Comments on: Altitude Walker

By: Andy W

Andy W — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:22:16 +0000

While we were testing at Base Camp there was a huge roar outside and a large quantity of snow came down from Pumori. Someone was quick enough to capture the thing on video. The bottom of the mountain was about 1km away across the glacier and the thing still dusted the southern end of the camp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYssxmIcX0c

By: Andy W

Andy W — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:01:16 +0000

Makes a change from descending on our mess tent like a horde of locusts and attempting to devour all our food and booze ;-)

Finally got around to culling my photos down to a semi-manageable size which can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8484345@N02/sets/72157600267986684/

By: Rich

Rich — Mon, 28 May 2007 11:43:07 +0000

It appears the doc’s have been making themselves useful since Andy returned.

By: Andy W

Andy W — Sun, 06 May 2007 09:14:51 +0000

Me again. We’re now in Namche Bazaar. Two days into trekking. Flew into Lukla yesterday morning after Nev (aka Satan) made us get up at 4am. Then walked to Monjo where we stayed for the night. Life is difficult up here. Simple things like breathing are challenging. Walking uphill is as hard as running at full pelt. The Talking is the weirdest thing. When I had the blood oxygen meter on this morning - just the act of talking dropped my blood sat to 84 (at sea level it’s usually 98-99 and

By: Andy W

Andy W — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:04:40 +0000

It’s 2:36pm and I’m in Kathmandu which is bizarrely 4.75 hours ahead of the UK. Got here yesterday early in the morning and it’s all been a bit of a blur. From the ritual tourist fleecing at the airport to the bus ride through the city to the hotel. Kathmandu is completely mental. The pollution has to be breathed to be believed and I’ve come to the conclusion that motorists and cyclists navigate via echo location with their horns. Finally flaked out at 8pm last night to get my first sleep in a couple of days to be woken up for our early morning diary and baseline tests (blood pressure, resting pulse/blood oxygen, exercising pulse/blood oxygen and how are you feeling chart). Then onto the lab and the first test which was just blood samples, spirometry (breathing into a tube until you start hacking up all the smog you inhaled) and the bike ramp test (increase the resistance until you are physically unable to move). Tomorrow morning we’re off to catch our plane to Lukla and start on the trail so another early night (they’re making us do our diaries at 4am tomorrow - bastards). When we get to Lukla we’ll be meeting the team from Horizon who have decided that our expedition is the “lucky” one which gets filmed. The BBC guys have been at Base Camp for the last few weeks and will be well adjusted to altitude. While we are going to be getting our first taste of it. At least it’s the good old Beeb so the whole thing won’t turn into some of “Big Brother on Everest” reality TV show. But, the potential for me making an arse of myself in front of the camera just went up a few notches.

Off to chill by the pool now for my last moments of peace for a few weeks. Ta ta.

By: Marky Mark

Marky Mark — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:12:11 +0000

Good luck Mr Walker today seems to be your ‘off’ date - please don’t contract high altitude pulminary edema as it is rather unpleasant.

By: Andy W

Andy W — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:33:05 +0000

Apparently, the expedition is on BBC News tonight. Groups A and B have already made it to Base Camp (I’m in J)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6572533.stm

By: Andy W

Andy W — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:56:04 +0000

http://www.xtreme-everest.co.uk/news_detail.php?newsid=479

Am I getting old and cynical to think that “amicable agreement” sounds like a donation to the “orphans’ retirement fund”.