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Bourge's world 2-Mar-2005 At 3:01:53 PM Bourge

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Cheers Tasch, we look forward to it and hope the job search bears fruit!

In other news, I note that medical clinics have been set up on Everest and now on K2.

http://www.k2climb.net/story/k22005BaseCampMDFeb282005.shtml

I see this as a continuation in the trend of bringing the mountains closer to civilization, begun with the large scale expedition style ,espoused by Bonington and despised by Messner, Bonatti, Cesen etc, and later with advent of guided commercial operations that culminated in the disaster high on Everest in 1996.

Surely this development reduces the committment required to head into these mountain environments. Will expeditions not include a medic because they know there will be a medical facility at base camp. Will this increase the popularity of what are, some say, already overcrowded peaks.

But that said, is this a necessity brought about by the increasing popularity of this sport that the local infrastructure and service providers cannot cater to? Perhaps it negates the need for helicopter evacuations if appropriate medical care can be provided on the mountain.

Maybe we've collectively written off K2 and Everest anyway, leaving them to the masses, in favour of something smaller and more remote in another valley, or another country, so it doesn't matter