The MountainWorld™ Blog

The Remotest Place on Earth

On South Georgia in 2004...Felt pretty remote to me!

I've been to some pretty remote places...or so I thought. Western Tibet. South Georgia. Borneo.

But, according to an article in this month's issue of New Scientist, these aren't really that remote. Or, at least not that remote according to the criteria used in a new study by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, and the World Bank.

The study identified "remoteness" based on, as Michael Robinson points out in Time to Eat the Dogs, "information on terrain and access to road, rail and river networks. It also consider[ed] how factors like altitude, steepness of terrain and hold-ups like border crossings slow travel." It didn't necessarily take into account access to cell phone networks (now available on the summit of Everest) or other technological advances that may limit aspects of remoteness."

Nonetheless, it is a pretty interesting piece. Some findings tell us how small indeed our world has become:

• less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city
• in the Amazon, extensive river networks and an increasing number of roads mean that only 20% of the land is more than two days from a city - around the same proportion as Canada's Quebec province

And, according to the study, what is the remotest place on earth? It's a tough spot high on the Tibetan Plateau at 34.7°N 85.7°E, sitting at about 17,500 feet, and from here it takes 3 weeks on foot to reach Lhasa. Pretty remote!

View Larger Map

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Thursday Thought: The Oft-Forgotten H. W. "Bill" Tilman

I've long been an admirer of Harold William "Bill" Tilman (1898-1977).

I first encountered his name - and his legend - on my first trip to Nepal in 1992. My trip leader, Nick Yardley, and our sirdar, Urgen Sherpa, pointed out a distant, rugged pass leading from the Langtang Valley into the Jugal Himal and on to Paanch Pokhari (Five Lakes) called Tilman's Col. Nick explained that it was first explored by Bill Tilman back in 1949.

Since then, I've come to "know" Tilman as the ardent explorer he was. A true pioneer and often labeled "the 20th Century's last true explorer" - a label he would no doubt scoff at - Tilman logged countless miles in the remotest corners of the globe. He relished climbing peaks that were proverbially "off the map", and made every effort to break new ground in all that he did.

Like many of his generation, Tilman was also a war veteran, and was decorated for his service in both World Wars. When he decided many of the more popular ranges were getting too crowded, Tilman bought a sailboat, taught himself to sail, and began 25 plus years of exploration in the Arctic and Antarctic waters looking for new peaks to climb.

In his career, Tilman achieved great things. Some of his accomplishments are:

• 1930: First ascent of West Ridge of Batian (Mount Kenya), and traverses to  Nelion, with Eric Shipton
• 1932: Tilman ascends Mounts Speke, Baker, and Stanley in the Ruwenzori Mountains of Uganda, with Eric Shipton
• 1933: Solo ascent of Kilimanjaro
• 1934: Tilman and Shipton penetrate the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, the first to do so
• 1935: Tilman is a member of the Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition
• 1936: First ascent of Nanda Devi, reaching the summit with Noel Odell
• 1937: Karakoram Reconnaissance with Eric Shipton
• 1938: Climbs with others to 27,200 feet on Everest without oxygen
• 1949: Exploration of Langtang and Ganesh Himal, and first ascent of Paldor
• 1950: Leads British Annapurna Expedition, nearly summits Annapurna IV
• 1950: Does first reconnaissance of Everest's South Side with Charles Houston

The list goes on...and on...and on. 

But, what I've valued most about Tilman in reading his books - and in reading what others had to say about him - is his work ethic, his value of teamwork, ethics, and philosophy about the mountains and the mountain way. 

Interestingly, though, you won't find much on the web about Bill Tilman. There is a wonderful site by Bob Conlay, who sailed with Tilman and adventured with him from 1956-1977. And, there's David Glen's site for his book WARRIOR WANDERER The Life and Times of the Legendary Explorer Bill Tilman. There's also Treescaper's album on his travels with Tilman on Flickr. Other than that, not too much.

Perhaps it's Tilman's zest for exploration rather than notoriety, and his humble (but tough), somewhat enigmatic ways that have kept him out of the limelight. And, that's probably how Tilman would have liked it; as Glen writes, Tilman was "a man whose basic shyness and reticence to boast of his astonishing achievements belied a great sense of honor in the way he conducted his life."

And, I would add, perhaps in the way he conducted his death: In 1977, at nearly 80 years old, Tilman set sail in the tug En Avant with five others. On November 1, 1977, the left Rio de Janeiro, bound for the Falkland Islands. They disappeared without a trace...

So, below are some of my favorite quotes - mostly by but some about - Bill Tilman. Enjoy!

The truism that we climb on the shoulders of our predecessors is sometimes forgotten, and it is difficult to exaggerate the important of the part which earlier failures play in the final success. The Himalayan peaks over, say, 23,000 ft. which have been climbed at the first attempt can be numbered on the fingers of one hand, and even if the present climb be cited to the contrary, the answer is that we had the inestimable advantage of knowing where to make our effort and how to get there - knowledge gained for us by our forerunners. And apart from previous experience on the actual mountain there is the vast fund of accumulated knowledge of high climbing in general to draw upon; for though experiences may be "the name men give to their mistakes" it does not lessen their value to those who are willing to learn.

- from Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

It was but a short three months that we had met, many of us strangers, but inspired by a single hope and bound by a common purpose. This purpose was only achieved by team-work, team-work the more remarkable on account of the two different nationalities; and though these two nations have a common origin they are for that reason more critical of each other's shortcomings - as relationship leads proverbially to ill-feeling. The Americans and ourselves do not always see eye to eye, but on those rare occasions when we come together to do a job of work, as, for example, in war or in the more serious matter of climbing a mountain, we seem to pull together very well.

There each man pulled his weight each must share the credit; for, though it is natural for each man to have his own aspirations, it is in mountaineering, more than in most things, that we try to believe:

        The game is more than the players of the game,
        And the ship is more than the crew.

- from Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

A propos of writing books Dr. Johnson's opinion was that "any blockhead can write if he sets himself doggedly to it". I should like to alter that and say, " any blockhead can write a book if he has something to write about" - that I have anything to write about is entirely due to my companions, British and American, to whom I dedicate this book.

- from the preface to Ascent of Nanda Devi, 1937

We live and learn, and big mountains are stern teachers.

-from Two Mountains and a River

After the first joy in victory came a feeling of sadness that the mountain had succumbed, that the proud head of the goddess was bowed... [That night] each little incident of the climb was gone over again and again, and I remember, in the small hours when the spark of life burns lowest, the feeling which predominated over all was one of remorse at the fall of a giant. It is the same sort of contrition that one feels at the shooting of an elephant, for however thrilling and arduous the chase, however great has been the call upon skill, perseverance, and endurance, and however gratifying the weight of the ivory, when the great bulk crashes to the ground achievement seems to have been bought at the too high cost of sacrilege.

-reflecting on reaching the summit of Nanda Devi, from Ascent of Nanda Devi

No one goes so far or so fast as the man who does not know where he is going. 

Any worthwhile expedition can be planned on the back of an envelope.

Tilman was always first away in the morning, carrying a load in excess of the standard Sherpa load. He always arrived first at the day's destination. Sometimes he would run along parts of the route. He would have tea brewing by the time the rest caught up with him and then he would praise those who had made good time, and yell and scream at those he thought had been lazy or lacking in some way. On at least one rest day he made all his Sherpas a cake. Tashi, the Sherpa who was translating all this for me, was made to repeat this fact several times. He was always the first to cross turbulent streams, pass hard rocky sections, and shoulder awkward loads.

- Sherpa Norbu, on climbing with H.W. Tilman in the 1930's

And, finally:

Put on a good pair of boots and walk out the door.

-H.W. "Bill" Tilman on how to have an adventure

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

The Basics of Altitude: A Primer on AMS, HACE, & HAPE

Altitude has been on my mind a lot recently; my colleagues and I at the American Mountaineering Museum are putting the final touches on a new exhibit called Thin Air: Altitude and Oxygen. It will open at the Museum this month.

I awoke Tuesday morning to a sad story in my inbox about a University of Arizona student, Morgan Boisson, who died near Rongbuk Monastery, at the foot of the Tibetan side of Mount Everest, on October 20, 2009.

Boisson was on a study abroad program in Nanjing, China, and traveled to Rongbuk with classmates on a a 10 day tour in Tibet.

Judging from the article I read and the symptoms described, Boisson was died from HAPE, or High Altitude Pulmonary Edema. And, sadly, he was not the first to die this way at Rongbuk, nor will he probably be the last.

We tend to think of severe altitude sickness like HAPE, and it's equally dangerous cousin, HACE (High Altitude Cerebral Edema), as something that only effects climbers. When we're "just trekking" or - like Boisson and the thousands of others who travel in Tibet each year - visiting the high country in a vehicle, we rarely give much thought to the effects of high altitude and the accompanying hazards.

But, these are major dangers for climbers, trekkers, tourists, and anyone traveling to altitude. In fact, Telluride's Institute for Altitude Medicine (IFAM), estimates that altitude sickness costs the Colorado ski industry upward of $200 million each year!

Thus, it's always a good idea to know the basics of HAPE and HACE - and even the more benign AMS, or Acute Mountain Sickness - and to have some tricks up your sleeve to deal with it if it hits a companion, or you.

For today, let's talk a bit about HAPE. I'll write later on about HACE if people are interested.

To begin, keep in mind I am not a doctor, and I don't even play one on TV. But, I do play one in the mountains quite often, treating clients and fellow travelers and local people we encounter along the way. Anyone wanting to know all the in-depth analysis of AMS, HAPE, and HACE should read articles available online at IFAM and the Altitude Research Center. That said, the following are some rules of thumb for altitude, and the things I look for in my clients - and in myself - whenever I travel to altitude.

HAPE, although very dangerous, is fairly rare, especially in travels below 15,000 feet. But, it does occur. IFAM tabulated only 150 cases over a 3 year period in Colorado's Summit County, and estimates that only about 1 in 10,000 skiers develops HAPE during their travels to the high country.

However, in my travels to mountains around the world, I've seen it a lot. From 10,000 foot Camp Muir on Mount Rainier to the 19,000 foot Garganta Camp on Nevado Huascaran in Peru to climbers dying high on the North Side of Everest, HAPE occurs all over the place, and is never a nice thing.

In general, the first signs of possible HAPE, and the ones I am on the lookout for in the mountains, are:

• A sudden and marked decline in ability to "keep up"
• Inability to catch one's breath, even when at rest
• Unnaturally elevated heartrate, even when at rest
• "Rails" or rattling/wheezing/crackling sound in the lungs

If you see these symptoms in yourself or your teammate, it's time to act. While it may not be HAPE, these are generally telltale signs, and the symptoms will progress rapidly downward if HAPE is indeed at play.

If a pulse-oximeter is on hand, it can be used and, in the case of HAPE, will show a decreased oxygen saturation level in the patient. Without a pulse-ox, oxygen saturation can be "guesstimated" by looking for a bluish, somewhat ashen look to the skin and a blue-gray look to the lips and nail beds.

For most trips in the mountains, however, we'll need to decide and act fast. And, in my opinion, it's always best to be conservative with HAPE and HACE, and err on the side of caution. So, how do we treat HAPE?

Go down!

Seriously...go down, and go down now! The only true treatment for HAPE - and HACE - is to descend. And the rule of thumb is to descend at least 3000 feet.

But, what if descent is not an immediate option due to injury, weather, or other factors? Then, it's time for alternate plans which have hopefully been thought out in advance.

If oxygen is available, it should be administered at a high flow rate (i.e., 6-8 liters per minute). If a Gamov Bag or Portable Altitude Chamber is on hand, it should be used immediately. And, Nifedipine can be administered to help you buy some time as well. (Nifedipine, in layman's terms, reduces pulmonary arterial pressure and helps slow the leakage of blood and fluid into the lungs. 

Again, though, the only true treatment for High Altitude Pulmonary Edema is descent.

Here's a classic example: in 1998 on Huascaran in Peru, Jason Edwards, Maximo Henostroza, and I rescued Miguel Tello from high on the mountain. When we found him at 19,000 feet, he was ashen, hypothermic, wheezing, unconscious, and had an oxygen saturation of about 40%. Diagnosing hypothermia, HAPE, and HACE, we administered drugs accordingly and began immediate descent, with concurrent monitoring. After the textbook 3000 feet of descent, Miguel was responsive and moving in our makeshift litter. He made a full recovery, but may well have passed away high in the Andes if we hesitated in our descent.

So, next time you head for the hills, be prepared. HAPE and HACE are rare, but they do occur, and they do kill. Know your body. Know your treatment options. And, have plans at the ready to deal with these ailments if they occur.

Let me know via the comments if this was even remotely interesting to people. If so, I'll write something up about HACE as well. And, if not, I'll drift on to other topics!

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Anthropographia - Human Rights in Images

There's an abundance of photography competitions out there these days, from the best fish photos to landscapes and nature, even the "Weird Beard Photo Contest".

Shining through the haze is a competition that brings out essential stories of humanity throughout the world, and the underlying issues of human rights: Anthropographia.

A combination of the Greek words ἄνθρωπος (anthropo) and γράφω (graphia), Anthropographia's mission is "to write and convey the stories of humanity, using photography as the medium." Here's an interview with the founder of Anthropographia, Matthieu Rytz, on the contest, mission, and exhibition:

Stunning and moving, the entries in the annual Anthropographia contest tell the stories of humanity, raw and unfiltered. The images are a collection of contrasts, at once tragic and heart-wrenching, and also full of joy and hope.

Be forewarned: Many of the images in this collection are painful to see and contemplate. But, they tell important stories about our world and about the tragedies we, as humans, wreak on one another. Below are some of the images and stories which jumped out at me; click on the individual pictures to jump to the specific exhibit at Anthropographia, or see the exhibit as a whole on the website. 

ADDICTS, a generation lost to Afghanistan,
by Alfonso Moral

Darfur,
by Alvaro Ybarra Zavala

No Friends but the Mountains: Women of the PKK Guerrrillas, Kurdistan, Iraq,
by Anastasia Taylor-Lind

The Loudest Whisper – scars of leprosy in Brazil,
by Anderson Schneider

Kashmir NOW,
by Andy Spyra

Weapon social club Kentucky, U.S.A.,
by Javier Arcenillas

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Thursday Thought: Criticism, Conservation, & Politics by Teddy Roosevelt

I've always been enamored with Teddy Roosevelt. A gallant, eloquent statesman, he was also an ardent supporter of conservation in all its facets. And, he was a passionate explorer and climber.

In fact, Roosevelt was descending from the summit of Mount Marcy - the highest point in New York State - on September 13, 1901,when he received a telegram informing him that President William McKinley was near death. McKinley died on the 14th, and Roosevelt was sworn in as President - becoming the youngest to hold the office. 

A Republican by party, Roosevelt was quite unlike what we know as the GOP today. Again, he was an avid conservationist, pushing the use of the nation's natural resources, but not the misuse of them through greed. Roosevelt pushed for equal opportunity for all American citizens in his "Square Deal" policy, and was a strong supporter of thoughtful government regulation of interstate corporations. In a nutshell, Roosevelt wanted America to be great...for all Americans. As he said in a speech in Philadelphia in 1912: In the long run, this country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless it is a reasonably good place for all of us to live in.

There were many things to admire about Teddy Roosevelt. But, as usual, his words are better than mine, so below are some Thursday Thoughts from Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, whose birthday fell on October 27th:

From A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open, 1916:

Defenders of the short-sighted men who in their greed and selfishness will, if permitted, rob our country of half its charm by their reckless extermination of all useful and beautiful wild things sometimes seek to champion them by saying the 'the game belongs to the people.' So it does; and not merely to the people now alive, but to the unborn people. The 'greatest good for the greatest number' applies to the number within the womb of time, compared to which those now alive form but an insignificant fraction. Our duty to the whole, including the unborn generations, bids us restrain an unprincipled present-day minority from wasting the heritage of these unborn generations. The movement for the conservation of wild life and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method.

From Arbor Day - A Message to the School-Children of the United States, April 15, 1907:

We of an older generation can get along with what we have, though with growing hardship; but in your full manhood and womanhood you will want what nature once so bountifully supplied and man so thoughtlessly destroyed; and because of that want you will reproach us, not for what we have used, but for what we have wasted...So any nation which in its youth lives only for the day, reaps without sowing, and consumes without husbanding, must expect the penalty of the prodigal whose labor could with difficulty find him the bare means of life.

From Citizenship in a Republic, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.

And, finally, a little call-to-action for us all:

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure...than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. 

AND

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Finally, a great video on Roosevelt from YouTube:

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Secrets of Shangri La

Cave complex in Upper Mustang, Nepal.

He looked like Indiana Jones...really. And, it was probably intentional, a modern-day archaeologist/anthropologist of the far reaches of Nepal. Regardless of appearance, Dr. Charles Ramble was no impostor, no wannabe hero, but rather a dedicated man who had made significant discoveries in the remote, semi-autonomous kingdom of Mustang, a remote fin of Nepal jutting onto the Tibetan Plateau.

For the better part of 3 hours in 1993, Charles Ramble spoke to all 26 of us (we were studying for 6 months in Nepal on a semester abroad program), and not a one was anything but rapt. He told us of a faraway region, until 1991 sealed off to foreign visitors. And, of ancient Buddhist and Bon cave complexes high above Lo Monthang. And, even more intriguing, the fact that these caves date back to perhaps as far a 2,000 B.C. - long before the Buddhist era.

Fresco in cave (left); Charles Ramble inspecting artifacts (right)

And, he spoke of the dangers of his find. Not dangers to himself, but rather dangers posed to the ancient, irreplaceable treasures in the caves: frescoes, artifacts, possibly texts and more that lay unprotected from the elements, and also from art thieves and looters who had already laid waste to many such sites throughout Nepal. (Literally thousands of ancient artworks have been stolen from Nepal's temples and sites over the years; see the website Stolen Art of Nepal and the book by Lain Singh Bangdell, Stolen images of Nepal.)

It was a lecture I never forgot...And, thus it was with great excitement that I heard about an expedition in 2008 by Leisl Clark, Pete Athans, and led by my friend Brot Coburn, would be heading to Mustang to explore and document this amazing site deep in the Himalaya.

(Broughton "Brot" Coburn is a legend in Nepal, and for good reason. He lived and worked there for 2 decades, and wrote 2 of the best books in my opinion on Nepal, Nepali Aama and Aama in America. And, he's a great guy to boot!)

The expedition to Mustang was filmed and is in production by National Geographic, due to air on PBS later this year.

But, you can get a sneak preview with Brot Coburn himself on November 11, 2009, at 7:00 PM at the American Mountaineering Museum! Brot will be our guest speaker for November's sPEAKer Series at the Museum.(You can read a PDF on Brot's presentation here.)

So, come on down and learn for yourself about the Secrets of Shangri La from Brot Coburn! And, check out the video below - a short preview of the film, with old "Indiana Charles Ramble Jones" making a great climb!

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.

Hidden Histories of Exploration by the RGS

A few weeks ago, I posted about some previously unseen images from the 1922 Everest Expedition having been found by the Royal Geographic Society. As mentioned then, the website and exhibit went live on October 15, 2009.

The Hidden Histories of Exploration exhibit is going on now at the RGS headquarters in London. But, since London is a bit of a journey from here in Colorado, fortunately the good folks at the RGS put some bits of the exhibit up on the website. Amazing photographs and previously unseen film footage from 1922 can is available (see the video below).

In addition to the 1922 expedition materials, there is a whole host of other fascinating stories of exploration, including Thomas Baines' sketches from his expeditions to Africa and Australasia, 1855-57; a collection on Maritime Exploration; a history of early photography in exploration, called Exploration on Camera; and, as mentioned, one entitled Filming on Everest, which highlights John Noel's amazing footage from the 1922 expedition.

So, check out the video below, and then head on over to the Royal Geographic's Hidden Histories of Exploration online, or, if you're near London, be smarter and see it in person! And, then, be sure to stop back by here and let me know how it is...I'll be jealous!

 

Jake Norton is an Everest climber, guide, photographer, writer, and motivational speaker from Colorado.