Climbing Mountains, Beating Aortic Valve Stenosis

Page: 1 2 (of 2)	Previous

Meyer's Journal of Climbing Mt. Everest

April 29 – North Col (23,200 feet)
We continued our acclimatization by climbing up to the North Col from the Advanced Base Camp at approximately 21,000 feet. It took me 5½ hours to get there. Many climbers started too fast and needed to slow down, breathing almost as if they would break their hearts. I had a bad night up there. The hours were endless and cold.

May 9 – Advanced Base Camp (ABC)
We could only spend three days (four nights) in Base Camp. ... I would have preferred to stay there for a full week. However, the weather could turn fine, so we had to do the long hike to ABC on May 8 and 9 (sleeping in the Intermediate Camp). “We” means the French mountain guide Ludo, Simen Mordre (Norway), and me. Both men are strong and I feel rather weak compared to them. Now we are waiting for the “go” signal from the weather forecast company in Bern, Switzerland.

May 17 – Mount Everest Summit! (29,035 feet)
I am happy and proud to tell you we reached the summit of Everest on May 16 at 4 a.m. My group included Kari Kobler (expedition leader, Switzerland), Mordre, and the Sherpas, Mingma and Da Nima.
           
Da Nima had decided that we would start from the highest camp at 27,200 feet at 8:30 p.m. on May 15. He was expecting that we should reach the summit at sunrise, but we were faster than he expected. It took us only 7½ hours, so it was still dark when we got there. Conditions were excellent, there was a lot of snow, and all of us were strong. We were the first to reach the summit on that day. We stayed for a quarter of an hour only, then headed down.

7 Summits, 1 Surgery
Conquering the highest peak on each continent is the holy grail for mountain climbers. Here is a timeline of Veronika Meyer’s peak experiences.

2007
Mount Everest, Tibet, Asia

2001
Vinson Massif, Antarctica

2001
Denali (Mount McKinley), Alaska, North America

2000
Aconcagua, Argentina, South America

1998
Elbrus, Russia, Europe

1997
Heart valve surgery

1993
Carstensz Pyramid, Indonesia, Australia/Oceania

1991
Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa