Reflections

It has been a bit of a bizarre two weeks. A number of members of the core team went to Aviemore in Scotland last week to the World Wilderness Medicine conference. Mike Grocott had been asked to present one of the evening sessions on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition. As the audience included partners and children of delegates, a heavily scientific presentation was not appropriate. Therefore, Mike chose to spend the hour giving an overview of the expedition from conception to realization. Lots of photos were shown of all aspects of the expedition and its preparation. It reminded me of just how big the whole project was.

This was not the only occasion causing me to reflect. The BBC Horizon programmes brought back the dichotomy of wanting to celebrate our climbers getting to the summit, yet also not wanting to in case something happened before everyone got off the mountain safely. This feeling of anxiety lasted until our final Sherpas arrived at base camp three days after the climbers had returned. There was a big party that night!

Finally, Paul Gunning has put together some awesome photographs for a coffe table style book about the expedition, and Mike and I have been checking the final proofs before it goes to print next week. We are confident this will be available for purchase at the trekkers? reunion in November, and at the Royal Geographical Society event on December 13th.

This week, a large number of the core team and a few trekkers will be at an anaesthesia conference in Dingle in the Republic of Ireland. No doubt this will provoke even more reflection.