Six members of the Longwood community were among a nine-member group
who traveled to the Himalaya Mountains and trekked to Mount Everest
base camp this past summer.
Dr. Rená Koesler, Associate Professor
of Therapeutic Recreation, led the trip, May 9 to June 10, in which
seven participants made it to Mount Everest base camp an altitude
of 17,600 feet and six made it as high as the peak of Kala Patar
(18,500 feet). Others from Longwood included Dr. Michelle Parry, Assistant
Professor of Physics, Police Chief James Huskey, and students Heather
Bragg, Cristian Shirilla and Amanda Standing. "Group members
put themselves on a rigorous conditioning program to prepare for the
physical demands of the trip," Koesler said.
Expeditions to the top of Mount Everest
29,028 feet; the world's tallest mountain begin at the base camp,
said Koesler, a wilderness education specialist. "The base camp
is the farthest you can go without a permit to climb the summit. You
can't see the top of Everest from the base camp, but you can see it
from Kala Patar. We traveled a popular route."
Mount Everest borders Nepal and Tibet.
The group had first flown from Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, to
Lukla, a 45-minute flight, at about 9,000 feet, and then hiked to
the base, which takes about 10 days. In that period, they took a day
off at 11,500 feet and another day off at 14,200 feet 'to acclimatize,
which helps with the effects of altitude sickness," Koesler said.
"On the way to the base camp, we stayed at tea houses,"
which are lodges. The last tea house is at 17,000 feet.˛
During her sabbatical in Spring 1998,
Koesler trekked to Mount Everest base camp, and also visited Tibet
and Sri Lanka as part of her study of the area' environmental degradation.
"At the time, I thought, 'This place is so beautiful I want to
take people back,'" she said.
Koesler also coordinated a trip to Mount
Kilimanjaro in Tanzania in December 1997 and January 1998. She and
Parry will do a Faculty Colloquium lecture Feb. 8 on the Mount Everest
trip.
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