Image Above - Subhas Paul’s daughter, Susreeta, and brother-in-law Shayamapada Das. Josh Haner/The New York Times - A team of six recovery sherpa's were issued the task of recovering the dead bodies, The first person they found was Subhas Paul, Paul was a delivery driver and part time guitar instructor who lived with his wife and 10 year old daughter in the small town of Bankura. He was steps from the well-worn route below Camp 4, roughly 26,000 feet above sea level. He was faceup, but only the toes of his boots stuck out of the fresh snow. It took four hours to chip and pry him from his icy grave and another 12 to drag him to Camp 2, where a helicopter carried the body to Base Camp.
Image Above - Bishakita Paul in the bedroom she shared with Subhas. Josh Haner/The New York Times - High above where Paul's body was found two of the recovery sherpa's moved on up to Camp 4, In this area of abandoned tents some shredded by the wind they found another body, This was the body of Paresh Nath, Nath was a tailor and was identified because he had only one hand after losing it to a childhood firecracker accident. Raging winds stopped the sherpa's from investigating further and they decided to retreat back to relative safety, Ghosh and Nath would remain on the mountain in the death zone for at least a year and possibly forever because of the dangerous environmental complexities.
Image Above - Sunita Hazra in a tent at Base Camp. Sunita Hazra
(Hazra, the lone survivor, said that she reached the summit at about 3 p.m. There is no evidence that she got there. She has petitioned for a summit certificate from Nepal’s Department of Tourism, the arbiter of such matters, without success.)- On the afternoon of May 20, 2016, Ghosh, Nath, Paul and Hazra anxiously rested inside a tent at Camp 4. They wore oxygen masks and bright, bulky snowsuits filled with down. They sipped tea and munched crackers. There was little chatter. They did not know one another well, but formed a ragtag group of modestly accomplished climbers, joined by their individual desires to summit Everest and their common need for a low-budget expedition. All had spent 10 years or more saving, borrowing and raising money for an Everest expedition. They found a company popular with West Bengali climbers that charged them each about $30,000, cheaper than other outfitters but still a daunting sum, far more than any of them dreamed of making in a year.
Image Above - The view from Camp 3. Sunita Hazra - Adding to their desperation was that it was their third attempt in three years. Their 2014 quest was scuttled by an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas, ending the season just as it was about to start. The 2015 season was canceled after an earthquake rocked Nepal in late April, killing nearly 9,000 people. It caused an avalanche that roared into Everest Base Camp, killing 18. Now, finally, after weeks at Base Camp and on the lower slopes of Everest, they were within reach of the summit. If all went well, they would be back at Camp 4 within 24 hours, on their way home to India, where Everest summiters are revered as conquering heroes. “Everesters,” they are called.
An image from the video camera of Paul Pottinger, a Seattle doctor, on his descent. The climbers coming up the mountain include Goutam Ghosh; his guide, Bishnu Gurung; and Sunita Hazra. Paul Pottinger - It was late early evening in fact and was a little later than had been planned, The four eager climbers emerged from there tents each accompanied by a Sherpa guide, The sky was clear and the moon was full, a snaking line of brightly lit headlamps glimmered from a distance from other climbers making there way up the mountain. The summit of Everest can not be seen from Base camp four but much of the route is, Ropes lead the way that are used by every climber, these ropes are fixed to anchors that have been drilled into the rock and ice set by Sherpa's at the start of the season. The round-trip journey from Camp 4 takes some people less than 12 hours, and experienced guides and climbers know that it should take no more than about 18 — 12 hours up, six hours back. Most follow a rule that at a predetermined time — rarely later than noon — all climbers still moving up should retreat. Prolonged exposure is dangerous, and sometimes deadly, because of the unpredictability of afternoon weather, the limited number of oxygen bottles that can be carried and the toll caused by extreme elevation and temperatures.
Goutam Ghosh’s widow, Chandana, helps her brother-in-law Debasish prepare for his trip to Nepal in hope of returning with Ghosh’s body. Josh Haner/The New York Times -
A woman and two guides were the first of 74 people to reach the summit that day, at 3:36 a.m., according to the Himalayan Database. The last recorded time for climbers reaching the summit was 11 a.m.
The West Bengal expedition stood at the Balcony well after dawn, resting and taking in the majestic views of snow-covered peaks and cloud-shrouded valleys. There were four clients and only three guides because Nath’s guide appeared to stay behind at Camp 4, for reasons never understood. Other climbers were already coming down, having reached the summit hours before.
The Base Camp manager for the Indian expedition received a radio call from Bishnu Gurung, the only one of the group’s guides with experience reaching the summit of Everest. He said he recommended to the clients that they turn back, but they refused.
“I told them, ‘If we are still on the Balcony at 10 in the morning, how can we reach the top?’ ” Gurung said.
Ghosh cried at the prospect of giving up, Gurung later said. Paul began ascending on his own.
“I stopped there just to check if he will return back if I didn’t continue,” Lakpa Sherpa, Paul’s guide, said. “I thought he would listen to me. Sherpas can’t use force or hit him in that situation. They are our guest. All we could do is convince. As he wasn’t convinced, I followed him.”
Only Nath was persuaded to turn back to Camp 4. The three other Indian climbers persisted. The three guides joined them, carrying a dwindling amount of oxygen and a growing sense of dread.
“I thought that I won’t return back,” Lakpa Sherpa recalled.
A flier for the Goutam Ghosh memorial rock climbing course at Susunia Hill in West Bengal, India. Josh Haner/The New York Times -
Throughout the late morning and early afternoon, dozens who had reached the summit descended past the Indian climbers. Paul Pottinger, a Seattle doctor, reached the summit at 7:48 that morning. He wore a camera on his head to record much of his daylight descent on the rope, a one-way lane used by both those going up and coming down. Negotiating past oncoming climbers can be a slow, clumsy and dangerous exercise.
Pottinger passed Paul and his guide, Lakpa Sherpa, well below the South Summit. Lakpa Sherpa asked for the time. Pottinger lifted the sleeve of his jacket to expose his watch, visible to the camera. It was 10:23. He repeatedly told the guide that it was 10:20. He later speculated that the guide wanted Paul, his client, to hear how late it was.
“Who climbs Everest without a watch?” Pottinger said months later. “Now I wonder if he had a watch. And I wonder if he was really saying, ‘Please tell my guy to stop because I can’t.’ ”
Debasish Ghosh at the outset of his 40-hour trip by train, bus and taxi to Kathmandu to meet his brother’s body.Josh Haner/The New York Times - Ghosh was last seen higher on the mountain, clipped to a rope on a steep section called the Triangular Face, just below the perch called the Balcony.
Minutes later, Pottinger passed Pasang Sherpa, Hazra’s guide, climbing alone. At 10:45, on a particularly steep pitch at an anchor tangled in a knot of ropes, Pottinger passed a group of three: Ghosh, Gurung and Hazra.
“The timing could scarcely have been worse for all of us, jammed together at the steepest section of the day,” Pottinger wrote in an online diary of his expedition. “But they made it by and continued up. How many more people will be headed up at this time of day? Damn it’s late. But, as before, I said nothing to them about this. And, as before, it haunts me to this day.”
Paul and Lakpa Sherpa reached the summit at 1:45 p.m., according to the camera later recovered from Paul’s body. There were 31 photographs taken at the summit over 16 minutes.
The others in their group — Ghosh, Hazra, Nath and their guides — were somewhere below.
Image Above - Let Him Be - A woman weeps for her husband -Sabita Nath and her husband, Paresh, spent many late nights at sewing machines to make backpacks and jackets that supported Paresh’s quest.Josh Haner/The New York Times Climbers carry finite amounts of oxygen, just enough for their own expected need, because of the weight of the canisters. They worry about their own survival, knowing that extra time exposed to the elements can prove fatal. They are often in a depleted state, physically and mentally. Even if they have all their faculties, they have paid tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps devoted many years of their lives, to this one day, and might be reluctant to abort it all for a faceless stranger whose needs cannot be assessed easily and who, most likely, speaks a different language.
Image Above - A picture of Paresh Nath in the small shop at his home where he sold backpacks and mountaineering supplies.Josh Haner/The New York Times - Ghosh died on the slopes of Mount Everest on his descent, Sunita Hazra tried to convince Ghosh to follow her down but it was in vain, Hazra was weak and believes she also would have died if it was not for a British climber called Leslie Binns, Leslie found Hazra with her mittens removed and her jacket unzipped, He quickly gave her a shot of oxygen which helped her energy levels, Unfortunately he quickly realised that Hazra needed assistance and would not make it back down to camp four without support, Leslie decided to abort his own summit attempt to help Hazra by encouraging dragging and cajole her back to camp four. As Leslie and Hazra made the slow progress down they came across Subhas Paul who was in a dazed and extremely hyperthermic state, Binns now used his strength to coax both of the weakened climbers down sharing his oxygen at the same time, he even lifted them back up when ever they collapsed. The roped route became deliriously hard to keep track off and was lost, this resulted in Paul falling into a shallow crevasse flailing his arms also.
Image Above - Adrishikar Nath, now 10, did not ask if his father was dead for much of the year after he did not come home.Josh Haner/The New York Times - Leslie Binns had to make a life and death decision on who he should save, He could only save one or the other in the situation and decided to continue on with Hazra after concluding that Paul had enough energy to expend for the moment, When Hazra reached camp four she thought Subhas was behind and that Goutam and Nath were safe. Later that night some people were awakened by a rhythmically incoherent shouting that continued over and over again, These people presumed the sound came from within the camp and was part of another expedition, No one ventured out to investigate the sounds. As the first rays of sunlight hit the snow people quickly realised that the sounds were from Paul, He was only about 100 yards uphill from the camp and had been outside in the elements for at least 32 hours. Hazra and Paul were reunited with their three guides in the tent. They did not know where Ghosh and Nath were.
Image Above - After a three-day wait near Camp 2, a helicopter arrived to carry the bodies off the mountain.Dawa Finjhok Sherpa/Seven Summit Treks, for The New York Times - By midafternoon, persuaded by doctors from other expeditions Hazra and Paul began to make there way down to the next camp without Ghosh or Nath, They had a small amount of oxygen left that they had conveniently left at camp four, Not long after moving off Paul collapsed, He was very weak and deteriorating fast said Lakpa Sherpa a guide, Even with oxygen he was not improving, his hands were frozen and it was very hard to help him from that moment on. Two guides stayed with Paul while a third led Hazra down the mountain, This was only short lived as the guide now felt that he was in a far worse state than Hazra was because of his frostbite injuries to his hands and feet, He left her alone to make his own bid for survival as darkness was setting in accompanied by biting wind and snow. Hazra fell sometime later and broke her wrist and was also suffering from frostbite to her hands, Luckily the other two guides found and caught up with Hazra and assisted in helping her back to the lower camp.
Goutam Ghosh’s body arriving in Kathmandu.Josh Haner/The New York Times - The sherpa's said that Subhas sat down to rest they told Hazra, The sherpa's left him and he died, Resting in the death zone is dangerous as you can fall asleep and many climber has died simply from sitting down to rest. Hazra made her way down to Camp 2 with the guides and was helicopter winched to base camp and then ferried to Kathmandu, She was hospitalized for her injuries and received a hero's welcome at the airport in Kolkata a few days later. Nath was spotted off the trail by another indian expedition who were returning from the summit, They described his actions as deliriously digging in the ice with one hand. Nath was eventually carried down to Camp 4 his eyes swollen shut with snow blindness. The next morning was the last day that anyone would summit for that season because of the weather changes. They gave Nath a hot bowl of soup but he was too weak to hold the bowl and died in his tent shortly after. Goutam Ghosh was still somewhere high up on the mountain, at least 30 people stepped over him as they attempted to summit and again as they made there way down.
Debasish Ghosh outside the hospital where a post-mortem was performed on his brother’s body. Josh Haner/The New York Times -
There were three major reasons the Ghosh family desperately wanted Goutam’s body returned. The first was emotional. The idea that he lay near the summit of Everest, alone, exposed to the elements, left to serve as a tragic tourist marker for future climbers, was nearly too much to bear. And they wanted answers about what happened. Maybe his body could provide those answers. Maybe that video camera around his neck, if it was still there and still worked, held clues. Maybe there were memory cards from his camera in his pockets or backpack. Maybe a message for the family. Something.
The second was religious. Hindus believe the body is merely a temporary vessel for the soul. Once the soul is severed from the body through cremation, it is reincarnated in another body. Like most in West Bengal and across India, the Ghoshes were devoutly Hindu. To them, closure required a cremation, and all the ceremonies that came with it.
The third reason, as important as the others, was financial. Legally, in India, Ghosh was considered a missing person. Only when a body was produced, or seven years had passed, would the Indian government issue a death certificate, which the Ghosh family needed to gain access to his modest bank accounts and to receive financial death benefits like life insurance and the pension he had earned as a police officer.
Goutam Ghosh’s body thawed for a couple of days in a hallway outside the autopsy room. Josh Haner/The New York Times - Bodies found at such high elevations, where the temperatures remain below freezing, are well preserved. The outside of the body appears intact, if shrunken and mummified. There is little decomposition internally. Threats found in other remote locations, such as heat, soggy conditions or animal scavengers, are not an issue at such high elevations.
The coffin holding Goutam Ghosh’s body arriving at the airport in Kathmandu en route to Kolkata. Rajneesh Bhandari for The New York Times
Image Above - A tribute to Ghosh in his house as his body was brought in. The boots were carried home from Nepal by his brother. The photograph was the last taken of Ghosh, at the South Summit — not quite the true summit. Josh Haner/The New York Times. Three men from the West Bengal government rushed to Kathmandu, taking the 90-minute commercial flight that Debasish Ghosh could not afford. They quickly struck a deal with Mingma Sherpa, the owner of Seven Summit Treks, a major Himalayan expedition company based in Kathmandu. The sides agreed on a price that the government would pay for the two bodies to be recovered: $90,000, roughly the amount the government quietly set aside weeks earlier. The government announced it would pay for the retrievals.
Sabita Nath and Chandana Ghosh received calls from a government official asking them to sign a “no objection” certificate to allow for the attempted recoveries. They agreed.
Chandana Ghosh embraced the body of her husband, Goutam. His mother, Sahbha Rani Ghosh, is at top center.Josh Haner/The New York Times
Chandana Ghosh as the hearse carrying her husband’s body leaves their house for the last time. Josh Haner/The New York Times
The procession to the crematory. Josh Haner/The New York Times
Chandana Ghosh did not attend the cremation. She removed the red and white wedding bangles and colorful sari that signaled marriage and changed into a predominantly white sari.Josh Haner/The New York Times
Goutam Ghosh. Josh Haner/The New York Times - Thanks too Rajneesh Bhandari contributed reporting from Kathmandu, Nepal; Chandrasekhar Bhattacharjee contributed from Kolkata, India; and Arka Dutta contributed from Durgapur, India.
Produced by Chris Cirillo, Josh Haner, Becky Hanger, Sam Manchester, Ken Plutnicki and Andrew Rossback.
Before David Sharp left England for his quest to conquer Mount Everest, he reassured his worried mother that on the mountain “you are never on your own. There are climbers everywhere.” While it is true the dozens of other climbing teams who attempt to reach the peak each day offer a sense of security, the bodies of the more than 200 climbers that serve as grim milestones along the path to the top are also a reminder that this safety is an illusion. David Sharp had already tried to scale the world’s highest mountain twice but had been forced to turn around before reaching the summit. His words to his mother would prove eerily prescient since nearly forty other climbers would be witness to his death on Everest.
Sharp was no mountaineering amateur: the 34-year old Brit had already seen the summits of the tallest mountains in Europe and Africa (Elbrus and Kilimanjaro) and had been personally invited to his first attempt at Everest by an expedition leader who had been impressed by the ease with which Sharp had scaled the Cho Oyu, another mountain in the Himalayas.
On this his third attempt, David Sharp decided he would face the mountain alone and without taking along any bottles of oxygen. Another climber had suggested to Sharp that lugging the heavy bottles up the mountain would only tire him out on his ascent (although a lack of supplemental oxygen had already been responsible for the deaths of several other climbers) and this time, Sharp was determined to reach the peak.
Sharp began his fateful climb the evening of May 13th; other groups would later report seeing the lone climber at various points higher up on the mountain throughout the next day. No one was able to verify if he made it to the summit on the 14th, but at some point that day he began to make his descent. “Green Boots” is probably the most famous body that rests on Everest: people use the Indian climber who froze to his death back in 1996 as a kind of landmark to judge their progress. Sharp had seen the eerily preserved body, forever dressed in mountain gear and lime-green boots, when he had made his first attempt at reaching the peak in 2003.
On the night of May 15th, as a group of climbers reached the limestone cave where Green Boots marked the way, they got a nasty shock. When they glanced inside, they realized the long-dead mountaineer had company – David Sharp. It seemed that on his way down, he had stopped to rest in the infamous cave.
Image Above David Sharp - According to the group, Sharp sat with his arms wrapped around his knees; icicles hung from his eyelashes and he did not respond to their shouts. The climbers thought he was already in a coma, but did not radio down to base camp for help. Instead, they left him behind. A mere twenty minutes later, another group came upon Sharp in the cave; again they shouted at him to get up and move on, but this time Sharp waved them off, not saying a word. A further thirty-six climbers were traveling towards the peak that day, some of whom attempted to speak to Sharp and whose varying accounts of his condition would generate some of the controversies after his death.
Image Above - David Sharp rests for eternity inside the cave high on the mountain peak. The bodies that lay frozen on the mountain’s peak show how hard rescue can be: they often lay where they fell, since those above a certain altitude are too difficult to remove. The same holds true for struggling climbers who reach the mountain’s “death zone.” When climber Maxime Chaya and his team found David Sharp still in the cave on their own descent from the summit, they knew that there was nothing they could do. Unwilling to simply abandon the Englishman (whose face was already turning black), Chaya sat with him and prayed until he was forced to leave or risk his own life; those who heard his desperate radio messages at the base camp could only listen and weep.
The location of the Three Steps on the northeast ridge route is marked on this diagram, and the location of the rock overhang or "cave" known as Green Boots' Cave where Sharp took shelter is marked with a †2. David Sharp’s death generated A good deal of controversy, mainly because of the sheer number of people who saw him while he was still alive — at least 40 other climbers passed by him in the cave and did little to help him. It is still unclear whether he could potentially have been saved had one of the climbers given him drugs or oxygen on the first day he sat frozen. There have also been contradictory accounts from the other climbers regarding whether reports requesting help were actually radioed in, or whether they received instructions to leave him and continue on their ways.
Sir Edmund Hillary, the first climber to reach Everest’s summit, was particularly disgusted by the attitudes of the climbers who passed by Sharp. Hillary decried the current fanaticism of “people [who] just want to get to the top” and declared that “on my expedition, there was no way that you would have left a man under a rock to die.” It is even debated if David Sharp did meet his goal and reach the summit before succumbing to the cold; whether he did or not, his body will join the others in warning climbers of the constant perils of the mountain.
Alexander Mitchell Kellas (21 June 1868 – 5 June 1921) was a Scottish chemist, explorer, and mountaineer known for his studies of high altitude physiology, He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Himalayan Club Vice President Meher Mehta characterized Kellas' papers A Consideration of the Possibility of Ascending the Loftier Himalaya and A Consideration of the Possibility of Ascending Mt Everest as "key catalysts in driving scientific thinking into climbing big peaks. His studies included the physiology of acclimatization in relationship to important variables like altitude, barometric pressures, alveolar PO2, arterial oxygen saturation, maximum oxygen consumption, and ascent rates at different altitudes. He had concluded that Mt Everest could be ascended by men of extreme physical and mental constitution without supplementary oxygen if the physical difficulties of the mountain were not too great."
The Alpine Journal - Dr A.M.Kellas
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Image Left - Meher H. Mehta
Managing money was his profession. But the call of the mountains was too hard to resist for Meher H. Mehta. The current vice-president of The Himalayan Club took to climbing when he was 16 and the romance has continued ever since for the banker.
The Himalayan Club is one of the oldest mountaineering clubs in India, founded by the British in 1928. The headquarters were shifted to Calcutta when the British left in 1950. Mehta joined three years later. It?s also one of the only clubs of its kind with an international presence. The club has 14 offices outside India and around 800 members, two-thirds of who are from countries other than India. The Calcutta chapter has nearly 60 members.
Mehta has served as a secretary, a committee member and as the vice-president of the club. ?Our primary aim now is to get more younger members,? says the septuagenarian. The club is planning to visit schools and introduce the youngsters to the call of the wild.
The club organises expeditions to mountains, brings out a journal and tries to rope in eminent climbers from time to time, to share their experiences and offer tips to the members. ?The Himalayan Journal, brought out annually by us, stands comparison to some of the best in the world,? feels Mehta.
As for mountaineering trips, an eight-member team is leaving for Thinchenkanj in western Sikkim on October 25. Recently, Tom Nakamoora, an Alps expert, had come to Calcutta and the session with the veteran left everyone mesmerised. Training members is also an integral activity for the club. ?Our members are regularly sent to courses in various institutes.?
Surprisingly, Mehta has no mountaineering background. There was no one in his family who took to climbing before him. Now his son has followed in his footsteps and is a keen trekker. ?I was born in Mumbai, grew up in Calcutta and have spent long periods of my life abroad,? says Mehta. ?I just fell in love with the mountains on a trip to Darjeeling. I think things like this just happen.?
He also admits that he?s no climbing expert, but just a great mountain lover. ?My mother died a million deaths with my early mountain expeditions.? Mehta has extensively covered mountains in Sikkim and the Garhwal Himalayas and also those in North Wales. ?We learnt the hard way since there were no institutes back then.? One of his more memorable incidents was meeting Sir Edmund Hillary.
A keen sports enthusiast ? he has played first division hockey, cricket and football ? this retired banker now lectures on management subjects in his spare time.
Image Above - Everest Mountain Flight - In 1978, Kellas' suggestion was verified by Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler when they made the first ascent of Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, However, Kellas was also one of the earliest scientists to suggest use of supplemental oxygen on high mountains such as Mount Everest; the first ascent of Everest and most subsequent ascents (as well as some ascents of lower peaks) have done so. A distant relative (Simon Kellas) is now employed by The Physiological Society (UK). Kellas was also a noted mountaineer in his own right. He had made at least ten first ascents of peaks over 6,100 m (20,000 ft) including Pauhunri, 7,128 m (23,386 ft), in Sikkim, which was the highest peak climbed up to that point, although this was only discovered 80 years later. He reached the summit on 14 June 1911, and this world summit record was only broken in September 1928 with the ascent of Lenin peak. Kellas died of a heart attack in 1921 near the village of Kampa Dzong, Tibet on his way from Sikkim to the first expedition to Everest, He had had only a brief rest of 9 days after an arduous expedition to Kabru and was only a day's hike away from seeing Mount Everest for the first time.
Karl Gordon Henize,Ph.D 17 October 1926 – 5 October 1993) was an American astronomer, space scientist, NASA astronaut, and professor at Northwestern University, He was stationed at several observatories around the world, including McCormick Observatory, Lamont-Hussey Observatory (South Africa), Mount Wilson Observatory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Mount Stromio Observatory (Australia). He was in the Astronaut Support crew for Apollo 15 and Skylab 2,3 and 4. As a mission Specialist on the Spacelab-2 mission (STS-51-F), he flew on Space Shuttle Challenger in July/August 1985. He was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1974.
Image Above - KARL G. HENIZE - FIRST DAY COVER SIGNED CO-SIGNED BY: PHILIP K. CHAPMAN, COLONEL KAROL J. BOBKO, ANTHONY ENGLAND, JOHN S. BULL, F. CURTIS MICHEL - HFSID ... He died in 1993, during a Mount Everest expedition, The purpose of this expedition was to test for NASA a meter called a Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC): testing at different altitudes (17,000 ft, 19,000 ft and 21,000 ft) would reveal how people’s bodies would be affected, including the way bodily tissues behaved, when struck by radiation, and this was important for the planning of long duration space missions.[2] Having reached Advanced Base Camp at 21,300 feet (6,500 m), the expedition was cut short when Henize died from high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) on October 5, 1993.
Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC)
TUDelft-IRI-ST Experimental microdosimetry gamma radiation alpha particles Study of the effects of ionising radiation on biological targets by investigating the statistical distribution of energy deposition at micrometer level. From: Broerse et al. d = 14 m d = 1 m
3 TUDelft-IRI-ST Tissue-Equivalent Proportional Counter (TEPC) - Wall and gas are tissue-equivalent. - Determine energy deposition in the wall by measuring in gas. - Single-event measurements. TEPC 25 1 - Lowering the gas pressure. Anode wire Helix cathode
4 TUDelft-IRI-ST Applications Radiobiology - link between experimental microdosimetry & radiobiology based on site measurements Radiotherapy - FNT, BNCT, Proton Therapy, Heavy ions Therapy Radiation protection - estimating dose equivalent (H) - unknown radiation Air and Space - aircraft crews and manned missions
5 TUDelft-IRI-ST Small counter cavity High flux radiation sources in radiotherapy facilities - Pile-up effect (Mini TEPC) Measuring low dose rate for radiation protection purposes - Increasing sensitivity of the counter (Mini multi-element TEPC) Main target size of few tens of nm (chromatin fibre) - Limitation of decreasing gas pressure (Mini TEPC)
6 TUDelft-IRI-ST Mini TEPC(-GEM) Electric field lines From: CERN Courier Gas Electron Multiplier (GEM) 100 m 200 m 50 m
7 TUDelft-IRI-ST Gain measurements d t = 1 m 0.3 atm < p g < 0.8 atm 3.0 mm > d g > 1.0 mm d t = 1 m 0.1 atm < p g < 1.0 atm 5.0 mm > d g > 0.5 mm
8 TUDelft-IRI-ST TEPC-GEM design 76 mm = 2 mm 9 mm
9 TUDelft-IRI-ST First calibration measurements
10 TUDelft-IRI-ST Conclusion & Future development Calibration of TEPC-GEM works properly. Comparing microdosimetric measurements of TEPC-GEM with traditional TEPC. Employing in high flux radiation sources (Therapy facilities). Employing in low radiation field intensity (Aircraft). Investigating the minimum possible site simulation size and cavity size.
Image Above - Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter (ITEPC). search. STS061-16-002 - STS-061 - DSO 485 - Inter-Mars - Karl Henize was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on October 17, 1926, He grew up on a small dairy farm outside Cincinnati, and his boyhood heroes were Buck Rodgers and Sir Edmund Hillary, His hobbies included computers, stamp collecting, mathematics, and astronomy, and he also enjoyed racquetball, baseball, skin diving, and mountain climbing. Henize attended primary and secondary schools in Plainville and Mariemont, Ohio. Due to the war, Karl elected to not finish high school, instead entering the V-12 Navy College Training Programme, which first took him to Denison University in Granville, Ohio, and then to the University of Virginia, World War II ended before he received his Naval Commission, so he became a member of the U.S. Naval Reserve, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Commander and retained a draft status of A1 until being required to give that up when he became an astronaut in 1967. While at the University of Virginia, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics in 1947, and a Master of Arts degree in Astronomy in 1948, while also carrying out research at McCormick Observatory, He was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy in Atronomy in 1954 by the University of Michigan.
V-12 Navy College Training Programme - 02-10-1945 - Henize was a member of the American Astronomical Society: the Royal Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the international Astronomical Union, and Phi Beta Kappa. He was presented with the Robert Gordon Memorial Award for 1968, and was a recipient of NASA Group Achievements Awards in 1971, 1974, 1975, 1978. He was also awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1974. Henize was an observer for the University of Michigan Observatory from 1948 to 1951, stationed at the Lamont-Hussey Observatory in Blomfontein, Union of South Africa. While there, he conducted an objective-prism spectroscopic survey of the southern sky for stars and nebulae showing emission lines of hydrogen. In 1954 he became a Carnegie post-doctural fellow at the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California, and conducted spectroscopic and photometric studies of emission-line stars and nebulae. From 1956 to 1959, he served as a senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He was in charge of photographic satellite tracking stations for the satellite tracking program and responsible for the establishment and operation of a global network of 12 stations for photographic tracking of artificial earth satellites.
Spectroscopy Example - Henize was appointed associate professor in Northwestern University's Department of Astronomy in 1959 and was awarded a professorship in 1964. In addition to teaching, he conducted research on planetary nebulae, peculiar emission-line stars, S-type stars, and T-associations. During 1961 and 1962, he was a guest observer at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra, Australia, where he used instruments ranging from the Uppsala 20/26-inch schmidt to the 74-inch parabolic reflector. Henize also engaged in studies of ultraviolet optical systems and astronomical programs suited to the manned space flight program. He became principal investigator of experiment S-013 which obtained ultraviolet stellar spectra during the Gemini 10, 11, and 12 flights. He also became principal investigator of experiment S-019 in which a 6-inch aperture objective-prism spectrograph was used on Skylab to obtain ultraviolet spectra of faint stars.
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From 1974 to 1978 Henize chaired the NASA Facility Definition Team for STARLAB, a proposed 1-meter UV telescope for Spacelab, From 1978 to 1980 he chaired the NASA Working Group for the Spacelab Wide-Angle Telescope, Since 1979 he had been the chairman of the International Astronomical Union Working Group for Space Schmidt Surveys and was one of the leaders in proposing the use of a 1-meter (3 ft) all-reflecting Schmidt telescope to carry out a deep full-sky survey in far-ultraviolet wavelengths. He authored or co-authored 70 scientific publications dealing with astronomy research. Henize was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967. He completed the initial academic training and the 53-week jet pilot training program at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 15 mission and for the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions, He was mission specialist for the ASSESS-2 spacelab simulation mission in 1977. He logged 2,300 hours flying time in jet aircraft. Henize was a mission specialist on the Spacelab-2 mission (STS-51-F) which launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on July 29, 1985. He was accompanied by COL, Gordon Fullerton (spacecraft commander), Col. Roy D. Bridges (Pilot), fellow mission specialists DR.Anthony W. England and Dr F. Story Musgrave, as well as two payload specialists, Dr.Loren Acton and Dr.John-David Bartoe.
This mission was the first pallet-only Spacelab mission and the first mission to operate the Spacelab Instrument Pointing System (IPS), It carried 13 major experiments, of which 7 were in the field of astronomy and solar physics, 3 were for studies of the Earth's ionosphere, 2 were life science experiments, and one studied the properties of superfluid helium, Henize's responsibilities included testing and operating the IPS, operating the Remote Manipulator System (RMS), maintaining the Spacelab systems, and operating several of the experiments. After 126 orbits of the earth, STS 51-F Challenger landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on August 6, 1985. With the completion of this flight Henize logged 188 hours in space.
In 1986, he accepted a position as senior scientist in the Space Sciences Branch. Karl Henize died of high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) during a climb of Mount Everest, on October 5th, 1993, aged 66, and was buried near the Changtse Glacier, He was survived by his wife, Caroline, and four children: Kurt, Marcia, Skye, and Vance. In the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, Henize was played by Marc Macaulay. In 1956, Henize published the Catalogues of Hα-Emission Stars and Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds. The paper references many objects which bear his name, such as the Supperbubble Henize 70 and the planetary nebula Henize 3-401. Henize's career is chronicled in the book NASA's Scientist-Astronauts by David Shayler and Colin Burgess.
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is one part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), where leading astronomers ask, test, and answer some of humanity’s greatest questions.
Scientists at the CfA have mapped the structure of galaxies, discovered exoplanets, and built, launched, and operated NASA space-based telescopes. Today the CfA is shaping the future of astronomy, developing new technology and research to uncover the mysteries of the universe — including the search for life.
Finding life elsewhere in the universe will require the power of the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and its GMT-Consortium Large Earth Finder, or G-CLEF instrument.
The GMT, currently under construction in Chile, is one of the first in a next generation of giant ground-based telescopes, the product of a consortium of leading universities and science institutions. By creating the largest light collecting area of any telescope before with seven of today's largest stiff monolith mirrors, astronomers will be able to look deeper into the history of the universe, with higher precision, than ever before.
SAO is leading the design and development of the G-CLEF instrument, the fiber-fed spectrograph selected as the first instrument to be operated on the GMT, which will capitalize on the unequaled collection capacity of the GMT as the most sensitive spectrograph ever built.
Light captured by the GMT will be split into its component colors and be analyzed for “biomarkers” that would signal the presence of life. In particular, G-CLEF will be able to reveal the presence of oxygen in the atmospheres of exoplanets in the “goldilocks zone” of stars outside our solar system. If we find oxygen, we’ve likely found life.
Image Left - Henize 70 Superbubble in LMC - Dr. Karl G. Henize, a senior space agency scientist and the oldest American astronaut to travel in space, died of respiratory failure on Tuesday while trying to ascend Mount Everest, officials here at the Johnson Space Center announced on Friday. He was 66. Dr. Henize, who was on leave from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, died at a base camp in China, said Jeff Carr, a NASA spokesman. He was buried on the mountain, as he had wished, Mr. Carr said. Born in Cincinnati in 1926, Dr. Henize (pronounced HEN-eyes)received a bachelor's degree in math and a master's degree in astronomy from the University of Virginia. He received a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1954. Before joining the space program, he had an extensive career as an astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and as a professor at Northwestern University. In 1951, at an observatory in Bloemfontein, South Africa, he discovered the third nova, or exploding new star, ever found in the Magellanic cloud. Oldest American in Space
While still at Northwestern, he was in charge of experiments conducted during the Gemini 10 flight in 1966 to photograph ultraviolet rays from four stars. He was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in 1967 and was a member of the support crew for the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. His only mission was in 1985, when at 58, he became the oldest American to fly in space, participating in the Spacelab-2 mission aboard the space shuttle Challenger. He was responsible for testing and operating the instrument pointing system, operating the robot arm and several scientific experiments. Dr. Henize retired from the astronaut program in 1986, but continued his work for NASA as a senior scientist in the Space Sciences Branch at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. In 1968, he received the Robert Gordon Memorial Award and in 1974, the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. Dr. Henize, an avid mountaineer, had climbed Mount Rainier in Washington in 1991.
Dr. Sándor Gárdos (2001), Hungarian team doctor, specialist of high altitude medicine [15]
Sándor Gárdos, doc [doctor] of the HMMEE team, was dead after the team gave up the last summit push. During the descent with Koppány Keresztesi from camp 2 (at 7800), he made hand-signs and turned back to the camp. The wind blew at 150 kmh, so they couldn't talk to each other, so Koppány didn't know why Sándor turned back. And he didn't arrive to camp 1... The next day Huba Markos and Zsolt Erőss started looking for him. They've found his backpack and ski-sticks at around 7500, then his body laying on a glacier at 6400. He was buried there, at the foot of the Everest. Source: Andras Vaczi
Image Above - Dr. Nils Antezana - Doctor killed on Everest
From correspondents in Kathmandu, Nepal
May 26, 2004
One of the best-known examples of a rich westerner being hoodwinked was provided by Michael Kodas in his book High Crimes. Kodas told the story of Nils Antezana, a rich American doctor with a modest climbing background but no experience of Himalayan expeditions. Nils was talked into hiring an unscrupulous Argentine guide called Gustavo Lisi, whose one and only expedition to Everest had resulted in a stolen photograph and a false summit claim. The result was Nils reaching the summit long after he should have turned around, and being left to die by Gustavo on the return journey.
Dr. Nils Antezana was 69 when he climbed Mount Everest and if he succeded he would become the oldest American to do so, Antezana was an accomplished climber and had scaled several high peaks so had much experience. Antenzana new a guide called Gustavo Lisi who he had climbed with on an earlier peak and became friends, Antezana phoned Lisi and an agreement was made that Lisi would be his guide. Antezana agreed to pay all of the younger man's expenses and an unspecified salary, with a bonus of $10,000 for successfully bringing him to the summit and back. When the time came the two men were slowly ascending towards a small village called Pheriche, at an altitude of about 14,500 feet, Lisi trekked so far ahead of him that Antezana lost sight of his guide and got confused when he arrived at a fork in the path. Antezana chose the wrong direction and walked for about an hour before he realized his mistake, then doubled back as the temperature was falling, feeling tired and sick, incensed that Lisi had not waited for him. Lisi would later deny through e-mail that there had ever been a serious problem between them during their climb.
Pheriche's main strip - Antenzana started to become increasingly sick with a cold upper respiratory tract infection and a worsening gastrointestinal problem, he was suffering from diarrhea, dehydration and a weakness that left him unable to move on some days. He lost 16 pounds from his 5-feet-10, 160-pound frame, before he had even begun the trek on Everest. He told his family in a phone call that if his illness persisted, he might come home. Antezana was a determined man and after four days of rest, he began the process of acclimatization climbs. Antezana continued to complain in his diary that Lisi who he had paid many $1000 of dollars was continuing to leave him during there climbs.
Stone hut at 14,000 ft in Pheriche, Nepal approaching Mt. Everest - On Friday, May 7, an accomplished Mexican climber named Hector Ponce de Leon says he saw the Antezana party descending from the 24,000-foot Camp Three toward Camp Two, a journey that eventually took the climbers onto a glacier pitted in places by crevasses undetectable beneath the snow. Ponce de Leon glanced at Antezana and worried. He looked for Lisi, who was, Ponce de Leon remembers, about 220 yards ahead, a speck in the distance. "I thought to myself, 'Gustavo left him . . . Unbelievable.' "
Ponce De Leon on Everest - Antezana appeared unstable, unable to walk a straight line. "He was wasted, and they were only in the [acclimatization] climbs," remembers Ponce de Leon. "He was so wasted he couldn't even see the right way to the camp." Lisi was back at camp 2 and was unconcerned for his client, Ponce de Leon swore at Lisi for his concern for Antezana. Antezana spoke with his family by phone and complained that Lisi was letting him down and that he was unreliable.
Photos. Mt. Everest - Camp 2 - SEVERAL PROMINENT CLIMBERS AND EXPEDITION LEADERS HAD CONCERNS ABOUT THE 33-YEAR-OLD LISI. That group included Basque climber Edurne Pasaban -- the only surviving woman to have summited both Everest and the famously dangerous K2 on the Pakistan-China border -- and Ponce De Leon, as well as the brothers Damian and Willie Benegas, Argentine Americans who led a successful American-based expedition company. Among the most damning claims was that Lisi had inflated his climbing credentials when he told Antezana and others that he had reached the summit of Everest in 2000. Although the registries of Everest summits included no mention of Lisi ever having scaled the peak that year, the claim of his purported summit had been posted for a long while on Lisi's Web site, according to Damian Benegas and the Antezana family. Government officials in Lisi's hometown of Salta, Argentina, formally recognized his purported Everest achievement in a 2000 proclamation.
Image Above - Basque climber Edurne Pasaban -- the only surviving woman to have summited both Everest and the famously dangerous K2 on the Pakistan-China border - Lisi would later adamantly deny that he ever claimed to have summited Everest that year. But other climbers recalled Lisi touting such a feat. After arriving in Nepal in early April of this year, Lisi casually mentioned his success again, according to the American nurse, Rhonda Martin, who remembered Lisi saying that he had scaled the mountain's Tibetan north face in 2000. Lisi's purported claim infuriated no one in the world more than a Spanish climber named Juan Carlos Gonzalez. The two men had been climbing Everest together in 2000, when, as Gonzalez tells the story, a weary Lisi abruptly gave up on his quest to reach the summit, stopping for good at the third of four camps between Everest's Base Camp and the peak. Gonzalez went on to summit, only to run into difficulties on the way down the mountain. A storm blew in, and he was forced to spend an entire night high on Everest.
Image Left - Juan Carlos Gonzalez - Noting Gonzalez's absence, two other climbers, far down the mountain, hurriedly ascended in a rescue attempt. According to Gonzalez, who would lose seven fingers to frostbite in the incident, Lisi not only declined to participate in the rescue but later stole film from Gonzalez's camera while the saved man rested. The film showed Gonzalez atop the summit, film that, Gonzalez alleges, Lisi used to claim on his Web site that he, not Gonzalez, was the goggled man who had reached the peak. The controversy received notice in the South American press. Lisi has steadfastly denied all wrongdoing, adding that he participated in the Gonzalez rescue. The charges continue to dog Lisi's career in the insular alpine communities of Latin American and Spain.
THIRTY DAYS INTO THEIR EXPEDITION, DURING THEIR FINAL PUSH TOWARD THE SUMMIT, Antezana climbed without bottled oxygen from Camp Three to Camp Four, which lies at 26,000 feet. The vast majority of climbers -- experienced guides and novices alike -- use bottled oxygen between camps Three and Four. Lisi said later that Antezana insisted to climb without oxygen bottles which is dangerous as Antezana was in poor health. Lisi later acknowledged that the expedition called for a rest day at Camp Four, insisting that the extra day at the highest camp on the mountain had no negative effect on the climbers. "A terrible decision," because of the very low oxygen levels.
The south summit is a popular place for climbers to stop for various reasons, and to turn around if so decided. From this location the cornice traverse, Hillary step, and summit can be seen in clear weather and for a typical climber using bottled oxygen in the early 21st century, it is a favored spot to change oxygen bottles over - The South Summit of Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the second highest peak on Earth, and is a subsidiary peak to the primary peak of Mount Everest, Although its elevation above sea level of 8,749 metres (28,704 ft) is higher than the second-highest mountain on Earth, K2 (whose summit is 8,611 metres (28,251 ft) above sea level), it is only considered a separate peak and not a separate mountain as its prominence is only 11 meters. Antezana phoned his wife who was in hospital and told her he was going to attempt a summit that night, ON THE EVENING OF MAY 17, ANTEZANA BEGAN HIS FINAL TREK TOWARD THE SUMMIT, wearing a mask and breathing bottled oxygen. The plan was to summit in the morning, in plenty of time to get off the highest, most dangerous part of the mountain before darkness fell and made it more difficult to see the terrain and locate camp.Early into his climb, Antezana began laboring, leaning hard on his ice ax for support, according to nearby climbers. At about 10 p.m., an Irish team led by Pat Falvey, which had left Camp Four about a half-hour after Antezana and Lisi, was already prepared to pass the Antezana party on a steep icy patch. Falvey was climbing with a doctor named Clare O'Leary, who was on her way, at 33, to becoming the first Irish woman to reach the summit. O'Leary came alongside Antezana and looked over. "I couldn't really see his face, but he was stooped over, and you could see he was struggling," she remembers. "I just assumed that he'd soon be turning [around] and going back [to Camp Four]. There was just no way that it seemed possible he was going to make it."
Image Above - Irish Women : Dr. Clare O'Leary from Cork became the first Irish woman to climb Mount Everest, the first to complete the Seven Summits and was part of the Beyond Endurance expedition team that reached the South Pole on January 8, 2008. Two sherpa's who accompanied Lisi and Antezana began to urge the two men to stop climbing and return back down the mountain to base camp four, The decision to turn around did not become fruition and Lisi and Antezana continued up hill, In those last hours, Antezana would have heard little else but the sound of his own breathing through a mask. His trek had become alarmingly slow, but finally, after roughly 14 hours of climbing from Camp Four, he summited at about 10 a.m., the dream realized. Already, however, the cost of the dream hovered. Here he was, the oldest American and second-oldest man in the world to accomplish the feat, and now he looked out over Nepal on one side and Tibet on the other. He was at 29,028 feet, an altitude at which planes cruise and the air has only about 30 percent as much oxygen as at sea levels. Even with his bottled oxygen, his brain would have been slogging by then, his reactions slowed, his thoughts suddenly primitive, as they are for nearly every climber, according to experts. The wind howled. Antezana's group lingered, standing for 40 minutes on the summit. "Too long," Damian Benegas says. "Most people go down a lot quicker than that. You don't stay that long up in air [so thin], especially when you were so slow getting to the summit, and you still need to get down."
Image Above - Damián Benegas the day after arriving at the base camp of Everest (2011) - As soon as Antezana began his descent problems began to materialize, The adrenaline the excitement the mental forces that fill your mind push you to the summitt but it is a big come down when you begin to descend and most climbers agree going down is a lot harder than going up. An hour or so passed and Antezana collapsed into the icey snow, he was showing classic signs of (HACE) He stumbled was disoriented had sight impairment and was slow slow in movement.About three hours later, the Sherpas said, the group had traveled no more than about 300 feet down from the summit. Exhausted and woozy, Antezana nearly fell off the side of the mountain. The Sherpas steadied him, carefully placing his feet on the narrow ridges. As they struggled, it was getting colder and darker. Now it was clear that it would be nighttime at the earliest before they arrived back at Camp Four, and only if they could drag Antezana most of the way.
About a third, 94 People have been Sherpas - Are Sherpas Doing the Most Dangerous Job in the World? A Third of all Everest Deaths are Sherpas - What is undisputed is that for the next several hours, Dorjee and Mingmar alone helped the stumbling, sometimes babbling Antezana, picking him up whenever he fell, eventually supporting him as he tried to put one foot in front of another. Lisi stayed ahead of them by 50 to 110 yards, he said later, within sight but out of touch, until finally, sapped of energy and temporarily unable to continue, he dug a bivouac in the snow and climbed into a sleeping bag to nap.The Sherpas were spent themselves by late afternoon. High on the mountain, Antezana collapsed again. According to the accounts, the Sherpas tried giving him water, but he could not even drink now. He was having difficulty putting words together. He seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness and babbling nonsensically, thought the Sherpas, who had spent the day worrying about this very possibility.
Image Above - Kevin Flynn climbs the Balcony Mt Everest - They rested the stricken man against a block of snow and ice, an alcove of sorts above a thin promontory on the mountain known as the Balcony, a point about 1,600 vertical feet above Camp Four. Sixteen hundred feet does not sound like a long way -- a little more than a quarter-mile in altitude from their goal -- but, because of the doctor's condition and the need to support him, it would take them hours to make the descent over twisting terrain bedeviled in spots by ice and upon which the correct path to the camp is not always discernible at night, even to climbers wearing headlamps. There was the understanding that, given the cold, the darkness and their own deteriorating condition, none of them might make it back that night if they continued moving so slowly -- and that the night might turn into forever.
Image Above - Headlamps of Sherpa climbers streak up the Southwest Face of Mount Everest at night. The Sherpa climbers were working as park of the 2009 Korean Southwest Face Expedition; thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Sherpa, the Korean team established a new route on the Southwest Face and put four climbers on the summit. When the Sherpas bent to put two oxygen bottles next to Antezana in the snow, it was a signal. Even in his stupor, the doctor seemed to understand it, they later said: They had decided to leave him. A sherpa removed his down jacket and laid it over Antezana for extra warmth and protection from the bitter environment, Sometimes on Everest your own inbuilt instincts for survival become priority and you think for yourself, Antezana was drifting in and out of consciousness, though now almost entirely out, the Sherpas thought. "I'm going to stay here, and you stay here with me," the fallen man said, according to accounts that Falvey and Damian Benegas reported from the Sherpas. "The mountain is my home. Don't leave me. We should all die together." (On this statement I would disagree as if I could save myself I would certainly try) 1 man dead is better than 2 or 3. As the sherpa's began to move away from Antezana he spontaneoulsy grabbed around the legs of one of the men knowing that he was destined to perish.
Mount Everest Base Cap at Night -
While Antezana lays dying on the snow Lisi his guide who he had paid a tremendous amount of money too was sleeping in his tent back down the mountain, Nestled in his makeshift bivouac Lisi slept but it was not guaranteed if he would survive the night, The sherpa's shook Lisi hard to wake him and helped him down to camp 4 a much better place to sleep and rest. The sherpa who placed his down jacket over Antezana was now in desperate need of base camp and warmth, He was shivering and on the verge of hyperthermia and collaps, The sherpa's continued leaving the trailing Lisi behind, Lisi fell and broke his headlamp, Lisi was about 220 yards from camp four but because he has no light he was stuck fast, One wrong move and he could fall down the mountain or into a crevass, Sadly many climbers die just yards from there camps because of poor visibility, I would certainly try and help someone if I heard cries and was in my tent as it is not so far to go to guide them safely to a warm tent and some hot soup.
Image Above - Lakpa Rita outside Alpine Ascents International's kitchen tent at Mount Rainier's Camp Muir last September. Lakpa’s climbing and guiding achievements are significant, with 15 summits of Mt. Everest on over 23 expeditions (a record 253 climbers on the summit under his leadership) seven guided summits of Cho-Oyu and numerous other peaks in Nepal, Lakpa summited Mount Vinson 13 times. Lakpa is one of the only Sherpa working as a full-time Mountain Guide around the world. In February 2009, Lakpa became the first Sherpa, and first Nepali to climb the Seven Summits. He howled a long time, as he remembered, until two Sherpas with Pat Falvey's Irish expedition team heard his cries, climbed in the direction of the shouts and, after about a half-hour, found him and guided him down. Having been rescued, Lisi made no mention of his client accepted some oxygen then promptly went to sleep.Having been starved for bottled oxygen for several hours, perhaps Gustavo Lisi had nothing left but an instinct for survival, some climbers would reason later. Some saw the possibility that, despite his screams, Lisi was semi-comatose, his brain cells numbed by air he couldn't breathe. For his part, Lisi insisted in the taped conversation that he would have been with Antezana every step during that last day, but for his own struggles. That he needed to climb into his sleeping bag only underscored the magnitude of his horrendous fatigue, he said.
Pat Falvey, who has climbed Everest twice and has completed 155 expeditions across the world, is calling time on extreme adventures after losing more than 30 friends through climbing.
And the Cork man says he’s looking forward to his next career peak — becoming the world’s best granddad. He became the first person in the world to complete the Seven Summits twice and then spent the next 30 years traversing some of the most treacherous landscapes on the planet. Now he has written a book, Accidental Rebel, about his epic journeys.
He has his own adventure company that specialises in tailored trips to the likes of Machu Picchu and Kilimanjaro.
And he also works as a motivational speaker and mentor. When Lisi awakened, it was morning. He called his mother and then his Web site manager on a satellite phone, to tell them that he had reached the summit. His Web site soon reported his accomplishment -- GUSTAVO LISI CONQUERS EVEREST -- without mentioning Antezana at all. Rescue attempts have been staged before when someone stays overnight on the mountain, The chances of survival are very slim if the climber is out in the freezing cold elements, Pat Falvey and Victor Saunders decided that a rescue attempt was futile and dangerous. By then, Gustavo Lisi had headed down the mountain, escorted by two of Falvey's Sherpas. By day's end, nearly everyone on the mountain concluded that Antezana was certainly dead. The following evening, as the weather cleared, other expeditions started up toward the summit. They passed the spot where Antezana had been left. He was gone. Saunders and others guessed that Antezana had risen or crawled briefly before falling off a ledge or down a face of Everest. After almost 83 years of known expeditions, the mountain is littered with unrecovered bodies. AFTER RECEIVING HIS CERTIFIED SUMMIT CERTIFICATE FROM NEPALESE OFFICIALS, GUSTAVO LISI LEFT KATMANDU AND WENT OFF TO CLIMB IN BOLIVIA, while hoping to attract clients for future expeditions.
CERTIFIED SUMMIT CERTIFICATE - Fabiola Antezana had a strong bond with her father and wanted to conduct her own investigation, She faced Lisi at a table in the lounge of a Katmandu hotel. Her backpack, with the tape recorder running inside, was on the table. She stayed silent for a long while. Her husband sat alongside her, In all respects Lisi was having problems on the mountain and this impeded his responsibilities to Antezana, Lisi was tired and had only enough energy to save himself, This shows how nothing can be guaranteed on the mountain, Many people hate Mount Everest because it has claimed a loved one or friend it may be a beautiful mountain but the mountain will always have the last word. Lisi should of aborted the ascent and brought Antezana back down, they could of tried again another day and it would of allowed time to access the situation.
Image Above - Shota Ota
A 69-YEAR-OLD US doctor has died after reaching the summit Mount Everest, the third climber killed this season on the slopes of the world's highest peak. "Nils Antezana, 69, of the US and a doctor by profession, died on May 18 at an altitude of 8600 metres on his way back to base camp from the summit of Everest," the tourism ministry said in a statement. Antezana had been one of four members of the International Everest Expedition Spring 2004 who had reached the summit, it said. The team, led by Mexican Alejandro Ochoa, included two Sherpas and was permitted to scale Everest via the southeast ridge route. The ministry did not say how did Antezana had died or why it had taken a week for his death to be announced. Bulgarian state radio had earlier reported that Bulgarian mountaineer Christo Christov was found dead yesterday just below the summit, which he had reached four days earlier.
Christov, 26, had reached the 8,848-metre summit by the north face, without oxygen, two Sherpa guides said. He had been missing since Thursday, when his expedition started down due to bad weather. Last Friday, Tokyo-based tour company Adventures Guide said 63-year-old Japanese Shoko Ota died after becoming the second-oldest woman to conquer Everest.
It said Ota fell unconscious on Thursday 350 metres from the top after a fall broken by her safety rope and her team leader later said she had died. Each year a number of climbers die in their bid to set foot on the top of the world, often due to falls or a sudden change in weather conditions.
In the northern spring of 1996, a total of 15 climbers died on the mountain, the record for fatalities in one season.
Agence France-Presse