BASE NOTES

The latest in adventure

Full Circle become first all-Black team to summit Everest

On the 12th May this year, members of the Full Circle expedition team successfully summited the world’s highest mountain, becoming the first all-Black team to do so. Along with ten highly-skilled Nepali Sherpa guides, American climbers Manoah Ainuu, Rosemary Saal, Demond ‘Dom’ Mullins, Abby Dione, Eddie Taylor, Thomas Moore and Kenyan climber James Kagambi proudly reached Everest‘s peak, with all team members and guides safely returning to Basecamp afterwards.

The expedition led by Philip Henderson is a landmark event in Everest’s 60-year history and for mountaineering itself, diversifying the face of expedition and bringing representation to the highest point on Earth.

It is understood that prior to Full Circle, of around 6,000 recorded ascents since the first in 1953, only 10 of those were by Black climbers.

Kristin Harila Smashing 8,000m Peak Records

Norwegian mountaineer Kristin Harila is on track to summit all 14 of the world’s peaks above 8,000m within six months, as part of her Bremont 14 Peaks expedition. In completing the challenge, she will become the second person ever, the first person from a Scandinavian country, and the first woman in history to do so.

At the time of printing, the 36-year-old former crosscountry skier-turned-Arctic guide had successfully ticked off seven of the peaks in the challenge, summiting Nanga Parbat on the 1st of July to take her to the halfway mark.

The record for summiting all 14 ‘eight thousanders’ in the fastest time with supplemental oxygen is currently held by Nepal-born Nimsdai Purja, who led the Project Possible expedition in 2019. Completing the first six peaks in just 29 days, breaking Nimsdai’s record of 31, Kristin and Sherpa guides look poised to match or surpass his time.

Deadly Marmolada Glacier Collapse Linked To Climate Change

A glacier collapse that triggered an avalanche on the highest peak in the Dolomite range is thought to be the result of rising temperatures linked to climate change. At the time of printing, nine people had been confirmed dead in the disaster and it is feared that a further three more may have also perished.

Temperatures near the Marmolada’s 3,300m summit are believed to have reached over +10°C on the day of the collapse as much of Italy experienced an early summer heatwave, causing previously stable glaciers to become more unpredictable.

Scientists say the collapse that took place near the town of Canazei in northern Italy, was indicative of the effects of climate change on the region. According to studies by the Italian National Council for Research (CNR), the Marmolada glacier will have completely melted by 2050 if climate change continues at its current rate.

Fell Runner ‘Back From The Dead’ After Miraculous Mountain Rescue

In January, Keswick Mountain Rescue Team were called to assist a fell runner who had suffered what was described as a ‘delirious episode’ whilst descending Blencathra, a mountain in the Lake District.

The Keswick team responded swiftly, suspecting a hypoglycaemic, hypothermic runner, owing to the freezing conditions, strong winds and sleet. The team climbed to the location, only to find an empty survival bag, folded up, and weighed down with stones. 26-year-old Tommy Price was located a little further uphill, face down and showing no signs of life. Rescuers attending the scene began CPR, and a defibrillator was used to administer shocks in an attempt to restart his heart, which were ineffective. Tommy was winched into a Coastguard Rescue helicopter, whilst receiving automatic CPR from an Autopulse.

In what was looking like a very grave situation for him, Tommy was hooked up to a specialist extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, which removes blood from the patient and gradually warms, oxygenates it and returns it to the body. He was put into an induced coma for four days and remained in intensive care for two weeks – miraculously, and to the amazement of all the rescuers and medical professionals involved, Tommy woke up, requesting a Coke.

‘I was dead for between 2 hours 14 minutes and 3 hours 20 minutes,’ said Tommy. ‘If it wasn’t for the volunteers and doctors that work for mountain rescue, I wouldn’t be here today!’

Tommy’s core temperature on arrival at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle was 18.8°C. A normal body temperature is around 37.7°C, making Tommy’s one of the lowest known survived body temperatures.

Icelandic Whaling Ban Expands Opportunities For Tourism

There are just three remaining countries in the world to still operate a commercial whaling program; Japan, Norway and Iceland, and earlier this year, Iceland announced that by 2024 it will no longer be one of them. With no further permits to hunt the sentient mammals being issued, when the current three-year quota concludes in 2023, hunters will be hanging up their harpoons for good.

As Japan resumed commercial whaling in 2019 and demand for Icelandic meat plummeted, the decision to end the practice in Iceland was ultimately economically motivated.

‘Japan has been the largest buyer of Icelandic whale meat, but its consumption is declining year by year. There is little proof that there is any economic advantage to this activity,’ told Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the Icelandic Minister for Fisheries and Agriculture.

The decision means that as whale populations recover in Icelandic waters, the tourism industry will continue to benefit from the growing popularity of whale watching tours, which brought in around ISK 3.2M in 2017.