Archives for November, 2008
Ann Curry, Today show host, is back from climbing Kilimanjaro and is in New York. She is recuperating from her trek and is taking this week off from her Today show duties. She and some members of her team are a bit sick, reportedly feeling the effects of “poor drinking water.” Curry noted that her blisters are healing and she is ok. She will be back on the show next week, after the Thanksgiving weekend.
Here is the video:
Ann Curry, host of the Today show, reported that their five person team decided unanimously to call off their summit attempt today. As noted yesterday, Ann and fellow members of her party were experiencing altitude sickness as they rested on Arrow Glacier camp and were deciding whether to continue climbing today. She stated today that all of the team members were still feeling the effects of acute mountain sickness.
I had noted in the last post that it was a near certainty that they would not climb the Western Breach despite Curry’s reporting a “50/50″ chance of going for the summit. Given the condition of the team and the challenges of the Western Breach and Crater Camp, it would have been irresponsible for their guide service to lead the Today show team up the mountain. Rightfully, the team began their descent.
Here are the latest videos of Ann on Kilimanjaro:
On the latest video, Today show host Ann Curry reports that the team is about “50/50″ on whether they will attempt to climb up the Western Breach tomorrow. She noted that her original itinerary called for a climb to Crater Camp starting at 4:30am tomorrow, and a summit attempt on Friday.
Curry said that they have a five person group, made up of members of her production team, who have experienced differing degrees of altitude sickness thus far. They have decided that they will either all continue or all descend. That being said, it’s almost certain they will NOT climb tomorrow. The likelihood that one of the five members will have symptoms of altitude sickness in the early morning is high. On the video, mountaineer Ed Viesturs warns Curry not to ascend if the team has any symptoms and to err on the side of caution, meaning to descend, rather than taking another rest day at Arrow Glacier.
The latest video of Ann on Kilimanjaro:
Anny Curry is still at Arrow Glacier camp and reports still feeling somewhat sick despite taking a rest day. It was 3pm Kilimanjaro time at the time the video was made. This is not a good sign and I predict she will not attempt the Western Breach tomorrow morning. Proper acclimatization is particularly important when using the Western Breach because once a partial ascent is made, it is tremendously difficult, if not impossible, to descend on the breach. Therefore, if her symptoms worsen during the climb, she will not be able to make an immediate descent, which is the best treatment for altitude sickness. Instead, Curry would still have to continue climbing to the crater ridge before descending on the other side of the mountain.
Additionally, her itinerary probably calls for her to spend a night at Crater Camp (18,500 ft) tomorrow night. The increase in altitude from Arrow Glacier to Crater Camp is beyond the recommended guidelines which say that ideally one should gain no more than 1,000 feet per night. Crater Camp also sits in what is classified as the “extreme” zone - over 18,000 feet. So it would be highly risky (and pretty foolish) for someone who is experiencing altitude sickness at 16,000 feet during a rest day to stay at Crater Camp on the next night.
Curry confirmed on video that yesterday she climbed from Barranco Camp, to Arrow Glacier. Barranco sits at about 13,000 feet. Thus, it appears that her climb itinerary looks like this so far.
Machame/Western Breach
This is not a typical itinerary. I’ll be watching closely to see what happens from here.
Videos of Ann on the mountain are linked below:
Ann Curry, Today show anchor, is reporting from Arrow Glacier camp (16,000 ft). She stated that she has climbed from 13,000 to 16,000 ft. today in 8 hours, which suggests that she left from Barranco camp (13,800 ft). The distance between Barranco to Arrow Glacier is about 3 miles.
Curry is feeling the effects of altitude and will stay at this camp for an extra day to acclimatize. From what I can gather from her videos and journal entries, she began her Machame route climb on November 15th, making today her fourth day on the mountain. Her summit attempt should occur on November 20th (day six) or 21st (day seven), depending on whether she spends a night at Crater Camp at all, and if so, whether it is before or after summiting. The next segment, the climb up the Western Breach to Crater Camp (18,500 ft), should prove to be the most physically challenging of her journey.
Videos of Curry’s climb are linked below:
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