{"id":80,"date":"2003-05-01T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2003-05-01T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/test\/?p=80"},"modified":"2003-05-01T00:00:54","modified_gmt":"2003-05-01T00:00:54","slug":"anniversary-of-everest-ascent-meaningful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=80","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary of Everest ascent meaningful"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>by Larry Giles<\/p>\n

The 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary\u2019s climbing of Mt. Everest this Thursday is a big reason to celebrate for at least one Cochrane doctor.
\nDr. Bill Hanlon travelled to the Kathmandu region of Nepal in April, working at a clinic in the capital city most widely known as the entry point for climbers planning an Everest ascent.
\nAs an expedition to the summit can take more than two months factoring in time to acclimatize and the 10-day trek just to reach the base camp, Hanlon was there when many of the climbers planning to summit on the 50th anniversary were starting out.
\nBut for the Cochrane physician, the first ascent on May 29, 1953 was a significant event, not just for the climb but also for the legacy Hillary and his sherpa TenZing Norgay have left.
\nHillary is known in the region for his humanitarian efforts and has built medical facilities and schools in the country. Nepal has been isolated from the world for so long and is now struggling to catch up, says Hanlon who was intrigued by the two extremes of Nepal, which is actually one of the poorest countries in the world.
\n\u201cIt is a country where you can get an MRI scan in Kathmandu within 30 minutes if you can afford the $200 and yet have difficulty getting an aspirin in many of the rural communities outside of Kathmandu.\u201d
\nThe elevation, isolation and rapid change in Nepal makes it an interesting study for Hanlon, who enjoys learning about other cultures both socially and medically.
\nHe was there during the initial outbreak of SARS, which caused great concern for the medical community in Kathmandu.
\nOne of the primary access points to Nepal is via Hong Kong, which is where the virus has been a major problem.
\nThe availability of masks and other preventative measures was of concern, but so were the ramifications of an actual case or worse yet, a larger outbreak.
\n\u201cThere are only two or three ventilators in the entire country\u2026the infrastructure to support a patient (including a quarantine facility) is not really there.\u201d
\nHanlon\u2019s recent trip to Nepal was not his first. He had trekked the area in the 1980s and at that time had made it to the base camp for Everest expeditions.
\nHe finds the medical challenges in developing countries of interest and enjoys the similarities between the mountain communities west of Calgary and others around the world.
\nThere are many medical ties between Calgary and Kathmandu including a few international development projects between the University of Calgary and Nepal\u2019s Tribhuvan University. In fact the present head physician at the Nepal International Clinic completed some of his training at the U of C.
\nMany of the ailments at the clinic Hanlon was working at related to altitude sickness. The Cochrane townsite sits at an altitude of 3,500 feet and the top of the Big Hill at about 4,000 feet with some of the highest peaks in the Rockies reaching close to 12,000 feet.
\nIn Nepal, many of the passes reached by trekkers are more than 14,00 feet above sea level with some of them as high as 16,000 feet, all of which is still below where any of the true mountain climbing actually begins.
\n\u201cThere is some challenging medicine coming off the mountain. Certainly altitude sickness takes its toll every year\u2026people die on that mountain and they die just trekking there too.\u201d
\nOne of the issues that has been discussed in the area is setting up a clinic for the porters, which are the locals who carry the majority of supplies to Everest base camp and beyond. It is the porters who do the grunt work in a harsh environment for relatively little pay and one did die while Hanlon was in the area.
\nAll the money generated in the region by tourism brings both positives and negatives, Hanlon says. The country is not heavily populated but the mountainous terrain means little land is available for agricultural purposes. As the tourism money is generated only in the Kathmandu valley and the popular trekking routes, it is difficult for an average family to advance beyond the basics of everyday necessities.
\nAnd yet people have a strong interest in education and will walk long distances to make sure their children get to school so that they may have a chance at a better life.
\nThe people of Nepal are also extremely tolerant.
\n\u201cIt is a country where Buddhists, Hindus and Christians live together. Nepalis have accepted and live in harmony with Tibetan and Bhutanese refugees,\u201d he says. Tradition-ally their culture has been deeply rooted in spirituality and less on the material.\u201d
\nBefore returning to Cochrane, Hanlon attended the International Society of Travel Medicine meeting in New York, but it was what he saw while in New York that struck him. The contrast between limousine travel in Manhattan to people sleeping in doorways in the lower East Village was huge for him.
\n\u201cWhat is the true meaning of success in life and how do we define it,\u201d he asks. \u201cIs it getting to the top of the corporate ladder or the top of a mountain?
\n\u201cIn our efforts to climb our respective peaks in life we sometimes lose track of the price we have to pay to reach our goal\u2026Just as the people of Nepal look to us for direction and change, we can also learn from them in the area of compassion, tolerance and generosity towards strangers as well as friends.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Larry Giles The 50th anniversary of Sir Edmund Hillary\u2019s climbing of Mt. Everest this Thursday is a big reason to celebrate for at least one Cochrane doctor. Dr. Bill Hanlon travelled to the Kathmandu region of Nepal in April, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,8,9,13,22],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-7-summits","tag-everest","tag-expeditions","tag-local-news","tag-world-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4UPJH-1i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":190,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=190","url_meta":{"origin":80,"position":0},"title":"Other News: Hanlon bringing Everest to Cochranites, Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-09-12","author":"","date":"12 September 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Hanlon bringing Everest to Cochranites Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-09-12","rel":"","context":"In \"Everest\"","block_context":{"text":"Everest","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=everest"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cochranetimes.com\/images\/www.cochranetimes.com.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":185,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=185","url_meta":{"origin":80,"position":1},"title":"Other News: Hanlon overcomes grief and tragedy to conquer Everest, Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-06-06","author":"","date":"6 June 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Hanlon overcomes grief and tragedy to conquer Everest Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-06-06","rel":"","context":"In \"Everest\"","block_context":{"text":"Everest","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=everest"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cochranetimes.com\/images\/www.cochranetimes.com.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":183,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=183","url_meta":{"origin":80,"position":2},"title":"Other News: Hanlon reaches the top of the world, Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-05-30","author":"","date":"30 May 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Hanlon reaches the top of the world Cochrane Times, Date: 2007-05-30","rel":"","context":"In \"Everest\"","block_context":{"text":"Everest","link":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?tag=everest"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cochranetimes.com\/images\/www.cochranetimes.com.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1446,"url":"http:\/\/basichealthinternational.org\/?p=1446","url_meta":{"origin":80,"position":3},"title":"Cochrane doctor returns from solo trek across world\u2019s oldest lake | Calgary Herald","author":"Katrin Becker","date":"29 March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Meeting 62-year-old Dr. William Hanlon at his clinic in Cochrane, you wouldn\u2019t guess the local family doctor recently conquered a 720 km walk across a frozen lake in Siberia. 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