mountains as metaphors for triumph and high points in our lives.
Perhaps no mountain symbolizes triumph better than Mt.
Everest, the highest point on earth at 29,035 feet above sea level.
So this year on the Fall Fitness Challenge, we’re exploring Mt.
Everest! This week, though, we’ll take a look at the history of
mountaineering.
Mountaineering may not be as recent as you think. As early as the
18th century, scientists and naturalists in Europe began climbing
the Alps to study its glaciers, flora, and fauna and enjoy its natural
beauty. By the end of the century, a few hardy souls began
seeking the heart of adventure by climbing the surrounding
peaks. The sport ‘officially’ dates to 1760 when Swiss physicist
Horace Benedict de Saussure announced a prize for the first
person to climb Mont Blanc (15,770 feet), the highest mountain
in Europe. Mont Blanc lies on the French-Italian border in the
Alps and is more a long trek than a technical rock climb.
Twentysix years after Saussure offered the prize, a doctor from
Chamonix reached the summit. A year later, Saussure reached the
summit himself. His expedition included a large number of
porters who carried supplies and ladders to assist him to the top.
The sport grew in popularity later in the 19th century as wealthy
enthusiasts formed climbing clubs and traveled to the Alps and
even around the world to climb mountains. One of the greatest
mountaineers of that day was the Duke of Abruzzi, son of a
Spanish king, who climbed mountains in the Alps, Alaska,
Africa, and the Himalayas. Mountaineers climbed “purely for
sport and adventure” as English climber W.W. Graham put it.
Graham was one of the pioneers of the Himalayas, climbing
and exploring several peaks in the late 19th century.
“So, doesn’t all of this sound a bit dangerous?” you ask. Yes,
certainly mountaineering is a dangerous and sometimes fatal
sport. While many, many people climb mountains and rocks
without any accidents year after year, alpine mountaineering
on the highest mountains, such as Mt. Everest, holds many
more dangers than smaller climbs. Let’s look at why:
Weather. If you’ve ever been to Colorado or the any fairly
high mountain range, you’ve probably experienced the
volatile weather. It can be sunny one minute and storming the
next! When you’re even higher, on bigger mountains, extreme
weather is even more of a possibility and danger. When one is
on Mt. Everest, there’s nothing to take shelter in except a
tent! High winds, heat (yes heat! At those altitudes the sun
can cook you from above and the reflection off the snow
from below!), extreme cold, and blizzards are all possible on the high mountains. The mountain itself. Avalanches,
rock slides, crevasses (deep cracks in glaciers that are constantly shifting), steep snow/ice slopes, and sheer rock
walls are all dangers mountaineers must face on Everest. Altitude.
This is perhaps the greatest challenge on mountains like Everest. The upper limit of altitude for long-term living is
around 17,500 feet above sea level, at which only about half the necessary
oxygen is available to the body due to the reduced partial pressure of
oxygen at higher altitudes. The ‘death zone’, generally thought to be
around 23,000 feet above sea level, refers to altitudes above which
human life cannot be sustained for very long periods of time. No one can
acclimatize to this altitude. Mt. Everest is 29,035 feet above sea level,
meaning that the last 6,000+ feet of Everest are above the death zone!
Altitude illnesses such as high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and
high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) represent the latter stages of
‘mountain sickness’ and are particularly dangerous. If the affected person
is not brought down to a lower altitude immediately, these conditions can be fatal.
Dizziness, blurred vision, headaches, chronic coughing, loss of appetite, weakness,
exhaustion, and muddled thinking are all common results of climbing on mountains
such as Everest. Certainly, climbing Everest represents an extreme sport taken to the
extreme! It makes George Mallory’s words of “Because it is there” seem a little crazy.
Still, those of us who have no desire to climb mountains can still be inspired by the
incredible athletic feats of mountaineers.
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from George Mallory? Maybe
you’re not the type to climb mountains simply “Because they are there.” Maybe you
even find it hard to motivate yourself to get out and exercise. Take a leap and try
something new! Try a fitness camp or yoga or cycling or something you’ve never
done before. Sometimes it simply takes the gumption to ‘explore’ what you are
capable of to start you off on a healthy lifestyle. Test yourself. It’s OK to do more
than the minimum. Next week we’ll take a look at how mountain climbing works!
Journal Entry 2
Mountaineering is a unique sport, without a set of prewritten rules or set
way of doing things. It has also greatly evolved over time. Early climbers
were generally wealthy adventure seekers who hiked and climbed up the
mountains in tweed jackets and sweaters. As more mountains were
climbed and harder ones were sought after, the sport gradually developed
its own set of equipment.
Mountaineering involves many skills, but three basic skills necessary are
hiking, rock climbing, and snow/ice climbing. Some of the early tools
developed to aid climbers and enhance their safety were ice axes,
crampons, ropes, pitons, and carabiners. Ice axes are long, pointedhandled tools that allow climbers to use them as ‘staffs’ of sorts to help
them climb, a means to dig into the snow or ice to gain a hold with the
head of the ax or cut foot or handholds, and as safety tools to stop slides
in case of a fall on a steep, snowy slope. Crampons are metal spikes that
are strapped to the soles of boots to give traction on ice or snow. Ropes,
of course, are used to link climbers together so that in case of a fall, one
of the climbers can stop the fall of the other. Carabiners are metal loops
that open and close and are used to secure the rope to pitons or other
climbing tools. Pitons are metal spikes hammered into the rock or ice to
secure the rope via a carabiner. Pitons were used in early climbing, though
they are not used today in rocks because they are a permanent fixture and
thus litter the face of the rock.
Modern climbing has morphed into a technical sport as climbers
are ever seeking harder and harder routes, especially on sheer
rock walls. While much of the equipment is the same concept, it
is improved greatly through the use of lightweight alloys, carbon
fiber, and other modern materials. One of the biggest
improvements is the use of a variety of safety anchors instead of
pitons. Anchors such as cams, nuts, wedges, and others allow safe
anchors without littering the rock. These anchors mainly work
off of the principle of wedging into a crack in the rock. Once
wedged into the crack, they are
attached to carabiners which hook the
rope on and allow a safe anchor. The
following climber removes the anchors as he or she makes ascends the mountain.
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from high altitude climbing? Start
slowly! Just as the mountaineers allow their bodies to adapt to the altitude by slowly
going higher and higher, you need to let your body adapt to your exercise routine. This is
especially important when you are just starting out. While it may be tempting to go ‘gang
busters’ in the first week, you increase your risk for burnout and injury by doing so. Start
slowly, progress gradually, and be consistent!
Next week we’ll take a look at Mt. Everest and early expeditions.
Journal Entry 3
In Nepal, it’s Sagarmatha. In Tibet, it’s
Chomolunga. Both names mean “Goddess,
mother of the world.” The first European
surveyors called it “Peak XV”. Today we know it
as Mt. Everest. Everest was named for Sir George
Everest (1790-1866), who was in charge of
mapping the subcontinent of India as
part of the British
Empire at that time.
In fact, the first
European explorers
in the Himalayas were really surveyors, mapping this new part of the British Empire.
The highest mountain in the world wasn’t even known until 1852, when it was finally
surveyed and declared the highest mountain. It would be another 101 years until the
first person would summit Everest.
British gentleman clad in tweed and sweaters were the first Europeans
to walk on Everest. The first serious assaults on the mountain began in
the 1920s with a scouting expedition in 1921 and a failed attempt in
1924. The ill-fated attempt of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in
June of 1924 first placed Everest into the spotlight of both the
mountaineering world and the public. The British Expedition led by
Edward Norton, which was attempting the north side of Everest,
started off well. The expedition was well-supplied with many Sherpas
to help carry large quantities of gear, including bottled oxygen to
counter the effects of the altitude. They climbed the mountain by
making camp a little
higher each time and
then descending to
the previous camp.
In this way, they would already have the camps set up when they
arrived for the real push to the summit. On June 7, Mallory,
Irvine, and four Sherpas climbed to Camp VI with supplies and
plenty of bottled oxygen. The Sherpas descended back to Camp
V, while Mallory and Irvine prepared to make a summit attempt
the next day. June 8, 1924, may forever be clouded in mystery.
Mallory and Irvine planned to set off early for the summit, but another expedition member at a lower camp spotted
them at noon still a long way from the summit. Neither man was seen again. No one knows whether they ever
reached the summit. Mallory’s body was found in 1999 on the mountain well below the summit. No one knows for
sure, but it appears as though the two men may have taken a fall while descending the mountain in the dark.
Expeditions continue to search for Mallory’s early model Kodak camera which may contain the secret of whether
they ever reached the top, though it is suspected that neither of the
two men had enough oxygen or adequate warm clothing to reach
the summit.
In 1933, two aircraft, equipped with engines capable of flying at
high altitudes, flew over Everest and photographed the mountain.
In 1935, Eric Shipton led a surveying expedition that photographed
the mountain from several angles. In 1936 and 1938, two more
British expeditions attempted climbs on Everest, but each of them
failed. Climbing Everest ceased to be a priority when WWII broke
out, but in 1950, attention was again turned to Everest when Nepal
finally opened its borders and began welcoming foreigners. This
side of Everest had never been explored, but in 1951 Eric Shipton
again led a surveying expedition, this time from the
Nepalese side, and he was confident that the mountain
could be climbed. A Swiss expedition found a route to the
South Col in 1952 but failed to reach the summit. Slowly
but surely, over 100 years, enough information had finally
been gathered for a successful summit attempt. Next week
we’ll look at the British Expedition of 1953!
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from early
Everest expeditions? Keep on trying! Just because you
didn’t reach your goals when you wanted to doesn’t mean
you should quit. Learn from your mistakes, change your
plan, and move forward. It took more than 100 years of
knowledge and failed attempts to climb Everest! You may
not reach your goals when you want to, but if you keep
trying you may achieve it. If you don’t try you certainly will
never achieve your goals!
Journal Entry 4
“The ascent of Everest was not the work of one day, nor
even of those few unforgettable weeks in which we
climbed… It is, in fact, a tale of sustained and tenacious
endeavor by many, over a long period of time.” – John
Hunt, Leader of the British Expedition of 1953.
John Hunt, a British Army Officer, was an organizational
genius. The British were determined to climb Everest, and
they knew a real assault on the mountain was needed for
success. Hunt chose the team, planned the route, purchased
and shipped the equipment, and even tested every article of
food and equipment in the Alps in the winter before it was
chosen for the expedition. Four months of training,
meetings, and testing the teams followed. Finally, on
February 12, 1953, the expeditionary team boarded a ship
for Bombay, India.
Hunt had prepared well,
enlisting a team of three pairs of
climbers capable of summit
attempts, a doctor, surgeon,
physiologist, cameraman, and
reporter. Hunt shipped 7.5 tons
of supplies to India, including
enough money to pay all the
porters (so much money in fact,
that 12 porters were needed to
carry all of it!). The equipment
Hunt chose featured open and closed
circuit oxygen systems, lighter weight
tents, nylon clothing, and small radios –
huge improvements over the
expeditions of the 1920s and 1930s.
On February 28 the team docked at
Bombay and the supplies were loaded
onto a train for the 1,000 mile journey
to the Indian/Nepali border. From
there, a smaller train took the supplies 25 miles farther, and then an overhead
cable car carried the equipment to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. At
Kathmandu, 450 porters, half of whom were women, were hired to carry the
gear through the foothills. It took 17 days for the group to reach
Thyangboche, which they used as a temporary base camp to become
acclimatized to the altitude and test their oxygen apparatus on surrounding
peaks. On April 12, Edmund Hillary, a young climber and beekeeper from New Zealand, led the first group of five
Sherpa climbers and 39 porters to what would become base camp at the bottom of the Khumbu Glacier at the foot
of Everest. Over the next few days Sherpas and porters ferried supplies up to the base camp, as Hillary and his
fellow climbers navigated through the Khumbu Glacier and its dangerous Icefall to set up camps farther up the
mountain.
The Icefall is perhaps the most dangerous part of
Everest. Massive blocks of ice the size of houses are
jumbled against one another, forcing climbers to navigate
through a maze of shifting ice blocks, across deep
crevasses and snow bridges, and underneath gigantic ice
boulders. Many of the most frightening parts were named
by the climbers. “Hillary’s Horror” featured a 40-footwide crevasse that was only traversable by block of ice
wedged in the crevasse. Hillary thought he could feel it
moving with every step, making it one of the more
terrifying parts of the trek. Once the climbers and Sherpa
had found a route, they used ladders and fixed ropes to
create a safer route for the porters ferrying supplies to
higher camps.
By early May, the expedition had established a series of
camps from Base Camp below the Khumbu Ice Fall to
Camp VIII high on the mountain from which the summit attempts would take place. Most of the climbers were
living at Camp IV at 21,200 feet and had acclimated well. Hunt hoped that from Camp VIII (almost 26,000 feet) on
the South Col, climbers would be able to reach the summit and return to Camp VIII in a single day, thus avoiding
the risks of spending the night at an even higher altitude. On May 7, 1953, John Hunt announced that Charles
Evans and Tom Bourdillon would be the first pair to attempt the summit. Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing
Norgay would be the second team in case of a failed attempt. Next week we’ll look at the first ascent of Mt.
Everest!
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from
John Hunt’s preparation? Make a plan and stick to it!
For example, if you are trying to eat a healthier diet,
make a shopping list of healthier food items, go to the
grocery store, and stick to the list! Don’t browse around
for items that may not be on your list. The real battle is
in the grocery store. Once you have the healthier foods
at home, you will eat them! Conversely, if you don’t
have healthy foods on hand, it’s difficult to make a
healthy meal, and any unhealthy foods that you have
sitting around at home will probably get eaten.
Journal Entry 5
On May 26, 1953 Evans and Bourdillon set out to from
Camp VIII to reach the summit of Everest. Five climbers
carried their gear as far as possible, and then Evans and
Bourdillon set off alone. They were using a ‘closed circuit’
oxygen system that allowed the air they exhaled to be
recycled, thus saving valuable bottled oxygen.
Unfortunately, by late morning mist and snowfall were
slowing their progress, and Evans and Bourdillon were
also experiencing problems with their closed-circuit
breathing apparatus. By early afternoon they reached the
South Summit, just 300 vertical feet short of their goal!
They were higher than anyone had previously climbed, but
they were running out of bottled oxygen. Realizing that
they did not have enough bottled oxygen to reach the
summit and return to Camp VIII, Evans and Bourdillon
wisely chose to turn back. After a close call descending the
couloirs (gullies) down the South Col, where Evans lost his
footing and was only saved by Bourdillon’s digging his ice ax
into the snow as they both slid down the mountain, they
staggered into Camp VIII late that afternoon, completely
exhausted.
The first attempt had not been a complete failure, though.
Evans and Bourdillon brought back valuable information
about the route and the knowledge that another camp higher
up the
mountain
was
needed
for a summit attempt. On May 28, two days later, Alfred
Gregory, George Lowe, and Ang Nyima set off up the South
Ridge to carry supplies for Edmund Hillary and Tenzing
Norgay’s final camp. Hillary and Tenzing followed about an hour
later. While the other three climbers descended back down to
Camp VIII, Hillary and Tenzing fought a fierce wind to pitch
their tent. After a small meal, the two climbers climbed into their
sleeping bags and spent a sleepless night in their oxygen
masks at high altitude. At -32 degrees, the night was so
cold that Hillary had to thaw his boots over the small
cooking stove in the morning. At 6:30 a.m. on May 29,
1953, Hillary and Tenzing left Camp IX and set out for
the summit. They climbed well, and by 9 a.m. they had
reached the South Summit where Evans and Bourdillon
had been forced to turn back. All had gone well up to this
point, but suddenly Tenzing began moving slowly and
gasping for air. Hillary quickly checked his oxygen
apparatus and found that it had been frozen shut. He
managed to flex the rubber tubing and break the ice,
allowing Tenzing to breathe the oxygen. As they climbed higher, they moved slower. Although they were breathing
supplemental oxygen, they were using the ‘open-circuit’ devices, so the altitude still created profound effects. The
two climbers struggled to cut steps through the snow and moved methodically. Finally, on the summit ridge, they
came to a sheer step of rock forty feet high, now known as Hillary’s Step. Fortunately, ice clung to one side of the
rock, creating a space between the ice and the rock (known as a
‘chimney’) from which Hillary could inch his way up between.
Finally, at 11:30 a.m. they climbed a small snow dome and could
go no farther. They were standing on the top of the world! They
embraced each other, and Hillary took pictures to record their
triumph.
The descent was dangerous and compounded by the extreme
fatigue and Hillary and Tenzing were combating. George Lowe
climbed up from the South Col to meet them, bringing hot soup
and more bottled oxygen. He was the first to learn the news
when Hillary said, “Well, George, we knocked the blighter off!”
The expedition descended the mountain as quickly as was safe,
and by June 2, they were able to listen to the news broadcast of
their feat on the radio at Base Camp. The world was astounded
by what some thought was not possible, and Hillary and Tenzing
became heroes around the world. As a New Zealander and
member of the British
Commonwealth,
Edmund Hillary was
knighted by the queen
for his feat.
Next week, we’ll take
a look at arguably one
of the greatest
athletes of all time!
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from the first ascent of
Mt. Everest? Endurance. It is hard to get out of bed and go jogging
before work. It is hard to resist that chocolate brownie that your coworker brought. Keep up the hard work! Some things require hard work
and diligence to receive any kind of reward. Just remember that your
health and your life are worth it!
Journal Entry 6
Perhaps you have a favorite athlete - one whom you consider to be,
perhaps, the best athlete of all time. Names like Lance Armstrong,
Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods might come to mind. While it’s silly
to speculate about a single greatest athlete of all time, since various
sports are so different, there is a name you may not know that would
probably make the list. Reinhold Messner, an Italian climber from the
German speaking region of Italy near the Austrian border, is perhaps
one of the greatest athletes of all time. Never heard of him, huh?
By the 1970s, many expeditions from a host of countries had reached
the summit of Everest. The route had been thoroughly explored; fixed
ropes, and camps had been set; and many climbers were seeking new
routes. This once daunting peak now seemed ‘safe’ to many climbers.
Among those was Reinhold
Messner, one of the world’s
premier mountaineers and
advocates for “alpine style”
climbing. He and others asserted
that Everest had been assaulted by
an army of porters and Sherpas to
help a few climbers reach the
summit. Messner believed the only way to truly seek the “heart of adventure”
was to climb solo or with a few others and carry minimal gear. He climbed fast
and did not stay on the mountain for months at a time. His climbing was the
“new way” of climbing.
In 1975, Messner and Austrian Peter
Habeler climbed Hidden Peak
(26,470 feet) in the Himalayas using
his alpine style of climbing without
porters and without supplemental
oxygen. Was it possible to climb Everest alpine style, without
supplemental oxygen? The world did not believe it was, but Messner did.
He was determined to reach the summit of Everest “by fair means” or
not at all. To test his theory, Messner took a plane ride over Everest
without using supplemental oxygen or a pressurized cabin. He did not
lose consciousness or become ill, thus proving to the world that it was
possible to survive at that height without supplemental oxygen. But was it
possible to climb without oxygen?
Messner and Habeler returned to the Himalayas in 1978 and astounded
the world by climbing
Everest ‘alpine style’
without supplemental
oxygen. The seemingly
impossible had been
accomplished, but
Messner hungered for
more. He felt that by putting barriers such as no supplemental
oxygen between himself and the mountain, he was climbing in a
pure style and exploring the limits of himself. So, Messner decided
to do the unthinkable and summit Everest solo, without
supplemental oxygen.
In August of 1980, Messner set out to climb Everest solo. He made
camp below the North Col and decided to cross the North Face,
camp under the Northeast Ridge, and then attempt to summit the
mountain from the Northeast Ridge. On August 18, 1980,
Messner set out to summit Everest. Within minutes, he had
fallen through the snow and plunged into a deep crevasse. He
managed to climb out by dawn and amazingly continued on
his climb, reaching 25,590 feet that day. On the second day,
Messner faced fog and deep snow, slowing his progress to a
crawl. He dumped food and cooking gas to save weight and
climbed onward. After pitching camp under the Northeast
Ridge, he tried to sleep, but the altitude was so high that
without supplemental oxygen, he experienced hallucinations.
In a few days, Messner had climbed, the distance that had
taken the British Expedition of 1953, weeks to do. On
August 20,
1980, Messner left his tent with only his ice ax and camera. He
reached the summit at 3:20 p.m. and photographed his feat by
strapping his camera to his ice ax, which he stuck in the snow.
Utterly exhausted, Messner set of down the mountain and spent
another sleepless night at extreme altitude. On August 21, Messner
left his tent and gear and descended the mountain with only his
camera, extra gloves, and sunglasses. By the time he reached his
original camp on the North Col, Messner was suffering from
exhaustion, dehydration, and heat stroke, but he had firmly
solidified himself as the greatest mountaineer, and perhaps the
greatest athlete, of all time. Messner went on to be the first to
summit all of the world’s 8,000 meter peaks without using
supplemental oxygen.
Tips from the Mountain: What can we learn from Reinhold
Messner? Exercise can be more than just a chore to keep you
healthy and looking better. Try to think of it as an exploration of
your own limits. Set a goal and try to achieve it! Achieving a goal
makes all of the early morning runs and times you’ve resisted the
giant chocolate chip cookie worth while! If you have never set a
goal in your exercise routine before, try to think of something
realistic, set a target date, and go for it!
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I wish to participate voluntarily in the Scott & White Hospital 2009 Fall Fitness Challenge
for the purpose of personal fitness. I understand that participation in a walking event is a
potentially hazardous activity, and I assume all risks associated with my participation in this
event. I understand that I should have medical approval from my healthcare professional
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overweight or suffer from any one or more of the following conditions:
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