Tales from experience (safety&travelinfo)

[mieke]

Motto: don't ever "hurry" whilst high in the mountains, and on your own...
Question: how do expedition-members stay in touch with eachother?

"Tryst with death in the mountains" (http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2005/others/feature/apr/news_feature02.php) - Nepalnews.com Special (April 13)

A tale of sheer determination and courage that saved a young poet and composer
By Ram Humagain

Pramod Dhungana still feels he is a lucky guy. He survived from a terrible accident while he was trekking along Nepal’s majestic Himalayas early this month.

“It was 2nd of April. I was alone and it was around 4 p. m. I noticed that I am not in right track. I was in a hurry and tried to climb down from a very steep slope on my way down to Marfa. Unfortunately, I fell down in the slope, " Dhungana told Nepalnews from his cabin at Medicare Hospital in Chabahil, Kathmandu.

From the severe pain, Pramod thought both of his ankles might have been fractured. But there was nothing he could do. He was alone in the middle of the snow.
"I had fallen some 40 feet off the slope, my both feet were seriously injured and I couldn't move around. I just tried to get hold of my rucksack after waiting for a while. I became motionless and dozed off for about 30 minutes," he said.

It was getting dark and weather, too, was not good. He cried loudly, called for help but there was no response. By then both of his legs had started swelling. Thinking that it could be fatal to spend whole night out in the cold, he decided to slide down the slope with his head down, using his rucksack as a skid board.
"I tried to find out the trail searching yak dung, footmark, garbage etc. with the help of torchlight that I hanged on my neck. I crawled down and down across the small bushes until next morning. Finally, when I saw an aircraft (that was on its way to Jomsom from Pokhara) I felt I could survive," said Dhungana.

It was Sunday, April 3rd. He was finally able to find the right trail. His trouser and trek- suit were totally shred and he was completely dehydrated. Around 9: 30 a. m., luckily one of his team members – who was on his way to Marfa from the Alubari camp—saw him and rescued him. He was brought to Marfa, a hilly town in the northern district of Mustang. He was later airlifted to Kathmandu after undergoing first aid treatment at Jomsom-- the district headquarters of Mustang .

2005© Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd.Click above link to "Nepalnews" to read the full article.

Edit
Come to think of it, perhaps the hospital accepts 'best wishes for a speedy recovery' e-mails (or e-cards), for Mr. Dhungana; no idea. But here are the only 2 mailaddresses for the Medicare National Hospital that I managed to find online:
www.medicarenepal.com (http://www.medicarenepal.com)
email: medicare@ccsl.com.np / mednepal@ccsl.com.np

[Ralph2]

This is a good example of why us old farts keep saying "don't trek alone."

If he had been with a companion, that person would have noticed he had disappeared and gone looking for him and could have brought help.

It's easy to twist an ankle or break a leg or fall on Nepal's steep trails, and even easier if one tries to save time by cutting a switchback or taking a short cut down a steep slope.

[mieke]

Thanks Ralph, and of course I agree with your views.
Here's another story, this time about the ordeal of Nepali publisher Kanak Dixit (http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/archive/mainnews/arc122.htm#5), in Lamjung district last year August. (Source: Nepalnews.com)
It's a similar account in that sense that no matter how experienced one can be, there's always the chance on real bad luck. But I imagine not every trekker in such a situation will be so fortunate that they're found & rescued in time...

[p**i b*****d]

Stop spamming my email account.

As you said elsewhere:
You want to be left alone, and so do I.
Sending me unsolicited emails is not leaving me alone.

Thanks.

[mieke]

Though not about safety matters especially in the present political situation, this too is a 'tale from experience', as well as a warning. Lisa Michaels is the author of "Split" and "Grand Ambition".

In my early twenties, I had gotten myself into a few hair-raising situations in the outdoors, brought about by a mixture of bad judgment and bad weather. At twenty-one, I spent six months traveling alone in India and Nepal and got lost in the Himalaya. My guide had turned back to help a friend with hypothermia, and I was foolish enough to press on alone. After a half day of exhilarating solitude, I took a wrong turn on an ice-covered trail at 15,000 feet, wearing cotton pants and carrying nothing but a bag of garbanzo beans and a jug of water. I knew I wouldn't survive a night without shelter. The day wore on, the temperature dropped, and I could hardly believe what a stupid, lonely way I had managed to end my life. But when I finally scrambled my way over a pass and down to a few shepherds' huts, twenty hours later, I felt an elation and sense of self-sufficiency that I have scarcely felt since.Looking back, I see that these misadventures were attempts to draw the line between fruitful risk-taking and recklessness. I'm not sorry I took any of those trips, but I am glad to have passed the age when I thought that I ought to do the things that frightened me. Still, the old questions were echoing in my mind when I came across the story of the Hydes' river journey. It seemed to give me the chance to examine both sides of the equation: the thrill of holding one's life into the wind, and the torturous worry of those left at home.
(. . .)
Only much later, when I had returned home safely, did she tell me how she sickened with apprehension when my letters tapered off. (I was in the Himalaya, with no post box for miles.) I felt terrible then, and I thought I understood. But only now that I have twin sons of my own do I fully understand the things I put her through. And only now do I have an inkling of the anguish Reith Hyde must have suffered, watching his son and daughter-in-law set off on such a perilous trip.
On "Grand Ambition" (http://www.lisamichaelsbooks.com/ga-essay.html) © 2001 by Lisa Michaels