Injured soldiers ready for Everest

[jamieooh]

Video here www.apacheclips.com/media/38929/Injured_soldiers_ready_for_Everest/

Injured soldiers ready for Everest
11 April 2012 | Worldwide By Kate Gerbeau

The Walking With The Wounded expedition team have arrived at Mount Everest Base Camp after a 10-day hike through the Himalayas.

The soldiers, who were all injured fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, will live at the site for the next seven weeks before their assault on the summit.

The team spoke to British Forces News about the trek.

http://www.bfbs.com/news/worldwide/injured-soldiers-ready-everest-56415.html

[jamieooh]

Thanks sgtjim for the additional information.

The team has now headed off for their first series of major acclimatization climbs – the hard work has begun! On Saturday they left Everest Base Camp and headed back down the valley to Lobuche Base Camp (4910m) where they spent the rest of the day. Sadly Lobuche BC doesn’t offer all the luxuries of our Everest BC – it’s hard routine time!

Yesterday the boys climbed to Lobuche Camp 1, a relatively easy rock scramble, where they spent their first night out on the side of the mountain. This morning they started the ascent to the Lobuche West summit, taking them over 6,000m for the first time since Manaslu last year.

This afternoon they will be descending back to Lobuche BC. Then tomorrow we expect them to climb back to the summit of Lobuche East at 6300m, where they will spend two nights. During Wednesday the guides will be taking them away from the Camp to practice snow and ice climbing.

Thursday will see the team come down from the summit to Lobuche BC, before walking back up to Everest BC for a couple of days’ rest. The adventure goes on.

Please show your support for the boys by donating to the 8848 Challenge. All proceeds will be going into the education and training programmes which are funded by WWTW to assist wounded servicemen and women in getting back to work.

Support the team and raise awareness amongst your friends, family and colleagues by clicking ‘LIKE’ on our Facebook Page and by following the team’s Twitter account. Get the latest updates by joining the Walking With The Wounded mailing list via the homepage.
http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/everest2012/2012/04/16/lobuche-acclimatisation-training/

[jamieooh]

As of Friday May the 4th.
A delay in proceedings

Jaco Van Gass | May 4, 2012

Hi, hello everyone this is Jaco here, team member of the 2012 Everest expedition. The whole team is now safely back in Base Camp after making our descent at five o’clock this morning in quite risky conditions. It was -20° as we set off, with fresh snow fallen through the night covering the beaten track. We had to make our own way through from Camp 2 to Camp 1 meaning making our way down over covered crevasses by the fresh snow and taking it very steady, making sure every footstep is safe and careful and not stepping into a hole.

From Camp 1 to Base Camp, making our way down swiftly through the Khumbu Ice Fall – we wanted to spend as little time as possible in this dangerous area – and swiftly going though the ice fall. It was a bit surreal, the last time we went through the Ice Fall was at night time and we couldn’t really see where we were going. This time it was all exposed so we saw how deep the crevasses were, how high the ladders were we were crossing and some of the danger areas were more apparent to us.

We all made it down before breakfast and we’re all safe and sound in Everest Base Camp now. We spent the last six days up in Camp 2 with the aim to hopefully touch Camp 3 at 7,300m. Unfortunately this was n to possible due to the dangerous conditions on the mountain. The mountain is very bare this year and very dangerous, with lots of rock falls, ice falls and high winds – with winds reaching from anything from 80 to 150mph.

We’ve seen various other team members from other teams came down the mountain with some injuries: broken arms and obviously some rock fall…people getting hit by rocks on the heads or in the faces. So the decision was made by Russell Bryce and his team members for us to not go further on the mountain; a very wise decision and also frustrating, meaning we have not set out to touch Camp 3 yet. We now are back in Base Camp and hope for a better weather window and we’ll keep you up-to-date and posted as things go on.

In the meantime, we’ll be back down in Everest Base Camp drinking whisky and hopefully recovering from altitude and some good food.
http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/everest2012/2012/05/04/a-delay-in-proceedings/

[jamieooh]

http://www.bfbs.com/news/sites/ssvc.com.bfbs.news/files/images/internal_articles/walking_with_the_wounded_0.jpg


A team of injured soldiers attempting to scale Mount Everest has been forced to pull out of the challenge because of safety concerns.

A Walking With The Wounded spokesman said unseasonably warm conditions meant that it was not safe for the group to continue, with an increased number of avalanches and falling ice hampering their efforts.

They will make a live broadcast from Everest on Thursday and withdraw the following day, the charity spokesman said.

He added: "The safety of our expedition is of the utmost importance for us."

The five current and former soldiers, who had suffered gun-shot wounds, horrific burns and amputated limbs, arrived in Nepal at the end of March before setting off on a trek to the Everest Base Camp.

They had been due to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, which stands at 8,848m (29,028ft) above sea level, towards the end of the month.

The charity spokesman said it was the "warmest season ever" on Everest, with a lack of snow meaning that there was nothing binding the rocks together, leading to rock falls. He added: "We have to climb through ice crevices as well, and they keep falling and crashing."

Prince Harry, patron of the charity, who last year joined a Walking With The Wounded expedition for the first four days of a successful trip to the North Pole, had paid a surprise visit to the men as they left the UK.

He said at the time: "The expedition to the Himalayas - of which I am so proud to be patron - is raising money to train and educate those with physical and cognitive injuries suffered in war to manage their transition into civilian employment."

The team has been led by Martin Hewett, 31, from Widnes in Cheshire, a former Captain in the Parachute Regiment, who was shot twice through his right shoulder in Afghanistan in 2007, which paralysed his arm.

The rest of the team is made up of Captain Francis Atkinson, Captain David Wiseman, Private Jaco van Gass and former Private Karl Hinett.

Capt Wiseman, 29, from Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, was shot in the chest during a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan in November 2009. Capt Atkinson, 31, from Swindon, Wiltshire, suffered a gunshot wound to his right upper arm while serving as a doctor in Afghanistan. It caused significant nerve damage, and as a result his right hand does not
function properly.

North Pole trekker Private Jaco van Gass, 25, from Middleburg, South Africa had his left arm blown off when he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) in Afghanistan. Mr Hinett, 25, from Tipton, West Midlands, sustained 37% burns to his hands, legs, arms and face when his Warrior tank received a direct hit by a petrol bomb in Basra, Iraq in 2005.

Walking With The Wounded raises money to help other injured servicemen and women readjust to civilian life after they leave the armed forces.
http://www.bfbs.com/news/safety-fears-halt-everest-challenge-57095.html

[nastyleg]

Hats off to them for even trying.