Blume

Kekus

Radio Call between Nick Kekus in Base Camp and John Tinker in Camp II:

Tinker

Tinker: Camp II to Base Camp, ovah.
Kekus: Go ahead, Camp II.
Tinker: Nick, you'd better sit down, ovah.
Kekus: But John, I already AM sitting down!
Tinker: Hugo has NO frostbite on his feet, ovah.
Kekus (and the rest of us in the room): Stunned silence.

Charles Corfield with a pair of the ABC Everest Boots that are now bound to become standard gear for high altitude climbing.

This happened after a debate between Doctors Doug Rovira (Canadian team), Howard Donner (NOVA team), and Saye Khoo (Malaysian team), over whether to take the boots off Rodriguez's assumed to be frostbitten feet. [Boots are not removed at high-camp when frostbite is suspected since the climber still needs to use his feet for descent, and the pain of putting boots back on injured feet is often overwhelming.] Now however, both Rodriguez and Beck Weathers are poster boys for ABC's Everest Boots (which run about $700 per pair), having sustained frostbite on their hands (Hugo's is apparently minor) but none on their feet after extreme exposure.

-- Freddy Blume, Everest Base Camp