Looks like he made it
Whitefish cinematographer reaches summit of Mount Everest
It's Dave Rasmussen's third time on Mount Everest, his first time at the top.
The cinematographer from rural Whitefish reached the 29,028-foot summit of the world's highest mountain Wednesday as part of a British medical research expedition.
Rasmussen, 49, was one of 16 people who summited at 6:30 a.m. Nepal time - or 6:45 p.m. MDT on Tuesday - to research the effects of extremely high altitudes on the delivery of oxygen into the body, how lungs work, and on blood flow in the brain. The group tested a portable breathing system designed for climbers.
He is filming the expedition for the BBC.
Rasmussen is a veteran outdoors cinematographer who has filmed in the Northwest and Southwest United States, the Arctic and at the base camp on Pakistan's K2, the world's second-tallest mountain.
He filmed a 2003 Italian expedition that put a woman and a Sherpa on the summit of Everest. And he filmed a 2005 British Army expedition that almost made it to the top by the most-difficult route on Everest - the Western Ridge - before avalanche-prone conditions forced it back. On an Everest expedition, typically a small group out of the overall party goes to the top.
Both times, Rasmussen was not a part of the summit group.
Rasmussen connected with the 2007 expedition because of his work with the British Army attempt.
"He was excited," said his wife, Margie Rasmussen. "He had never been driven to get to the top. But every time you get so close, you have to wonder if you'll ever make it to the top."
This month's climb was by the much-easier southeastern route.
"It has gone pretty smoothly. It's a well-run expedition and extremely safe," Margie Rasmussen said.
The research is coordinated by doctors at the University College of London, who collected 208 volunteers to undergo 32 tests at sea level. Those same volunteers accompanied the expedition to a Mount Everest camp at an altitude of 17,500 feet, at which they underwent the same tests, the BBC said.
Rasmussen and 15 others climbed to the top, where more tests were conducted.
Mount Everest's thin air duplicates the low oxygen levels experienced by many hospital patients who need to be kept in intensive-care units, the BBC said. The summit has about one-third of the oxygen that is found at sea level.
Intensive-care patients always have other illnesses or injuries that affect the oxygen research done on them. On Mount Everest, those other factors won't influence the tests.
The BBC quoted the expedition's medical leader, Dr. Mike Grocott, as saying: "Low oxygen levels are pretty much a universal feature of patients who are very sick. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to separate out the effects of low oxygen back home in the wards from all the other things going on."
On the expedition's Web site, the BBC story continues to quote Grocott: "Strange as it may seem, Everest is a brilliant model for looking at how humans adapt to low oxygen levels."
Mount Everest is being used as an outdoor laboratory because a large number of people are needed to ensure that the results are statistically reliable.
Duplicating this study in high-altitude-mimicking air chambers would be impractical, because not enough exist to handle 200 people. Also, those volunteers would have to stay inside the chambers for a few weeks.
Margie Rasmussen said it will be a long time before the results of the tests would be published.
"They found that a human body adjusts more [to thin oxygen] than they thought," she said.
The descending summit group was reported to be at an advance camp at 26,000 feet above sea level.
A few days ago, the medical research team treated a woman whom some other climbers found and rescued after her party reportedly abandoned her.
On the 'Net: www.xtreme-everest.co.uk.