Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition

Everest Base Camp, 17,600 feet

The daily medical diary has been finished and handed over to the medical team. The morning timed step-ups are over. No more blood letting, sorry, sample giving. No more riding of the exercise bike with a face mask and all sorts of things attached to you at all sorts of places. But it was an amazing experience. We felt like a team right from the start. We could all feel the importance of being part of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Project to giving a lot of medical information at different altitudes and therefore at different oxygen levels.

After a long day of travelling and flying we arrived into Katmandu early in the morning and into the hotel, The Summit Hotel, no less, in time for a lovely breakfast. We all had to go through the full medical tests that day. The exercise bike tests must be three hours after the last time you have eaten anything. Times for the tests are set and you have to fit to it. I finished lunch at Sherpas Restaurant just before 10:45am that day! We all had a look at the city that day.

Tomorrow was the big day. Up at 4 o’clock for the daily medical diary, breakfast, out of the hotel at 5:15am and off to the airport. We caught the day’s first Yeti Airlines flight on a twelve seater to Lukla. Lukla has one short uphill runway. That was fun (if you like flying and do not get nervous about landing!).

By 8:30am we had met the sherpas and the porters and were off to the start of the big trek to Everest Base Camp, only another 9,000 feet up to go! We did not gain very much height that day by trekking but already had by the day’s flight. As a result many of us had headaches, me included. Jet-lag probably helped as well! However, the new views around you helped you to forget your headache. We arrived to Monjo at late afternoon where we stayed in a lodge. It had seemed long and hard for the first day but was had an overall satisfied tiredness with no aches, pains or the dreaded blisters.

The next day started well as we followed the river. We crossed the river by a very high bridge and up we went towards Namche Bazaar though a forest. Halfway up there was a clearing where Everest should be able to be seen. Unfortunately there was some shuffling clouds over there and I have a lovely photograph of a cloud! I saw Everest there, honest. Onward we went to the next lodge in Namche Bazaar in time for a late lunch. The lodge had a very large bent helicopter parked in its garden. It had had a mechanical failure in flight and that was where it landed. With no roads, just paths, in that part of Nepal that is were it will stay! Having the afternoon free was appreciated. It was a hard climb and the lack of oxygen at altitude seemed to have started to affect us.

The next two days were fun - back on the exercise bike, giving blood generously, eye testing and breath testing. Two more days of trekking took us to Pheriche (14,200 feet). The views were gradually changing as we left the tree level. Things are BIG. It almost makes the Alps seem like Exmoor! You walk along looking at things near you making sure you stay on the path. When you stop and sit down for a drink it suddenly hits you and you think “W O W ! ! ! !”.

One of the Xtreme Everest doctors had joined us to go back up to Base Camp. He had been working there for a couple of months, was an experienced mountaineer and knew how to look after himself up there. Unfortunately he was hit by Acute Mountain Sickness on Saturday evening. The only cure to AMS is to drop altitude and very quickly. AMS is a fast killer if you don’t react. A rescue helicopter was called for and he was taken down to Katmandu early the next morning. He stayed in a hospital for a few days to recover. We met him again at the Summit Hotel on our way home and he seemed well.

The next three trekking days finally got us to Everest Base Camp. The Camp sits on a section of the Khumbu Glacier. That section is generally covered with rocks. During the day the Glacier thaws slightly because of the strong sunlight at that altitude and freezes at night. It was down to -12?C while we were there. And that was in summer just before the monsoon! As a result of the thawing, the tents appeared to be living on their very own hills and entering and exiting was, well, entertaining.

The Base Camp was a fairly large temporary “town”. There were up to 35 summitting teams that season. While we were there two summitted teams came back to Base Camp. The Xtreme Everest Medical Climbing Team had summitted on our second day at Base Camp. Medical samples were taken from them near the summit and a Sherpa had to take the samples to Camp 2 within 6 hours. He had to descend over 8,000 feet to get to Camp 2 and he managed to do it in just 4 hours!

After acclimatised to Base Camp it was time to start the return. In the first descending day we covered what took us three days to go up. Lower we went, the easier it got with the blood being able to carry more oxygen. When we returned to Lukla we stayed at Paradise Lodge. We had a party in the evening with the Sherpas and the porters. The porters were unbelievably strong when you see what they carry. Without the porters and the Sherpas we could not have done it. Our collection for them was very easy to give.

Ian Matthews