Doctor's orders

Posted by Lara Herbert at 10:14 on 28 Apr 2008

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It has now been over a week since we arrived at our Base Camp, which is 5550m above sea level. For comparison, this is 700m above the highest mountain in Europe. The height of our Base Camp has meant that our acclimatisation plan and camp routine have had to be quickly enforced. The setting for our Base Camp is magnificent. Our brightly coloured tents are surrounded by glistening, incisor-like seracs. Towering rocky and snow-covered peaks dominate the skyline, of which Makalu herself is the most awesome. Added to this, is the constant moving of ice and rock which regularly breaks the peaceful silence with the explosive noise of rock and ice falls. These persist throughout night and can be extremely unnerving.

In the morning we are woken by the spreading warmth of the sun's rays upon our tents and the shout of, 'Morning Didi,' by Sarki and Pasang, our forever smiling Nepalese friends who bring us delicious, hot, sweet, milky coffee. We then commence our morning 'dhobi' (a word that comes from India and means 'washing'). This involves a begrudging glance in a stamp-sized mirror, a sigh of acceptance of our current yak-like looks, followed by a quick, 'key area' wash, hair-brush (except Ang!) and tooth-brushing session.

At 08:30 hours each morning, the cry of, 'breakfast ready,' echoes throughout the tents. We stumble out of our tents, empty our 'pee bottles' (Ang will provide details) and sit down to porridge oats. These are usually flavoured with the fruit of the day; normally apple. Chappatis (with jam and peanut butter) and boiled eggs follow. Mmmmmm.

After everyone has discussed their nocturnal bowel habits in intricate detail, the day really begins! The priority is for the climbing teams to prepare their loads. Sleeping systems, warm clothes, rations, cooking systems, radios, tentage and climbing equipment all need to be taken into account. As the climbing teams set off up the mountain, the Base Camp radio jumps into life with radio checks.

There will always be climbing teams who remain at Base Camp for their rest days. For them, the day evolves slowly. Rest day options include having much needed showers (from bags of hot water suspended within a small tent), washing clothes in a tin tub and 'spinning dits', (Royal Navy slang for telling stories) in the mess tent over multiple cups of coffee. There is also a selection of books and board games to delve into. The days are broken up by lunch, soups and dinner provided by our enthusiastic and extremely friendly master chef, Ram. The highlight of these days is undoubtedly the ceremonious and public reading out of our messages on the Guest Book after dinner.

During the first few days at Base Camp, myself and the girls spent our time sorting out the med kits for each camp on the mountain. As well as this, we made up emergency medical kits for each team member to carry on person. Concurrently, we attended and gave refresher training sessions on the use of the Gamow bag (used to treat high altitude illness), oxygen cylinders, cookers, jumars (used to secure oneself to a fixed rope when traversing steep ground), serac rescue and first aid.
On day three of our occupation of Base Camp, the team attended a Buddhist ceremony called Puja, conducted by a Lama (Buddhist priest). The aim of a Puja is to pray and offer gifts to the gods or goddesses of each major mountain. During a Puja, all climbing equipment and climbers are blessed. No climber is allowed to set foot on a major mountain until a Puja has taken place. Incense burned throughout the ceremony, whilst the Lama chanted prayers and plates of food and drink were passed around to all those attending. Everyone agreed afterwards that it was a most enlightening and enjoyable experience.

I have been kept relatively busy as the team doctor over the last few days, as one of our team members became very unwell overnight with a tropical illness which was clearly not made better by being at 5550m. After a sleepless night for both of us, where symptomatic medical support was the mainstay of my treatment he thankfully, began to recover slowly. I spent the following day ringing various specialists in the UK for advice, as well liaising with Dave (expedition leader) by radio and making immediate and medium term plans for the casualty, which included descent to the SE ridge base camp. As the SE ridge base camp is a day's walk away over difficult rocky terrain, myself and another team member accompanied him down. We were met there by the SE ridge team's doctor, Sundeep Dhillon.

I then trekked back up to our base camp two days later, leaving our poorly team member in Sundeep's care. I am happy to report that he is now recovering fast and should hopefully be back on the mountain with us in about a week.

The morning after my arrival at the NE ridge base camp, I was woken by a concerned Columbian climber whose friend was unwell. Both Columbians had flown directly to 4800m and had then walked up to 5550m the following day. Unsurprisingly, one of them had symptoms classic of HAPE (high altitude pulmonary odema = fluid on the lungs). I diagnosed HAPE, which is potentially life threatening, advised immediate descent, medication and evacuation to Kathmandu. This was extremely disappointing news for both climbers, as they had just arrived and were looking forward to climbing Makalu. It did, however, serve as a chilling reminder for us of the dangers associated with living and climbing at altitude.

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