"This is not a race." The words of Irish Wyeth Everest expedition team leader, Pat Falvey, at the weekend as he and fellow climbers, Dr Clare O'Leary, and John Joyce, arrived at Everest base camp in Nepal.
Dr O'Leary (32), who hopes to become the first Irish woman to make the summit, concurred. Speaking to The Irish Times by satellite telephone, she said that she was aware that two other Irish women were en route - one to climb from the south, one from the north - as part of commercial Everest expeditions.
"It can't be a race. This is too serious a mountain for that sort of attitude," Dr O'Leary explained. "I have to say that I myself have a different attitude to last year, when I made my first attempt. I am much more relaxed now and am going to enjoy myself a bit."
Dr O'Leary, who hails from Bandon and is a gastroenterologist at Cork University Hospital, made it to 24,500 feet last year when she was hit with a bad stomach bug. Her fellow climber on that expedition, Dr Hannah Shields, was within sight of the 29,035 foot summit, at 28,710 foot, when she had to retreat with frostnip.
Dr Shields, a dentist from Kilrea, Co Derry, is currently in training with fellow northern climber, Richard Dougan, jockey Richard Dunwoody, Peter Dew and Martin Duggan to break the world record for the first unsupported crossing to the geographic North Pole in spring of next year. She leaves for Canada this week to walk to the magnetic North Pole - and will be the first Irish female to do so if she makes it.
Dr O'Leary and the team arrived into base camp at the mouth of the Khumbu glacier late last week, along with 70 yaks, 60 porters and a sherpa team. The 10-day trek runs through alpine meadows marked by scrub juniper, tundra and wild flowers. As the air began to grow thin, one of the more sobering moments for the group was an encounter just beyond the town of Pheriche with a group carrying a stretcher.
"It was a Sherpa who became very ill with altitude sickness," Dr O'Leary said. He had been sent up as a courier to another expedition and must have gone in a bit too fast," she said.
"He didn't make it, and it was a reminder to all of us about the dangers of altitude - even for Sherpas who are physiologically better able to deal with it."
Ironically, there are daily lectures on the dangers associated with altitude at a trekkers' aid post in Pheriche, which is supported by the Himalayan Rescue Association and the Tokyo Medical College.
The expedition had interesting company en route. "Discovery Channel is making a documentary on the Sherpa contribution to western mountaineering, and its team was with us, as was film-maker David Breshears who is making a movie based on Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air," "Pat Falvey said.
"There's also a Chilean group, and we expect more to follow,"he added. Among them will be Samantha O'Carroll from Rochestown, Cork, who is making her bid with Adventure Consultants, the New Zealand commercial expedition company headed by Guy Cotter.
The next week will be spent sorting gear and preparing for the first foray into the treacherous Khumbu ice-fall above base camp. However, in several days' time dorje and bells, silver mandalas, offering bowls, beads and prayer flags will invoke the spirit of the mountain.
For both Sherpa team and climbers, the expedition's "puja" or ceremony to the gods of Sagarmatha - set for April 8th - is an essential element of preparation for the ascent.
The Wyeth Irish Everest expedition's progress can be followed on www.patfalvey.com and The Irish Times' HealthSupplement will be carrying periodical reports, talking to the climbers via satellite link from the mountain.
