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home > the climb > update 23.04.04

During the 5 day summit attempt of the team, basecamp has grown from a small Dutch settlement, to a multicultural global village.

Next to the Dutch, the Spanish have arrived. They like singing and eating Spanish Omelets (smelling like Paella). A little more down are the Swiss. They come from Gstaad, and have a heated dining tent. One of them is now in Lhasa, because he didn't like the cold here. Then we have the Austrians (grundlich and under supervision of a Statlich Geprufte Bergfuhrer), the Checs (tough guys and also skiers), a Belgian guy (lost the way a few days ago 5 minutes from basecamp, searching for 3 hours), and an American solo climber (who likes Vicks and using our internet connection). There's also an international expedition (Canadian, Italian, German, Spanish, etc) and there was a Swedish solo climber (more about him later). The Japanese are there, and they are non-communicative. Finally there's a local Tibetan expedition, who's members like to give us tea.

Such a global village above 5700 m brings along numerous medical problems for its inhabitants. And surprise ... the Dutch were the only ones who didn't forget to bring a doctor and a proper medical kit.

The result is that our doctor Herman has no time to get bored. A summary of the last few days: An Italian climber couldn't walk anymore. Along with other symptoms a clear case of High Altitude Cerebral Edema (swollen brains caused by low oxygen levels at high altitude). This situation is well-known to be extremely life threatening... the guy descended on the back of Tibetan porters not before Herman insisted that he do so (after giving Dexamethason). The Spanish expedition leader needed antibiotics for bronchitis. He's now healthy again and high on the mountain. The Nepalese cook of the international expedition was in his sleeping bag with high fever for 3 days. Herman gave paracetamol and antibiotics. The internationals now eat delicious meals again.

The Dutch team is neither immune: Our cook Kancha got very cold at night... a warm sleeping bag + down jacket cured him. Ang Pemba Sherpa had altitude problems, but reacted allergically to diamox. And Joost got back from 8000 m with compromised sight. This should get better without treatment. He might have to descend soon.

The most shocking story comes to us in the middle of the night. We sit right-up in our tents at 2:30 after hearing a low voice: "I need a doctor!" It appears to be the Swedish solo climber. We passed him that day on the way down from camp 2. He looked strong then. We find out that he soon after descended to camp 1 and felt very tired. He took his only tent and descended further. An hour below camp 1 he could hardly breath and made a bivouac. After one hour he woke up almost choking and heavily coughing. Using his GPS he stumbled to basecamp in 4.5 hours (normally less than 1 hour walk) to find the Dutch doctor. This was a clear case of HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema): your lungs get full of fluids and blood. Without taking action this situation leads to death very soon.

Because the guy had nothing in basecamp (no tent, no sleeping bag, literally nothing), Herman took him in his tent (he always dreamt to lure a Swedish in his tent...!) and admistered O2 and Nifidipine.

The Dutch + Sherpas spent all of the next morning arranging a quick evacuation on the back of Tibetan porters (not easy for a 95 KG guy). While transported out of basecamp with an O2 mask on his face, we heard several other climbers utter surprised: "Do you guys have Oxygen???" Hummmmm, just in case of emergency maybe...? We saved one life with it now.