Cancer Climb for Prostate Awareness

Mont Blanc

Cancer Climb For Prostate Awareness

September 2007

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Summit!

Prostate cancer survivor Ken Malik of San Francisco and two other Prostate Awareness Foundation climbing team members, John Loesing of Los Angeles and Justin Lukasavige of North Carolina, successfully climbed to the summit of 15,772-foot Mount Blanc, France on Fri., Sept. 14, 2007. John and Justin, roped together with a guide on one team, reached the summit at 7:35 a.m., four hours after departure. Ken followed about 30 minutes later roped to a separate guide.

The summit preparations began with a cable car followed by railway ascent from the French village of Les Houches to the Nid d’Aigle at 7,782 feet. From there the four climbers, including Bill Gauditz of Denver, began their difficult climb to the primitive 12,524-foot high Gouter refuge hut. In positively the hardest climb of the week, the summit team had to take a narrow, icy trail across the very dangerous Grand Couloir, which is the target of frequently falling rocks and boulders. During the previous month a woman climber had been killed while crossing the Couloir. From there, the team began a highly difficult, straight up rock scramble that covered almost 1,000 feet. It wasn’t for the faint of heart as steep drop-offs and crumbly terrain greeted every turn.

The team’s 12-hour stay at the primitive Gouter hut—perched on a high precipice at 12,524 feet—included little to no sleep, thanks to the crowded, dormitory-like conditions that included climbers from many other countries, mostly France and Italy. In the cold dark of night at 3:30 a.m. the PAF team began its summit push with a steep, snowfield ascent to the Dome de Gouter and the Col du Dome. Other teams could be spotted above the mountain and below, but only because of their headlamps. The cold dark was all consuming. Next came a brief rest at a strange, almost other-worldly hut called the Refuge de Vallot at 14,312 feet. A short steep ladder led in and out of the hut and on the inside of the metal structure was a cold, unlit room littered with dozens of empty packages of Gu gel, which climbers eat to get instant energy. As the climb proceeded the wind increased and snow began to fall. Was a good thing visibility was limited because nobody wanted to see anyway just how precarious the whole situation was. Everybody struggled to make the proper clothing adjustments on worked constantly to manipulate rope, ski poles and ice axes. The going was tough.

After what seemed like endless hours of uphill climbing with one slow step after another—not to mention the difficult breathing—John and Justin began inching up the Summit Ridge, a narrow, two-foot wide snow path with a thousand feet of drop-off on either side. Then it appeared: The summit. Another group of half-a-dozen or so climbers could be seen standing at the top, the crest of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps. John and Justin stumbled to a halt, embraced, exchanged photos and basically just tried to stay warm and consume enough water (John’s was frozen) and power bars to stay fit. Unable to wait for Ken, the first team descended, but passed Ken moments later as he was making his way up the Summit Ridge. Alone at the top with his guide, Ken unfurled the Prostate Awareness Foundation banner in the howling wind and took a commemorative photo.

With the descent almost as hard as the ascent, both teams arrived back at the Gouter hut showing tanks on empty. And by the time they made it back to the Nid d’Aigle train station they had covered 11,338 feet of total ascent and descent in just a 12-hour period. Both Ken and John have successfully summited Mont Blanc and Mt. Kilimanjaro in the ongoing effort to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer. Ken, John and Justin also took part in the inaugural 2001 prostate cancer awareness climb on Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The PAF Mt. Blanc climbing team is poised to make its summit attempt a day early due to the possibility of storms moving into the area. The accelerated schedule gives the team an extra day to make the 15,772-foot (4,808-meter) summit in case the weather does in fact take a turn for the worse. We’re hoping for the best.

The training has been difficult, but a great boost to everyone’s confidence. On Monday, the five-member team—Ken Malik, Bill and Sally Gauditz, John Loesing and Justin Lukasavige—practiced ice climbing and crampon work on Mer de Glace (sea of ice), an ancient glacier near the base of Mont Blanc. Following a successful descent down a sheer granite face using fixed ladders and hand rails, Sally slipped and injured her knee and hand. She had to be taken to the Chamonix hospital for stitches, but rebounded for day two of the training, which consisted of a long hike and climb to the 11,500-foot Cosmiques refuge hut at the Aiguille du Midi (“mid-day spire” or needle), where we began our acclimatization for the higher altitudes. Sally later decided to join the trekkers for the completion of their Tour du Mont Blanc hike, cutting the summit team down to four.

We ascended 9,000 feet on a series of cable cars from the Italian village of Courmayer before the Aiguille du Midi journey could even begin. After departing the gondola, our hike across the Vallee Blanche (white valley) to the overnight hut gave us stunning, high-Alpine views. A series of treacherous crevasse fields kept our attention. The hut was little more than a glorified dormitory with a mix of multi-national climbers—and sleep was next to impossible amid the snoring and shuffling—but it was nice to have a mattress to rest on and a dining hall to eat in.

Day three began before sunrise and took us back across the Vallee Blanche, but we deviated from our previous day’s course to make some steep mini-summits, and even climb the famed Aiguille de Toule at 11,594 feet. This wasn’t just any summit. For John and Ken, it was a first look at the art of class-4 rock scrambling where the steep terrain and jagged edges present a scary challenge. The Aiguille de Toule spire was only about 100 meters tall. We’re told the rock scrambling on the way to the pre-summit refuge at the 12,522-foot Aiguille du Gouter will cover 600 meters. That’s our destination beginning tomorrow as we tackle the Gouter Route to the Mont Blanc summit. Wish us luck.

John Loesing

Hello from the Trekking Team. Days 3,4,5

Day 3 was a long hike from La Fouly to Champex. It was another beautiful sunny day. Ron and Rick were sore from yesterday’s severe downhill decent and decided to walk the road through the many villages and ultimately up 6 miles of steep switchbacks into Champex rather than stay on the trail, they feel it will be an easier journey. Brad, Sean and I (Ralph) took the TMB down an easy trail descending along the river and valley walls into the village of Praz de Fort.

We coincidentally met Ron and Rick in town and had a pizza lunch together at a café.

After Praz de Fort, the trail turned uphill, ending with a strenuous couple of miles of rocky, winding switchbacks uphill into Champex. Dragging ourselves into this beautiful alpine village we rewarded ourselves with a cold draft beer at an outdoor café by Lake Champex. We watched an old timer show the local kids how to catch Rainbow trout. Rick and Ron caught up with us and we all had a celebratory beer as we watched the town go by. After continuing through the beautiful quaint little town we were disappointed to find out that our hostel for the night was 1 mile outside of town, and home for the night to 35 grammar school  kids! We checked into our 10’ x 10’ room with 3 bunk beds for the five of us! This was not what we had in mind for our rest day. Dinner was the final blow. The grammar school cafeteria gruel that showed up at our table convinced us to quickly arrive at plan B; run back to into Champex and move the next morning to a fine hotel for our 1-day recovery.

Our day off was spent relaxing around town enjoying some fine food, refreshments, scenery and the great local hospitality. The weather report promised a continuation of balmy mountain sunshine so Brad and I lightened our load by shipping some rain gear and other stuff back to Texas. Sally Gauditz joined us from the climbing team. She had fallen and needed four stitches in her hand during the climbing team training program and wound up with a visit to the hospital in Chamonix. She decided to join the trek for the balance of the week and took a number of trains and buses to catch up with the trekking team in Champex.

We had a trail choice on day 5 to Trient. Either an 8-hour (probably 12+ for us) rocky climb over the top with some spectacular glacier views or a 6-hour ridge and woods trail around the back side on the TMB. Our tired legs and feet unanimously decided to take the low road. We ran into some other Americans (the only other Americans) along the way that were on a guided TMB tour. It was a great day on the trail.

The Relais Mont Blanc hotel was a welcome hostel with a beautiful mountain view and a 16^th century church high on the hill above our hotel deck.

The home stretch on day 6 back to Argentiere started with a gradual but long 3000’ uphill climb through open meadows and woods to the Col de Balme a 7200 foot high saddle defining the French/Swiss boarder. From the top of the pass we could see Mt Blanc across the frozen glacier laden high ground. Looking down to the northeast lay le Tour and far below, Argentiere our final destination 4000’ and several hours of down hill quad burn away.

Our TMB ended on a great note with the long downhill into Argentiere. Upon arrival to town we stopped for a self-congratulatory drink before finally returning safe but tired to the Yeti Lodge and a reunion with the climbing team which was back from their summit adventure.

In total we trekked about 40 miles in 5 days alternately ascending and descending over 15000’. What a great feeling of elation. We had accomplished our goal and will have some great memories of our mountain adventure.

The team dinner in Argentiere Sunday night was filled with the adventure stories from both the trekking and climb teams. Then back to the Yeti Lodge to pack and prepare to all go our separate ways.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 1:15 PM

Hey Guys,

We are on day 2 of the Tour Du Mt Blanc (TMB). The first day started with a grueling 2000 ft 10 mile climb from Courmayier Italy to the mountain refuge Bellotti. A beautiful log cabin hostel perched on a 3000 ft bluff looking across the canyon at the 10000 ft peaks with huge glaciers and rivers with water falls running from under them. We had a private room for the 5 of us with shared bathrooms and showers with other 50 or so French, Italians, Scotts etc people staying there. The trail has been fairly well marked although it does not compare well to our maps and the walking times are much less than we are taking. Today we left the Bellotti Refugio and hiked down the canyon 1500 feet then up 2400 feet to the pass that marked the Swiss Italian boarder. The trail was fairly narrow with long drop offs and the wind was 40 to 50 MPH making it a bit spooky for me along the cliff edges. Again the travel time was advertised as 4 hours and we arrived tired and beat 9 and a half hours later. The weather has been sunny and mild, 40 at night and 50 to 60 days. Everyone has been very friendly and helpful even though we don't speak the language ; mostly French or Italian. Communication has not really been a problem. We have a shorter day tomorrow ; about 4 hours that will probably turn into 6 or 8 with only about 1700 feet descent and ascent to Champex . I will give you an update if we are lucky enough to find another Internet connection at Champex or Trient on Friday.

See Y'all,
Ralph