Riding Everest -- We Are Flying Again...

12^th Nov 2011 – Volume 2

In This Issue

·   We are Flying again…

·   Dell XFR…

Hi Folks

We are just about to leave for the airport to go to Tibet - yey!

Yesterday was crazy: 

·         Went to a temple full of monkeys

·         Watched a cremation at the Gats

·         Saw a living Goddess (Kumari  - not sure of the spelling)

·         Ate Momos (yum yum)

·         Had dinner with a Monk

·         Got some good Karma for the trip by spinning the wheels at the Boudha Stupa

We will send some more photos later when we get to hotel in Lhasa.

Weather is pretty nice and clear but cold in Kathmandu.  Tibet is meant to be very cold and where we are going is a lot higher than where we are now - going up to 4000m.  We have 2 days in Lhusa to acclimatize then off we go.

Craig was pretty ill yesterday but OK today.

Tams & Craig

Other Record Attempts:

Whilst at Advanced Base Camp we are going to try and achieve 3 technology records using a Dell XFR Laptop. This Laptop was loaned to us for a “Product Test”. It has just survived a 2000km Enduro Africa ride from Durban to Port Elizabeth via the “Wild Coast” strapped to Jason’s bike (our media manager for Riding Everest).

Jason offered us the loan of it, in return for us writing a short paper on our experience using the laptop and its durability; “yes” it’s coming all the way to ABC with us (strapped to the bike somehow). I jumped at the offer “saved breaking my nice new personal use Dell that he had just got me”.

There are no official or unofficially listed records of using a Laptop & Internet at altitude. Ncell (a Nepalese Telecommunications Company) recently installed a 3G network at 5,400m on Everest so we thought we would give these a try.

·         Highest Land Based Altitude an Email has been Sent and Replied too.

·         Highest Land Based Altitude for an Internet Video Chat.

·         Highest Land Based Altitude for a Skype Internet Call.

The only similar Record registered is for the Highest Mobile Phone Call set in 2007 at the top of Everest.

This is a new product called the Latitude e6420 XFR (ruggedized), it is shock proof, waterproof and as in the picture below bike proof, “yes someone on the Enduro Africa trip did decide to ride a bike over it, just to see how tough it was” it survived with just tyre marks.

Background:

Tamsin’s Challenge:

On 17^th Aug 2003 Annie Seel reached 5305m on Mt Everest North side as the first woman on a motorcycle.

Craig’s Challenge:

Shinji Kazama is said to have reached 6004m on the Everest Mountain with the help of a team of 60. 

Advanced Base Camp (ABC):

Craig & Tamz, will attempt to reach ABC which is situated at a height of 6,400m (21,300ft) this will beat any previous, official and un-official World Records.

Itinerary:

·    12^th Katmandu (Nepal) - LHASA (TIBET)

·    13^th Lhasa

·    14^th Lhasa – Yamdrok Lake - Gyantse

·    15^th Gyantse - Shigatse

·    16^th Shigate - Shegar

·    17^th Shegar – Rongbuk – Everest Base Camp

·    18^th Everest Base Camp – 1^st Attempt Advanced Base Camp

·    19^th Everest Base Camp – 2^nd Attempt Advanced Base Camp

·    20^th Rongbuk – Tinri - Nyalam

·    21^st Nyalam – Zangmu - Kathmandu

Contact us:

www.ridingeverest.blogspot.com

Jason_Mugridge@Dell.com

Riding Everest -- We Have Landed !!

We Have Landed !!
 10th Nov 2011 -- Volume 1

In This Issue

·    We have landed…

·    Where are we ?

Hi Folks

We have landed in Kathamndu safely and met up with a friend of ours Wendy Peters who is a medic on a Himalayan motorcycle tour. 

Staying at an amazing Buddist temple where apparently a buddist Monk tried to set himself on fire early this morning in a stand against the Chinese. 

Got blessed going into a temple which meant someone putting a red blob on my head and a woman squeezed some breast milk out and chucked it at me - Wierd!!!  What's all that about?  Craig loved it!

Meeting up with guides tommorow to discuss trip in more detail and find out how we can keep in contact.

Tams & Craig

So, where are we ?.

Kathmandu is the capital and, with close to one million inhabitants, the largest metropolitan city of Nepal.

The city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) in the bowl-shaped valley in central Nepal surrounded by four major hills. Kathmandu valley is part of three districts, Kathmandu District, Lalitpur District and Bhaktapur District, with the highest population density in the country and accounting for about 1/15 of its population.

Kathmandu, as the gateway to Nepal Tourism, is the nerve centre of the country’s economy. With the most advanced infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal, Kathmandu's economy is tourism centric.

The city’s rich history is nearly 2000 years old, as inferred from an inscription in the valley.

Background:

Craig & Tamsin will be attempting to set a  World Record for the Highest Altitude Ridden by Motorbike.

Their attempt will see them trying to reach Everest Advanced Base Camp (ABC) which is established at 6,500 m (21,300 ft).

Itinerary:

·    12^th Katmandu (Nepal) - LHASA (TIBET)

·    13^th Lhasa

·    14^th Lhasa – Yamdrok Lake - Gyantse

·    15^th Gyantse - Shigatse

·    16^th Shigate - Shegar

·    17^th Shegar – Rongbuk – Everest Base Camp

·    18^th Everest Base Camp – 1^st Attempt Advanced Base Camp

·    19^th Everest Base Camp – 2^nd Attempt Advanced Base Camp

·    20^th Rongbuk – Tinri - Nyalam

·    21^st Nyalam – Zangmu - Kathmandu

Contact us:

www.ridingeverest.blogspot.com

Jason_Mugridge@Dell.com

Oops

Just realised we are flying Wednesday early morning, NOT in the evening so had to cancel a load of meetings and need to get everything together tommorow! AHH!!  Still waiting for helmets and a jacket - if they dont come tommorow we're gonna have very cold heads.

Craig is visiting the doc tommorow for loads of altitude drugs

ALTITUDE SICKNESS - sometimes it's better not to know

We've been doing abit more reading about altitude sickness:

Altitude sickness—also known as acute mountain sickness (AMS), altitude illness, hypobaropathy, or soroche—is a pathological effect of high altitude on humans, caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude. It commonly occurs above 2,400 metres (8,000 feet).^[1][2] It presents as a collection of nonspecific symptoms, acquired at high altitude or in low air pressure, resembling a case of "flu, carbon monoxide poisoning, or a hangover".^[3] It is hard to determine who will be affected by altitude sickness, as there are no specific factors that correlate with a susceptibility to altitude sickness. However, most people can climb up to 2,400 meters (8,000 ft) without difficulty.
Acute mountain sickness can progress to high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) or high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), which are potentially fatal.^[2][4]
Chronic mountain sickness, also known as Monge's disease, is a different condition that only occurs after very prolonged exposure to high altitude.^[5]

Craig has his work cut out!

Shinji Kazama is said to have reached 6004m on the Everest mountain with the help of a team of 60.  Little is known in the country about this intrepid adventurer.  Here is some information about him:

 ABOUT SHINJI KAZAMA

An adventurer with years of experience, Mr. Shinji Kazama was involved in a race accident during the Paris-Dakar Rally in 2004 which resulted in multiple fractures of bones of the knee and right hip. After many surgical interventions, he remains partially disabled. Unstopped by his physical challenges, Mr Kazama is the first and only person to have reached both the North and South Poles by means of motorcycle. In addition to his globe spanning distance records, Kazama has also set records for the highest peaks ever reached on motorcycle.
In 2007, he embarked on Trans Eurasian Continent Tour (52days/18,000km) by motorcycle, aiming to raise awareness of the importance of bone and joint health and trauma prevention amongst the people he met through the tour.
After the success of the Trans Eurasian Continent Tour as an Ambassador for the Bone and Joint Decade, he went on to succeed in two more expeditions, traversing Africa in 2008 and Australia in 2009. This final trek from the South Pole to the North Pole means Mr Kazama and his team have brought the message of the Bone and Joint Decade to 6 continents.
 

TAMSIN'S CHALLENGE

On 17th Aug (my birthday) 2003 Annie Seel reached 5305m on Mt Everest North side as the first woman on a motorcycle.  Here's an extract from her diary - the day of the record attempt

 

Base Camp (5150 m)
Everest report 16: 2003-08-17
Expedition day 12: BC- Record attempt
We woke up very early to get to BC at dawn so we had as much daylight during the offroad climb. It was still shit weather, snow, fog, rain and really cold. Really terrible.. Christina didn’t feel well when we came up to BC again, but I felt quite OK. We had lost valuable time on the way up, because the back-up jeep had fuel problems and we were stuck for a while. I felt a bit worried about loosing time. At BC we discussed about the conditions for our climb attempt and it almost felt like some in the team didn’t feel very tempted. But I had deciced to go, no matter what weather. I just had to put on more clothes and waterproofs, and go for it. Today was our only chance to do it, no way I was going to sit there not even trying. So there was 4 of us leaving Bc at 10am, Christina and Henning who both felt better, Ajs and I. Krishna and the two Tibetan guides walked along with us. The water level in the river was low so everyone crossed without getting wet. We rode along the rocky slopes until it started to get tricky and we had our first stop. Then Henning took the lead on the narrow trail, that was very rocky in some parts. Then we reached a steeper climb with gravel, and my bike could not get up it even if I had full throttle, the bike was too heavy and too tired. I slid backwards and stopped below. I realised that if the bike would not make this fairly easy climb, my day would end here. Really I should need an ultra light trials bike, specially prepped for this, instead of a 21-year old, too heavy and too weak and poorly mainatined one. But this was not an option here. I concidered taking one of the spare bikes instead but the mechanic thought my bike still was better than the others, so instead we removed the airfilter on mine so it would get more air. It worked a little better and made the climb. There I stopped and rested, it is really exhausting at this altitudes… 5170 m. We had only climbed 20 m above BC. Now it got rockier and harder, and more boulders. I wonderes what kind of environmental devastation us 4 could possiblly make here - not even a mega sized bulldozer would manage ruining anything… The terrain was difficult and I could only ride whilst paddeling for 50-100 m before having to stop, rest and drink. We reached 5264 after approx 2 hours, and this was a new ”group record” with motorcycle on the Mt Everest north side!! The bad weather got worse and the rain and wind increased, so Henning decided to go back because he didn’t enjoy it anymore. Ajs thought both Christina and I should go with him because he thought we were too tired to continue, but we wanted to go on. Slowly we continued, sometimes walking ahead to check out the easiest way moving some rocks, and then going back to get the bike. At one point we had to get over a big rock and the tiberatn guides had to help us push the bikes. Then we rached a more open plateau where we stopped to rest and look for the best way to continue. The problem now was that the only narrow trail consited of big rocks, where it looked almost impossible to drive our tired bikes through because we would get stuck all the time. After this there was a fairly steep gravel climb also with some big rocks. I estimated that if we could reach the top of the gravel climb it would be 5300 m, which I felt I wanted to reach instead of having to turn back from here at 5290 m. Those 10 m were very important… The long stop here made me get cold and we were running out of time. But the Ajs continued with the tibetan guides helping to push through the hardest rocky bits. Christina and I walked along to move rocks and look for the easiest way. I thougt I could make it, but Christina was too tired, so I had to go back alone to get my bike. Because the tibetans were ahead of me I had to get through the rocky bit on my own. I was almost through it when my bike gut stuck between two big rocks, so I had to signal my horn so the tibetan guides would come and help me lift the bike – damn it was heavy! So now I was at the last climb up to 5300 m, but Ajs came to tell me I was stupid trying to get up there and that he was a competitive person who would go as far he could to beat me… as if this would stop me(?). With pure anger I drove up the climb with no problem and saw the altitude meter: 5305 m. Now I am the girl who has reached the highest on Mt Everest north side on a motorcycle – YIPPEEE! I took photos of me, the altitudemeter and the bike. Unfortunately I could not see Mt Everest because of the clouds, but I saw the glacier only a couple of hundred meters further on, where I think the East Rongbuk river runs.
There was no chance of going further, we had to go back to BC before it got dark and we only had the one day climb permit. Now I had to go all the way back…
It was easier to go back, but I started to get headache of all the starin in the thin air. On the way back a Yak-caravan and hikers overtook me. They had been up to Camp3. The yaks managed the terrain perfectly and easily – they are simply the ultimate mountain climb vehicles! Talked a little to the hikers and they said it would have been impossible for us to cross the East Rongbuk river with motorcycles. This was a little comfort, because now I realized that even if I had had a newer, stronger and lighter bike, I wouldn’t have reached very much higher than what I did now. Below I could now see the BC and I felt relieved, soon the mission was accomplished. There is a big difference in the feeling when crossing the finishline in a race, because then you gan give it all you have to the finishline. Here when reaching 5305 m, I had to consider having strengt to go back to BC again. In the evening Henning fried egges and potatoes to celebrate. First day without rice or noodles on this trip!

My Challenge it to get higher than 5305m and become the woman who has ridden the highest up Everest

Our route for Everest

For those interested in our actual route here it is:

12/11  KATMANDU (NEPAL) - LHASA (TIBET)
13/11  LHASA
14/11  LHASA - YAMDROK LAKE - GYANTSE
15/11  GYANTSE - SHIGATSE
16/11  SHIGATSE - SHEGAR
17/11  SHEGAR - RONGBUK - EVEREST BASE CAMP
18/11  EVEREST BASE CAMP - ATTEMPT ADVANCED BASE CAMP
19/11  EVEREST BASE CAMP - ATTEMPT ADVANCED BASE CAMP
20/11  RONGBUK - TINRI - NYALAM
21/11  NYALAM - ZANGMU - KATHMANDU

We have a guide and a support truck following us from a company in Tibet.