May 4, 2008 - 4:57am — MountEverest2008
General Hospital - Everest Style
Base Camp
Another day waiting for our friends in the north to summit means another rest day on the south side. We're staying busy and the lower elevation is helpful to our bodies and brains, so no complaints yet. Just really hope the Chinese summit within the next few days. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed on this front.
Today I checked out Everest base camp's version of a hospital - a nice little tent with a few cots in it, a few bins of supplies, and some medical equipment. The center is known as HRA, the Himalayan Rescue Association. Many expeditions such as ours enter a contract with HRA - the terms allow climbers to visit HRA as often as they like and receive free consultation from the onsite medical staff. If drugs are needed, they will be provided free of charge from the expedition group itself (in our case Alpine Ascents) if they have them, otherwise climbers purchase the necessary meds from HRA directly. My reason for going this morning was two fold- a) I was curious, b) I have a lingering (yet improving) cough that I'd just as soon crush in advance of making our summit bid. The doctor, Steve Altmin, was cool and nice. He set me up with an inhaler known as Advair. It's kind of like what people use for asthma I guess. Once in the morning and once at might I'll inhale from this little device, the actual stuff I'm inhaling is a very fine powder. It is supposed to help open up the airways, thereby helping drive more efficient and effective breathing. I view my use of it as a proactive measure, something to help out when we go back up to the higher camps. All in all, he gave me a clean bill of health - my oxygen saturation levels were good, my pulse fine, a listen to my lungs did not reveal any issues. I'm basically in pretty good shape at this point - and I am hoping things stay that way. Interesting too, the doc resides in Wash Park, a neighborhood in Denver. When Hlee and I consider exactly where in Colorado she and I will live, Wash Park and Boulder keep making it to the top of the list. Small world it seems!
Today, we also got our first nice team photo. Inclusive in the picture is another small team that is really part of ours (it's a private climb with Alpine Ascents that consists of one client and two guides). Also, the liason officers joined us in the photo. They are good guys and are on point to serve as the bridge between our team and the military.
Weather here is still quite snowy. Sunshine is limited, and therefore solar power is as well. Will intend to send another update tomorrow. For now, we are reading a lot, we're playing a lot of hearts (Charlie is the champ, I still don't have the shoot-the-moon thing down), and we routinely ask each other if there is any news about how things are going on the north side. We are comfortable, warm, dry, and well fed... so all in all, we doing fine.
Final note for today - a special Happy Birthday to my friend Ken in Atlanta. Ken, as many of you know, is the mastermind behind the website. If you like what you see, Ken's the guy to thank. Happy Birthday to you Ken... I trust you will get together with the Palifox gang and celebrate in proper style. Thanks for doing an awesome job with everything Everest. You're the man!
Adios friends... and as always, thanks for joining us on our climb. We love reading your comments and appreciate the time you're carving out to follow the expedition.