'Standing in a big paw of Mother Nature'

Mount Everest climb the latest achievement for mountain medic

A day trip to Mount Reynolds in Glacier National Park became a career-altering experience for Melissa Arnot.

Arnot, a graduate of Whitefish High School, and her friend were enjoying their hike when they came upon a rescue scene. Emergency workers were trying to evacuate a pair of injured climbers.

Arnot and her friend offered to help however they could.

"That changed everything," Arnot said. "More than college. More than high school. All of a sudden it was really clear. I just knew."

Wilderness rescue had her hooked.

In fall 2002, after moving to Missoula and becoming an Emergency Medical Technician, Arnot began working ambulance shifts. She also received training in wilderness rescue.

The next six years would be a whirlwind of mountaineering, international travel and medical training. She worked in remote places, taught wilderness medicine, worked at adventure races and began guiding mountain tours.

Along with being an EMT and a Wilderness EMT, Arnot is a Basic Life Support Instructor, a Leave No Trace Trainer and has completed a U.S. Avalanche Level II course.

Arnot, 25, claims Bozeman as her home, but she's there just two weeks a year. She hasn't had an actual house to live in since 2004.

Most of her year, from May to October, is spent guiding trips up Mount Rainier in Washington. Arnot has more than 50 summits of the 14,411-foot peak.

"I really like to climb, and I love taking care of people," Arnot said. "[Guiding] is the best way to provide both."

In her so-called off season, Arnot works around the world. Her significant resume in medical care and her abilities as a climber gave her the opportunity to work for Remote Medical International. She teaches wilderness medicine and works as a remote site medic.

Remote Medical contracts with various companies and sends Arnot into the wilds around the world. Arnot recently worked as the medic for a team of scientists drilling for ice cores in Greenland.

"I have two of the coolest jobs," she said.

Each March Arnot gets to take off and do her own climbing. One year, she jumped in her car and traveled around the United States, stopping at climbing spots along the way.

"I tend to want to go rock climbing and ice climbing a lot," she said. "I crave that more because I have the opportunity to be on big mountains more."

Arnot has stood on top of a lot of big mountains. She has climbed Cotopaxi (19,348 feet) and Cayambe (18,997) in Ecuador. She was on an expedition that reached the top of Argentina's Aconcagua, which at 22,840 feet is the highest point in South America.

And this May, Arnot took in the view from the summit of the world's tallest peak.

Everest. The top of the world at 29,029 feet.

Mount Everest is the stuff of legends. The mountain has reached a kind of mythical status. In the last 80 years, the mountain has claimed more than 200 lives.

But for Arnot, Everest was just another step in her climbing career. She has her dream list of mountains she'd like to climb, but Everest hadn't captured her as other peaks had.

"Everest has never been my goal," she said.

The trip up Everest was the result of an emergency, Arnot's skill as a medic and a client's watchful eye.

Last summer, during one of her numerous Rainier trips, Arnot had to assist a woman who went temporarily blind due to altitude.

Another client, Jeff Dossett, helped with the descent.

After They got the woman off the mountain, Dossett told Arnot he had never worked with a guide who had so much medical experience. He said he was putting together a team for Everest and asked if Arnot would be interested.

"I said, 'Thanks but no thanks,'" Arnot said. "It sounded like rainbows and butterflies, and I had other places in Nepal I wanted to climb first."

But Dossett was for real. Dossett, the executive producer and general manager for MSN Network, had the experience and the finances to put the trip together. He already had completed the coveted Seven Summits by climbing the highest peak on every continent, and he was paying for the Everest trip out of his own bank account.

Dossett contacted Arnot again in the fall, and this time she said yes.

"I was extremely lucky," Arnot said. "For mountain guiding it is winning the lottery."

Dossett's team was climbing to raise awareness for Product Red, an organization created by Bobby Shriver and U2's Bono to raise money for women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa. Mount Everest would be their billboard.

Visit www.teaminspired.com to see a photo gallery of the Everest trip.

The team left on March 24, 2008, hoping to receive the necessary permits to climb Everest.

"It's a very tenuous permitting process," Arnot said. "It was possible we wouldn't get them. We could have just been stuck in Katmandu."

The team got the permits and flew into Nepal on April 1.

For 10 days, the climbers made their way through the countryside to base cam at 17,200 feet - about 5,000 feet higher than Montana's tallest peak.

Once at base camp, the team spent the next five weeks making short ascents up the mountain and then returning to camp. Climbers must get used to the altitude. No one just flies to Nepal and rushes up Everest.

The push to the summit finally came, and the team made its way up to high camp at 26,000 feet. From high camp to the summit is called the "dead zone." Oxygen is so scarce that most climbers bring it with them in tanks.

"It's physically challenging because of the lack of oxygen, but the skills it takes to climb other mountains are the same for Everest," Arnot said. "The mental aspect is what wears on people. I refused to acknowledge how big it was until we were down."

On May 22, Arnot spent an hour on Everest's summit.

"The spiritual aspect of the mountain is just amazing," Arnot said. "There are very few things that are the most or the highest or the top, top thing. The mountain doesn't care who you are or how much money you have. It's going to give you the same challenge. That's a special thing that has to be respected. You're standing in a big paw of Mother Nature."

Everest's status and height make it attractive to climbers, but it isn't as technical as a lot of other climbs, which makes it attainable to a lot of people.

"If you play tennis, you can't just go play the best player in the world," Arnot said. "But if you climb mountains, you can go to Everest. It's accessible for the common climber."

Arnot said she is "for sure" going back to Everest in 2009, and she is contemplating trying the climb without oxygen, something no American woman has ever accomplished.

Her Rainier season is now in full swing, and her schedule is as packed as ever. Besides Everest, Arnot is hoping to climb other Himalayan peaks and climb in Antarctica. She has also been working on developing products for a company's technical equipment line.

Although Arnot attended Portland State to study literature and then transferred to the University of Iowa and focused on business and health promotions, she sees her future in the mountains.

The hook that initially set on Reynolds has only sunk deeper.

"As long as my body will do it, I'll keep climbing," Arnot said. "I hope I'm 80 years old and still climbing and doing medicine."

Reporter Michael Richeson may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at mricheson@dailyinterlake.com