We often hear about the successes of mountaineers who climb the highest mountain in the world and return as part of a select group that reached the top of the world. But we don’t often hear about the good work involved in getting people to Everest Base Camp, especially if they don’t intend to bid for the summit.
Northallerton mannequins
It is common for people to go out of their way to raise money for an Everest hike, knowing that something special awaits them when they reach the Himalayan mountains. In August 2009, sixteen students and three professors from Northallerton College in Yorkshire will do something quite original to raise money for their trip to Everest Base Camp later in the year.
With all the activity and exercise of the Everest trek ahead of them, the students aim to raise money for the trip by sitting very still. A high street store in their town has hired them to pose in store windows instead of on mannequins. The hack coincides with Yorkshire Day on August 1, so students can look forward to attracting attention and hopefully donations from many of the locals who pass by.
Fourteen
Northallerton students aren’t the only youth in the news for their fundraising right now. In July 2009, diminutive and fresh-faced Matt Moniz aspires to ascend fourteen of Colorado’s highest mountains in two weeks to raise funds and awareness of a crippling disease. He has named the expedition “14 in 14” because each of the peaks he is climbing exceeds 14,000 feet. What makes this expedition bolder is the fact that Matt is only eleven years old.
In preparation for this feat, he trained by walking to Everest Base Camp. He and his father, Mike, took the variant that includes climbing to the top of neighboring Kala Pattar (5545m), where they got a great view of Everest base camp. The idea of Matt’s series of ascents is to reach heights where he could experience the shortness of breath that his best friend, a pulmonary arterial hypertension, has to endure on a daily basis.
Having reached Everest base camp at 5,360 meters (17,600 feet), Matt has already ventured to altitudes beyond the ’14ers’ ahead of him, but the Everest hike is a more gradual climb than the one ahead. . Although several of the Colorado mountains are making grade upgrades on their easier routes, doing one every day for two weeks is a grueling prospect.
If they complete the predicted fourteen peaks in fifteen days, they will have vertically ascended roughly the equivalent of Everest and a quarter and more than twice the vertical distance from sea level to Everest Base Camp. Matt and his team, which includes his sick friend’s family, have already raised $ 14,000 for charity and climbing.
Sherpa chocolate
For 30 days earlier this year, Belgian explorer Louis-Philippe Loncke led a small team on a 400km hike from Kathmandu to Everest base camp. Louis Philippe, known as the “crazy Belgian” for his previous crazy expeditions, wanted to raise money for the installation of a much needed mobile hospital in Nepal. Aside from the distance traveled, the unusual feature of this trek to Everest was that it involved the distribution of 100 kilos of Belgian chocolate en route to the local Sherpa population and holding a high-altitude chocolate tasting session when they finally reached the Everest base camp.
The team called themselves Chocolate Sherpas and used their unusual mission, not only to raise funds, but also to give something back to the Sherpa people and the porters who have helped support so many hikes to Everest over the years. His expedition successfully reached Everest Base Camp on May 1, and for the many climbers and porters waiting there to make their summit offers, his arrival was a very tasty and welcome break from their usual routine.