OUTDOORS Steamboat Today • Friday, June 21, 2013
Same SUMMIT New SATISFACTION
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Steamboat Springs’ Eric Meyer tackles Mount Everest, this time helping others reach the goal
Joel Reichenberger Steamboat Today
Steamboat Springs
Eric Meyer said the feeling was more profound the first time he reached the top of the world, during a 2004 expedition in which he reached the summit of Mount Everest. “The first time it felt like climbing Everest was a metaphor for life,” the Steamboat Springs doctor said. His most recent trip, which was capped by a May 23 return to the summit of the tallest mountain on Earth, meant something entirely different, however, and when reflecting on the adventure recently, Meyer said the experience, while not the same, may have been even more powerful. Meyer served as a leader, guide and doctor for a team operated by good friend Chhiring Dorje Sherpa’s Rolwaling Excursion and Mountaineering company. Making the summit was great, said Meyer, who has logged numerous attempts at the tallest mountains in the world, the 8,000-meter tall behemoths that summon climbers from across the world. Even better than simply making the summit, however, was helping people to the summit. “The first time it was just about getting myself up,” he said. “Helping others this time made it a lot more gratifying.” That attitude — helping others first — defined Meyer’s trip, all the way from base camp to the summit, which he, co-expedition leader Chris Klinke, their team of Sherpas and five of their six clients reached at 5:30 a.m. May 23. Along the way, he spent much of his time answering medical questions. “A lot of (the clients) really didn’t understand the implications of the altitude and had a lot of basic medical questions, a lot of gastrointestinal issues and respiratory issues,” Meyer said. The team’s strategy of preparation included minimizing passes through the constantly shifting Khumbu Icefall, one of the most dangerous parts of the journey. To help facilitate that, members — and Steamboat’s Bryna Krauth and local doctor Michael Sisk, her brother Brad Krauth and his father Jerry Sisk — summited the nearby peak of Lobuche East, gaining valuable acclimatization in the process. Back on the mountain, the team managed to avoid many of the problems that have plagued other expeditions in recent seasons. Summit attempts generally are restricted by a break in the jet stream, which usually rips across the top of the mountain. A year ago, a tightened weather window led to the teams getting bunched up, which led to massive delays at bottlenecks on the upper flanks of the
PHotos by Brad Johnson/Courtesy
Top: Climbers gather on the summit of Mount Everest in May. Bottom: Eric Meyer makes his way across a ladder over a crevice in the Khumbu Icefall low on Mount Everest. The Icefall is a constantly moving glacier and among the most dangerous parts of the Everest climb.
“We had high winds and bad weather up at Camp 3, and we couldn’t go down for a day and I could feel my energy being sapped. That became really apparent as we were descending. I was starting to cough. It wasn’t a horrible cough, but I got it because I was so exhausted, and I was spending so much time above altitude.” Eric Meyer Steamboat Springs doctor
mountain. That, in turn, led to deaths among climbers. This season didn’t see quite the same crowds — about 280 on the south side compared to 380 a year ago — and the Rolwaling Excursion team took care to avoid what trouble there was. As with any trip courting the type of danger an Everest expedition does, Meyer’s trip was anything but routine. In fact, by all logic, he should have struggled to make the top. The first setback came when he was unable to leave the United States as early as he’d initially hoped, finally setting foot in Nepal two weeks after his teammates. Then, while acclimatizing high on the
massive mountain’s slopes at Camp 3 and at 7,500 meters above sea level, he developed a cough and what he quickly detected as the first stages of pneumonia. That’s bad enough at sea level. For anyone hoping to scale Everest’s 29,029 feet, it’s usually a trip-ending game changer. “We had high winds and bad weather up at Camp 3, and we couldn’t go down for a day and I could feel my energy being sapped,” he said. “That became really apparent as we were descending. I was starting to cough. It wasn’t a horrible cough, but I got it because I was so See Meyer, page 34