Eyeworld

EW MEETING REPORTER 92 February 2016 Reporting from Hawaiian Eye 2016, January 16–22, Wailea, Hawaii Sponsored by Reporting from Hawaiian Eye 2016 Reporting from Hawaiian Eye 2016, January 16–22, Wailea, Hawaii Beck Weathers' Everest experience Beck Weathers, MD, recounted the story of his fight for survival on Mt. Everest in 1996. He went through the whole trip—from arriving and acclimatizing, the ascent, and the storm that took a number of lives. The mountain summit exists at an altitude that airline pilots nor- mally fly (more than 29,000 feet), Dr. Weathers said. Before summiting the mountain, the process involves going up and down in the preceding weeks to different spots to adjust your body. Each time, you push the envelope and say to your body, "I am going to climb this mountain and I'm taking you with me," he said. The climbers during this 1996 expedition included guides and climbers from different groups, like Adventure Consultants (the group Dr. Weathers was with) and Mountain Madness. The goal on the day of the ascent of the summit, Dr. Weathers said, was to hit the summit by 12 p.m. and absolutely no later than 2:00 p.m. because if you're not moving fast enough to get there by 2:00 p.m., you're not moving fast enough to get back down before darkness traps you on the mountain, he said. On the mountain, you're burning 12,000 calories a day. You're constantly dehydrated and have to force yourself to eat. "The work of breathing is so great, you can no longer sleep," he said. Arriving at the last camp before the summit, at 26,000 feet, by late afternoon the day before, Dr. Weathers said it was extremely cold and the winds were high. To some extent, he was grateful for the bad conditions because he knew they could not climb any higher. He thought to himself that if he could just rest that night, he would be in better shape to climb the next day. In the following hours, the winds completely ceased, and Rob Hall, the leader of Adventure Con- sultants, told the group that it was time to go for the summit. The wind was absolutely still when they began the climb, and the temperature was 10 below zero. Unfortunately for Dr. Weathers, he had a radial keratotomy done in order to be "safer on the mountain." What was not previously realized was that if you go to extreme alti- tude, you can effectively go blind. He was forced to stand on the mountain as everyone passed him, waiting for his vision to return. He then had to tell Rob Hall that he was unable to climb, who in turn made him promise to wait where he was until Rob returned to descend with him. "It never once crossed my mind what was going to happen," Dr. Weathers said. By noon, 3 climbers passed him in descent, as they had realized they would not hit the summit in Sponsored by

• Cover