Post monsoon 2001 incident reports:
Death in the mountains
Elsie James (Canadian representative) reports three deaths she has heard of: men from Dhading District whom a friend of hers knew, who died in the Ganesh Himal.
"One porter died of AMS at base camp and two others died while carrying to base camp. About the same time a German woman died at Manasalu base camp and two Japanese climbers died on the mountain in separate accidents. Those deaths made the newspapers but no mention of the Nepali fatalities - I guess that is not news in the minds of some. A sad statement on the value of porters' lives!"
Jim Duff also reports on two deaths.
"Sadly I have to report the deaths of two porters in the Machermo/ Gokyo area. This is not an uncommon occurrence with locals saying that on average there are two porter deaths each season. One death occurred the day before we arrived in Machermo and appeared to be due to a group ascending too
quickly. It was the porter's first time at altitude. He was treated for HACE in a Portable Altitude Chamber (PAC) for one hour before descending with another porter and the sirdar, but no PAC. He collapsed above Machermo, a PAC was sent for but the porter died before it arrived.
The second death was a porter who was paid off from a group crossing the Cho La because he was not well (probably suffering from High Altitude Pulmonary Edema.). He descended with two companions who then left him to go down alone when he appeared to have recovered. He collapsed and died above Machermo."
Welcome to IPPG's new representatives and helpers
Bernhard Fassl and Oskar Skuk, Austria
Sylvia Lau, Canada
Peter Herrick-Stare, USA
Mike Weston, Peru
Per Nyberg, Sweden
Charles Halberstadt, Netherlands
Jeff Frew, Scotland
Jo Chittenden, England
