DOCSLIB.ORG

PDF Doc of the Article

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
PDF Doc of the Article WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3; 2013 'The obvious question is why' Boston woman --------, tackling peaks at a record pace By James H. Burnett III GLOBE STAFF nApril9, Vanessa O'Brien will set off for one ofthe most inhospitable land­ scapes on the plan­ 0et, the North Pole. Frigid, shift­ ing ice floes will make for bru­ tal conditions. Temperatures may plunge to minus 30 to mi­ nus 45 degrees, cold enough to freeze exposed skin in under a minute. O'Brien, 48, of Boston, won't have much time to get there. She needs to make it to the pole this month in order to set a new world record for climb­ ing the highest peaks on an seven continents, and reaching the South and North poles, faster than any woman ever ICEAXE EXPEDITIONS has. She intends to complete that feat, known as the Explor­ THE TRIUMPHS ers' Grand Slam, in about 11 1. Everest, Nepal months. 2. McKinley, USA "The obvious question is 3. Elbrus, Russia why;' O'Brien said in a recent 4. Carstensz, phone call from a camp on Indonesia Mount Kilimanjaro, a little 5. Vinson Massif, more than halfway up the Antarctica 19,341-foot peak, the highest 6. South Pole in Africa. 1. Aconcagua, "I like the challenge. I need Argentina the challenge, really;' she said. 8. Kilimanjaro, "And in a way, this - mountain Tanzania SUMMITS, Page AlO + AlO The Region THE B 0 s T I Boston woman tackling ~SUMMITS who overcame challenges both Krakauer's bestseller "Into r Continued from Page AI professional and physical, in­ Thin Air:• climbing - has allowed me to cluding the loss of an arm. O'Brien made her first sue- 1 ,escape and keep climbing. the After graduating from New cessful major climb in 2005 - record, if I get it, will be great. York University Stem School of just months after she decided But this is about the challenge:' Business, O'Brien worked her to start climbing - ascending O'Brien, a former banker, way up in the financial services Kilimanjaro. But she said the lives on Marlborough Street industry as an executive at best climbing ''lesson" she's ev- near the Public Garden, but in Bank of America, Barclays, and er learned came almost three recent months she's usually Morgan Stanley, in the United years later, the first time she at­ found in more remote loca­ States and in the United King­ tempted Everest. tions. Besides Kilimanjaro, she dom. "I failed that first time," has since May 2012 scaled But when the global econo­ O'Brien said. "I didn't make it Everest (Nepal), Elbrus (Rus­ my began to show signs of frac­ to the summit, only to base sia), Aconcagua (Argentina), ture, O'Brien said, she became camp. It was a humbling expe­ Carstensz (Indonesia), Mount disenchanted. "So many people rience. But if it wasn't already McKinley (United States), and ' were suffering as a result of the clear to me, and it was, that Vinson Massif (Antarctica), financial markets falling apart. failure drove home the fact that joining a list of about 53 other ... So I quit;' she said. "I left the it is a deadly serious sport. It women who have done so. industry:' · isn't a game in any way:' (O'Brien also climbed Kosciusz­ Leaving her job didn't mean When she reached the sum­ ko, at 7,310 feet the tallest that her ambition disappeared. mit of Everest -the world's mountain in Australia, which is After a few months of soul highest peak at 29,039 feet - sometimes included on Seven searching, she had an epipha­ last May, it was with both ela­ Summits lists with or in lieu of ny: "I should really climb:' tion and sadness, as Duane Nel­ Carstensz.) In December, she Almost immediately, son, a Portland, Ore.-based ex­ trudged to the South Pole after O'Brien said, she became keen­ ecutive with Intel Corp. and being dropped off by ski plane ly aware of the potential for member of her party, lost all the 60 nautical miles away. some resentment among those toes on his right foot to frost­ The North Pole trek will in the elite climbing world. bite, and several other mem­ ' pose very different challenges. O'Brien wasn't an experienced bers of her party developed alti­ O'Brien and her team- expedi­ climber, but she had the means tude sickness and had to turn tion leader Doug Stoup of Ice - that is, the money- to get back early in the climb. Axe Expeditions, and Santa very serious about the pursuit. Nelson, a marathon runner Monica-based Karl Pettijohn, "I didn't have to struggle fi­ and experienced climber, said one of her climbing partners nancially to put climbs togeth­ O'Brien made it to the top be­ from Everest - will rendezvous er," she recalled. "And people cause she was simply better at the Longyearbyen settlement can sometimes assume things prepared. in Svalbard, Norway. By ski about you, based on your level "She was consistently plane, they will head to 89 de­ of success." among the first group to reach grees North, where they will be­ Indeed, climbing and trek­ every one of the climbing objec­ gin the frigid arid wet journey. king can be very expensive. tives," Nelson said in a recent "There may be times we will O'Brien's South Pole trek cost telephone interview from his have to put on dry suits and about $45,000. The North Pole home in Oregon. "She never got jump in the water to pull our will cost about the same. Her sick like the rest of us .... She sleds across to get to another climb up Everest cost about clearly trained to the appropri­ piece of ice if we cannot get $70,000, including travel, ate level per best on the planet around," O'Brien said. "Fur­ equipment, guides' salaries and practices:' thermore, we may find our­ Sherpa fees. Seattle-based Mike Hamill, a selves drifting off course at Of course, O'Brien had no star tlimbing guide, photogra­ night while we are sleeping, desire to become a lightning pher, and author, who has which means we may need to rod like Sandy Hill (formerly scaled all seven summits at make up mileage during the Pittman), a mountaineer, least four times and some as day .. to reach our goal:' wealthy socialite, and the sec­ many as 20, reiterated Nelson's As a teenager growing up ond American woman ever to praise for O'Brien's prepara­ near Detroit, O'Brien knew she climb the Seven Summits. Pitt­ tion. wanted to climb. But instead of man was part of a 1996 disaster "It's about conditioning, mountains, she hoped to climb in which eight climbers died on physical and mental, and about the corporate ladder - in­ Everest after getting caught in a good judgment," Hamill said. spired, friends say, by her very freak storm. The ill-fated expe­ "What struck me about Vanes­ determined mother, a nurse dition was chronicled in Jon sa is that there are people who 0 N G L 0 BE WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 + peaks at a record pace Vanessa a few years ago and she told me what she was plan­ ning, to climb the summits and to do it in such a short period of time, I didn't know if she had it in her," Oteri said. "But the thing about Vanessa is she doesn't quit. I know that's a cli­ che. But I have clients who tell me to push them, push them, push them. And then after a short while they tell me, 'Stop! I can't do it.' Not her. She's defi­ ant and just asks for more.'' Their workout routines take about 30 hours per week, in­ cluding Pilates, yoga, and weight lifting in the gym. Sev­ eral more hours are spent on Revere Beach with O'Brien dragging a 50-pound tractor tire through the sand to build endurance and lung capacity. Jonathan O'Brien, her Brit­ ish-born husband, said you couldn't pay him to climb a mountain, unless it was a short distance to a ski lift. But lie's not surprised by his wife's de­ termination. The couple met when the bank he worked for purchased the bank she worked for in London, and his team was brought in to manage the merg­ er. They moved to Boston in 2011. The couple has no chil­ dren. "Vanessa and I first metal­ most 18 years ago in London," Jonathan O'Brien said. "And since I've known her she has DINA RUDICK/GLOBE STAFF had this very fierce focus .... So 'But if it wasn't already clear to me, and it is no surprise at all that she's been able to succeed in climb­ it was, that failure drove home the fact ing.'' that it is a deadly serious sport. It isn't a Returning to Boston recent­ ' ly from her Kilimanjaro climb, game In. any way. O'Brien - ,tired and wind­ burned - could not stop smil­ VANESSA O'BRIEN, shown preparing by dragging a tractor tire ing. on Revere Beach to build endurance and lung capacity "One way or another we all try to climb, literally or figura­ tively," she said. "I have every prepare enough to get by, to Brett "The Hammer" Oteri, reason to smile. I've been lucky make it. And then there are O'Brien's trainer at Equinox enough to do it more than one people who prepare like profes­ gym in Boston's Financial Dis­ way.'' sionals, like they could lead the trict, gives a satisfied chuckle way if they had to.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Die Rache Der Göttinmutter
    Bergsteiger auf dem Gipfelgrat des Mount Everest*: Bühne der gesellschaftlichen Selbstdarstellung Expeditionen Die Rache der Göttinmutter In das mächtigste Naturtheater der Erde, das Massiv des Mount Everest, dringen Scharen von Touristen ein, jetzt sogar mit einem Last-minute-Flug. Fünf Bergsteiger kamen auf einer kommerziellen Gipfeltour ums Leben. Als nächste versuchen Deutsche – zum Einzelpreis von fast 50 000 Mark – ihr Glück in der Todeszone. as Eis auf dem Südsattel des Schneerampe, beginnt der sogenannte müssen: Wie postmoderne Derwische Mount Everest wirft den Schein Yak-Pfad, die Normalroute am Everest- jetten sie von Kontinent zu Kontinent, um D des Mondes und das helle Band Südostgrat, den kilometertiefe Wände dort den jeweils höchsten Gipfel zu be- der Milchstraße wie kalkiges Licht tragen. zwingen. zurück. Es ist kurz vor Mitternacht, doch Es ist eine bizarre Truppe, die sich an Frisch vom Party-Set New Yorks ist das Leuchten ist so intensiv, daß die der Chomolungma, der „Göttinmutter Sandy Hill Pittman, 41, in den Himalaja Bergsteiger ihre Stirnlampen nicht einzu- der Erde“, abplackt: Auf dem Weg nach geeilt. Sie hat von ihrem Juwelier ein schalten brauchen. Langsam nur gewinnt oben befinden sich westliche Leistungs- kleines Gipfelkreuz anfertigen lassen, die Prozession an Höhe – Führer, Sherpas menschen, die ständige Herausforderun- das sie auf dem Mount Everest den Berg- und 14 Freizeitalpinisten, die in ihren gen brauchen, aber auch solche, die den göttern opfern möchte. Auch ein Arzt aus dicken Daunenanzügen aussehen wie höchsten Berg der Welt als Bühne zur ge- Dallas ist dabei: Beck Weathers, ein Pa- Pinguine. sellschaftlichen Selbstdarstellung sehen. thologe, der sich die Bezwingung des Die Amateure wollen ihr Ziel, den Einige haben bisher nicht viel mehr als Mount Everest zum 50.
    [Show full text]
  • Mountains Without Handrails … Wilderness Without Cellphones Sarah Krakoff University of Colorado Law School
    University of Colorado Law School Colorado Law Scholarly Commons Articles Colorado Law Faculty Scholarship 2003 Mountains Without Handrails … Wilderness Without Cellphones Sarah Krakoff University of Colorado Law School Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles Part of the Environmental Law Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, and the Natural Resources Law Commons Citation Information Sarah Krakoff, Mountains Without Handrails … Wilderness Without Cellphones, 27 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 417 (2003), available at http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/529. Copyright Statement Copyright protected. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Colorado Law Faculty Scholarship at Colorado Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of Colorado Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. +(,121/,1( Citation: 27 Harv. Envtl. L. Rev. 417 2003 Provided by: William A. Wise Law Library Content downloaded/printed from HeinOnline Thu May 18 13:08:33 2017 -- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnline's Terms and Conditions of the license agreement available at http://heinonline.org/HOL/License -- The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text. -- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your HeinOnline license, please use: Copyright Information MOUNTAINS WITHOUT HANDRAILS ... WILDERNESS WITHOUT CELLPHONES Sarah Krakoft' I.
    [Show full text]
  • Walk Because You Can! R of a Small Clinical Trial of T All Depends on You in 2002
    MSConnection March/April 2002 Vol. 02, Issue 2 Greater Connecticut Chapter Mixed Results on 2002 Prokarin Patch Biological Products esults published Walk Because You Can! R of a small clinical trial of t all depends on you in 2002. By taking one step you can help Prokarin, a drug shorten the road to the cure for multiple sclerosis. So shake off given by skin I that winter chill, limber up and join us Sunday, April 21 at the patch, suggest 2002 Bayer MS Walk. that the drug appeared safe. The Make all the right strides at one of the walk’s nine sites throughout the study primarily sought evidence state. The sites include: Cheshire, Clinton, Enfield, Groton, Manchester, that the drug could treat fatigue, West Hartford, West Haven, and Simsbury. If you can’t join us for April and investigated other MS-specific 21, catch up with us at the Woodstock walk on April 28. effects as secondary outcomes. The clinical trial involved 29 individuals with relapsing remitting or progressive MS. The authors of the investigation report a statistically significant difference in fatigue levels in the 21 individuals who completed Prokarin treatment for 12 weeks compared to the 5 individuals completing treatment with a placebo patch. There was no significant difference seen in the any measures of MS disability or in measures of brain chemistry determined by magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Prokarin is a proprietary formula that contains, among other undisclosed components, histamine and caffeine, and was developed by a nurse who has MS. For several Step in the right direction.
    [Show full text]
  • Note on Method
    Note on Method This analysis use primary and secondary source archival data. When possible, the analysis relied on primary accounts of survivors and participants to piece together the events. Many of these primary sources were in the form of published book length memoirs, Internet postings, and televised interviews by survivors. In some cases, secondary sources were used such as reports, stories from newspapers and television. For a more detailed account of meth- odology, including issues of reliability of this account, see Kayes (2004a). 171 References ABC News. (1996a, June 2). Mountain madness [segment of 60 Minutes]. Michael Rosenbaum, Producer. New York: ABC. ABC News. (1996b, September 16). Mountain without mercy: The Mt. Everest story [segment of Turning Point]. Betsy West, Executive Producer. New York: ABC News. Allen, N. (2006). Leaders in Iraq [unpublished manuscript]. Washington, DC: The George Washington University and The United States Military Academy. Ancona, D. G. and Caldwell, D. F. (1992). Bridging the boundary: External activity and performance in organizational teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(4), 634–665. Audia, P. G., Locke, E. A., and Smith, K. A. (2000). The paradox of success: An archival and laboratory study of strategic persistence following radical environmental change. Academy of Management Journal, 34(5), 837–853. Baker, A. C., Jensen, P. J., and Kolb, D. A. (2002). Conversational Learning: An Experiential Approach to Knowledge Creation. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. Bales, R. F. (1958). Task roles and social roles in problem solving groups. In E. E. Maccoby, T. M. Newcomb, and E. L. Hartley (Eds), Readings in Social Psychology. New York: Holt.
    [Show full text]
  • Adirondack Chronology
    An Adirondack Chronology by The Adirondack Research Library of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks Chronology Management Team Gary Chilson Professor of Environmental Studies Editor, The Adirondack Journal of Environmental Studies Paul Smith’s College of Arts and Sciences PO Box 265 Paul Smiths, NY 12970-0265 [email protected] Carl George Professor of Biology, Emeritus Department of Biology Union College Schenectady, NY 12308 [email protected] Richard Tucker Adirondack Research Library 897 St. David’s Lane Niskayuna, NY 12309 [email protected] Last revised and enlarged – 20 January (No. 43) www.protectadks.org Adirondack Research Library The Adirondack Chronology is a useful resource for researchers and all others interested in the Adirondacks. It is made available by the Adirondack Research Library (ARL) of the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. It is hoped that it may serve as a 'starter set' of basic information leading to more in-depth research. Can the ARL further serve your research needs? To find out, visit our web page, or even better, visit the ARL at the Center for the Forest Preserve, 897 St. David's Lane, Niskayuna, N.Y., 12309. The ARL houses one of the finest collections available of books and periodicals, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and private papers dealing with the Adirondacks. Its volunteers will gladly assist you in finding answers to your questions and locating materials and contacts for your research projects. Introduction Is a chronology of the Adirondacks really possible?
    [Show full text]
  • I Doubt If Anyone Would Claim to Enjoy Life at High Altitudes— Enjoy, That Is, in the Ordinary Sense of the Word
    T I doubt if anyone would claim to enjoy life at high altitudes— enjoy, that is, in the ordinary sense of the word. There is a certain grim satisfaction to be derived from struggling upwards, however slowly; but the bulk of one's time is necessarily spent in the ex- treme squalor of a high camp, when even this solace is lacking. Smoking is impossible; eating tends to make one vomit; the neces- sity of reducing weight to a bare minimum forbids the importation of literature beyond that supplied by the labels on tins of food; sardine oil, condensed milk and treacle spill themselves all over the place; except for the briefest moments, during which one is not usually in a mood for aesthetic enjoyment, there is nothing to look at but the bleak confusion inside the tent and the scaly, bearded countenance of one's companion—fortunately the noise of the wind usually drowns out his stuffy breathing; worst of all is the feeling of complete helplessness and inability to deal with any emergency that might arise. I used to try to console myself with the thought that a year ago I would have been thrilled by the very idea of taking part in our present adventure, a prospect that had then seemed like an impossible dream; but altitude has the same effect on the mind as upon the body, one's intellect becomes dull and unresponsive, and my only desire was to finish the wretched job and to get down to a more reasonable clime. Eric Shipton Upon That Mountain ust before dawn on Tuesday, April 16, after resting for two U days at Base Camp, we headed up into the Icefall to begin our second acclimatization excursion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Disaster of 96
    RMC Original JMM The Disaster of 96: An educational way of explaining the physiolo- gical reactions produced as a consequence of exposure to low oxy- gen pressure at high altitude using the film Everest (2015) Germán DOMÍNGUEZ VÍAS Unit of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine. University of Cádiz (Spain). Corresponding author: Germán Domínguez Vías. E-mail address: [email protected] Received 20 November 2017; accepted 4 December 2017. How to cite this paper: Domínguez Vías G. The Disaster of 96: An educational way of explaining the physiological reactions produced as a consequence of exposure to low oxygen pressure at high altitude using the film Everest (2015). J Med Mov [Internet] 2018;14(4): 227-236. Summary The 96 Mount Everest Disaster refers to the events that took place from May 10 to 11, 1996, when eight people caught in a storm were died, some during the ascent and, those who had already reached the Summit, while they descended. The film Everest (2015) faithfully reflects the previous symptoms that occurred during ascension, an important reason to understand the effects of altitude and low gas pressures on the human body. In this paper we address both problems, Everest can help students to understand and reflect on the challenges for body homeostasis that take place at great heights. Keywords: Altitude, Barometric pressure, Alveolar oxygen pressure, Hypoxia, Pulmonary edema, Cerebral edema. El Desastre del 96: Una forma educativa de explicar las reacciones fisioló- gicas producidas como consecuencia de la exposición a la baja presión de oxígeno a gran altitud usando la película Everest (2015) Resumen El Desastre del 96 del Monte Everest se refiere a los eventos ocurrido del 10 al 11 de mayo de 1996, cuando ocho personas atrapadas en un temporal perdieron la vida, algunos durante el ascenso y, aquellos que ya habían hecho cumbre, mientras descendían.
    [Show full text]
  • Mount Everest—1996
    9-303-061 REV: JANUARY 6, 2003 MICHAEL A. ROBERTO GINA M. CARIOGGIA Mount Everest—1996 Incredible achievement and great tragedy unfolded on the treacherous slopes of Mount Everest in the spring of 1996. Ninety-eight men and women climbed successfully to the summit, but sadly, 15 individuals lost their lives. On May 10 alone, 23 people reached the summit, including Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, two of the world’s most experienced high-altitude climbers. Unfortunately, Hall, Fischer, and three others died as a storm enveloped the mountain during their descent. Others escaped with their lives after many hours wandering in the dark while braving sub-zero temperatures. Since then, many have sought to understand what happened that day. History of Everest Mount Everest stands 8,850 meters above sea level, and its summit ridge separates Nepal and Tibet.1 While working in Calcutta, India, in 1852, Radhanath Sikhdar first calculated that this peak in the Himalayan range stood taller than any other mountain in the world. Several years later, Sir Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor general of India, renamed the mountain after his predecessor, Sir George Everest.2 Not surprisingly, the native residents of the region already had a name for the majestic peak. The Nepali people referred to the summit as Sagarmatha, which means goddess of the sky, and Tibetans used the name Chomolungma, which means mother goddess of the universe.3 The first expedition set out to climb Everest in 1922, but that British team led by George Mallory did not reach the summit. In 1924 Mallory and his climbing partner disappeared during another attempt.
    [Show full text]
  • Conversations with Ray Bradbury Steven Louis Aggelis
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2003 Conversations with Ray Bradbury Steven Louis Aggelis Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES CONVERSATIONS WITH RAY BRADBURY By STEVEN AGGELIS A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2003 Copyright © 2003 Steven Aggelis All Rights Reserved The members of the Committee approve the dissertation of Steven Aggelis defended on 22 September 2003. __________________________ R. Bruce Bickley, Jr. Professor Directing Dissertation __________________________ Leo Sandon Outside Committee Member __________________________ William T. Lhamon, Jr. Committee Member __________________________ Joseph McElrath, Jr. Committee Member Approved: __________________________ Hunt Hawkins, Chair, Department of English __________________________ Donald Foss, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above-named committee members. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction v Chronology xxiv Abstract xxxii Preface 1 The Market Is Not the Story: An Interview with Ray Bradbury (1948) R. Walton Willems 3 Sum and Substance: With Ray Bradbury and Herman Harvey (1962) Herman Harvey 6 A Portrait of Genius: Ray Bradbury (1964) Show 12 Ray Bradbury: Cassandra on a Bicycle
    [Show full text]
  • Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
    Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer Straddling the top of the world, one foot in Tibet and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently at the vast sweep of earth below. I understood on some dim, detached level that it was a spectacular sight. I'd been fantasizing about this moment, and the release of emotion that would accompany it, for many months. But now that I was finally here, standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care. It was the afternoon of May 10. I hadn't slept in 57 hours. The only food I'd been able to force down over the preceding three days was a bowl of Ramen soup and a handful of peanut M&M's. Weeks of violent coughing had left me with two separated ribs, making it excruciatingly painful to breathe. Twenty-nine thousand twenty-eight feet up in the troposphere, there was so little oxygen reaching my brain that my mental capacity was that of a slow child. Under the circumstances, I was incapable of feeling much of anything except cold and tired. I'd arrived on the summit a few minutes after Anatoli Boukreev, a Russian guide with an American expedition, and just ahead of Andy Harris, a guide with the New Zealand-based commercial team that I was a part of and someone with whom I'd grown to be friends during the last six weeks. I snapped four quick photos of Harris and Boukreev striking summit poses, and then turned and started down.
    [Show full text]
  • Climbing Mount Everest Postcolonialism in the Culture of Ascent
    Stephen Slemon Climbing Mount Everest Postcolonialism in the Culture of Ascent It scarcely needs saying that "Mount Everest" is «oí just "there."1 As just about every book on Himalayas mountaineering likes to point out, "Mount Everest" was hoisted into physical—and cultural— ascendency through a prodigious act of imperial technology: the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India.2 Mount Everest began as a theodolite mea- surement taken from a hundred miles away in 1847; it became a notation called "Peak XV" within an archive of survey records which reproduced the Indian subcontinent (or at least the parts the British could get at) as a vast grid of measured, criss-crossing triangles; five years later these measurements passed into the hands of two rows of mathematicians, or "computers" as they were called, seated at a long table in Calcutta, who refigured them through logarithm into the measurement of "29,002 ft."3 After this legend sets in.4 The chief computer, Radhanath Sickdhar, is said to have sent a message to the Surveyor General of India, Colonel Andrew Waugh, saying "Sir, I have discovered the highest mountain in the world" (Krakauer Into Thin Air 13; Bilham 26). Colonel Waugh reported to the Royal Geographical Society in London: "here is a mountain, most probably the highest in the world, with- out any local name that we can discover, or whose native appellation, if it have any, will not very likely be ascertained before we are allowed to penetrate into Nepaul [sic] and to approach close to this stupendous snowy mass." Waugh therefore proposed that Peak XV be named "after his respected chief and predecessor in office," Colonel George Everest.
    [Show full text]
  • Narrative and Mountaineering Accounts / by Justin Allec
    Lakehead University Knowledge Commons,http://knowledgecommons.lakeheadu.ca Electronic Theses and Dissertations Electronic Theses and Dissertations from 2009 2009 Writing the ascent : narrative and mountaineering accounts / by Justin Allec. Allec, Justin R. http://knowledgecommons.lakeheadu.ca/handle/2453/3917 Downloaded from Lakehead University, KnowledgeCommons Writing the Ascent; Narrative and Mountaineering Accounts A thesis submitted to the Department of English Lakehead University Thunder Bay, ON In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in English By Justin Allec April, 2009 Library and Bibliothèque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-49954-2 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-49954-2 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce,Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve,sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet,distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse.
    [Show full text]