CHAPTER 1
My background and how it all started
For it is in giving that we receive. St. Francis of Assisi
I have never been the type of person who is content with a quiet easy life. My medical studies began in Germany and Switzerland. After a visit with Albert Schweitzer in his hometown in Gunsbach, France in 1959,1 ventured to his African jungle hospital in Gabon, West Equatorial Africa to work with him as a young physician for almost two years.
Then I went to the United States of America for five years for my medical specialty training at the Mayo Clinic. There I got to know my future wife, another resident in training: an American lady with a refreshing intelligence, a beautiful soul and love of life, and who was fun to be with. During an interim of a few years in Germany I no longer felt at home. Abroad, I had experienced invigorating professional and private freedom and being rewarded on the merit of my work and personal qualities. Here, heading into life as a newly married couple, I was confronted with an oppressive and restrictive atmosphere, taking the oxygen out of the air. I therefore decided to spend my entire professional life in the United States.
Years later, I celebrated my 60 birthday climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with my younger brother Dirk. A few years following this first taste of the mountains, retirement was pending, and I was heading into unknown territory, following a path without a destination - determined by my inner voice, my ideas, and my dreams. There appeared to be a red thread through my life for "pushing the envelope," for stepping outside the box, for challenging myself.
In 2003 at the age of 67,1 stepped out of a totally absorbing and grinding job of 31 years as a radiologist and 11 years as chairman in a group practice at a hospital. Two years later during locum tenens radiology work in a small Wisconsin town on the shore of Lake Michigan, I was approaching my 70 birthday. I had left behind my home and wife on the East Coast for those extended periods of professional activity and lived in a motel. I had enough time during weekends to come up with several "great" ideas.
One of these thoughts was to uproot our home on the East Coast and relocate to the Midwest- to Wisconsin! When I suggested this idea to my wife, she eventually agreed and was glad to move back closer to her childhood home. Her family's roots were in Iowa, and she loved the Midwest. Living in Wisconsin would bring her back closer to her family. As for myself, I was drawn to the nature along Lake Michigan and liked the concept of living closer to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Joan's family.
We found a spacious lot and built a luxurious dream retirement home in a remote rural area on Lake Michigan. Looking ahead and planning, I came up with another crazy idea. I wanted to celebrate my 70 birthday in a memorable way. I had always enjoyed the outdoors and photography. Health and fitness had long been my top priorities. I thought to myself, "What an opportunity and challenge for great photography and testing my physical strength to trek through the Himalayas to the base of the ultimate mountain, Mt. Everest!" My dear wife thought I had lost my mind, but my response was, "you only live once!"
Throughout our entire relationship I traveled extensively and frequently - often without Joan. In addition, in those last six years of semi-retirement with locum tenens radiology assignments far away, I was absent from her for many months at a time. Along with many work-related and leisure trips within the United States, I flew abroad to Nepal five times, to Germany, England, Switzerland, and France many times, to Africa, to Saudi Arabia for one month in 1982 (Riyadh - King Faisal Specialist Hospital), and for photo workshop expeditions with Tom Murphy to Canada and several national parks. Never once did she reproach me or even hint that I should travel less. She was always tolerant and understanding of my need to spread my wings, to have fun or take care of "business" and wander familiar and unfamiliar paths. Memorable trips with Joan were to Greece in 1985 (Athens, Delphi, Lemnos, Santorini), to China in 1986 (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong), to Africa in 1996 (Tanzania - Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti) when I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with my brother, to Nepal in 2011 and to Rome and the Vatican in 2012.
When I completed the American Outfitters application of Mountain Madness for the trek to the Mt. Everest Base Camp, I felt butterflies in my stomach. I paid their deposit fee and my dream became a reality. I was in awe of the magnitude of my decision. I asked myself, "Am I still fit enough, mentally and physically, to undertake such an adventure?" But how would I know without trying it?
The design of a fitness program and a thorough checkup for approval of my altitude hike up to 18,500 ft (5,639 m) had to be the next steps. A medical "green light" from the Mayo Clinic with a customized structured training program sent me on my way to be well prepared.
On April 13, 2006, the date of my 70 birthday, I was on the flight Denver - Frankfurt - Bangkok - Kathmandu.
The 15-day Himalayan trek from Lukla to the Mt. Everest Base Camp was my "HAPPY BIRTHDAY - CELEBRATION OF LIFE!" gift to myself.
On the one hand it was the most awesome, inspiring, and beautiful venture of my life. The scenery was spectacular: surrounded by snow-covered mountain peaks and glaciers, deep valleys spanned by long swaying cable bridges over a large whitewater river originating from the snow and glaciers of the high-altitude areas of Mt. Everest.
The expansive and extreme Himalayan mountain range had quite an impact on this first- time visitor: divine creation - purity - respect - humility - uniqueness - a terrestrial heaven. "Mountains have a 'psychic gravity' enticing us into their grip. There is a magic among great peaks as a location of splendor filling you with a sense of the supernatural. In ancient times they were holy places and in some cultures were considered sacred. In Asia, millions of the devout regard the Himalaya as the dwelling place of the gods ("God's residence" (Emily Dickinson)) and a pathway to the heavens." (from the Foreword of his book Fred Beckey's 100 Favorite North American Climbs, by Fred Beckey).
On the other hand, it was indeed the hardest, most arduous challenge I had ever faced in my life, much more so than the ascent of Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro. The continuous shortness of breath at high altitude was forcing me at every uphill climb to stop, catch my breath, and occasionally drink some water. I eventually had to hand over my backpack with camera equipment to my Sherpa guide. I had to reduce my pace, advance slowly and let the group of youngsters get further and further ahead of me. There were the cold evenings and nights, the very cold winds on the last days before reaching the Everest Base Camp, the sunblock ending up in my eyes interfering with my vision and photography, as well as the constant dripping of my nose. With each day the climb became more daunting.
The more I got to know the local population passing through villages and entering tea houses and lodges, the fonder I grew of these people.
On the second day of the trek we arrived at the Namche Bazaar Guesthouse where we had our first day of rest.
The wife of the Nepalese owner had made a birthday cake with candles for me and put the...
