Adventure Beat

Keeping up with the Beat

2009-02-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Does it sometimes seem as if The Adventure Beat has lost its rhythm? Time was we used to post fairly regularly, then hard times hit and we slacked off.

Well, that's just not good enough for the world of adventure. There are mountains to climb, rivers to run, blogs to maintain. And news to share.

One of my favorite people to keep up with is Michael Brown. The Boulder-based filmmaker -- his website is Serac Adventure Films -- loves to climb those mountains and run those rivers, and come back with great footage used in films such as "Blindsight," the documentary feature now making the circuit.

Brown, one of a family of outdoor filmmakers (you may have heard the name of his father, Roger Brown, whose ski movies have been around for decades*), has taken an interesting approach to his craft: a couple years ago, he started the Serac Adventure Film School.

With Brown and other instructors, you can learn how to conceive, shoot and edit an outdoor film on video in intense hands-on classes. Some classes are held in Colorado but many are in more exotic locales -- Bhutan, Kilimanjaro, South Georgia Island and Everest Base Camp come to mind.

Upcoming is the Vail Mountain Games school, held this year in Aspen between June 3-10. We attended the Vail Mountain Games in 2006, and had a great time -- check out the complete list of blogs from back then, although there's no guarantee the links will still work. (The video showcased here was from an earlier TMG, and Brown was not on the crew, but damn it's a cool video.) Then as now, one of the best features of these outdoor games was the competition to make a movie in just 48 hours. Competition is tough; if you want a chance to win, sign up for Michael Brown's course.

Note: We're moving Adventure Beat to new online quarters soon, using another web publishing platform. If you're interested in following us over there follow this link and look forward to more adventure news with Adventure Beat.

* An earlier version of this posting misstated Michael Brown's relationship to another Brown, surf cinematographer Bruce Brown. My apologies all around.

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2008-12-09T17:49:00.001-08:00

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Podcast Panama: Introduction

2008-12-03T14:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Pirates of Panama

2008-12-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

Take a trip back in time to Yahoo Adventures, December 2005, when Richard Bangs and crew visited Central America in search of the Pirates of Panama. Get ready for the adventure...

To subscribe to this podcast series, go to this page
or click here to add it to your podcatcher.

For more online adventures, visit DesktopAdventure.

For more from Richard Bangs, visit this web site.

Hillary: a man to match the mountain

2008-01-13T11:42:00.000-08:00

Click to see historic slideshow, "40 Years of Everest"

We would be remiss not to note, and mourn, the passing of Sir Edmund Hillary. The lanky, modest beekeeper with a hankering for adventure was the one of the first two men to climb Everest, in 1953, with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay by his side. It’s often said that someone had to do it, someone had to be the first, but history could not have chosen a better pair of men to accomplish the task.

Ed Hillary was an energetic young man from New Zealand in the early 1951 who showed up in Nepal and Tibet, with fellow Kiwi and climbing buddy George Lowe. Hillary’s own account of these early years, culminating of course with the first summit climb of Everest, is found in High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest, a highly recommended read. This is adventuring at its most direct, before the onset of commercialism and the kind of “jackass” style of one-upsmanship (first without oxygen, first solo, first solo without oxygen, first solo without oxygen wearing ladies’ undergarments) that is hard to miss today.

Hillary’s motivation to climb Everest was pure, and simple: For the love of climbing, of testing oneself, of meeting an objective challenge. Others, primarily British, sought to make the climb for King and Country, ideals rather than the single idea. He was a late addition to John Hunt’s British Expedition of 1953, he was not on the first climbing team, other men were sickened by the altitude. But he was there and he was ready, and of such a conflux are great men made: Hillary and Tenzing reached the summit of Everest on May 29, 1953, just before noon.

When the pair was met by Lowe on their way down the mountain, it was with characteristic directness and perspective that Hillary’s announced success: “Well, George, we knocked the bastard off.” News of the successful climb reached London during the coronation ceremonies for Queen Elizabeth, on June 2, and the historic moment seemed fraught with blessing.

Few men carried the weight of heroism as well as Hillary. He expanded his pursuits to include sub-zero overlanding, making the first wheel-based journey to the South Pole in 1958. In 1977 he led a jetboat expedition from the mouth of the Ganges River to its source. In 1985, he flew to the North Pole with Neil Armstrong, and thus became the first man to stand on top of the “three poles”—North, South, and Everest.

Though he continued to climb until 1965, reaching the summits of ten other Himalayan peaks, he began to develop high-altitude sickness and couldn’t go above 4000 meters in later years. So his attention turned ever-more toward the people of Nepal who had welcomed him at the gateway of his global fame. He organized funding for schools, hospitals, reforestation and other projects for the Sherpa though the Himalayan Trust.

Likewise, Tenzing Norgay ably shouldered the fame and later turned his energies toward the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, which trains nationals to safely and responsibly climb and care for their landscape. Norgay died in 1986, but at least three of his sons have summitted Everest in his wake, and another is vice-president the American Himalayan Foundation, established more than 30 years ago, with the support of, among others, Hillary.

Over 10 years ago I collaborated on a media project celebrating the spirit of adventure, called “The Adventure Disc.” Much of it was retail (Ten Best Trips with MTS, that sort of thing), but embedded within was a feature called “40 Years of Everest.” The AD (for such we had come to call it) came out in 1993, 40 years after the historic climb. We approached Hillary, and he was more than willing to lend what support he could, advocating for access to the Royal Geographical Society’s image library, and lending his voice to our narration.

The result, I think, was pretty good for its time, and through the magic of cross-media transfer (in this case D-A-D-D) I’ve managed to pull out the feature, “40 Years of Everest,” and present it here in our Adventure Channel. There’s an irritating static in the soundtrack, but at least the audio is continuous (narration by Christine Furnas, with Norbu Tenzing reading from his father's account; music and effects by Chip Harris), and the transition effects are improved from the slow top-to-bottom scroll that the original PhotoCD format did. Richard Bangs produced, I did the usual rest, and Mountain Travel Sobek and Custom Process film labs in Berkeley contributed support.

There’s only one thing left to say: Click to play. And think of Ed Hillary once in awhile, and send him your thanks.

Images on this page courtesy Royal Geographical Society.

Castaways in Brando's Paradise

2007-10-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

Our last night in Bora Bora we went to Bloody Mary's, once the Mecca of the tiki craze, still an irresistible magnet of coconut, rum and fish. Outside the long plank wall was decorated by the names of a galaxy of celebrity — Charlton Heston, Connie Selleca, Keanu Reeves — making it all but certain you will place your seat where, say, Marlon Brando placed his.

An old poster of Bloody Mary hung by the door — derived from Leeteg's black velvet painting of a bare-breasted Tahitian maiden, though this Mary was decorously be-lei'd. The bar was long but probably not long enough late on a Thursday night, and wood shavings and peanut shells sprayed across the floor. The Eagles came over the sound system —"Tequila Sunrise," I'm almost sure of it. If this were paradise, I might need another drink.

The bar was populated by most of the United Nations of distilled beverages, and a fair sub-committee of its drunkards. We chose our entrees (from tuna, mahi-mahi, or parrotfish) and were escorted across the sawdust-strewn floor to a table beneath a potted palm. "The Eagles Greatest Hits" played too loudly on the sound system, "Desperado" followed by "Take It Easy" and "Lying Eyes" in agonizing succession. Keanu was nowhere to be seen.

Marlon Brando, however, might have been in the neighborhood, at least back in those days. Certainly he owned an island a few day's sail east; possibly he rented a villa near the airport. You can have your Tahitian Black Pearls, your James Michener, your Bounty: some of us came for Brando. Over coconut calamari and cocktails, we discussed our plans to visit Tetiaroa, Brando's private island, after we left Bora Bora.

Finally I had enough, before the mahi-mahi was gone. "Hotel California" came on, and I called over the floor manager. "Isn't there something else you can play but the Eagles? Is there anything else in the music library?"

She looked at me without expression. Americans love the Eagles, she told me. Everybody does. They sell drinks. And the more drinks you have, she didn't have to say, the better they sound.

"Bring me another mai-tai," I said.

What happens next? Visit Castaways in Brando's Paradise for the full 5-part story, at desktopadventure.com.

Friends of the River Awards Night

2007-10-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO –Last night (October 12) river lovers, water activists, young idealists and hoary old guides gathered at the Officers Club of Fort Mason Center for the 2007 California River Awards, a benefit and celebration by Friends of the River. Known as FOR (friendsoftheriver.org), the organization is one of the first national river conservation groups in the nation, founded in 1973 in response to the efforts to dam the Stanislaus River by the Army Corps of Engineers. On hand was FOR founder Mark Dubois, who famously chained himself to a rock in the Stanislaus River Canyon in 1979 to call attention to the imminent loss of the riverine habitat and popular whitewater run.

Dubois’ six-eight frame loomed over most of the attendees during the pre-ceremony gathering, in spite of his life-long predilection for no shoes, or flip-flops at best. Of especial interest was his lengthy conversation with surprise guest Col. Donald O’Shei, the former Corps of Engineers commander and Dubois’ adversary in the 1979 stand-off. The two spoke for many minutes, oblivious to the party swirling about them, as if the long-ago event had made them allies in life’s challenges. Dubois introduced Col. O’Shei from the stage, and both men received a strong and appreciative ovation.

Doug McConnell of Bay Area Backroads acted as host, with FOR president Peter Ferenbach as cheerleader, for the event was organized by co-chairs Harriet Moss and Dave Shore. FOR's own North Fork Award went to Ron Stork, a tireless and valuable advocate for California's wild rivers.

Receiving the Mark Dubois Award for 2007 was Richard Bangs, one of the guiding lights of international river running whose company Sobek Expeditions led the development of adventure travel in the 1970s and beyond.

Other links:
Flash slideshow- Launch an image gallery of the event
Cry Me a River – Audio documentary by The Kitchen Sisters (scroll down)
Adventures with Purpose – Richard Bangs on local PBS stations
Rivergods – Book by Bangs and Kallen about early days of Sobek

Now conjoined with a former rival as Mountain Travel Sobek (MTS), the organization continues to offer commercial adventure trips around the world from the Bay Area offices. Bangs, however, has gone on to other things, spearheading media projects in books (he’s written over a dozen books), video, the Internet, and now broadcast TV with the new program “Adventures with Purpose.” The day following the FOR event, by chance, Bangs was off to Switzerland to film the latest episode of this American Public Television show.

Introducing Bangs was his old friend and colleague, and co-founder of Sobek Expeditions, John Yost. In a sharply observed and moving remarks, Yost recalled that Bangs’ famous “Bangsian hyperbole” more than once created high expectations that he and other employees of Sobek had to fulfill, qualify, or regretfully deny. (Overdue fair disclosure: I too am a former Sobek employee and friend and colleague of Bangs, partner in many of his media endeavors, and co-author with him of four books.) Yost continues to work as a travel guide for MTS, and was admittedly (and characteristically) restless after just returning from five months overseas.

Bangs’ own remarks called attention to the importance of having people visit endangered places so a constituency can be built to preserve them. He pointed to the Grand Canyon of the Euphrates in Turkey (which he traveled in 1978 with Yost and fellow attendee Jim Slade on an early Sobek exploration) as a wondrous natural location that was lost to hydroelectric projects because of its relative obscurity. The opposite example was set by the Tatshenshini in BC/Alaska, another Sobek destination that was saved from desecration by an open copper mine due to its visibility in the travel community. (The full text of his remarks will be available soon on his web site.)

Richard concluded his speech by introducing his motivation for staying committed to river conservation and other environmental causes by introducing Laura Hubber and their two-month old son, Jasper. Then the program was turned over to a fund-raising auction to benefit Friends of the River and their continuing efforts to campaign for the preservation of California’s rivers and streams.

Authorial aside: In a sense the event harked back to some point of origin, the common source for both the domestic river movement and international adventure travel. That germinating element was the spring run-off of the Stanislaus, flushed through the limestone canyons of California Sierra's western slope. FOR owes its existence to the Stan; Dubois made his name here; Sobek found its first home in nearby Angels Camp, under the tolerant mentoring of George Wendt and OARS. Forty years later the effort continues, the fight goes on to save rivers in California and around the world. And time is running out.

Honoring Richard Bangs, by John Yost

2007-09-26T16:38:00.000-07:00

The so-called father of modern adventure travel is doubly honored this season. Once is the event below, as described by his colleague John Yost (the step-father of adventure travel?) , co-founder with Bangs of Sobek Expeditions in the early 1970s.

The other honor to Bangs this season is the birth of his second son, Jasper Johnston Bangs, on August 14. Congratulations to the Bangs boys and mother Laura Hubber, without whom it certainly would not have been possible!

You already know my lifelong friend Richard Bangs as an international adventurer, author, and entrepreneur of adrenaline. Now Friends of the River, California's statewide river conservation group, is recognizing another facet of his life: his contribution to worldwide river and wilderness conservation.

Since co-founding Sobek Expeditions (now Mountain Travel Sobek) with me, Rich has led first descents on rivers all over the globe, scaled numerous peaks, witnessed countless scenes of natural beauty, and brought these wonders to the attention of thousands through books, articles, and films, generating global advocates for wild and beautiful places. For this work and his ongoing efforts to protect rivers from dams and other threats, Friends of the River is honoring Richard with our Mark Dubois Award during the 2007 California River Awards on October 12 at the Fort Mason Officers Club in San Francisco.

To join me in recognizing Richard's contributions at this exciting event, please click here. To show your appreciation for Richard's efforts by becoming a sponsor of the California River Awards, please click here.

If you can't make it to San Francisco for the event, please consider joining Richard and Friends of the River as we work to preserve, restore, and sustain rivers in California. For 35 years FOR has been working on rivers throughout California, from the Klamath River at the Oregon border to the Upper San Diego River. We have effectively championed our beautiful free-flowing rivers, consistently defeating dam advocates and highlighting environmental concerns in all the debates about the state's freshwater sources. Your modest donation would be greatly appreciated. Click here to help us save our rivers.

And please join me on October 12, 2007, to honor Richard Bangs!

See you there!
John Yost,
co-founder of Sobek and FOR board member

The Last Refuge of Real Life

2007-08-26T17:36:00.000-07:00

Image looking into the past, through the clouds of progress and curtains of vegetation gone wild into a lost civilization at its apex. Then don X-Ray glasses, like a time-traveling Buck Rogers, and peer into the mortar and stone of a building a thousand years old. This is very close to the effect of Ben Kacyra's laser mapping tool found at cyark.org.

As profiled by Tom Abate in the San Francisco Chronicle (see the full story), Kacyra's career has taken him from northern Iraq where he was born in 1940 into the construction industry as a civil engineer. His post-retirement efforts applied his inventive skills to archaelogy; comparisons with Indiana Jones are inevitable, if in appropriate. (One doubts that the fourth IJ movie, currently in production, will feature Harrison Ford as a retired civil engineer.)

CyArk - the name derives from Cyra Technologies, the company Kacyra founded for 3D imaging technologies and later sold to Leica - provides a unique "3D Point Cloud Viewer" that allows the user to move around all sides and even through a holographic-like image of the scanned location.

It could be the grand plaza of the Maya city of Tikal, or the temples of Cambodia's Angkor Wat, or Fort Winfield Scott in San Francisco, or the Cathedral of Beauvais in northern France - dozens of locations are examined from every possible angle with the laser's eye, and exposed in their geometrical glory. See them all on the map, and begin your electroimaging explorations.

Elsewhere on the web, one of the pioneers in soundscape architecture (for lack of a better term) is Bernie Kraus, one of the inventors of the Moog synthesizer, later one of the first to do extensive landscape recording, now one of the first to offer audio recordings on the Web of many destinations as far removed from everyday experience as can be found. Wild Sanctuary is developing an audio plug-in for Google Earth that would allow Web audience to listen to a destination, rather than just see it. (Read the story by Joy Lanzendorfer from the Bohemian, near Krause's Sonoma County home.)

You can download a Wild Sanctuary sound map for Google Earth or FreeEarth that displays locations on a map where audio files are available. Click on a spot -- the Galapagos Islands, the Adirondacks, Timber Lake Alaska or a tropical rainforest in Sumatra, or about 70 other locations -- then put on your headphones, and immerse yourself in a much realer world. Over his 50 year career in sound Kraus has made a huge number of field recordings - 3,500 hours of them; it's an audio documentary of the earth over time. Other audiophiles contribute their own soundscapes to extend Wild Sanctuary's audio archive.

These two innovations (no doubt coincidentally, both from creative men in their "senior years") show that the Web continues to evolve, not just expand. The virtual world is somehow becoming more real, by its incorporation of more sensory information to complement its data.

With the 3D laser view of an ancient structure's skeletal essentials, and a sonically pure immersion in a distant wilderness on the verge of disappearing, the Web is becoming the last refuge of real life. Or life as we knew it, when the planet was still healthy, diverse, and full of promise.

The electronic edge

2007-08-12T12:03:00.000-07:00

In this age of instant communication, where all things global come to our desktop in email, I sometimes find one area of interest overlapping with another. I don’t mean in the sense that at new tech innovation profiled on CNET makes the new blast from the Washington Post, but in the more alchemical sense – the mixology of innovation, if you will.

One of the primary sources of this divine confusion is from CNET, as mentioned above. They have many e-blasts and I subscribe to several – News.com Morning dispatch, CNET Security Center, CNET Weekend Hit List. The latest product clips, the newest viral threat, the iWhat and the eHow, the cascade of technological innovation sometimes seems a world beyond control or apprehension, accelerating and self-magnifying in the celebrated Moore’s Law – doubling capacity every 18 months.

The other part of my inspiration is travel news. Sources for this are more varied and less regular. Among their many e-blasts the New York Times has a weekly electronic travel newsletter, spotlighting what’s to be found in the weekend print edition; there are occasional offers from hotel chains and airlines with whom I’ve registered, sometimes unwittingly; river running news from California to Chile (the last in Spanish); and I welcome news from the McAllen Chamber on the latest bird watching news from the Rio Grande Valley, and their fervent opposition to building a border fence (which would prevent wildlife migration as much as “illegal immigrants” – raising the question of why we have borders for people and not birds, or why we have borders at all.)

Is there a place where the two intersect – the travel with the technology? Both are about change. Be it innovation or adaptation, we make do with the hand we’re dealt, either on a river or in the lab; and if we have the skills, we can navigate and improve.

Perhaps the best analogy to the computer conferences of MacWorld or CES is Outdoor Retailer, a bi-annual gathering in Utah for aficionados and businesses in the outdoor world. Gear, apparel, accessories of all sorts are introduced and promoted at the two marketplaces; the Winter Market takes place in January, the Summer Market is just concluding at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City. Chances are the first personal GPS location device was introduced here, the first waterproof digital camera, the first inflatable tent.

The show is 25 years old and going strong; the Winter Market had nearly 18,000 attendees. The first convention was held in Las Vegas in 1982, and although the location has changed several times it’s been at home in Salt Lake City since 1996.

They could do a better job at making their web site truly reflect the technical innovations their vendors promise – the default video starts over every time the home page is reloaded, to any surfer’s irritation – and the blogs from the floor leave a lot to be desired. But if you’re in the market for the latest in outdoor gear, wear, or destinations, there’s no better crossroads than the floor of the Salt Palace during Outdoor Retailer.

If you have a favorite e-blast on an adventure topic, let us know by adding a comment below.

‘Organic Action Sports’ on display in Vail

2007-06-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

The sixth annual Teva Mountain Games took place during the first week in June, when the Adventure Beat was otherwise preoccupied. Last year we covered the TMG for Yahoo, under the Adventure Beat masthead for Yahoo. Check out the complete list of our blogs from 2006.

“The term ‘organic actions sports’ encompasses all of the competition and lifestyle featured at the Mountain Games,” states Joel Heath, president of Mountain Games, LLC. “As our society increasingly emphasizes healthy lifestyles, the outdoor industry has a perfect opportunity to grow the mainstream appeal of active lifestyle sports like kayaking, mountain biking and rock climbing.

“The Mountain Games is an ideal platform to broaden the audience for organic action sports,” Heath continues, “one that gives both amateur and professional athletes a chance to compete, and an opportunity for people to try out these sports for the first time.”

Among this year’s competitors was 2006 Tour de France winner Floyd Landis, in recovery from hip surgery, world-class kayaker Tao Berman, and Gunner, a yellow lab from Ripon, Calif., who leapt over 28 feet to win the Purina Diving Dog challenge.

In whitewater kayaking, the Jacksons again proved that the family that paddles together wins, coming up aces in Pro Freestyle with father Eric Jackson winning the men’s, daughter Emily Jackson the women’s competition. Other familiar names from last year include Nikki Kelly, winner of the Down River Sprint women’s competition, Brad Ludden scoring the victory in the Dowd Chute Men’s Kayak Paddlecross, and young Alex Puccio winning the women’s Volkswagen Pro Bouldering event.

This year’s Everest Award winners, for those who have reached the pinnacle of their sport, included Kiwi kayaker Tanya Faux (pronounced “fox”!) and Eric Jackson as Paddlers of the Year, Michael Tobin and Melanie McQuaid as Multisport Athletes, Karl Meltzer and Darcy Africa for Trail Running, among other categories.

All results from the competitive events can be found at this link here, and various media links, press releases and other stories pepper the pages of the official website at tevamountaingames.com.

Final Report from Xtreme Everest (1)

2007-06-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

We wrap up over coverage of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, with an interview with Greg MacGillivray and final thoughts from Kay Mitchell. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release.

End of the Adventure

The days are warmer now at Everest Base Camp, the ice of the Khumbu Glacier melting with spring and the beginning of the monsoon rains. Most of the climbing teams are gone – only an Indian group shares the site with Caudwell Xtreme’s scientific camp, where not long ago more than 30 expeditions crowded the glacial moraine. A feeling of remoteness, of wilderness, is returning to the Himalaya.

Just a few days ago things were livelier when the team celebrated at the foot of the Icefall. Kay Mitchell, the de facto camp supervisor and project manager, recalls the day the climbers came down through the Khumbu Icefall for the last time, three days after reaching the summit.

“Just on the edge of the icefall we set up a bit of a party – we got the music system going, and played ‘Eternal Flame’ by the Bangles, one of Mike Grocott’s favorites. Quite a few of the trekkers from the last trek group came over as well, and a few odds and sods, so we had a big gathering of about 40 people. When the climbers came over the last bit of the icefall together, there was a huge round of applause. It was great.”

But despite the spectacular success of the expedition’s climbing effort, the work isn’t over. The mountaineering doctors of Caudwell Xtreme face another two days of medical testing at Base Camp, to round out the months of biometric data they’ve supplied. And tons of scientific equipment and camping gear must be packed up and carried, by yak and by porter, all the way down the trail to Lhotse, then by plane to Kathmandu, then on back to London for months if not years of analysis. The hard work may be over, but the real work has just begun.

Returning to Everest
Back in California, Return to Everest producer/director Greg MacGillivray is effusive in his admiration for the climbing doctors. “The scientists were far more successful than I ever imagined they would be,” he says. “Not only were they successful in gathering a tremendous load of data that they’ll be evaluating for the next several years, but they were also able to get 8 of their 10 summit team doctors all the way to the top, with their Sherpa teams. I think as a whole they had 25 people summit, including our cameraman Michael Brown.”

Filming the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition was not originally part of MacGillivray’s vision for Return to Everest, the sequel to the award-winning 1998 IMAX Theatre film Everest. “With this film, I knew we would have a good follow-up story with Jamling Norgay and Araceli Segarra, because they’re just wonderful characters,” explains Greg. “They are so much fun, and they come across so well on screen. But when I found out about the medical expedition, it took the story up a notch.

“Everest was more or less a documentary of climbing with some great characters,” Greg says. “What Return to Everest will do is focus far more on the Sherpa culture—audiences will see the culture through Jamling and Araceli’s eyes as they return to Base Camp eleven years later. You’ll see the changes that have occurred with the Sherpa culture and how things have gotten better for the Sherpa since that tragic 1996 season.”

Though Sherpas have been part of Everest’s history since Jamling’s father, Tensing Norgay, joined Edmund Hillary as the first men to summit the mountain in 1953, it has only been recently that Sherpas have begun to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Hillary’s own Himalayan Trust and the American Himalayan Foundation have built schools and hospitals in remote tribal villages. More recently, the Khumbu Climbing School was started in the village of Phortse to train Sherpas in rope and ice climbing techniques, so they can contribute more than strength and tenacity to climbing expeditions.

The school, started by Everest climber Conrad Anker and Jenny Lowe, widow of climbing legend Alex Lowe, will be the subject of MacGillivray’s next IMAX shoot in Nepal sometime next spring. “Remember that most Sherpas don’t climb as a sport or hobby, they climb as a profession,” Greg emphasizes. “But no one had stopped to think and say, ‘These guys need training,’ until Jenny and Conrad started this school. As a result, a lot of Sherpas are now climbing more safely, and there are fewer accidents. It’s a great program.”

See the previous blog post for the second part of this final update. Or download the PDF for the whole story.

Final Update from Xtreme Everest (2)

2007-06-10T13:53:00.000-07:00

We wrap up over coverage of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, with this two-part presentation of the final update. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release.

Behind the Lens
Like most of MacGillivray’s IMAX Theatre films, Return to Everest will be a human story, focusing on individuals rather than spectacle. “The things that really lend themselves to the large format are outdoor emotional dramas where you can get in touch with a character and participate with them as they strive to reach a goal.”

After spending almost three weeks at Base Camp with Araceli, Jamling, and his film crew, Greg is excited about the visual quality of the material they’ve gathered so far.

“There’s a lot that is really quite beautiful, but a couple of the shots are just stunning,” he says. “We got one shot at the base of the icefall looking back to Base Camp, right at dawn, the sun wasn’t up yet. We filmed it in a way that’s kind of like a David Lean scene, or a shot that Stanley Kubrick would do. Mike Grocott and Denny Leavitt are leaving to go into the icefall for the last time to make their summit bid, and Araceli and Jamling are saying good bye to them.

“Half of the scene is dark because the sun is just rising over the mountain, and during the scene, even as the characters are saying goodbye, this red light is pouring onto them and the ice field, with beautiful ice formations 25 feet tall all around them. And in the background is the mountain Makalu, all lit up by dawn. It’s just gorgeous, it’s a stunning shot.

Last Days at Base Camp
Meanwhile, back at Base Camp, the last of the medical testing equipment is being packed up in the blue barrels used for transporting gear on yak-back, and the tents – home to Mike Grocott, Denny Leavitt, Nigel Hunt, Kay Mitchell, and so many others over the past three months – are being dismantled. A long trek awaits, but “it’s all downhill” as they like to say, down from 17,500 feet into the warm scented air of the forests, the wildflower meadows, and the timeless Sherpa villages tucked in remote valleys.

For Kay, who has been central to so much of the Base Camp organization and communications for Caudwell Xtreme, it will be a bittersweet departure. “You get more and more homesick the closer you get to going home,” she says.

“A lot of the people who have been involved in the research are going back to ‘day jobs’ so they’ll be trying to write up results on a sort of ad hoc basis. And then there’ll be a core group that’s employed on a research grant that will actually doing a lot of the work. And of course we’ve already started planning reunions, both for the trekkers and the core team.”

And what will she do? A rock climbing enthusiast who became involved in the Caudwell Xtreme project after she was swept away by seeing Everest in 1998, Kay may put off her medical career for a while. “I’m probably going to be doing some more rock climbing for the time being – get back out onto some real rock back in the UK.”

See the next blog post for the first part of this final update. Or download the PDF for the whole story.

Ninth Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-06-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

In this dispatch, the second of two parts, the second wave of climbers from Caudwell Xtreme Everest reach the summit, but mountain photographer Michael Brown lets us know it wasn't easy. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release.

The Second Summit Story

A two-team summit offensive is not uncommon in climbing — Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the second summit team of the 1953 British expedition, sent up after the first failed to reach the top — even though it was not the original strategy of the expedition. But the life-saving rescue of Usha Bisha (see previous post) proved only to delay the summit success of the entire group, not prevent it. After time to recover from the exertions of rescue, the second team left their Camp Four tents in the darkness of night and reached the summit on May 24 as the sun rose over the Himalaya, bathing the world’s highest landscape in light. Among the earliest to arrive was mountain photographer Michael Brown, of MacGillivray Freeman Films.

Celebration in Base Camp
“Everyone goes wild when someone summits,” recalled Kay Mitchell a couple days later. “You tell your cook boys and your Sherpas and they go outside and bang gongs and dance around. It’s very noisy. And the reaction for the second group was even greater than for the first, because you worry so much about them being up there. Knowing that there are going to be no more sleepless nights is such a relief.”

The twin team summit successes were each marked by their own personal successes, such as that of BBC cameraman Dave Rasmussen, who reached the top with the first wave. “Dave’s been on Everest a couple times before but never made it to the summit,” Kay tells us. “So he was absolutely thrilled to bits that he made it this time.”

Pema Tharki Sherpa, the expedition sirdar or head Sherpa, made it to the top for the first time. “It was special because he did it with three of his brothers, all of whom have summitted before, and a nephew,” pointed out Kay. When he returned to Base Camp, he confessed to Kay that it was a lot harder than he thought it would be. “I said now you’ll have to show more respect for your brothers!”

For Michael Brown it was his fourth time to the top of Everest, but by his own admission the most difficult because of the long time in the Death Zone – altitudes above 8000 meters, or 26,250 feet, where there simply is not enough oxygen available to sustain human life for an extended period of time. Michael was part of the first team who set out for the summit, but turned back at the Balcony after waiting an hour for his Sherpa who was having trouble and fell behind. On his descent back to Camp Four, he helped another Sherpa from a separate expedition who had become disoriented. “The second night was much colder and windier than the previous,” he wrote. “We couldn't stop moving or we would freeze. I was overtired and kept falling asleep between steps. I couldn't help it. I was also getting very cold and hallucinating. I kept thinking I was somewhere else.”

Despite his subjective confusion, Mike and his teammates made it to the South Summit in a quick six hours, and a short time later he stood on the summit as the sun rose above Makalu to the east. With his professionalism intact, he did the job. “I got the camera out while on the top. The tripod didn't work so I just did some shots with the camera balanced precariously on top of it. At first the camera didn't work so once I got it working I just let it roll.”

Michael’s own account of his suffering was borne out by the data from his heart monitor, which showed that his heart rate was abnormally low, rarely rising above 50 beats per minute, and at one point dropping to 29. “To me it is just scary in what it implies – I was just barely alive while on and near the summit.”

He continues, “I remember little of the descent. I kept falling asleep at every rest. The battery on the heart rate monitor quit shortly after the summit so I don't know what happened there. Once I woke from a deep sleep and a dream of being at home. It was quite a surprise to open my eyes and see the South Col positioned 2,000 feet below between my feet.”

He adds, “Without the heart rate data I might just be remembering a tough morning. Either way I feel like I have shared what the Native Americans or Aboriginals call a 'vision quest.' I feel changed by this experience even more than any previous trips to the top – they were all much easier. I feel like I have been through a profound experience.”

Back in the USA
News of the success of the expedition was greeted with special appreciation back at the Laguna Beach headquarters of MacGillivray Freeman Films. Return to Everest producer/director Greg MacGillivray, and his wife Barbara and son Shaun had just returned from filming in Nepal, where they trekked to base camp and met many of the climbers and Sherpas who had such success.

“We are overjoyed that Mike Grocott, Michael Brown and the others made it safely to the summit and back for the benefit of medical science,” said Greg. “We are in awe of their accomplishments and extremely proud of their heroism in assisting those in trouble on the mountain.”

But this extraordinarily successful expedition, in which 25 members made it to the summit, is not over yet. The research stations at Camps Three and Two must be disassembled and their equipment returned to Base Camp, then everything packed up and trekked back down to Kathmandu. Then there’s the research, at least a year and possibly much longer, to catalog, analyze and evaluate the large amount of data the three month-long expedition accumulated – a mountain of data, as huge a challenge as the peak they have just climbed.

To view these last two postings, the Eighth and Ninth Updates, download the PDF.

Eighth Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-31T09:54:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In this dispatch, the first of two parts, the climbers of Caudwell Xtreme Everest reach the summit of Everest, but it's a success in spite of obstacles. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release.

Summit Success
Teamwork and a dramatic high-altitude rescue

“We’re on top.” The words came down to Base Camp at half-past six in the morning of May 23 to the waiting researchers at the Caudwell Xtreme Everest communications tent, who had gathered around the radio all night long. Expedition leader Dr. Mike Grocott, and his fellow physicians Sundeep Dhillon, Chris Imray, Dan Martin, and Nigel Hart, had reached the 29,035-foot summit of Mount Everest, along with Dave Rasmussen of the BBC and ten Sherpas. The next day, four more team members would also reach the top--Roger McMorrow, Jeremy Windsor, Mick O’Dwyer, and Return to Everest co-director and director of mountain photography Michael Brown--as well as five more Sherpas, bringing the total to 25 members of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition to attain the summit.

Photos show that the climbers reached the South Summit of Everest (28,704 feet) just as the sun broke over the horizon, casting a giant shadow far to the west toward Pakistan. Said Mike Grocott, “It was a wonderful moment cresting the South Summit and seeing for the first time the iconic view of the Hillary Step and the Summit Ridge – and feeling for the first time that success was almost ensured.”

Three hundred feet higher, past the technical challenge of the Hillary Step, the team reached the mountaintop. “At last it was possible to climb no higher,” wrote Chris Imray. Colorful prayer flags from the season’s earlier climbers bedecked the icy summit, but the bitterly cold wind kept time on the top to a minimum.

Though the plan had been for high-altitude medical testing to take place on the summit itself, including the taking of arterial blood for analysis, high winds and low temperatures made conditions for this testing too difficult. The first team had to retreat to the shelter of the stone ridge known as the Balcony some 1,300 feet lower to complete their tests.

“It’s the highest altitude that arterial blood has ever been taken, and I believe it’s the only arterial blood ever taken on Everest,” said communications director Kay Mitchell. “One of our Sherpas, Pasang, got the samples down from the Balcony to Camp II in two hours, which is absolutely phenomenal.”

In a statement from the mountain, Mike Grocott said, “Reaching the summit was the culmination of four years of extensive planning and determination to improve the medical world’s understanding of hypoxia.”

Drama on High
The successful ascent was not without its extraordinary circumstances. While the original strategy was for the team to spend a couple of days conducting medical tests at the South Col, then strike out together for the summit, a high-altitude rescue changed their plans. Two days before the summit attempt, a Nepali woman climbing with another team was found unconscious on the ropes just below the Balcony by members of an American commercial climbing company on their way down from the summit.

Usha Bista, the debilitated climber, was not far from the spot where the British climber Dave Sharp died in 2006, after some 40 climbers passed him by on their way to the summit, and again on their way down. The incident caused an uproar in the mountaineering community, who cited it as further evidence of the ethical decay of climbing in the commercialization of Everest.

This time would be different. When American climber Dave Hahn radioed for help, Michael Brown at Camp Four sent a Sherpa with oxygen up to the Balcony, then went up himself to lend a hand, temporarily giving up his summit hopes. There he helped Hahn take the climber down to Camp Four at the Western Cwm, where the medical professionals could attend to her injuries.

That same night Usha was carried still further down the mountain to Camp Three, and the next day she was carried all the way down to Camp Two, where support staff of the Caudwell Xtreme expedition administered further treatment. (Later, she was taken down to Base Camp where a helicopter evacuated her to Kathmandu.)

The possibility of upset in climbing plans had been anticipated by the Caudwell Xtreme expedition from the outset, as they recognized they were uniquely qualified to give medical assistance high on the mountain should it be called for. And, by the code of medical ethics known as the Hippocratic Oath, they were obligated to assist the woman in spite of their own goals and plans.

“The doctors were a huge help in stabilising her,” Hahn was quoted in the London Times. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t think she’d survive.”

The satisfaction of the rescue was tempered almost at once by the death of another Nepali woman climber, Pema Doma, who fell to her death on the Lhotse Face just as Usha was reaching the safety of Camp Three. The death underscored the danger of climbing the world’s highest peak, even as Usha’s rescue exemplified the heroism of some members of the mountaineering community.

(Check back soon for the conclusion of the summit story from Caudwell Xtreme Everest.)

Seventh Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In this dispatch, the climbers return to altitude in their attempt to reach the summit of Everest, as part of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest project. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release.

You’d think after two months at base camp the routine would be getting old for the researchers of the Xtreme Everest Expedition. Up an hour before daybreak to fill out the symptoms diary, on to the lab for testing, finally a much-coveted cup of black tea just before the Sherpas’ gong announces breakfast.

But this past week, things have been picking up. The hours just after dawn have been animated by a certain anticipation, and from some camps arise the sounds of success, as communications director Kay Mitchell tells us. “When you wake up in the morning you sometimes hear cheers coming from different places in Base Camp, and you know that someone else has summitted.” For most teams camped out at the head of the Khumbu Glacier, this is the whole point – reaching the 29,035-foot summit of Everest.

This has been a period of relatively clear and stable weather, not uncommon this time of year in the Himalaya, the perfect window of opportunity to reach the summit. Teams from both the North Base Camp in Tibet and the South Base Camp in Nepal are almost daily making their way up the final mile of elevation to stand on the world’s highest peak. While there have been a handful of casualties, thus far the calamitous tragedy of 1996 has been avoided, when 8 commercial climbers and guides perished on one day.

For the climbing team of Xtreme Everest, the early success of others is welcome news. “The more people that get to the top before us, the fewer people we have to fight at the ropes when we make our attempt. If lots of people get up and get back down again now, that frees the route for us next week, which is good.”

Research Takes Precedence
The high altitude research team that Xtreme Everest has assembled for the upper camps is back in place, after a week of “fattening up” at Dengboche. Expedition leader Dr. Mike Grocott, and climbing team leader Dr. Sundeep Dhillon, are joined by a dozen other physicians (and at least as many Sherpas) to conduct research in low oxygen at the two high camps – Camp Two, at the “Eli Lilly Research Lab” (the labs have been named after key sponsors), and the highest lab, the “Rolex Institute Laboratory” at Camp Four, the South Col. Their subjects? Themselves.

The plan is for the research team to complete their research at the South Col (26,000 feet) and retreat to Camp Two, then mount the summit attempt from there. However, the South Col is traditionally the launch point for the early morning climb to the summit, and it may prove tempting to head for the top early – if health is good, if the weather is good, if conditions are right. They will even do arterial blood sampling and other tests at the summit – if they make it that far.

With them at the upper camps is mountain photographer Michael Brown of the MacGillivray Freeman Films team, who has already climbed to the top four times on earlier expeditons; his colleague Rick Ryan remains below to film the scene at Base Camp during the summit ascent. The rest of the IMAX film crew left the region last week, trekking back down to Lukla and flying out of the country from Kathmandu. They will return to Nepal next year with a full film crew to complete their shot list of colorful and dramatic locations for the 2009 release of Return to Everest 3D.

Thoughts of Home
But despite the impending summit attempts, going home is a subject that becomes increasingly common in the thoughts if not the conversation of the 40-some researchers in the Xtreme Everest base camp.

“I have to say I am looking forward to the end,” Kay admits. “It’s been an absolutely amazing experience, but it’s an extreme environment, and you do get tired. I mean I do eat quite well, but you just never feel 100 percent.”

The physical stress of life at nearly 18,000 feet has been leavened by the constant arrival of “new blood,” so to speak – the 13 trek groups that have shown up with regularity at about two per week to take part in the research. “It’s great to a new group come in every few days to inject new life. And they’re awesome, they really are awesome -- it’s a struggle to get to base camp, and they’ve all put in a huge amount of effort. We’re extremely grateful for it.”

Meanwhile the research continues as the final trek groups arrive. The last of the volunteer trekkers has left Kathmandu on their way to base camp, and one by one the lab staffs at Kathmandu, Namche and Periche will be packing up their equipment and zipping up their results for evaluation back at the University of London. And then they will set off on the trekker’s trail up the Khumbu Valley, headed at last for Everest Base Camp themselves.

What will the researchers at Base Camp do, once the last of the trek groups leaves, once the mountain is climbed, once the research is over? “Most of the lab staff is going off to climb Island Peak,” Kay says, “which will be a good reward for all their hard work. They’re getting quite excited about that, and on their days off they go off and do lots of ice climbing practice.”

A sooner goal is the party at base camp, once all the research teams are reunited. “It’ll be great, a big reunion.” And hopefully, a celebration of summit success as well.

Stay tuned for breaking news from the Xtreme Everest Expedition, coming soon!

Sixth Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In this sixth dispatch, life at base camp enters a holding pattern, waiting for the return to high altitude of the the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release. For the complete story, download the PDF Update.

The weeks continue to tick by for the Caudwell Xtreme medical researchers stationed at Everest Base Camp—and for a while there, things were beginning to look bleak. “We ran out of treats about two weeks ago,” said communications director Kay Mitchell, “and things were getting pretty grim. We had placed an emergency order a while ago, but then one of the other climbing teams heard we’d run out of treats and came over with a rucksack full of goodies. That was very, very welcome.”

Though the incident seems humorous, it brings home an interesting point of study for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest team. “At such altitude, your appetite isn’t always very good, so you need things that tempt you to eat,” points out Kay. “That’s not saying that the Sherpa food isn’t good, but we have to eat a lot because we lose weight. That’s part of being at altitude.”

While this seems like a selling point for trekking to Everest Base Camp – gain altitude, lose weight – there’s a down side to it as well. “At altitude your muscles just waste away, and that’s the battle that the climbers are constantly fighting. They have to stay up high to acclimatize, but they also have to be careful because they’re losing weight and becoming weaker.”

But does chocolate taste different at altitude? Is that a subject for future testing? “I don’t think there’s a lot of difference, really, but I’m not a chocoholic. Maybe you should ask Araceli,” laughs Kay. Araceli Segarra, that is, of Everest fame and now Return to Everest—known for her love of chocolate. ...

“The Best Climbing Partners We Will Ever Have”
One of the unusual aspects of this Everest season is the attention that the Sherpas are receiving, which is long overdue according to most veterans of the mountain. “The Sherpas love what they do and take great pride in their role,” Michael Brown told us earlier in the expedition. “I think that the best we can do is honor and respect their role in our expeditions. They are the best climbing partners we will ever have.”

As well as fulfilling their usual support role for foreign expeditions – from Japan, New Zealand, India, Italy, and many other countries including the U.S. and U.K. – the Sherpas are mounting their own expedition to climb Everest, known as the Super Sherpa Expedition. Among them are Lhakpa Sherpa (all Sherpa use their tribal name), who holds the record for quickest ascent time, less than 11 hours from base camp to the summit and just over 18 hours round trip, and Apa Sherpa, who holds the record for 16 Everest ascents, and counting. (Note: As we go to press we’ve just received word that the Super Sherpa Expedition succeeded in reaching the summit on May 16, Apa for the 17th time.)

While the MacGillivray Freeman and BBC media teams film Xtreme Everest, and film crews are a common sight at Base Camp, the Super Sherpas are filming their own ascent in HD video. Such technological sophistication would have been unheard of even 10 years ago, when the IMAX Everest was released; that it is possible at all is because of the increasing control the Sherpas are taking over their own cultural destiny, thanks in large measure to the annual injection of funds and support they receive from the climbing industry in Nepal.

“It is so appropriate to be featuring the Sherpa story in our film,” says Barbara MacGillivray, “because of what, up to now, has been a blatant oversight of their contribution. All the spectacular successes of Everest mountaineering are nothing without the physical, spiritual, and personal characteristics of the Sherpa rope layers, load carriers and trail blazers.” ...

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Stay tuned for more action
For the Caudwell Xtreme team, the research into low oxygen in the blood continues, no matter what the weather – they have another 5 trekking teams to host before the end of the month, and then there is the push for the summit itself.

“The plan is to go up any day now,” Kay Mitchell tells us. “The reason that our team has been hanging back is because they have to go up to the South Col and complete their science and come back down to Camp 2 again before they try and summit.”

Which raises a question increasingly on the minds of those at Base Camp this weather-troubled year. Should they not attain the summit, what would constitute a successful expedition from a scientific point of view?

“The policy of the expedition has always been Safety First, Science Second and Summit Third. The only science we’re doing at the summit is taking some arterial blood samples and possibly doing some breathing samples as well. So if we manage to get some science done at the South Col, and no one gets to the summit, that would still be a successful expedition for us.

“Particularly if we get everyone down safe.”

But wait, there's more. Download this Update for the full story.

Fifth Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-16T08:18:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In the fifth update, the IMAX team arrives at base camp to continue their filming of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release. For the complete story, download the PDF Update.

After the two-week trek up from Kathmandu, the MacGillivray Freeman film crew arrived in Everest Base Camp safe and strong. Araceli Segarra and Jamling Norgay led the Return to Everest team back to the familiar grounds of the 17,600-foot encampment, which they last saw eleven years ago. But time had wrought its changes.

“Base Camp is different than what I thought it would be,” said producer Shaun MacGillivray. “In 1996 there were maybe seven or eight expedition camps here, but now there are as many as 1000 people in at least 30, possibly 40, expeditions. It feels like a city.” And like a city, small businesses have cropped up – there’s a massage tent for weary climbers and even a bakery for fresh bread. ...

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The trek was not without an emotional recall of the tragic 1996 climbing season that left eight people on the mountain dead. Not far from Gorak Shep – the last overnight before the trekkers reach Base Camp – the team came upon a small chorten (temple) where fresh prayer flags flew in the crisp wind. They had been placed there by Jan Arnold, widow of the New Zealand climber Rob Hall who died near the summit in 1996. Jan had come to Base Camp on a personal pilgrimage with their daughter Sarah, now 10, who never got to see her father. The scene in Everest where Rob’s call from his last camp is patched through to his pregnant wife remains powerful in the minds of all who have seen the movie.

After meeting the family on the trail, the MacGillivray Freeman team filmed Araceli and Jamling at the chorten as they emotionally recalled the tragedy that killed Rob and seven others on Everest that fateful year.

City on Ice
Once in Base Camp, the trekkers found that the end of the trail was no less dangerous than the rugged path they followed to get there. “On our arrival there was a huge avalanche to greet us, which I’m sure Kay arranged,” joked Shaun. “But it’s kind of dangerous walking here. You have to really make sure that your feet are well planted or you’re going to slip because of the ice.”
Kay Mitchell of the Caudwell Xtreme Expedition elaborates: “It’s sunny in the morning, and the snow starts to melt and get icy. Then in the afternoon it snows on top of the ice and becomes quite treacherous.”

Of the 30-plus groups at Base Camp, the Xtreme Everest expedition is by far the largest. Kay counts over 100 multi-colored tents in their icy village, split between the scientific researchers and the volunteer trekkers who come though for three-day stays, plus the Sherpa tents and group facilities. Kay tells us that from the research encampment to the trekker’s tents, “It’s a short skid down the hill. One of us is going to end up with a broken ankle sooner or later.”

Jamling, meanwhile, is right at home among his fellow Sherpa. “Jamling has taken it as a challenge to eat at every one of the expedition kitchens, and he seems to know everyone here,” Barbara reports. “It has been wonderful hearing all of Jamling's stories, and fascinating to learn that the largest trekking and mountaineering companies here are now owned and run by Sherpas--another big change since 1996. With this new prosperity, they can now give back to their community with education and medical facilities.”...

Meanwhile, the MacGillivray Freeman team is shooting Base Camp life and the dramatic surroundings, and they are excited about the IMAX footage they are getting. “In 3D, it will feel like the mountain is basically resting on the audience’s laps,” enthused Shaun MacGillivray.

Sometime in the next few days the Xtreme climbing team will renew their summit attempt, hoping this time to set up a research tent as high as Camp IV on the South Col, then return to Camp II for a night or two before attempting their summit push. It will be a challenging few days, and if the weather cooperates, the culmination of their scientific endeavor as well as their personal dreams.

But wait, there's more. Download this Update for the complete news from Xtreme Everest 2007.

Fourth Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In the fourth dispatch, the full IMAX team arrives and begins the trek to base camp, where Michael Brown continues filming the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release. For the complete story, download the PDF Update.

The full MacGillivray Freeman Films team arrived in Kathmandu last week, 13,000 feet and 100 miles away from Everest Base Camp. Led by Return to Everest director/producer Greg MacGillivray, the group included Greg’s son and co-producer Shaun MacGillivray, director of photography Brad Ohlund, assistant cameraman Robert Walker, Doug King of the Saint Louis Science Center, and John Caudwell, sponsor of the Caudwell Xtreme Expedition.

The team was also joined by Jamling Norgay and Araceli Segarra—stars of MacGillivray Freeman’s 1998 IMAX Theatre film Everest—who are reuniting for Return to Everest.

“Jamling and Araceli look just like they did in 1996,” reports Shaun MacGillivray. “It looks like they haven’t aged a bit. And Araceli still loves chocolate just as much as ever!”

After several days of scouting the city for locations suitable for filming next year, then trekked to Namche to meet up with cameraman Jack Tankard, who has been filming with Michael Brown at Everest Base Camp. Jack brought the IMAX camera with him, so the big screen could be filled with images of the trek up to Base Camp through the Khumbu Valley.

Setting Off For Base Camp
These days most people begin the trek to Base Camp in Lukla, at about 9,300 feet, following a brief but dramatic half-hour flight from Kathmandu. Barbara MacGillivray reports by email:

“We flew into the most gut-wrenching holy-moley airstrip that I’ve ever seen. We landed just short of the end of the world’s shortest uphill runway. We were late starting the hike because our baggage was delayed, but once on the trail the views just got better and better. The hike the next day lasted for about 6 to 7 hours going all the way to Namche through vistas that at times looked like scenes from Lord of the Rings.”

Arrival in the colorful mountain town, the capital of the Sherpa region of Nepal, allowed the film team to take their first shots with Araceli and Jamling overlooking the town, just emerging from the winter snows. Araceli, who became the first Spanish woman to climb Everest in 1996, has not returned to Namche since, but Jamling is a familiar figure.

“People are overtly deferential to Jamling here,” writes Barbara. “Everyone knows him and loves him and he makes things happen.” Things happen for him, too: in Kathmandu Araceli had followed her nose for chocolate to a bakery, and in Namche she pulled out a surprise chocolate cake for Jamling, in honor of his birthday.

Barbara also noted some of the images of the trek, people and landscape of Nepal that will make their way into the upcoming Return to Everest film. “Today was hugely successful with filming in IMAX a real Sherpa house, very old, part of the hotel here in Namche. Plenty of smoke, shafts of light, wonderful old wood, a Sherpa tea service and lovely old lined faces.”

“This is a visual feast,” she concludes...

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Caudwell Xtreme Pushes On To Camp III
As the MacGillivray Freeman Films IMAX team makes their way up the trail, the Caudwell Xtreme climbers continues to push their way above the Khumbu Icefall toward Camp III, acclimating to the altitude in preparation for their mid-May summit push. Yet the weather continues to be a concern. “The Icefall isn’t particularly safe this year,” Kay Mitchell tells us from Base Camp. “It’s been very unstable, and there are lots of avalanches higher up, and we’ve had lots of wind and snow, which has made communication quite hard.”

Return to Everest co-director Michael Brown is with the Xtreme climbing team on the mountain, continuing to capture the beauty and drama of climbing Mount Everest. “Mike Brown is like a kangaroo,” says Kay Mitchell admiringly. “When he climbs he just screams up there, it really is phenomenal. And he’s carrying that camera, it’s 45 kilos!”

Experience must count for something: this is Mike’s seventh time on Everest, and he’s obviously in his element. He tells us he’s paying particular attention to filming the Sherpas – “I think that the best we can do is honor and respect their role in our expeditions. They are the best climbing partners we will ever have.”

But wait, there's more. Download this Update for the complete news from Xtreme Everest 2007.

Third Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-09T09:07:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In the third dispatch from the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, the team makes their first forays into the Khumbu Icefall, first and in some ways most dangerous obstacle on the path to the summit. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release, and camerman Michael Brown tells us what it's like to return once more to the icefall. For the complete story, download the Expedition Update in PDF.

“Today was the day when we entered the Khumbu Icefall, and therefore started the climbing of Everest proper.” So writes Roger McMorrow, breathing systems researcher for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. “It felt good to put on the crampons, large climbing boots and harness. To hear once again the crunch of ice underfoot was a delight.”

But entering the Khumbu Icefall is never a delight, pure and simple. The climbers make practice ascents through the Icefall to test their skills, their equipment, and their commitment. This is the perhaps most dangerous obstacle on the path to the summit – aside from the extreme altitude itself. And this is the first challenge that faces those who would climb to the upper reaches of Everest, whether for personal accomplishment or professional need.

For Michael Brown, mountain photographer and co-director of MacGillivray Freeman’s film Return to Everest 3D, it’s a bit of both. “Our team is carefully planning our trips through the ice fall, to keep them at a minimum,” Mike tells us, who has already climbed Everest three times. “All told I have been through this ugly place on 22 adrenaline-filled journeys. And this year there are three or four places that make me really nervous.”

The route through the Icefall changes every year – and even within any given climbing season, since it is created by ice from the highest ridges of Everest spilling over sheer mile-high walls, tumbling in slow motion that can, at any time, turn catastrophic.

“The places where avalanches have been are sometimes marked by huge ice boulders making the debris flow,” continues Mike Brown. “The boulders are big enough to stick above the fresh snow, as big as refrigerators or TV sets.”

“As we climbed I could clearly see the routes of my three previous climbs of the mountain. The wind was tearing at storm clouds that tried to cover the summit again and again only to be ripped away. Everest is huge and defies the imagination with its vastness. It is not an easy climb, and we are about to try it again.” ...

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Movies to match the mountains

But it’s not all suffering and deprivation for the trekkers at Base Camp. The first evening after they arrive, Kay sets up the DVD player and shows them a movie – Everest, the IMAX film produced by MacGillivray Freeman in 1997. “It’s a great way to show them just what the climbers are going to be going through without having to stay up late, or concentrate, or interact. We’re planning to do it for every single trek group.”

Ironically, as Kay tells us, “The reason I’m involved in this project is because of that blinkin’ movie!” She saw Everest in London when it came out, and the next morning told a colleague at the hospital where she worked, “I went to this movie last night, and it was brilliant, and I’d really like to go to Everest.”

Her colleague told her he was going to organize an expedition there, and if she was really interested she could be his base camp manager. “I said oh, yea, that’s really going to happen – so I pestered him for about three years, and there years later here I am!” Her colleague? Hugh Montgomery, the research leader of the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition.

“So it’s all the fault of IMAX,” sums up Kay Mitchell, “that I’m standing in the snow in the middle of base camp!”

But that's not all... download the Expedition Update for the complete dispatch from Xtreme Everest 2007.

Second Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

NOTE: In the second dispatch from the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition, the research team sets up at Base Camp, and prepare to begin their climb to the summit. The expedition is being covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D" IMAX release. For the complete story, download the Expedition Update in PDF.

EVEREST BASE CAMP: If your idea of fun is getting up at six in subzero temperatures, chronicling your every physical symptom before breakfast, enduring a day of medical tests – arterial blood sampling, stomach tubes, demanding excer-cycle routines, unknown fluids dripped on your tongue, and various pokes and prods – all at an attitude so high nothing but lichen and headaches grow, then welcome to the Caudwell Xtreme Everest Base Camp of 2007.

“Oh, I tell you – it’s unbelievably cold. It’s horrid.” So says communications director Kay Mitchell, via satphone from Base Camp. “It warms up a bit during the day, and then it starts snowing again — right now it’s absolutely freezing. Temperatures are dropping to –20˚ at night, and I am getting extremely cold feet despite my boots which are supposed to cope with temperatures down to –40˚....”

{What's missing? Download the Update to find out!}

... Soon, the actual climbing will begin, with the Sherpas carrying tents and research equipment above the Icefall to Camp One, at 19,000 feet. Research labs are also planned for Camp Two at the Western Cwm (21,300 feet) and possibly as high as the South Col at 26,000 feet. At this point there is even talk of hauling a research exer-cycle up to the south Col, though it seems hard enough just to climb that far, let alone ride a bike once you get there!

But before the climbing can start, the Sherpas must hold their traditional Puja, a ceremony asking Sagamartha, the goddess of Everest, to bless their efforts. Mountain filmmaker Michael Brown of the MacGillivray Freeman team describes the scene: “We had the cameras rolling at 8:00 am, just as the sun came up over Everest's west ridge. The Sherpas propped up a tall pole on top of the chorten [temple] to support long strings of colorful prayer flags. These flags flap in the breeze, presiding over all of the various camps and add a festive atmosphere to Base Camp. For the Sherpas, Tibetan Buddhists, these flags are also sending prayers into the wind across Mount Everest and around the world.”

Although it’s an important ceremony, the Puja is not an altogether solemn one. “It is also okay to have a lot of fun,” continues Brown. “It’s all part of the bonding necessary to start an expedition properly.” As the ceremony reached its conclusion, the Sherpas and team members tossed handfuls of tsampa (barley flour) into the cobalt blue sky. Then Nigel Hart from the Caudwell Xtreme team brought out a guitar, shakers and a kazoo, and someone else a stack of song books. Lots of chang (rice beer) made the rounds, and the Caudwell Xtreme team and the Sherpas took turns singing songs and dancing. Said Brown: “In my eleven Himalayan expeditions I have never seen a Puja quite like this one!”

But that's not all... download the Expedition Update for the complete dispatch from Xtreme Everest 2007.

First Update from Xtreme Everest

2007-05-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

NOTE: As we promised in our earlier posting, here's the first dispatch from the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition taking place now, as covered by MacGillivray Freeman Films for their forthcoming "Return to Everest 3D." For the complete story, download the PDF.

NAMCHE BAZAR, Nepal – “I am sitting in the Sherwi Khangba Lodge in Namche Bazaar,” writes Kay Mitchell of Caudwell Xtreme Everest from Nepal. “Almost the whole team has walked up from Monjo today. It was a beautiful walk, with lots of trees, butterflies, birds singing – the sun was out! I took lots of photos, which is always a good excuse to have a breather, and the mountains look fantastic – we even got our first glimpse of Everest.”

At least a dozen expeditions set out this month from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp, with the goal of reaching the 8,850-foot summit of the world’s highest mountain. But this expedition is different: the ultimate goal is not just simply to reach the top, but to conduct “the largest human biology study ever performed at high altitude,” in the words Dr. Michael Grocott, director of the expedition.

A project of the University of London’s Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme environment medicine (CASE), the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition will measure human response to low oxygen levels through a series of medical tests over the course of the journey from Kathmandu to Base Camp and on up to the summit.

In addition to the 24 members of the expedition itself, over 200 volunteers have signed up to take part in the Xtreme Everest Medical Research Trek this spring, and will undergo voluntary testing along the way. The large scale of this study group makes it possible to achieve important statistical information about how the human body responds to low oxygen levels – an understanding that could have impact not just on mountaineers, but on the treatment of patients undergoing life-threatening pulmonary illness at any altitude.

“One in six people are admitted to an intensive care unit in the United Kingdom each year,” correspondent Kay Mitchell reports. “Despite very different reasons for admission nearly all of them will suffer from low oxygen levels, and 20% of them will die. The main aim of the our study is to measure how the human body changes as we are exposed to lower and lower levels of oxygen – and how to improve treatment, and increase survival.”

But that's not all... download the PDF for the complete dispatch from Xtreme Everest 2007.

Everest climbing season underway

2007-04-28T12:39:00.000-07:00

The Everest climbing season is upon us, and once again there are dozens of teams attacking the mountain from both sides, Tibet and Nepal. (Yeah, it’s bad form to say “attacking” the mountain, especially since this one is the “mother goddess.” But if the climbers are mounting an assault to conquer the peak, the vocabulary is already tainted.)

The prognosis is for an early climbing season, with summit attempts possible within the next week, around May 1. In fact at any time we may hear that two climbers from Kazakhstan made the top – they set off from the north base camp two days ago, attempting the climb without supplemental oxygen.

Earlier in the season, the lama at Thyangboche Monastery was speculating that the best climbing would be accomplished between May 1 and May 10; now he’s saying the weather will turn bad May 17-June 2, generally the prime season for summitting Everest. Lots of unseasonal snowfall on unsteady slopes, a plethora of climbing teams that include many under-experienced dreamers… an uneasy situation. Pray for good sense to prevail.

The best place for round-the-clock coverage of climbing Everest, and other nearby Himalayan peaks as well, is the dedicated site http://www.mounteverest.net/ (part of the comprehensive Explorers Web). Latest news shows that the mountain has claimed a Sherpa who fell to his death near Camp Three on the south approach (from Nepal). Bad weather may be to blame – avalanches off the Lhotse Face are more frequent than usual, and the Khumbu Icefall had to be closed yesterday because of deteriorating conditions. Could this be another casualty of global warming?

It’s certainly global crowding. Up to 25 climbing teams are thought to be making Everest Base Camp their home this season, plus the trekkers who visit the place as the end point of their journey. And that’s just the south side -- the north side has also been busy, and in the news with its own set of problems. Five Americans were arrested this week protesting China’s claim on Tibet and the scheduled passage of the Olympic Torch through Tibet (by way of the summit of Everest) en route to Beijing’s 2008 Olympic Games (see story).

Largest camp at EBC (south) this year is that of Caudwell Xtreme Everest, a medical project sponsored by the University of London and underwritten by British telephone entrepreneur John Caudwell. The Xtreme camp is over 100 tents, at the base of the Khumbu Icefall, to host the 40-some research scientists stuck there for almost three months, they each get their own tent – none of this sacrificial doubling-up for them.

In addition, some 200 volunteer research subjects are trekking in this spring to take part in the extensive project, on the effects of low oxygen levels in the blood, and they too need shelter. Add tentage for research, Sherpas, cooking and dining... it probably looks like Woodstock in the Snow.

Among the trek volunteers is sponsor John Caudwell himself, who is in Trek Group F expected to arrive at EBC next week. More details on the Xtreme Everest project can be found at their robust and timely website.

I am compiling a series of dispatches for MacGillivray Freeman Films, the IMAX production company that made the award-winning Everest (1997) about the ill-starred 1996 climbing season. They are in the midst of field production of Return to Everest 3D, which will pick up the story of several figures in the 1997 film and cover the Xtreme expedition as well. Mountain photographer Michael Brown is in the field now, working on his first IMAX production (his earlier work includes the award-winning Farther than the Eye Can See).

Three of the dispatches that MacGillivray Freeman are distributing to participating museums and IMAX theaters have already been released; I will be reprinting them here over the next several days, and tighten the time between their distribution and appearance here. The dispatches will also be presented as PDFs, available on the web only here. So, stay tuned for the the continuing story as it unfolds.

Year of the Rat, Week of the Gorillas

2007-03-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

Last week it was elephants, this week gorillas, another of the so-called "charismatic megafauna" (a terrific phrase) that call attention to global issues of conservation and the environment. We begin with a reminder to check out Expedition Rwanda on Yahoo, one of the best episodes in the regrettably short-lived Richard Bangs Adventures.

In it, Greg Cummings of the Gorilla Organization points out that the best way to save an endangered species is to get the people of the country involved in their preservation. He sees that happening in Rwanda, where the attempt to create what he calls "an all-singing, all-dancing, gorilla-loving nation" is succeeding. (The phrase seems a bit, well, patronizing, but the intentions are good, I'm sure.) Daryl Hanna, a well-known animal rights advocate in Hollywood circles, was along for the journey, so if nothing else it's worth following the story for her celebrity involvement, since that seems to be what it takes these days to "drive eyeballs." Must be harder than herding cats.

Meanwhile, in Dakar, Senegal, conservationists announced the birth of a rare mountain gorilla in eastern Congo, where rebels have been accused of killing and eating the endangered animals. (See MSNBC story) This follows upon an earlier wire story, of Congolese rebels calling a "cease-fire," to " to stop killing mountain gorillas and allow government rangers to restart patrols." Now all this sounds like good news, but clearly it's a case of "do you want the bad news (gorillas under fire) or the worst news (local civil war)?"

Just in case you forgot, there are two main species of gorilla (western gorillas Gorilla gorilla and eastern gorillas, Gorilla beringei), and a couple sub-species in the mix. The mountain gorilla, rarest of the genus (Gorilla beringei beringei for those keeping score at home), numbers fewer than 1000 individuals, split between two ranges in the Virungas of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and the euphoneous Bwindi Impenetrable Forest of Uganda. There are many more lowland gorillas in captivity than mountain gorillas, but that's not saying much. Check out Wikipedia for more info.

A good place to see gorillas domestically is the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. Now I don't like zoos, none of us do, but it's a necessary evil if the alternative is extinction. I made a recent visit there to see another ape species, the bonobo or the "gracile chimpanzee" as some call it, subject of one of Frans Lanting's photo projects. If you're into this sort of thing, the SDZoo has a podcast stream on the gorillas, and many other topics besides.

You can learn more about mountain gorillas at the American Wildlife Foundation, which sponsors programs to adopt and protect this and other species.

Never Forget the Elephants

2007-03-01T16:30:00.000-08:00

What's up with elephants? Largest of land mammals, seemingly invincible, and subject to an enormous body of science, legend and lore, these creatures native to Asia and Africa have found their way into the news with increasing regularity of late. We wrote earlier about the growing number of human-elephant encounters that turn ugly, and the possibility that, in the words of researcher Charles Siebert, we’re witnessing a "species-wide trauma and the fraying of the fabric" of elephant society.

The news doesn’t get better. Just consult elephant-news.com for the latest stories in the media on elephant rampages, attacks, and tramplings, intentional and otherwise. Although sometimes a grim humor can be found, as in the outraged temple elephant that picked up an irritating horn-honking motorcyclist and hurled him to the ground (an act many of us can sympathize with), usually a far more grim reality underlies the news. A timber elephant runs amuck… a zoo worker is trampled by one of his charges at feeding time… camera-toting tourists are rushed and crushed… and, as many saw on CNN (or YouTube), an elephant attacked a minibus at a polo tournament in Sri Lanka.

Elephant-news.com also has the latest scientific discoveries, poaching incidents, books and other media, even job listings for the elephant enthusiast. Founded by Sweden’s Dan Koehl in 2001, elephant-news.com follows his earlier online projects Absolut Elephants (a virtual online elephant encyclopedia) and an elephant list serve. It may seem awkward to call elephants the canary in the coalmine of modern social disintegration, but it may not be off the mark.

Marching Onward...

Next item of news is the upcoming LUNAR ECLIPSE this weekend, Saturday night March 3. If you're not sure what that is, I don't know what to say - try this viewer's guide for orientation. Suffice it to say that, while it's nowhere near as wild and exhilarating as a solar eclipse, it's still worth staying up for or at least going outside to see. And who knows, you might have a transcendent experience, as this video shows (launches Windows Media player).