Everest 2010 Weekend Update March 28
And the season begins. This week, climbers started arriving in Kathmandu. Some immediately tried to get to Lukla, without success, and others tried to get into Tibet, without success. Another normal beginning to the season.
An Urgent Request from EverestER
The Everest base camp medical “Everest ER” will be on the mountain in April 2010 for our 8th season (!) As always, we offer services to base camp climbers, support staff and trekkers-through in support of our mission to prevent and illness at high altitude and to use proceeds for care from non-Nepalis to subsidize free or low cost health care for our Nepali friends. The 2010 staff will be comprised of myself, Lakpa Norbu Sherpa (our faithful logistics coordinator,) Dr Steve Halvorson, and Dr. Peter Hackett, longtime HRA volunteer and world renowned altitude expert (and Everest summitteer!) will join us for the month of May. We plan to carry out a research project aimed at answering a plaguing question a high altitudes everywhere – what’s the ment for high altitude “Khumbu” cough? The HRA-USA, the nonprofit org set up to fund this , has done so for the past 8 years (the $100/climber season “insurance” donation we collect from non-Nepali climbers doesn’t come close to covering the expenses unless ALL CLIMBERS sign up.) But this nonprofit can’t continue to shoulder the expense for the future…it is time that the costs are spread fairly throughout basecamp, and that we find a way to make sure that without outside support, the will be around for years to come. HRA-USA is happy to continue to recruit volunteers and fund development, but the day to day operations need funding from the climbers who benefit from the service. We have appealed to Nepal’s ministry of tourism to either 1) create a separate mandatory EBC permit for all non-Nepali climbers or 2) use a small portion of the climbing permit fee to subsidize the operational fees so that everyone supports the and keeps fees low, but we’ve seen no progress yet. Because we can’t continue to subsidize the forever and want to be sure it will endure on it’s own, last year I let the HRA and ministry know that 2010 is the last season that HRA-USA will pay the operations costs. I’ve told the ministry that if they don’t come up with a way to subsidize the (again, all we need is $100/non Nepali climber out of the climbing permit fees?) then there will be no in 2011. We’re asking the expedition community to help us out – when they go to apply for their permit, we’re asking them to put in a plug for paying a fee for the and to mention that the is a big advantage to climbing on the Nepal side. Wishing you all a happy new year, see you on the rockpile, and thanks for your support! Luanne Luanne Freer, MD Founder/Director, Everest ER www.EverestER.org