Everest ER - BBC TV.

Ever thought about climbing Everest?

This is a blog post from a long time ago - one that I never published. For some reason. Time now to publish.

Everest - it conjures up the most amazing images in my head, dreams re-awakened of climbing to it's summit, but most of all it's the beauty of the area, the Himalaya, the awe inspiring roof of the world. The one place that won't go away, that won't change in thousands of years - captured in books that line my book shelf. These images, this scene, THAT mountain - Everest.

I've probably climbed it a number of times, beating Kenton Cool in his 4 summit bids, (at time of pubblishing this blog post in June 2011 he has been on the summit of Everest 9 times. Phew!) but, sadly it is always from an armchair - and no doubt once or twice from my sleep. Not quite the same but infinatley safer.

Everest is not a place to be messed with and this was well reflected in the documentary on BBC1 this evening. Everest ER. It was great to see Kenton Cool in it, great to hear about Mountain Madness. The the most amazing thing was the Base Camp hospital - what the programme is all about. There are a number of illnesses that you can get on the mountain and it looks like the Doctors who give up their time to staff this hospital see everything from frost nip to cerebal oedema.

The filming on this documentary is great, the stories of joy, the stories of dissapointment, the sheer bloody mindedness you need to conquer a mountain such as this.

Thinking about what you need to go through to get to the top. The challenges, the misery, the hope, the physical and mental preparedness. I take my hat off to everyone who climbs to the roof of the world and to anyone who climbs their own personal 'Everest'. One day I will, no doubt, be climbing my own.