Monday, May 7, 2012

Denali Team 1: April 29 to May 19 - Dispatch #7


Guides: Alasdair Turner, Chad Cochran, Aili Farquhar

Climbers: Maria Conceicao (Dubai), Stephen Martin (UK), Christopher Kulish (Colorado), Zlatko Filipovic (Sweden), Steve Bain (Colorado), Lorenzo Baraldini (Italy), Christopher Heywood (Oman), Sergey Dmitriev (Russia), Vitaly Simonovich (Russia)

Alasdair called at 2:30PMPST on 5/7 with the following dispatch:


"Hey guys, we're living the dream at 14,200 feet on Denali!  I think we've figure out our electronics issue, and hopefully we'll be able to make longer dispatches over the rest of our expedition.


We are here at Camp 3 with the whole team right now.  We successfully made our move to this yesterday, and performed a back-carry today to pick up cache right before windy corner.  Today we are going to stay in camp and make sure everyone is acclimatizing well.  A few of us are feeling the effects and the high-altitude drug acetazolamide is our friend right now!  This drug, no longer branded under the name "Diamox," more or less increases the rate of respiration while we are sleeping.  This allows us to acclimatize more effectively through the night, however one side effect is that it increases how much we urinate!  So today we are in camp, making sure to drink lots and lots of water.


In addition to hydrating, we are making sure to eat lots of calories to make up for a difficult day yesterday.  This morning we treated ourselves to big bowls of hashbrowns.  For the rest of the day, we are going to fortify camp as we prepare for a mild system that may turn into a bit of a storm over the coming week.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

TO CHAD: Guess What??

Françoise said...

Message for Maria.

Hi Maria.... hope that you are acclimatizing well and that you still have a lot of strength and postivity.Here at MCF camp all is fine. The team and I are making good leaps - a lot of research and also the Sponsorhip proposal is coming along. Top news: 4 MCF candidates in Dhaka have been selected by Emirates for jobs in Dubai. That will surely bring a smile to your face. I have organised a meeting with an executive of the UN in Dubai for the way forward for MCF. Taaleem got a 'GOOD' rating for their official inspection. Theresa told me that the money has been sent to the British Council. I will collect the donation money from Raffles for the girls.
We have received several goods donation and also the fund raised for the Fashion Show. Also one of my contacts will hold a big event in October along with some other products from 21st Century Leaders. 1 urgent matter - Bilkis'
trip to Bangkok for World Scholar's Cup.
She rang me last night feeling quite down and told me that her parents will approve and give consent of her trip. That her teacher will replace her if she doesn't give an answer soon.
So I came up with a solution - what if I draft a letter with your approval along the lines of all the information of the trip included and her parent's consent signature - highlighting that MCF and you are not legally liable for any damages or accidents regarding Bilkis on this trip. I have a reply from the school that this is fine - the cost of the trip AED 5,700. I have that money from the Fashion show and this could be covered. I can coordinate with
Jewel to talk to her parents and get their signature. This would be a great educational opportunity for Bilkis and we can think positive on all aspect. Please
confirm if you agree - YES or NO. If no I will have to tell her and hope that she takes it well. If you have a message to pass on let me know – will post on MCF fb.
Hope this message finds you in high spirits.ps. Jewel is doing a great job.
Take care up the mountain.
Huge warm hugs

Françoise

Tim Page said...

The comment from Francoise to Maria is too long and will not be conveyed. Our SAT phone communications are limited to a few minutes, thus, only messages around one sentence in length can be passed on to climbers effectively.