EverestQuest-Journal 12

Journal 12: ‘We’ll do it the right way, Jim.’
by Ed Hommer

September 6, 2001
Basecamp, Rongbuk Glacier

The entire team is once again in basecamp. We are planning to begin moving up toward Advanced Basecamp (ABC) tomorrow. This will take three days for some of us and two days for the rest of the group.

Also at this time, I would like to announce that we have had a rather major change in the status of this team. On the evening of August 26th Jim Wickwire had what we could only describe at that time as a neurological event. This occurred after Jim walked to the top of a small hill adjacent to the basecamp.

Jim described it as being suddenly struck in the back of the head. He dropped to the ground for awhile until the pain subsided, and he was able then to walk back down to basecamp with Dan Bronstein. He was feeling much better a few hours later, except for the continuing headache through dinner. He was not feeling any better the next morning and was experiencing periods of blurred vision.

Communication was established via sat phone with doctors in the US, and the immediate consensus was that Jim needed to get off the mountain ASAP. This in itself would be no quick and easy task as there is no such thing as rescue or evac support on this side of Everest. We immediately informed our Tibetan liaison officer, Au Ping, that we needed a Jeep as quickly as possible to transport Jim and Dan, who would travel with him, to the Tibetan/Nepali border. Jim Sturgis and Louisa Vakili, who had just left the expedition a day prior to return home, changed their travel dates in order to meet Jim at the border and accompany him back to the states.

It took 14 hours and a couple of sat phone calls to get the Jeep to basecamp. Jim and Dan departed at approximately 2030 hours the evening of the August 27th for a non-stop trip to the border.

Jim and I spent time in private conversation prior to his departure, as it would now be my responsibility to lead this expedition. This indeed could be a daunting task if it were not for the fact that we have an absolutly solid team that can pull together under any conditions.

We made the decision to keep all this information within a small circle until Jim had arrived home and was with his family. He is now at home and doing well.

As I have said before, to have the opportunity to climb Everest is one thing. To have the chance to climb it with one of the world’s truly great and legendary mountaineers, who instilled dreams of these great remote mountains in all of us here over the years, was a great honor. With Jim’s departure, a portion of my dream that had almost become reality has now been taken away. I will never have the chance to climb high upon the flanks of Everest with Jim Wickwire and will always reflect on this as one of the greatest missed opportunities of my life.

We would like to thank all the medical personal for the support they gave from half a world away during the time we were trying to get Jim home.

Also our thanks go to Mr. Greg Howard of Polaris Pool Systems, one of our major corporate sponsors, who made it clear to the team that we had available to us whatever was needed to get Jim home as quickly as possible. In addition, a sincere thank you goes to Cathay Pacific Airlines for upgrading Jim, Louisa and Jim S. to more comfortable seating for the long flight home. And finally a big thanks to Jim S. and Louisa for staying behind a couple of extra days in order to travel back to the states with Jim.

I have a tendency to shun technology to a certain degree. At home I live in a 600-square-foot cabin with no running water on a beautiful lake in Minnesota. It sort of balances my life on the other end where I fly some of the most highly technological and best maintained aircraft in the world at American Airlines. OK, from 12,500 miles away I can hear my fellow MD-80 pilots saying, “Hey buddy, bust out one of those O2 bottles you got in basecamp and get the mask on quick.”

Thank God for the technology that gave us the ability to communicate and coordinate in order to get Jim home in a timely manor. In addition it also allows me to communicate with him at will. You see, even though Jim had to leave, he is still very much a part of this team and is indeed providing guidance and leadership from Seattle. Also, this technology will be allowing us to coordinate and receive critical weather forecasts from the American Airlines Meteorological Department in Dallas/Ft. Worth.

Hats off and thanks to all of you folks who are taking the extra time to increase the safety factor of this expedition.

As I stated at the beginning, we will head up to ABC tomorrow. However, I highly doubt that we can do anything as far as building the route due to the continued heavy snow conditions on the mountain, which of course means dangerous avalanche conditions. It seems that the monsoon refuses to relinquish its hold on the mountain. Although it is decreasing, it still has enough of a hold to prevent us from getting any higher than the approximately 21,000-foot level of ABC at this time. Again, patience is the key here.

In May of this year after climbing on Mt. Rainer with Jim, Kelly and Dan, we ended up having a chance lunch meeting with Lou Whitaker, another of the legendary senior statesman of high remote mountain ranges across the globe, at a small cafe near Mt. Rainer. When leaving after lunch, Lou asked us to perform a small ceremony for him on the Rongbuk Glacier. We will do this, Lou, and send you a photo of this event.

I will close this dispatch for today. I’m sorry to say we don't have any new photos that are of great interest to send out. We all send our love and greetings to all of our family and friends. Though disappointed by the turn of events, we continue onward and upward. We’ll do it the right way, Jim.

At least I can honestly say that I have been to Mt. Everest with Jim Wickwire.

--Ed