In a new study, a team of biologists found that participants' breathing patterns were so unique that they could identify them with almost perfect accuracy.

But not only that; the study also showed that these "respiratory fingerprints" could predict physical and mental traits like Body Mass Index (BMI) and mental illness.

Counting breaths

To measure breathing patterns, researchers strapped a special device onto 100 subjects for 24 hours, logging every inhale and exhale. AI analysis then turned the data into a distinct pattern, which then matched breathing to participants with 96.8% accuracy. The breathing data also indicated whether a subject was asleep or awake, and seemed to indicate Body Mass Index.

Researchers invited the subjects back three months later for another trial. They found that their breathing patterns hadn't changed much, indicating that the fingerprint was fairly stable.

Participants filled out surveys designed to measure depressed, anxious, and autistic traits. All three conditions have possible links to respiratory dysfunction.

Breathing exercises are widely used to reduce anxiety. But respiratory fingerprints could have a much broader application. "We envision application of respiratory fingerprints across various areas of medicine," the paper predicted.

The future of respiratory fingerprints

Even the most fundamental physiological processes, like breathing, aren't fully understood. We are still learning how changes to breathing and air conditions affect the body. The respiratory fingerprint may help fill in those gaps.

It's promising research, but the rocky history of fingerprints shows why good science is slow and cautious. The method of using fingerprints as identification was developed in 1892, and they became prime evidence for many convictions and executions. Now, in the era of DNA evidence, several people convicted based on their fingerprints have been exonerated.

A ground-breaking development in snakebite treatment has emerged from two small vials of blood. Specifically, the blood of Tim Friede, a Wisconsin man who has voluntarily injected himself with snake venom and let snakes bite him for the last two decades.

Most people would do anything to avoid a venomous snake bite. But Friede set up a lab in his basement to try and help in the field of antivenom research. He is not a scientist, nor was he affiliated with any research body. Snakes and their bites just piqued his curiosity.

Speaking to The New York Times, he explained that a garter snake bit him when he was five. This harmless interaction triggered his fascination with snakes. “If I only knew back then what was going to happen,” he laughed.

Early disaster

In 2000, he began exposing himself to venom. He started with scorpions but soon changed to snakes. A year later, he let two cobras bite him. It sent him into a coma, and he woke up four days later in a hospital. His wife was understandably incandescent with rage when she found out what he had done. But so was Friede, for different reasons: He could not believe he had not thought it through properly.

From that point, he started injecting himself with small doses of the venom to build up his immunity. Only then would he allow snakes to bite him. Over the years, he has injected himself with 650 doses of venom and endured more than 200 bites from some of the world's deadliest snakes.

Throughout this, he emailed multiple scientists to try to get them to study his blood. A few did sample it, but it never led anywhere. Then in 2017, he got a call from Jacob Glanville. An immunologist by trade, Glanville used to work on universal vaccines and wondered if he could apply the same logic to antivenoms. Rather than targeting the part of the venom that makes it unique, universal antivenom would act on the parts that are common to multiple venoms.

Can I have your blood, please?

When he read about Friede, he realized the potential. "If anybody in the world has developed these broadly neutralizing antibodies, it's going to be him," he thought, so he reached out. "The first call, I was like 'this might be awkward, but I'd love to get my hands on some of your blood',” Glanville told the BBC.

It was exactly what a delighted Friede had been waiting for.

“I’m really proud that I can do something in life for humanity, to make a difference for people that are 8,000 miles away, that I’m never going to meet, never going to talk to, never going to see,” he said.

Glanville and biochemist partner Peter Kwong collected two vials of Friede's blood. Their research focuses on elapids, the family of venomous snakes that includes mambas, cobras, taipans, and coral snakes.

They identified two antibodies capable of neutralizing a broad spectrum of snake venoms. They combined these with varespladib, a molecule that inhibits venom enzymes, then tested this combination on mice exposed to venom. Thirteen mice were fully immune, and the remaining six showed partial protection.

Don't try this at home

Conventional antivenoms come from the blood of horses or sheep that have been given a specific venom. Typically, they are expensive, have limited regional effectiveness, and may cause severe allergic reactions because the antibodies come from non-human mammals. In contrast, the new antivenom is lab-produced, potentially reducing costs and allergic risks, and offers broader protection.

While Friede's work is hugely significant, experts caution anyone against replicating his methods. The research team noted that all necessary antibodies have been identified, and no further self-exposure is needed.

This is just the first stage of research. Next, they hope to test their universal antivenom on dogs bitten by snakes at a veterinary clinic in Australia. They would then need to test on larger animals before moving on to humans.

My father always insisted on swimming in mountain tarns even in the depths of winter, which we all assumed meant there was something wrong with him. But health influencers have long touted the benefits of cold water plunges. The practice has been recommended for exercise recovery, increased energy levels, and even mental health disorders.

Curious about what cold plunges actually do to the human body, researchers at the University of Ottawa decided to take a closer look. The study reveals that after only a week of regular plunges, their subjects were seeing positive changes on a cellular level.

New evidence for an old practice

Humans seem to have an instinctual belief that getting really cold for a bit is good for us. Hippocrates recommended immersion in cold water for tetanus patients, and both the Roman physician Galen and Chinese surgeon Hua To favored an icy dip to treat fever.

In more modern times, the use of icy plunges expanded to all manner of ailments. English physician John Floyer published a treatise on temperature therapy in 1697. In it, he wrote that during summertime, "it is necessary to concente [sic] our Strength and Spirits by Cold bathing." By following his own regimen, he claimed to have made himself healthier and heartier.

During the 19th century, physicians used cold therapy to treat mental illness, numb limbs for amputation (this was before actual anesthesia), and lower fevers. The upper classes started cold bathing for all manner of aches and for that ephemeral and still sought-after "wellness."

Sea bathing became enormously popular as a general health and hygiene practice. One proponent was William Cullen, an 18th-century Scottish physician who prescribed cold showers (and cold enemas) for a range of ailments. The second thing did not catch on as much.

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the popularity of cold water plunges has only increased. Sports medicine, especially, has embraced the practice for post-exercise and injury recovery. But just what exactly happens to a person when they undergo regular cold water treatment?

Cellular change

The Ottawa researchers, led by Glen Kenny and Kelli King, submerged their subjects in 14°C (57˚F) water for an hour a day, seven days in a row. By collecting blood samples before, during, and after this regimen, they could watch the effects of the plunges.

At first, it didn't look good. The stress on the body was significant, and it threw off the autophagic systems of the cells. Autophagy is the cell's cleanup and recycling system. When organelles are damaged or no longer needed, autophagic processes dispose of them. The material is then reused to make new cell parts. When this system isn't working well, damaged or unbalanced cells build up. This buildup of damaged cells is part of the aging process.

If cells are damaged, the body may trigger apoptosis, which destroys a cell entirely. Apoptosis is normal, and some cells simply need to go. However, it's much more efficient to repair them through autophagy rather than relying only on apoptosis. As the subjects' autophagy went down, apoptosis went up to compensate.

But after a few days, the patients' cells started to acclimate. Autophagy picked back up, though stress was still evident as well. By day four, the subjects were "over the hump," as it were. Their cells were undergoing autophagy more and apoptosis less.

Cold plunges for all?

The results are promising. By acclimating themselves to the cold, the subjects were better able to withstand the temperature extremes they were exposed to. More than that, Kelli King called cold water plunging a "tune-up for your body’s microscopic machinery." The positive impact on autophagy has implications for disease prevention and the slowing of aging.

But this was a small study. There were only 10 subjects, all healthy adult men. People of different ages and sexes handle cold differently. For people with preexisting conditions, this sort of treatment can be dangerous.

One influential cold-water health guru, a Dutch man named Wim Hof, has faced multiple accusations of negligence for his recommendations. A Sunday Times investigation in May of 2023 revealed 11 deaths connected with his teachings, which combine ice water plunges and breathing exercises.

The American Heart Association has come out against cold therapy. Sudden exposure to extreme cold can trigger heart attacks even in young, fit people. In fact, University of Portsmouth researcher Mike Tipton, an expert in the physical effects of cold water, found young and healthy people had up to a three percent chance of cardiac arrhythmia in an icy plunge.

The University of Ottawa subjects were carefully monitored and vetted. The amateur fitness enthusiasts trying cold plunges at home are not. So take this study as it is: fascinating preliminary research. Not a how-to guide for a frigid DIY fountain of youth.

In December, 40-year-old Max Armstrong went on a camping and hunting trip with friends. The trip had turned into a nightmare. A minor burn on Armstrong's thumb escalated to a double leg amputation.

Armstrong is an experienced outdoorsman. In 2016, he completed a 151-day trek from Mexico to Canada and treated dozens of minor cuts, scratches, and burns along the way. On his latest outing, he accidentally touched a hot skillet while cooking and burned his thumb slightly. Armstrong thought nothing of it, applied a bandage, and continued his activities.

Two days later, he noticed swelling in his left leg. At first, he assumed that it was just an ankle injury that he hadn't noticed and would improve in time. But the swelling intensified, his toenails turned purple, and the pain became unbearable. Realizing the severity of his condition, Armstrong went straight to the emergency room.

Induced coma

By the time he arrived, his eyes were rolling back in his head, and he was showing signs of confusion. He had sepsis. To try and control the worsening situation, doctors put him into an induced coma for six days.

Doctors diagnosed Armstrong with a severe infection caused by Group A Streptococcus bacteria, commonly known as strep A. This particular type was, unfortunately, the potentially deadly Invasive Group A Strep. It had entered his body through the burn on his thumb. This infection rapidly progressed to sepsis. While he was in a coma, the infection caused significant tissue damage, turning his feet black from necrosis.

After waking him up, the doctors told Armstrong and his family that there was a strong chance he would not make it due to the severity of the sepsis. They started mentioning amputations as a possibility to stop the infection from spreading up his legs. Initially, Armstrong was determined to keep his legs.

He told People magazine, “My mom was taking photos. And they [his feet] looked so black, and the veins were cooked. They just looked like they'd never be able to be used again.”

The necrosis was speeding up his legs, and he knew if it advanced any further, even a below-the-knee amputation would no longer be enough. At this point, he agreed to the amputation.

Hopes to hike again

On December 23, both legs were amputated. "Initially, when I woke up, I thought my legs were still there, and then I came to realize that they weren't."

By this time next year, he hopes to be hiking in the mountains again. For now, his dream is to walk around his home and take his dog for a walk.

Such outcomes are rare, but they underscore that severe freak infections from minor injuries are possible, so we need to seek medical attention promptly when small ailments behave strangely.

Professional road cycling has made huge leaps in curbing cheating since Lance Armstrong’s seven-year dominance of the Tour de France. But rabid cycling fans and insider pundits still harbor fears that cheating is still producing winning performances at the highest levels. The complete trust of the top riders and teams has been hard to come by. Any hint of foul play generates extreme scrutiny.

From barbituates, steroids, pain killers, EPO, blood transfusions, and motor doping, big-money cycling has exercised extreme measures to obtain the most marginal of competitive advantages. So when chatter surfaces about a new, high-tech, novel way to squeeze out a gain, it isn’t much of a surprise.

Last year, word spread that road cycling’s winningest riders and teams could inhale poisonous gas in the name of performance. This shocked even the most scrupulous fans.

But yesterday, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) officially banned the potentially deadly practice of repeated carbon monoxide inhalation from all competitive cycling under its jurisdiction.

The official press release summarizes the ban as follows: “The new regulation forbids the possession, outside a medical facility, of commercially available CO re-breathing systems connected to oxygen and CO cylinders. This ban applies to all license-holders, teams, and/or bodies subject to the UCI Regulations and to anyone else who might possess such equipment on behalf of riders or teams.”

The new ruling goes into effect on February 10.

Carbon monoxide cheating: why cyclists do it

Carbon monoxide (CO) gas can be an invisible, silent killer. This is why we have CO detectors in RVs and homes. CO has a stronger affinity to the oxygen-carrying component in red blood cells (hemoglobin, or Hb) than oxygen itself.

When inhaled, CO displaces oxygen and eventually causes “suffocation” from the inside. We need detectors because the gas has no taste, color, or odor.

Ironically, CO’s strong affinity for Hb can potentially also enhance aerobic performance. Anything that reduces the blood’s oxygen level over time will stimulate a compensatory response to reestablish this capacity. This is why athletes go to altitude.

The lower partial pressure of oxygen at higher elevations results in fewer oxygen molecules bound to red blood cells. This also means the blood transfers less oxygen to working muscles.

As the athlete continues to live and work at altitude, the body produces more blood volume, hemoglobin, and other factors to compensate. Theoretically, this boosted oxygen-carrying ability provides a greater advantage at lower altitudes.

Repeatedly inhaling CO has the same oxygen-lowering effect as high altitude but with a different mechanism. Instead of less air pressure driving less oxygen into the blood and tissues, CO competes with the oxygen for binding sites on the Hb of red blood cells. Less oxygen bound to Hb ultimately means less oxygen for working muscles.

Studies strongly suggest that it triggers the same compensatory adaptations. But, unlike altitude training, CO inhalation can be extremely harmful.

How are cyclists doing it?

The practice of CO “doping” actually stems from a diagnostic test that teams used to determine training efficacy. Specifically, CO “rebreathing” helped determine blood volume and Hb mass, which helped teams quantify physiological gains made during altitude training camps.

It worked like this: Athletes determine a baseline measurement for CO blood levels using blood and breathing tests. Then, the athlete inhales a small amount of CO diluted with oxygen for two minutes through an enclosed circuit. The CO binds to Hb in the red blood cells to form carboxyhemoglobin.

After these two minutes, teams measured the amount of carboxyhemoglobin in the breath and blood and compared it to the baseline levels to calculate Hb mass. This Hb mass is an indicator of the effectiveness of altitude training or any other method used to increase the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

CO rebreathing machines specific to this type of testing automate this procedure. However, athletes can achieve the same results through a manual process using a closed-circuit carbon monoxide rebreather system.

Although these machines and testing procedures have been in use for a long time and do not inherently imply cheating, the possibility of abuse (and negative health consequences) exists. This triggered the spate of speculation and group ride chatter.

When the media connected top teams and contenders of this year’s Tour de France to CO rebreathing tests, the chatter amplified.

Cheating by inhaling carbon monoxide

The jump from legal and logical testing to outright cheating is not black and white. The same physiological response to CO and machinery applies. The devil (and potential death) is in the details and in the wording.

Carbon monoxide rebreathing is testing. Instead of the two minutes of breathing the CO and oxygen mixture to determine Hb mass, cheating, as determined by the UCI, involves repeatedly inhaling CO to stimulate the artificial response of producing more Hb and other blood factors to improve performance.

Athletes can combine repeated inhalation of CO with altitude training. This is termed “super altitude.”

What happens next?

I’ve been around cycling a long time. Only time will tell how this news plays out at the sport’s elite level.

As the UCI press release states, it isn’t poking athletes for blood to determine cheating. It’s taking the much lower-tech approach of prohibiting the possession of commercial CO rebreathing machines.

If I’m optimistic, the road racing industry still stings from the Armstrong Era and all the associated fallout, and they will thereby voluntarily abide by the ruling.

But my inner retro-grouch and experience with this type of workaround prohibition of a potentially performance-enhancing method say otherwise. During my tenure as a trainer in professional sports, the governing body involved prohibited having IV equipment outside of a medical facility. This is the exact wording the UCI uses for CO rebreathing equipment.

Like professional road racing, the money involved was huge. So, what did athletes do to avoid breaking the rules? They arranged for fast transport between racing events on the same day to the nearest ER. Then, they got performance-enhancing, extraneous fluid replacement under “doctor’s orders.” This strategy proved hugely beneficial when events were closely spaced during the hottest races.

Again, this was only possible for the racers and teams with the largest budgets. The same applies here. Not every team can afford a CO rebreathing machine or the professionals to run them. This opens the door for lower-funded athletes and teams to try “back alley” methods to gain equal footing.

I saw this often. It was scary. But winners don’t like to lose, and common sense can take a back seat to “best efforts.”

Let’s all hope that professional cyclists and teams abide by the rules and respect the potential for harm. Cycling doesn’t need a “super altitude era.”

This article first appeared on GearJunkie.

New research has shown that the low oxygen levels that accompany high-altitude sports impact the quality of sperm and decrease male fertility. 

The study addresses the serious decline in male fertility over the last five decades. Since the 1970s, sperm counts have dropped by 50%, and there is no sign of that slowing down. 

Several studies have shown how a lack of oxygen reaching the testicles threatens reproductive health. Medically, men are considered infertile if, after 12 months of regular unprotected sex, no pregnancy occurs. Those with low fertility have less chance of conceiving. Both infertility and low fertility have increased dramatically in recent years. 

Medical conditions such as sleep apnea, testicular torsion, and varicocele seem to be the leading causes. Varicocele (enlarged veins in the scrotum) accounts for 45% of infertility in men. Meanwhile, between 13% and 30% of men suffer from sleep apnea. 

High-altitude hiking and climbing have a much shorter effect on sperm. However, there is still a risk. 

Low oxygen levels may not cause permanent infertility, but they do lead to a low sperm count, decreased sperm quality, and disruptions in hormone production. Tessa Lord, who led the study, commented, “The effects on fertility are short-term but can still take a few months to resolve after returning to sea level.”

The long-term effects of oxygen deprivation are still unknown. But according to recent evidence, Lord suggests that"testis hypoxia in fathers could result in embryos with developmental issues, and those children could grow up to experience fertility issues themselves."

On average, snakes bite 1.8 million people worldwide each year, and 138,000 of those are fatal. Researchers have now found a new treatment for at least cobra bites -- a common blood thinner called heparinoids.

If a venomous snake bites you, getting antivenom as quickly as possible is crucial. Unfortunately, not all venoms — including venom from several cobra species — have effective antivenom. Cobras may not be the deadliest snakes in the world, but their venom can still cause serious tissue damage.

Most antivenoms are specific to either one or a few species of snake. They are expensive, have a limited shelf life, need refrigeration, and must be administered in a hospital. However, most snakebites occur in remote areas, where medical treatment is not easily accessible. Also, though antivenoms save lives, they do not limit the tissue damage around the site of the bite. The necrosis is often so severe that it leads to amputations.

Decoying away the venom

Scientists from the UK, Australia, Canada, and Costa Rica set out to find more treatment options for snakebites. Typically, research focuses only on a few of the quickest-acting and deadliest venoms.

“It’s a neglected area….It seems like if it’s not immediately fatal, it’s not the main focus,” Shirin Ahmadi, a specialist in skin cell death who did not participate in the study, told Science.org.

The team decided to start with cobras and picked one whose venom causes tissue damage. Using venom from African spitting cobras and CRISPR gene-editing technology, they identified the genes affected by cobra venom and which trigger necrosis. Those genes involved in producing heparan sulfate -- common sugars in cell membranes -- seem to be central to the tissue damage. Toxins from the venom bind to these sugars, damaging the cells and tissues.

When the research team saw this, they had a brain wave. If they could find a molecule similar to heparan sulfate, it might act as a decoy. This is where heparinoids and heparin come into play. When cells are flooded with blood thinners, the toxins bind to them instead of to the sugars in cell membranes. This stops the toxins from harming cells and necrosis from developing. Lab tests confirmed this worked in both human cells and in mice.

This is a huge leap forward in treating snakebites. As these drugs are already approved and readily available, moving to clinical trials will be a speedy process. In the long term, scientists hope to create an epi-pen device that rural people at high risk of cobra bites can carry.

“Our discovery could drastically reduce the terrible injuries from necrosis caused by cobra bites," co-author Greg Neely told The Independent. "It might also slow the venom, which could improve survival rates.”

In recent decades, the vulture population in India has collapsed. Since the mid-1990s, populations of several species of the big carrion-eating birds have decreased by up to 99.9%. A study reveals that this has severely impacted human health in the region.

When vultures feed on the remains of dead animals, they remove these rotting carcasses from the ecosystem, including any diseases those animals were carrying.

The vulture populations started rapidly declining because of diclofenac, a drug widely given to livestock for pain and inflammation. It happened to be toxic to vultures and killed them when they fed on the carcasses of livestock that had ingested the chemical.

Why vultures are so important

India has over 500 million head of cattle. Until recently, vultures have been one of the main ways to get rid of the dead ones. With the vultures in decline, the carcasses started to build up, spreading pathogens.

The build-up of carcasses outside tanneries, in particular, got so bad that the government ordered them to use chemicals to get rid of the remains. These chemicals found their way into nearby waterways. Elsewhere, farmers threw carcasses into nearby rivers, likewise contaminating water supplies.

The available carcasses also meant that the number of stray dogs began skyrocketing. These dogs often carried rabies, and more humans were bitten and infected.

The study compared the death rates of humans in all districts where vultures were once prevalent. Researchers used data from before and after the use of diclofenac in 1994. The human death rate increased by an average of 4% after the vultures started dying out. This added up to over 500,000 human deaths between 2000 and 2005.

Though some species of vultures are now near extinction in India, conservation efforts are minimal compared to other species around the world. The birds are constantly associated with death, are not cute and cuddly, and so are not good candidates for fundraising initiatives.

Some primates have learned to use rudimentary medicine. In May, researchers observed orangutans chewing up medicinal leaves and then applying the juice to wounds on their skin. Now, a team in Uganda has observed chimpanzees using 13 different therapeutic plants to self-medicate.

Following sick chimps

The team of researchers observed two groups of chimpanzees in Uganda, looking for sick or injured individuals.

Of 170 chimps within the groups, 51 suffered from diarrhea, parasites, or wounds. The team began following the sick apes for 10 hours per day. The sick primates often appeared to be searching for a specific plant to eat. These plants were not part of their usual diet, such as tree bark or the skin of a certain fruit.

The researchers then took samples from the plants to test their healing properties. The vast majority of them were antibacterial.

"We were looking for these behavioral clues that the plants might be medicinal," Elodie Freymann, lead author of the study, told the BBC.

In total, they collected 17 samples from 13 plant species. Ninety percent of them stopped bacterial growth, and a third also acted as an anti-inflammatory.

Speedy recovery

Incredibly, the chimpanzees could select the plant that would help their specific injury or illness. All the ill chimps made speedy recoveries.

The team admitted they couldn't prove the plants they ate caused the recoveries, but the study makes a compelling argument about these chimpanzee's ability to speed up their healing process. Many of the plants the sick chimps chose to eat hold very little nutritional value, and no healthy chimpanzees were eating them.

Some interesting examples include a male chimp with a hurt hand that he could not use. While other chimps were eating, this chimp searched for a specific fern that the rest of the group did not consume. A few days later, the chimp's hand was fine again.

Another chimp suffered from diarrhea and tapeworms. With two companions, it left its group and searched for an Alstonia boonei tree. The chimp chewed on dead bark from the tree and swiftly recovered.

Inter-species learning

A huge takeaway from this study is how much we can learn from the medicinal knowledge of other species.

"Chimpanzees are incredibly smart, and it makes perfect sense they would have figured out which plants can help them when ill or injured," Freymann told the Washington Post.

Plants are important in creating new drugs, but finding medicinal plants is incredibly difficult. The research team's study proves how crucial it is that we "prioritize the preservation of our wild forest pharmacies, as well as our primate cousins who inhabit them."

New research conducted at the site of the Roman baths in Bath, England, seems to back up the long-held belief that the waters there could do more than relieve achy joints and promote relaxation. They might legitimately hold healing properties.

In the journal The Microbe, researchers from the University of Plymouth’s School of Biomedical Sciences revealed that at least 15 of the microorganisms swimming in Bath's world-famous waters produce antimicrobial compounds that could help combat some of humanity's most vicious microscopic enemies: E.coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri, to name three of the most prominent.

"This is a really important and very exciting piece of research," Dr. Lee Hutt, Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Plymouth and lead author on the paper, told ScienceDaily. "The waters of the Roman Baths have long been regarded for their medicinal properties...Now, thanks to advances in modern science, we might be on the verge of discovering the Romans and others since were right."

Science meets tradition

Everyone -- including animals from capybaras to snow monkeys -- enjoys a hot spring, but no one loved to get their soak on better than the ancient Romans. The Romans started dipping in Bath sometime between 60 and 70 AD, though native Britons almost certainly used the springs long before the invaders arrived.

Regular soaking continued until the Roman Empire withdrew from Britain in the fifth century AD. The Romans who stayed around (not to mention Romanized Britons) kept up the practice for a while, though the facilities were in ruins by the sixth century, according to a chronicle penned during the reign of Alfred the Great, another couple of centuries down the road.

Soaking enthusiasts in the early and late Middle Ages rebuilt the site, and the waters of Bath have been a tourist attraction ever since, renowned for their healing abilities. Until now, those legends have been purely anecdotal.

Enter the scientific method. Scientists collected biofilm, water, and sediment from two locations in the baths. They then analyzed the samples using gene sequencing technology and tried-and-true culturing methods. The scientists isolated 300 types of bacteria from the samples, 15 of which packed enough antimicrobial punch to warrant further study.

More work to do

The team stressed that more work is necessary before the organisms at Bath can be used to combat the estimated 1.25 million deaths that occur annually due to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. However, the initial study was promising enough that the University of Plymouth will expand the research beginning this fall.

So the next time someone tells you a hot spring may have healing properties, don't immediately roll your eyes. Do the smart thing and make like a macaque.

As the Everest summits begin, climbers must be aware of an extra concern besides the thin air and the effort: their heart condition. Climber and cardiologist Thomas Pilgrim headed a recent study that showed one-third of Everest climbers suffer cardiac arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) during their ascent.

13 of 41 climbers had arrhythmias

The SUMMIT study took place during the spring of 2023 and involved 41 volunteers, all supposedly healthy. Fourteen of them eventually summited, while the others retreated at some point on the South Col route. There were 45 arrhythmias over 13 individuals. None of these arrhythmias showed obvious symptoms.

Researchers took various cardiac measurements of the 41 climbers and did an exercise stress test before the expedition. They recorded continuous heart rhythm measurements before and during the expedition.

While the proportion of climbers with arrhythmia remained stable as the altitude increased, the number of events per 24 hours increased with altitude between Base Camp and Camp 3 (at 7,000m). The event rate then decreased. Roughly 80% of the arrhythmias occurred in climbers with no supplementary oxygen.

"Many of the volunteers were sherpa climbers, which gave the study an extra benefit," Pilgrim told ExplorersWeb in a Zoom interview from Switzerland. "After all, they are the people who spend the most time on the mountains and are the most exposed to altitude."

No clear diagnosis

Pilgrim noted that when people die on Everest from something other than an accident, there is often no clear diagnosis. It can be unclear if such deaths, usually attributed to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), were preventable. So one of the key aims of the study was to learn whether arrhythmias were partly to blame.

All participants had previous experience at altitude.

"This is probably a selection bias, but people who don't tolerate the altitude would hardly make it to the summit of Everest and probably have the most arrhythmias," Pilgrim said. "So what we had in the end was a selection of healthy people [who were] already acclimatized."

Pilgrim climbed Everest himself and participated in the study. He eventually retreated near the South Col, without summiting. He suffered no arrhythmias during his climb.

Asked whether the sherpa guides, who are exposed to altitude most of the year, could end up with arrhythmias from the chronic stress, Pilgrim said the study is too small for such a conclusion. However, the current study suggests no such relationship. Some participants had summited 10 8,000m peaks and didn't fare any worse than others.

"Perhaps there is a genetic predisposition to arrhythmias," Pilgrim said.

Bearing in mind the limitations of such a small sample, the project did contradict a previous study that suggested sherpas are immune to arrhythmias. "They can have the same cardiac issues as anyone else," Pilgrim explained.

How to tell arrhythmia from fatigue

Another question is whether the arrhythmias were from the altitude or simply the result of strenuous effort, such as an Ironman triathlete might experience at sea level.

"There are differences," Pilgrim said. "At high altitudes, you have characteristic breathing patterns. For instance, periodic breathing (apnea) during sleep creates conflict between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve systems and increases the risk of developing bradycardia. Also, in these hypoxic environments, you tend to hyperventilate and that causes electrolyte disturbances, which can lead to tachycardia."

Another interesting finding is that the arrhythmias stop the moment the climber descends. It's not permanent damage. Equally, the use of supplemental oxygen radically diminishes the risk of arrhythmias.

Prevention tips

"Have a thorough cardiac checkup before going to the mountains and consider using supplemental oxygen," Pilgrim recommends.

It is worth noting that some arrhythmias are more dangerous than others. "The most concerning is the tachyarrhythmias [the heart beats too fast]. Those were the least registered during the study," Pilgrim said.

He suggests that further studies could explore whether some medications might change the electrical conduction of the heart that controls its beating. "We need to research if and how an unfortunate combination of medication and altitude could lead to a cardiac episode."

But how can you tell tachycardia from fatigue?

"It is very hard...unless someone is monitoring you," Pilgrim said. "There are so many dangers up there that most climbers consider cardiac arrhythmias the least of their problems. In the future, technology should permit people to monitor climbers from Base Camp."

The SUMMIT project is just a first step. Further studies should follow.

Further studies

"It will be interesting to identify individuals who may develop potentially dangerous arrhythmias. And then to find how to minimize the chance of developing them."

Hopefully, future studies will tackle important safety questions for high-altitude mountaineering. In particular, since modern logistics allow for much larger and faster expeditions, it would be interesting to know if the rushed pace of expeditions increases arrhythmias. Pilgrim agrees that this needs further research. "But I think there might be a correlation," he ventured.

You can read the SUMMIT study here.

Dr. Thomas Pilgrim is a cardiologist and associate professor at Bern University Hospital. While his specialty is valvular heart disease, his collaboration with Nepalese colleagues led to research on high altitude-induced heart disease. "I have a particular interest because I am a climber myself, a Cho Oyu summiter, and I attempted Everest last year," he says.

For the first time, an animal has been observed treating a wound with medicinal plants.

Biologists in Indonesia noticed Rakus, a male Sumatran orangutan living in Gunung Leuser National Park, behaving oddly in June 2022. Rakus was making “long calls,” an orangutan vocalization generally understood to signal conflict between males. He also had a large lesion below his right eye.

In this month's Scientific Reports, a multi-disciplinary team links the wound to the potential fracas — and then describes a never-before-seen event.

Monkey medicine

Shortly after he sustained the injury, Rakus started “selectively” ripping leaves off a certain medicinal tree, chewing them, and applying the juice to the raw area.

The ape had selected Akar Kuning (Fibraurea tinctoria), which locals use to treat diabetes and malaria.

“As a last step, he fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves,” the study noted.

It took several minutes. Five days later, the wound was closed. Within a month, it had fully healed.

Various factors indicated that Rakus’ behavior was intentional. It took a long time to apply the salve, and the ape rested almost twice as long as usual in the days after he applied it.

However, he might have accidentally discovered the treatment, said lead study author Isabella Laurmer of the Max Planck Institute in Germany.

Orangutans also eat Akar Kuning. It’s possible Rakus touched the wound while feeding and noticed its pain-relieving effects — then, understandably, kept going.

'Socialized' healthcare?

He also might have picked up on the technique from his neighbors, Laurmer said. Even though it’s the first time anyone has witnessed an animal treating a wound medicinally, the behavior could exist elsewhere. African and Asian great apes are known to actively treat wounds, although in different ways. One method involving insects, in particular, grabbed researchers' attention and suggested cultural behavior.

“[This] provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives and in the evolutionary origins of wound medication more broadly,” the paper suggested. “It is possible that there exists a common underlying mechanism for the recognition and application of substances with medical or functional properties to wounds, and that our last common ancestor already showed similar forms of ointment behavior.”

BY STUART AINSWORTH AND CAMILLE ABADA

If you're bitten by a venomous snake, the medicine you need is antivenom. Unfortunately, antivenoms are species specific, meaning you need to have the right antivenom for the snake that bit you. Most of the time, people have no idea what species of snake has bitten them. And for some snakes, antivenoms are simply not available.

New research my colleagues and I conducted provides a significant step forward in enabling the development of an antivenom that will neutralize the effects of venom from any venomous snake: a so-called "universal antivenom."

In our paper, published in Science Translational Medicine, we describe the discovery and development of a laboratory-made antibody that can neutralize a neurotoxin (a toxin that acts on the nervous system) found in the venom of many types of snake around the world.

Most victims are children and farmers

Venomous snakes kill as many as 138,000 people each year, with many more survivors suffering from life-changing injuries and mental trauma. Children and farmers make up the bulk of the victims.

The active ingredients in antivenoms are anti-toxin antibodies. They are made by injecting horses with small quantities of snake venom and harvesting the antibodies. This method of making antivenom has remained the same for over a century –- and it has substantial drawbacks.

In addition to antivenoms being species specific, they are also not very potent, so you need lots of antivenom to neutralize the venom from a bite.

Also, because antivenoms are made in horses, you are highly likely to experience severe side-effects when administered, as your body's immune system will detect and react to the foreign horse antibodies circulating in your bloodstream.

Antibodies that are made in the laboratory using genetically modified cells are routinely used in humans to treat cancers and immune disorders. A long-held hope is that the technology used to produce these antibodies can be used to make antivenom and eventually replace traditional antivenoms, thereby solving many of the issues current antivenoms face.

The antibodies in lab-made antivenoms could be "humanized," a process that tricks your immune system into thinking foreign antibodies are your own antibodies. This might reduce the rate of severe side-effects that are commonly encountered with horse-derived antivenoms.

Paralysis and death avoided

One of the most important families of toxins in snake venoms are neurotoxins.

These toxins prevent nerve signals from traveling from your brain to your muscles, paralyzing them. This includes paralyzing the muscles that inflate and deflate your lungs, so prey and human victims quickly stop breathing and die.

These neurotoxins are in the venoms of some of the world's most deadly snakes, including the African black mamba, the Asian monocled cobra and king cobra, and the deadly kraits of the Indian subcontinent.

In our research, we describe the discovery and development of a lab-made humanized antibody that can neutralize key venom neurotoxins from diverse snakes from diverse regions.

100% success with mice

The lab-made antibody is called 95Mat5 and was discovered after examining 50 billion unique antibodies to find ones capable of not only recognizing the neurotoxin in the venoms of many species but also able to neutralize its deadly effects.

When injected into mice that had received lethal doses of venom, 95Mat5 was able to prevent paralysis and death in all the venoms tested.

These results are particularly exciting as they show that generating lab-made antibodies that can broadly neutralize the effects of venoms from many species is feasible, making the development of a universal antivenom a realistic prospect.

However, 95Mat5 is a single antibody that only works against neurotoxins. As we said earlier, to make a universal antivenom you will require a handful of antibodies. This is because snake venoms don't just consist of neurotoxins.

Next: Haemotoxins

Some snake venoms have haemotoxins, which make you bleed, and some have cytotoxins, which destroy skin and bone. To create a universal antivenom, capable of treating any bite from any snake, we still need to identify additional antibodies that can broadly and potently neutralize the other toxin types, in the same manner as 95Mat5.

We hope that once identified, these antibodies can be mixed with 95Mat5 to make an antivenom that is capable of neutralizing the venom of any snake, no matter what toxin types it possesses.

The requirement for antibodies for other venom toxins and also the need to ensure any new lab-made antivenom for effectiveness and safety in human trials means it will still take many years for a universal antivenom to become available to snakebite victims.

Other hurdles need to be overcome. These new antivenoms will probably need to be stored in a fridge to prevent loss of effectiveness, so it will need to be shown that they can be distributed in often warm regions of the world that don't have reliable electricity for refrigeration.

Lab-made antibodies are some of the most expensive drugs on the planet. While we are hopeful, it remains to be seen if lab-made antivenoms will be affordable for most snakebite victims, who are usually some of the poorest people in the world.

This article first appeared in The Conversation.

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new injection treatment for severe frostbite. Approved for adults, Aurlumyn (iloprost) can reduce the risk of amputation following frostbite, officials say.

“This approval provides patients with the first-ever treatment option for severe frostbite,” said Norman Stockbridge, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Cardiology and Nephrology in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “Having this new option provides physicians with a tool that will help prevent the life-changing amputation of one’s frostbitten fingers or toes.”

Today, we approved an injection to treat severe frostbite in adults to reduce the risk of finger or toe amputation. https://t.co/LBJKSCBbl7

This approval provides patients with the first-ever treatment option for severe frostbite. pic.twitter.com/hPszLI6O9U

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) February 14, 2024

Severe frostbite is the deepest stage of tissue damage from prolonged exposure to extreme cold. It's characterized by loss of touch and temperature sensation. The tissue turns black before blistering badly.

While tissue regeneration from severe frostbite was previously possible with “optimal” medical treatment, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), injury reversibility was limited.

But the FDA’s case studies on iloprost, which opens blood vessels to prevent clots, were promising. The agency placed 47 adults with severe frostbite into three groups. “Group 1” received iloprost intravenously for six hours daily, for up to eight days. The two other groups received other treatments unapproved for frostbite, given with iloprost (Group 2) or without iloprost (Group 3).

No amputations needed

Bone scans followed, to predict the need for amputation. Zero out of 16 patients in Group 1 needed amputation. Group 2, the patients with iloprost along with the unapproved medications, fared better than Group 3.

Follow-up appointments proved consistent with the initial bone scan results, the FDA said.

The most common side effects of Aurlumyn include headache, flushing, heart palpitations, fast heart rate, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and hypotension (low blood pressure), according to the FDA.

Actelion Pharmaceuticals US, Inc. earned the approval. The Johnson & Johnson subsidiary specializes in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to its website, and markets several drugs approved for that use.

Alchemy -- the pseudo-science of turning base metals into gold, finding a cure-all elixir, or a potion for eternal youth -- obsessed many pre-chemists of the Middle Ages. But not only men pursued these mysteries. Female alchemists became some of history’s earliest scientists. While chasing alchemy's occult will o' the wisp, they found cures to common ailments and designed apparatus that is still used in laboratories today. 

Why did women gravitate toward alchemy?

Alchemy attempted to transmute ordinary metals like nickel and copper into valuable ones like gold and silver. However, its overarching goal was to attain perfection. Something called the philosopher's stone was the magical key to this pursuits.

Women explored alchemy via medicine, cosmetics, "kitchen chemistry," and religion, according to Sajed Chowdhury of Leiden University. They developed medicine and ways to better care for their families. They invented distillers to create ointments, fragrances, and other concoctions. It was alchemy in a domestic setting. 

Alchemy carried an air of secrecy and mystery. "Secrets were a form of currency," according to one author, by which one could acquire power and influence.

Nor was it just a medieval art. In the ancient world, perhaps the most notable female alchemists were Cleopatra the Alchemist, Mary the Jewess, and Hypatia. 

Cleopatra the Alchemist

This Cleopatra was born in the 3rd century AD, 300 years after her more famous namesake died. Not much is know about her except that she lusted after gold, pursuing alchemy in the hope of amassing wealth.

Her single surviving text, the Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, continues to baffle historians. It contains a series of cryptic symbols with very little context, including a snake devouring its own tail.

Historians believe that Cleopatra the Alchemist could have been a pseudonym or even a group of alchemists. In ancient Egypt, only the nobility practiced alchemy, suggesting that Cleopatra came from the upper echelons of society.

Whatever her identity, Cleopatra the Alchemist may have left behind a valuable apparatus called the alembic. This instrument consists of two vessels connected via a tube to distill liquids. It is still in use today, with modern modifications. However, some sources attribute the invention to Mary the Jewess or another alchemist.

Mary the Jewess

Mary the Jewess also lived around the third century AD. Her male contemporaries referred to her as Moses' Daughter or Mary the Prophetess, although there is no record that she was even Jewish. Her background is a total mystery, except that she is credited as the first Western alchemist. She appears in the writings of other alchemical figures, like Zosimos of Panopolis, who describes her as a wise sage.

Mary specialized in creating laboratory equipment, new techniques, and new substances. She managed to produce silver sulfide and possibly discovered hydrochloric acid. She is credited with inventing the tribikos, another distilling apparatus. Additionally, she created the kerotakis, which collected vapors, and the water bath, sometimes called Maria's Bath or bain-Marie -- essentially a double boiler.

Hypatia

Around 350 AD, Hypatia lived, studied, and taught in Alexandria. The daughter of a mathematician and scholar, she took up teaching to people of all faiths.

A brilliant mathematician and inventor, she invented instruments for astronomy as well as alchemical apparatus like the hydrometer, which measured the density of liquids. 

Isabella Cortese

Isabella Cortese published The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese in the mid-1500s. In it, she describes herself as a learned and well-traveled woman who has mastered alchemy.

Her book was popular with both sexes. Even Queen Elizabeth I took her advice on beauty and anti-aging techniques. She provided recipes for creating the philosopher’s stone, for dying one’s hair, detoxing, and even curing erectile dysfunction. 

One example is a recipe for "face color" which calls for white-feathered pigeons, bread soaked in goat's milk, silver, and gold.

Caterina Sforza

Caterina Sforza, the Countess of Forlí, had an affinity for cosmetics and medicine. She was highly educated in Latin and the classics. She had her own special herb garden for her experiments from which she produced fine fragrances and skin-lightening creams. Her manuscript Experimenti contained over 450 recipes for hair bleaching, treatment of wounds, and cures for fevers.

Unlike some women of the time, she did not hide her alchemical pursuits. Rather, her power and influence through a strategic marriage and political shrewdness added to the reputation of her alchemy skills.

Christina, Girl King of Sweden

Alchemy even enthralled royalty. Christina, the "Girl King" of Sweden, took an interest after meeting alchemist Johannes Franck. She examined the work of the Rosicrucians, an esoteric intellectual movement that combined metaphysics, mysticism, Christianity, and Hermeticism. 

She hoped that Stockholm would one day become a center for learning, a sort of "Athens of the North."

The headliners of this year’s Ig Nobel science awards read like the itinerary of a Japanese game show.

Eating with electric chopsticks. Reanimated dead spiders. An “analyzing” toilet.

These experimental developments and more earned 2023’s “Ig Nobel” Prizes, awarded in a webcast Sept. 14 ceremony. In a reflection of the event’s punny name, the journal Nature has called the Ig Nobel Awards “arguably the highlight of the scientific calendar.”

It was the "33rd First Annual" rendition of the event that showcases “achievements that first make people LAUGH, then make them THINK.”

We've highlighted our favorite Ig Nobel expositions below.

‘Augmented gustation using electricity,’ Meiji University, Kanagawa, Japan

How much of the act of participating in a study group relies on the willingness to perform self harm in the pursuit of knowledge?

If eating with electrified utensils sounds like an episode in this sordid and deeply entrenched phenomenon, I’ve got news for you: It’s not.

Instead, two researchers from Japan’s Meiji University just wanted to find out an alternative channel to stimulate human “gustation” — or taste.

“Electric taste is the sensation elicited upon stimulating the tongue with electric current. We used this phenomenon to convey information that humans cannot perceive with their tongue,” the researchers assert in their paper.

The study first “proposes systems” to create electrically charged straws and chopsticks (which seems like the easy part if you’ve ever put a nine-volt battery on your tongue), then “discusses augmented gustation using various sensors.”

Bon appetit — or as we say in Japanese, Itadakimasu.

Turning dead spiders into robots, Rice University, Texas, U.S.

Scientists have consistently scrutinized natural structures with one key question: Can we engineer it better?

Acknowledging that “designs perfected through evolution” have inspired robots that mimic animals like cheetahs and jellyfish, this paper from researchers at Texas’ Rice University takes the next logical step.

“Incorporating living materials directly into engineered systems” is the slant. Dead spiders are the specimens.

Because spiders’ legs operate hydraulically, rather than muscularly, they can essentially be re-animated with fluids after death. The result is a mechanical "claw" or gripper that can lift 130% of its own mass.

“Furthermore, the gripper can serve as a handheld device and camouflages in outdoor environments,” the paper notes.

Zombies? Cyborgs? The next trend in handheld devices? No matter what, it’s got eight hydraulic legs. But you will need an ongoing supply of spiders, because each one "breaks down after 1,000 open and close cycles," the narrator helpfully explains.

‘A mountable toilet system for personalized health monitoring via the analysis of excreta,’ Stanford University, Calif., U.S.

A self-contained  "smart" toilet “operates autonomously” and uses pressure and motion sensors to scrutinize biological wastes.

“[We use] easily deployable hardware and software for the long-term analysis of a user’s excreta,” the researchers' paper states.

To analyze stool, it leverages “deep learning, with performance that is comparable to the performance of trained medical personnel.”

The stated benefit is, of course, is to consistently monitor a user’s health through their excrement and seamlessly deliver that information to medical professionals.

The toilet stores and analyzes the data it harvests in an encrypted cloud server.

Whether or not the cloud is greenish brown is unclear.

To further explore the world of the 2023 Ig Nobel Awards, check out the host website, Improbable Research.

Mushrooms are fascinating. They might taste like chicken, expand your mental horizons, or melt your insides, and there's very little middle ground. Firmly in the latter camp is the death cap — a widespread but unassuming little fungus responsible for 90% of mushroom-related deaths worldwide.

That's why it's such a relief that a team of scientists may have finally found an antidote.

To grasp how the antidote works, it's necessary to understand a little about the death cap. The mushroom originated in Europe, where it developed a symbiotic relationship with several types of hardwoods. As humans transported those trees to North and South America, Australia, and Asia for horticultural purposes, the death cap hitched a ride.

Looks good enough to eat, but isn't

In bad news for mycophiles worldwide, the death cap resembles several types of edible mushrooms — especially some varieties popular in Asian cuisine, according to The Guardian.  Even worse, its primary toxin remains quite capable of shutting down your liver and kidneys even after you cook it. People who have eaten death caps and survived claim they are delicious.

"The most fatal component of the death cap is α-amanitin," a team of scientists at Sun Yat-sen University wrote in a study published in Nature Communications. "Despite its lethal effect, the exact mechanisms of how α-amanitin poisons humans remain unclear."

A modern approach

CRISPR gene-editing technology to the rescue, by way of good old trial and error.

The Sun Yat-sen team used CRISPR to create a group of human cells, each with a different mutation, Nature reported. Then the scientists exposed those cells to α-amanitin to see what happened. The result? Cells lacking an enzyme called STT3B could withstand the death cap's ferocious toxin. No one knows why.

"We are totally surprised by our findings," Guohui Wan, an author of the paper, told Nature.

The study didn't stop there. Next, the scientists set out to identify a compound that could block the action of the STT3B enzyme in cells.

The winner was a dye created by Kodak in the 1950s called indocyanine green. The dye already has widespread use in medical imaging applications, but its use as a possible mushroom antidote was entirely unexpected. And the initial data is promising. In the study, 50 percent of mice treated with indocyanine green within four hours of α-amanitin exposure survived. By contrast, 90 percent of untreated mice died from the toxin.

Some complications

Regarding human testing, the timing described in the above paragraph is the sticking point.

After the initial wave of gastrointestinal pain, nausea, and vomiting, many people poisoned by death caps begin to feel better (the "latent phase"). But the α-amanitin toxin is still in the system, insidiously destroying the liver and kidneys. By the time poisoned people show up at hospitals, it's often too late to save these vital organs.

Nevertheless, it's exciting that a mushroom responsible for so much suffering might soon be mastered. And the method by which scientists discovered the possible solution offers applications for other types of toxin/antidote research.

If you're tired of scientists stoking fear about deadly viruses, this story might not be for you.

With a new study published on bioRxiv in November, a group of European researchers have sounded the alarm about "zombie viruses" emerging from melting permafrost in Siberia.

The scientists wrote that they have found and revived 13 such viruses from seven samples taken from Russia's remote tundra.

They call them zombie viruses because these ancient organisms can lay dormant for thousands of years while remaining infectious. One of the team's uncovered viruses, for example, had been frozen underwater for 50,000 years.

As climate change increasingly melts more of the world's permafrost, these scientists see potential problems ahead. (Note that this paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.)

"Due to climate warming, irreversibly thawing permafrost is releasing organic matter frozen for up to a million years," the paper said.

As a result, the viruses unleashed by climate change represent a potential "public health threat", according to researchers.

Climate change and ancient viruses

In the paper, these scientists ponder the risks of ancient viruses on modern populations as more permafrost melts.

So why on Earth would they revive them, you ask? Good question, and one these researchers felt prepared to answer.

Apparently, these scientists believe that "paleoviruses", or viruses uncovered by probing the bodies of frozen animals, like woolly mammoths, is much more dangerous.

Compared to that, the dangers of their own research is "totally negligible", the researchers wrote.

"Without the need of embarking on such a risky project, we believe our results with Acanthamoeba-infecting viruses can be extrapolated to many other DNA viruses capable of infecting humans or animals," they noted.

One-quarter of the Northern Hemisphere includes permanently frozen ground, or permafrost. Climate change will continue to melt that ground, likely resulting in much older viruses in the future.

"How long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to outdoor conditions (UV light, oxygen, heat), and how likely they will be to encounter and infect a suitable host in the interval, is yet impossible to estimate," they said.

The word 'contagious' is not exclusive to colds, flu, and viruses. How about madness, laughter, and dancing? Incidents of mass hysteria or mass psychogenic illnesses are not as uncommon as you would think. In fact, they date back as far as the Middle Ages. The disturbing details of hundreds or thousands of people simultaneously engaging in erratic, hysterical, and sometimes violent behavior still baffles scientists.

Mass psychogenic illness (MPI) refers to a group of people experiencing various physiological symptoms without a contagion or environmental agent present. Recorded MPIs include symptoms like convulsions, hallucinations, dizziness, headaches, seizures, and muscle rigidity. In the cases below, some symptoms can be even more bizarre...

The dancing plague of 1518

In the early 16th century, the town of Strasbourg in northeastern France experienced immense hardships. They endured multiple crises, one after another: devastating floods, crop failures due to frigid temperatures, and violent peasant revolts. The summer of 1518 saw sweltering heatwaves which further weakened the community's agricultural prospects. The situation looked bleak.

One day, a woman named Lady Troffea started to dance in the street. Soon, several women joined her. The town chronicles record up to 400 townsfolk participating in this odd behavior. What might seem joyous turned macabre, with dancers collapsing from exhaustion and dancing to the point of gravely injuring themselves. The dancing lasted for days on end. The town council instructed doctors and priests to intervene, which led to a ban on music and instruction that victims wear red shoes dowsed in holy water and oil.

The epidemic stopped after the victims visited the shrine of St Vitus, the patron saint of dancers. One of the names for this dancing mania is the St Vitus Dance.

At the time, people believed the dancing was caused by demonic possession or a punishment from God. More modern scholarship hypothesized two theories, convulsive ergotism, and tarantism.

Convulsive ergotism occurs when the ergot fungi, which grow mainly on rye, produce a hallucinogenic chemical. Consequently, a person experiences erratic muscle movements, deterioration of the mind, and seizures. However, this theory seems unlikely based on the many variables and hundreds of people involved.

Tarantism refers to poisoning by a tarantula or scorpion which supposedly causes victims to try dancing to halt the coagulation of their blood.

A third, though less popular theory, is that it was a purely psychological issue. In this case, the mania would be stress-induced.

Salem witch trials

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 are the best examples of mass hysteria. In this small town in Massachusetts, locals accused over 200 people of witchcraft, they tried 30 of them, and then they executed 19 people. This brutal (literal) witch hunt, started with three pre-teen girls: Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam. The three girls were said to be exhibiting disturbing behavior, including suffering from hallucinations, convulsions, making odd noises, feeling prickling sensations, and crawling on all fours.

Other girls in the town began to show similar symptoms. Word began to spread through the militant Puritan community that the girls had been practicing witchcraft and were possessed by the Devil. This led to immense panic and poorly organized trials where personal suspicions, bogus tests, and the power of suggestion overwhelmed any objective evidence.

Like the Dancing Plague of 1518, the most popular theory is convulsive ergotism. Rye was a common staple in Puritan households. It is possible that the ergot fungi developed when a harsh winter was followed by a warmer spring. Researchers found that the victims of ergotism were very impressionable and suggestible.

Another factor to consider is Salem's socio-economic difficulties. The environment in the town was already fearful before the cases arose.

Tanganyika laughter epidemic 1962

This 1962 incident in a small British-run girls' school in Tanzania demonstrates that laughter is not always the best medicine.

When a young girl began to laugh uncontrollably in class, her teacher removed her. But soon after, several other students followed suit. Not long after, much of the school had erupted into laughter and the principal canceled classes.

So, what was so funny? Unfortunately, there was nothing funny at all. The laughter was accompanied by crying, fainting, abdominal pain, violent tendencies, and even rashes.

The hysteria lasted for hours a day and continued for several months. The epidemic spread to other villages until over a thousand people were affected. The only convincing explanation to date is a stress-induced psychosis brought on by the parent's high expectations of their children.

West Bank fainting epidemic 1983

Between March and April 1983, a girls' school in Arrabah, Palestine was the epicenter of psychological and geopolitical strife. A large group of girls complained of dizziness, headaches, and stomach pains. Some of them fainted with no apparent environmental cause. Several female members of the Israeli Defence Force also fell victim to these random symptoms. Panic ensued.

Israeli and Palestinian media outlets scrambled to blame each side for bioterrorism and sabotage. Before authorities could come to a definitive conclusion, the symptoms spread to other villages like Hebron, Jenin, and Tulkarem, where over 900 people went to the hospital.

Investigators found small traces of hydrogen sulfide, methane, and hydrocarbons in the girls' bathrooms of the school. While it is possible for these gases to be a primary cause of the students' illness, what made people fall victim to the symptoms many kilometres away?

Authorities from Israel and the United States believed the incident to be a combination of stress caused by the current political situation, small doses of toxic gases, and a large number of psychosomatic experiences.

Arctic hysteria

Arctic hysteria or 'piblokto' is a folk illness or culture-specific ailment exclusive to Arctic communities. Women in these communities suffer from this mass psychosis, particularly during polar nights. The symptoms comprise hysterical out-of-character behavior and amnesia. Many women take their clothes off, shriek loudly and run around naked in the bitter cold. After this, they mostly forget having done it at all. Explorer Robert Peary and his family documented this phenomenon on an expedition to Greenland.

While some believe the women act out due to their society's suppressive nature, researchers believe the piblokto can be a response to the desolate conditions of the Arctic Circle and toxic levels of Vitamin A brought on by the Inuit diet. Too much vitamin A can simulate dementia and bring on delirium. These factors most likely work in conjunction with the harsh environment.

Mass psychogenic illnesses are strongly linked to stressful situations and scholars somewhat agree that erratic behaviors can be the brain's complex way of dealing with or alleviating stress. Women seem more susceptible to mass psychogenic illnesses, as yet, scientists don't know why.

Did we say quarantine? Well, today we suggest that you check twice for sudden changes of mind from Nepal's authorities. Barely 24 hours after announcing that all foreigners from 67 countries had to quarantine in a hotel for seven days after arriving in Kathmandu, the measure has been "postponed until further notice".

The original restriction affected travelers from most European countries, the U.S., and parts of Asia, where the Omicron variant of COVID is spreading fast. After the seven-day lockdown, foreigners would have to obtain a negative PCR test before moving freely within the country.

The Department of Tourism told The Himalayan Times that the Health Ministry recommended the measure. It was then shelved at the suggestion of Nepal's COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre, which thought that such a strict position would adversely affect international tourism.

The postponement doesn't mean that the quarantine won't reappear at any moment. Travelers heading to Nepal should check for updates before boarding the plane. It's also wise to keep the trip as flexible as possible and avoid tight schedules or immediate transfers out of Kathmandu. Just in case.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting Arctic to outside world: Ancient arctic communities traded with the outside world 7,000 years ago. DNA analysis shows that Siberian dogs interbred with dogs from Europe and the Near East. Dogs have been central to life in the Arctic for thousands of years. Inuit and their predecessors used them to hunt, travel, and for clothing and food. The DNA analysis reveals that the trade networks of ancient populations may have extended down to the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas.

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine arrives in Antarctica: Nine months after it became available, the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine has made it to Antarctica. A series of increasingly small airplanes flew the vaccine 16,000km to immunize 23 staff members at the British Rothera station. For the entire journey, refrigeration kept the doses from  2˚C to 8˚C. Antarctica has stayed COVID-free, other than a few cases at the Chilean base.

Unmasking the gorilla's social distance habits

Gorillas also social distance: Mountain gorillas in Rwanda social distance from neighboring primate groups. Respiratory infections can be fatal for gorillas. Researchers have studied outbreaks among the primates for 16 years to decipher how these diseases spread. Though the disease runs quickly between individuals in a group, it rarely impacts other populations of gorillas. They found that when gorillas from different groups came into contact, they kept a distance of one to two metres.

Mass extinction 30 million years ago in Africa and Arabia:  Scientists can now pinpoint when different mammalian species first appeared in Africa. The analysis of hundreds of fossils has created a family tree. Many fossil species disappeared around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and then reappeared later in the Oligocene. Scientists think that a huge extinction event occurred around 30 million years ago, followed by a recovery period.

Finally, a malaria vaccine

World’s first malaria vaccine given go-ahead: Malaria is the largest cause of childhood death in sub-Saharan Africa. Every year, it kills over 260,000 kids under the age of five. The world health organization now recommends a vaccine for malaria in Africa. “This is a historic moment....a breakthrough for science, child health, and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Using this vaccine...could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”

Giant ground sloths may have been meat-eating scavengers: Modern sloths are vegetarians, but their ice-age ancestors were opportunistic scavengers. Darwin’s ground sloths could grow to three metres long and weigh up to 2,000kg. Nitrogen isotopes in fossil hair samples showed that the ancient animals were omnivores, not herbivores as previously thought.

Why do pilot whales chase killer whales? Killer whales are the top predator in most places where they occur, but when pilot whales approach them, the orcas fall silent. This has surprised scientists. Killer whales in southern Iceland actively avoid pilot whales, and the pilot whales have been observed chasing the predator at high speeds. We aren't sure yet why this happens. The two species do not eat the same prey, and killer whales aren’t known to eat smaller pilot whales.

Thirty Chinese climbers, including a woman who set a speed record up Everest last month, have still not managed to get home from Kathmandu. Because of Nepal's COVID crisis, with daily infection rates still soaring at 24 percent, Beijing has not sent any planes to repatriate its citizens.

Although regular passenger planes are not flying, Nepal has allowed two charters per week from China. So far, none have come.

Getting home is harder than climbing Everest, says Tsang Yin-Hung of Hong Kong. Tsang, 44 summited the mountain in 25 hours 50 minutes from Base Camp, a new women's mark.

"The summit climb for me was possible," she said. "But going back home [is] hopeless...There are no flights to any place in China or Hong Kong."

Tashi Lakpa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks estimates that 30 Chinese climbers remain in Kathmandu.

For climbers and the few remaining trekkers, fleeing Nepal these days is far from cheap and easy. The lockdown in response to the latest COVID surge is part of the reason. But not the only one.

Currently, no regularly scheduled planes fly into or out of Nepal. Airlines neither offer flights nor allow ticket changes before the end of June. However, the government has allowed a limited number of charters to repatriate foreigners. Some of these work for NGOs, but most of the stranded are climbers -- and many of these have just returned from Everest.

Normally, the way to go would be to call a charter airline, and agree on a price based on the number of seats, and hence the size of plane, required. In Nepal this is not possible. The Civil Aviation Authority approves the charters, and everyone must book their tickets and pay through one of two travel agencies licensed by the Nepali government: Megabyte Travels, which operates flights through Turkish Airlines, and President Travels & Tours, which uses Qatar Airways and links Nepal with Doha.

Climbers usually turn to their embassies and consulates to help secure seats, but these too must be purchased directly from those two charter agencies.

A seller's market

Nepal and India keep an open "air bubble" with at least one weekly flight between Kathmandu and Delhi. But that is only an option for residents of the two countries.

These two local agencies sell one-way, new tickets, even for those who had booked previous flights with Qatar or Turkish Airlines. As charters, and without competitors, the price is double to triple the cost of the return trip on a two-way ticket.

After consulting with President Travel and Tours, a South African climber bought a ticket to Johannesburg via Doha for $1,645 (a normal ticket is easily available from $700) in a charter plane from Qatar Airways.

As for their unused tickets on the canceled flights, consumers have to deal with the airlines after they return.

"Out of pure desperation and to get my husband home short of being stuck there for a month, we were forced to incur the cost and book the flight," Ms. Johnson (not real name), the wife of an Everest summiter currently in Kathmandu, told ExplorersWeb.

"Having to fork out an additional $1,645 at the end of the expedition for something you know to be blatant corruption and taking advantage of climbers who are desperate to get home to their families is like having to pay ransom," Ms. Johnson said. "It leaves an unfortunate last impression of Nepal and Everest."

Tickets to Europe cost $1,295 and $1700 to $1,800 to the U.S., an outfitter said. "At the agency, there were no economy tickets available, only business class," a European climber told ExWeb. "I paid €2,400 [$2,910] for a plane back to France."

Another Everest climber was offered a black-market seat on a plane leaving the next day for $5,000, his guide told ExplorersWeb.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

A Spanish trekker who escaped Nepal on a Turkish Airlines plane two weeks ago told ExplorersWeb that passengers on the plane were mostly Nepalis working abroad. The protests of nationals needing to work (mainly in the Middle East) made Nepal authorities allow some weekly flights to Turkey and Doha, starting this week, The Kathmandu Post reported.

They distributed the following note among foreigners hoping to leave the country soon. However, the process of purchasing tickets has not changed. At time of publication, fares have not decreased. ExplorersWeb has contacted the travel agencies for further information.

Climbers and expedition outfitters fear that the waiting time may increase after nearly 200 climbers left the mountain in the last few days. Meanwhile, they must remain in their hotels, since COVID numbers are still extremely high in Kathmandu. The town has just extended its lockdown until June 14.

"If required we'll allow more charter flights," Raj Kumar Chettri, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), told Reuters.

Everest has forced climbers to use both patience and a significant amount of money. Now, they will have to use more of both. Or, as Marek Holecek waggishly suggested, "walk back home."

The Russian 7 Summits Club Expedition, led by Alex Abramov, has posted some cheery updates about their Everest success. These huzzahs include some obscure local records, such as the first woman from Murmansk.

They didn't mention that one of their Sherpa guides, Wong Dorchi Sherpa of the Sankhuwasabha District in eastern Nepal, died shortly before reaching Camp 4. He was on his way down from the summit.

Abramov himself did not summit with the rest of his group. He chose to stay behind at 8,500m with member Dmitry Livanov, who complained of chest pain. Later, Abramov confirmed that Livanov, a former Minister of Education in Russia, was evacuated to the hospital.

Dorchi Sherpa is the fourth casualty on Everest this year. Another Sherpa guide fell fatally into a crevasse below Camp 2 last week. Two other climbers, Abdul Waraich of Switzerland and Puwei Liu of the U.S. died, much like Dorchi Sherpa, shortly after summiting.

Waraich and Liu's cause of death was described as "exhaustion" -- a kind of grab-bag, non-medical term for any death in the high mountains not from falling, rocks, obvious Acute Mountain Sickness, etc. We don't know whether COVID factored into any of these deaths.

An estimated 165 climbers summited Everest today, despite the persistent winds. Many others have turned around or stayed at the South Col.

Yesterday, teams gathered at Camp 4 in preparation for an early start. But the wind didn't drop as much as expected, putting some climbers off. Those who did brave the elements began to summit Everest and Lhotse around 6 am.

At last word, Madison Mountaineering reported 14 members and guides and 22 Sherpas on top. Climbing The Seven Summits also had reported some early success, but a larger group of their climbers decided to stay in Camp 4. They are likely to retreat to Camp 2 today, the outfitter reports. The team already experienced a fatality earlier this week, when one of their Nepali guides died in a crevasse fall.

Pioneer Expeditions' team also posted a summit list of five clients and seven Sherpa guides. IMG had 23 summits, split between clients and a large Sherpa force that included a father, son, and daughter: Tenzing Dorjee Sherpa (father), Sonam Tashi Sherpa (son), and Pasang Kanchi Sherpa (daughter). Seven Summit Treks had three Indian climbers and four Nepali guides on Lhotse's summit. The rest of their Everest and Lhotse climbers will push for the summit during the next weather window.

Conflicting views on the weather

Different teams are interpreting the weather differently. IMG wrote of "excellent weather". Alex Abramov, leading a Russian team, said that the summit was windy but not too severe. The Russian team has two more groups in Camp 2. Dan Mazur's team decided to wait at the South Col. They posted a video on FB today, showing flapping tents and a long wind plume on the summit.

Otherwise, details are still scarce. Mountain Professionals' members were in Camp 4 but they had planned on setting off relatively late, in order to minimize their exposure to early high winds. "The weather continues to be volatile and unpredictable, making summit attempt planning akin to shooting a moving target," the outfitter explained.

More COVID; Nepal's dire situation

Meanwhile, COVID has forced another outfitter to call off its expedition. U.S.-based Mountain Trip had six of their high-altitude porters evacuated with COVID symptoms: "While they are thankfully doing well, they are no longer able to help the team progress higher."

Mountain Trip also noted that the short summit window was going to produce long lines of climbers near the summit. They didn't specify whether they meant the present window or a potential opportunity next week.

Finally, they also feared that a summit push so late in the season would be risky for the local team dismantling the camp. A late push would mean working until June, with the Icefall unacceptably active because of rising temperatures. We'll know more next week, when the Icefall Doctors confirm whether they still intend to close the route through the Khumbu Icefall before next weekend.

Whatever happens on Everest, it is impossible (and unfair) to ignore the terrible situation in Nepal. Sir Edmund Hillary's son Peter, who continues his father's legacy through the Himalayan Trust charity, describes it as an "absolute calamity".

“We desperately need help irrespective of what, how much, or from where," his Nepali friends told him.

Many Everest teams have decided to wait out the current cyclone in Base Camp. Others, bolder or more optimistic, have remained in Camp 2 since last weekend. Soon, they will push on to Camp 3. From here, they'll launch a quick summit push once the wind drops. Which strategy will work best?

Dan Mazur and his SummitClimb team had planned to leave Camp 2 for Camp 3 yesterday, but constant snowfall forced them to delay until tomorrow. On Friday, May 21, they make for Camp 4 and rest there for one day. Then they summit on the night of May 22/morning of May 23, as will Madison Mountaineering.

"According to the four weather forecasts we checked, that's when the winds should be the quietest," said Mazur. "Let's hope it has stopped snowing by then."

Caution first

But Alex Abramov does not trust the current weather. He is returning to Base Camp to wait for a better shot.

Abramov will join some of the largest teams, which are either in Base Camp or lower down the valley. They have bet on a summit window beginning mid-next week, just before the monsoon hits Nepal.

However, another depression is now forming in the Bay of Bengal. It may grow into another cyclone and shut down the mountain right when the window was due to open.

Before the Asian Trekking team sets off shortly on their summit push, leader Dawa Steven Sherpa had all expedition members (climbers, guides, and BC staff) tested for COVID. A team from Kathmandu's HAMS Hospital flew all the way to Base Camp to take the samples.

It was a wise precaution because even the most cautious teams have now recorded COVID cases. Furtenbach Adventures, which just left Everest, revealed that even it had two positive cases, an asymptomatic U.S. client and a Sherpa who was sick.

Two earthquakes

Meanwhile, Kathmandu experienced two modest earthquakes this morning. The epicenter was 113km northwest of the city, near the Lamjung district, where 2015's devastating quake also originated. Luckily, today's quake was 5.8 on the Richter scale, a hiccup compared to the 7.8 monster in 2015.

Carlos Soria and his partners arrived in Kathmandu in time to catch the plane home on Friday morning. Horia Colibasanu, Peter Hamor, and Marius Gane have also managed to get tickets. The Spanish Iberian Airlines plane is bringing aid to Kathmandu.

While the COVID-19 outbreak ravages both Everest Base Camp and the entire Khumbu Valley, some teams seem to be living in an alternate reality.

Yesterday, several groups felt good enough to hold a party with live music, as if COVID didn't exist. Pop singer Mike Posner, currently climbing with Jon Kedrowski, sang in a pre-summit push gathering, which included multiple teams.

Nirmal Purja and his partners Mingma David and Gelje Sherpa hurried to share the event on social media. Mingma G, back from Camp 4 after failing to reach the summit with his Imagine Nepal team, also attended. Chhang Dawa Sherpa of Seven Summit Treks didn't want to miss it, either. Blind to the optics, many of them shared videos of the jam session on Instagram. As just one example, here is Purja's:

For Purja, who projects messages of leadership, and Seven Summit Treks with over 100 clients on the mountain, such willfully careless behavior is hard to fathom. Both have COVID victims in their ranks. Purja had Steve Davis evacuated some weeks ago, and Tashi Sherpa told CNN that SST had had at least 30 people flown out with the disease!

The party-goers included several newcomers from Dhaulagiri Base Camp, where COVID decimated the climbing teams. Cases at Dhaulagiri started after the climbers previously on Annapurna arrived after days of celebrating their Annapurna triumph in Pokhara. No post-celebratory COVID tests occurred. Now, some of them have moved to Everest without waiting at least five days (the average time for the virus to show up on tests).

In Kathmandu, Sophie Lavaud had her own birthday party, sans dancing. She was one of those who caught COVID at Dhaulagiri. She is now "recovering slowly, still a strong cough but getting better every day," she says.

Jonatan Garcia also confirmed to ExplorersWeb that while he was tested and kept quarantine in Kathmandu, others took no precautions or tests before arriving at Dhaulagiri Base Camp.

In a normal year, parties are normal.

In a normal year, such parties are normal. But this is not a normal year. Nor was this the only party held in Base Camp. However, it is the one clearly involving several teams, whose members had close contact with COVID cases in the last few days.

The overall situation has so spiraled out of control that the Chinese climbers surprisingly fled even from the North Side. Other teams, such as Lukas Furtenbach's, felt forced to leave the mountain.

Furtenbach shared his thoughts on canceling the expedition in a long post on social media. Now that he is away from Base Camp, he is hiding nothing.

"We tried to do everything right. As right as it can get, running an expedition during a pandemic. We had our safety protocols, we were [climbing] isolated, we were isolated in Base Camp, and we did extensive testing. We were even more careful when the COVID outbreak in Base Camp started, when we heard from the first teams with COVID cases, the government denying these cases, and other teams still having parties.

A call for mass testing ignored

"I was calling for a mass test in Base Camp. The call was ignored. We tested even more, while others never started to test or stopped testing after too many Sherpas or members tested positive."

Crucially, Furtenbach warned what can happen when teams start moving up the mountain:

"If we send people up the mountain, clients or Sherpas or guides, who feel well and test negative, they can still be infected and get sick the next day, or after two days, in C3 or C4. COVID is a pulmonary virus. Getting symptomatic in C3 or higher, with fever and breathing problems, can be a problem. A real severe problem, like dying. Because helicopters can’t fly up there.

"I could not live with being responsible for the death of a Sherpa or client because of a COVID infection that became problematic during our summit push. We all know that there is a massive outbreak in Base Camp. All teams. Pilots know, insurance [companies] know, HRA [Himalayan Rescue Association] knows. Still sending people up is negligent from a legal point of view and inhuman from a moral point of view. Our team doctor told me this morning, if we send people up, she is out. Our guides agreed. I agreed. We all did not sleep for two nights. Now we feel relieved. Devastated, but relieved. Because at least our expedition will not be responsible for COVID cases high up on the mountain."

Meanwhile, another summit push begins

Some teams have begun their final push, concerned only about the uncertain weather. Madison Mountaineering checked in today from Camp 2. They still project May 20, 21 and 22 as possible summit days but they are "reassessing the situation daily". They plan to set off tomorrow.

Alex Abramov (no-O2) and his Russian teammates, whom some climbers cite in relation to BC parties, hope to summit on May 20. SummitClimb is pondering options. Party-goers Kedrowski and Posner are currently hesitating because of the changeable forecast and the high winds at 8,000m.

Meteorologist Michael Fagin of West Coast Weather broke down the uncertain weather for ExplorersWeb: "A major cyclone tracking along the west coast of India this week will not make a direct hit on Everest," he explained. "But the cyclone will bring bands of cloud toward Everest on May 18 to May 21. Models differ greatly on possible snowfall amounts. A few suggest that we might see up to 10 inches (25cm) of snow for one or more of those days. But some models show no snow for Everest."

Something is very wrong at Everest Base Camp. The Chinese have canceled their attempt on the north side because of fears of contagion -- on the summit? And on the South Side, Lukas Furtenbach has canceled his company's expedition, he confirmed to ExplorersWeb. The team was going to launch its summit push today, but events have evolved fast, forcing a sudden cancellation.

"China has decided to cancel all climbing activities on Mount Qomolangma amid fears of possible imported cases of COVID-19," China's General Administration of Sport said in a press release. That means that they fear the virus may somehow cross the mountain from the South Side, where the COVID outbreak has become the country's worst-kept secret.

Earlier this week, the only Chinese team on the North Side of Everest announced that they would set up a "line of separation" on the summit, to keep climbers from different sides intermingling. They also purposely avoided the mountain during the first summit wave from the South Side. Himalaya Expeditions, the only outfitter on the North Side, told Xinhua News that its climbers have been resting down in Tingri for the last few days.

For some reason, the outfitter has concluded that such measures were not enough. It has now canceled altogether.

In addition, while hospitals were not supposed to provide information about foreign patients with COVID, the head of business development at the CIEWC foreigners hospital in Kathmandu told the Chinese News Agency that they had had several mountaineers from Everest in their hospital "three weeks ago". All tested positive for COVID in PCR tests, he said. Eventually, all were discharged from the hospital.

Cases increasing in Base Camp

Cases on the South Side have increased in the last few days, according to sources from Base Camp and Kathmandu. Evacuations continue daily. Nepali authorities have avoided giving the Himalayan Rescue Association in Base Camp access to COVID tests. This way, all symptomatic climbers may be evacuated with a generic diagnosis of Acute Mountain Sickness. It is not clear how they diagnose patients with high fevers -- hardly typical with Acute Mountain Sickness -- in addition to pulmonary issues.

Some outfitters, including high-end Furtenbach Adventures, brought their own antigen testing kits from home. Furtenbach's two Everest teams haven't had a single case of COVID and they were going to launch their summit push today, with an eye to reaching the top on May 20. Instead, this morning, they canceled their season in light of the growing crisis in Base Camp.

This decision wasn't easy, said Furtenbach in a statement, "but to climb [from] Base Camp with these massively increasing corona numbers and risk the lives of our 20 customers, 4 mountain guides, and 27 Sherpas carelessly, would be irresponsible."

Some teams held parties

Furtenbach puts the blame squarely on those in Base Camp ignoring simply safety protocols. "With some teams, elementary precautionary measures were simply not observed," he said, palpably angry. "There were meetings between the teams, there were celebrations, parties were held. That is why [there is] a sudden increase in corona-infected people. Our team remained isolated the entire time, our doctor did regular tests. But now the point has been reached where we have to get out."

Other teams, such as IMG and Mountain Professionals, continue to prepare for their summit push. Although the weather is still poor, teams may at least move to Camps 1 and 2.

About 150 climbers have summited Everest in the last two days. Of the 200 in Dhaulagiri's Base Camp last week, only Carlos Soria and Topo Mena's teams remain. The few trekkers in the Khumbu and Annapurna areas hurried back to town as soon as they heard about canceled international flights.

Now, an increasing number of foreigners are stranded in their hotels, working their contacts to find a way to leave the country. No scheduled international flights are running, but charters and cargo planes still fly in and out of Tribhuvan airport.

Also, Nepal keeps open contact with India. Two flights a week run between Kathmandu and Delhi. On the other hand, the airport closure has marooned a number of Indians transiting through Nepal to other international destinations. This workaround avoided the travel ban that most countries have imposed on India because of its COVID crisis. The Indian embassy is currently trying to repatriate its citizens.

Special flights

For stranded tourists, Nepal's Civil Aviation has permitted "special flights" for foreigners at the request of their embassies. The U.S. and Indian embassies have already arranged flights through Qatar and Turkish airlines, while a large Aeroflot plane will fly Russians back home, The Kathmandu Post reports.

Nepal's Tourism Board estimates that there are currently 2,000 foreigners in Kathmandu. Five thousand more, currently in other regions, will join them in KTM in the next few weeks.

Some outfitters will just arrange a charter for their groups. Not surprisingly, the big-ticket clients currently in Everest Base Camp, still waiting for good weather to summit, will be among them.

"We expect the good weather to return by May 20 to 23," Lukas Furtenbach told ExplorersWeb. "Afterward, we will get a charter flight to Dubai."

Fresh from Dhaulagiri, a COVID-stricken Steffi Troguet is still in the hospital awaiting a negative PCR test to give her the all-clear. She hopes to join Jonatan García, Alex Txikon, and a Spanish trekking group that includes leader Sebastián Álvaro and Juanito Oiarzabal on a charter to Istanbul, from which they can return to Spain.

Unexpected or irresponsible?

Commenters have cited the apparent irresponsibility of those who went to Nepal at this time. But only three weeks ago, the situation looked very different. Nepal had vigorously encouraged foreigners to visit. PCRs and quarantines ensured that visitors didn't bring the virus with them into the (then) clean mountain valleys.

Eventually, as COVID numbers continued to decrease, Nepal shrank the quarantine period. In so doing, they hoped to attract not only climbers but also trekkers who couldn't afford to waste days locked down in a hotel.

Sebastián Álvaro feels that they have been kidnapped. "We have committed no crime and we have strictly followed all the measures imposed by Nepal's government," he said. "We have paid for our return tickets, and we hurried back the moment we heard that the country was closing, but we have been given no time or way to leave."

A perfect storm

Some visitors blame the authorities' relaxed enforcement of safety measures. They also note the lack of care by some trekking and climbing groups, and the absence of tests for local porters, guides, and business owners.

Everyone, it seemed, flocked to the Khumbu and the Kali Gandaki as soon as tourism revived. Nepal issued a record 408 Everest permits, and a vast number of climbers,  Sherpas, and other staff turned Everest Base Camp into a canvas city. Mobility was high, as locals visited relatives in villages and climbers visited each other. Hygiene control was difficult.

When India lapsed into its current crisis, Nepal's government did nothing. On the contrary, the Department of Tourism kept issuing Everest permits. After an extremely difficult economic year, many in Nepal celebrated the return of tourism. But slipshod enforcement and the liberal issuance of climbing permits, as if all were really back to normal, created large groups in small spaces. Together, it became a perfect storm.

When Carlos Soria heard that all international flights out of Nepal had canceled until the end of May, his first reaction was to leave. However, after thinking it over and changing his mind more than once, Soria and some others have decided to stay.

"We are going to enjoy the mountain in its perfect solitude and keep a bit of hope for a summit chance," Carlos Soria wrote.

Soria's partner, Luis Miguel López, is realistic. "The mountain is in very poor condition, but we'd rather be here than move to Kathmandu and increase the problems they already have there," he said. "And we can't discard the possibility of a final summit attempt in the future."

Three Sherpas and Base Camp crew remain with them.

Carla Pérez and Topo Mena also remain in Base Camp. They are not making any final decision for now. "We are checking weather forecasts to see if there's any chance of a [summit] attempt again," Mena wrote earlier today. "[We are also] keeping a pulse on the COVID situation in Nepal and how that will affect our journey."

Forecasts show bad weather at least for the next seven days.

Back in Base Camp, recent Everest climbers are finally posting their summit pictures -- carefully cropping out anyone from other teams, as per Nepal's oddball new rule. Also conspicuous by its absence is any view of the route itself, where dozens of climbers probably formed a line down the Hillary Step.

Today, about 50 climbers summited Everest, according to Nepali media. With yesterday's nearly 100, this marks a busy start to the week. But the waves of summiters won't last: The good weather might hold through tomorrow, but a westerly storm front has entered Nepal. Once settled in, it will envelop the mountains until May 20. Those who failed to surf this wave will have to wait at least a week.

Lower down, helicopters flit regularly up and down the valley, bringing oxygen canisters and removing COVID victims. About 19 people flew out yesterday, nine others two days ago.

In this case, ExWeb's sources have chosen to remain anonymous, since everyone is under pressure to stay silent if they want climbing permits in the future. But voices are starting to speak, still in whispers, in Base Camp, in Kathmandu, and along the Khumbu Valley about an unsustainable situation.

No one is officially infected

Doctors at Everest Base Camp told The Nepali Times that so far, helicopters have evacuated about 30 people "with suspected Covid-19 symptoms." That number is conservative, of course, and those evacuated are "suspects" because doctors are not permitted to run COVID tests on site. Everyone showing symptoms of COVID must go to the foreigners' hospital in Kathmandu for tests and a final diagnosis. There too, the hospital doctors remain silent. So apart from the word of a couple of afflicted climbers, no one is officially infected.

After some quiet days which prompted hope that the rash of cases was tapering off, they have picked up again. One climber remarks that some teams strictly follow safety protocols, while others simply don't care. They are reckless both in Base Camp and in their stays downvalley. As customary, several teams have retreated to Namche Bazaar, Pheriche, and other villages for some rest at lower altitudes before the final summit push. The consequences of their interactions in stores and lodges where COVID is spreading remain to be seen.

The era of the aero-taxi

Helicopters have quickly become a big profit centre in the Everest business. They have replaced porters and yaks, they resupply up to Camp 2, they rescue, they airlift the sick, and they serve as aero-taxis for trips up and down the Khumbu or between Kathmandu and Base Camp. It is likely that they too spread the virus.

Part or all of the Bahraini team has already returned to Kathmandu. We don't know whether they reached Base Camp under their own steam or whether they grabbed an aero-taxi from Camp 2. An Everest climb is only complete if the climber descends entirely down to Base Camp.

In Kathmandu, climbers go to the CIEWC Hospital, a private centre for foreigners. Unlike virtually all public hospitals in Nepal, they have enough beds, medical supplies, and oxygen.

At least, Nepal's government has apparently reached an agreement to receive all the empty oxygen bottles from Base Camp, to refill and use at local hospitals.

The first wave of Everest summits occurred today without crowds or reported incidents. And if something did happen, we might not know, thanks to the secrecy wrapping the mountain this season.

According to official sources, this is surely the healthiest Everest season ever, with no evacuations, no pain, no doubts...and colorful unicorns flying over the Western Cwm. Actually, instead of unicorns, rumors have flown. And the backlash against the government of Nepal and the Everest community has begun.

Several articles in European media report that climbers and outfitters currently in Base Camp risk losing their next year's permits if they speak up. The same articles note that evacuations from both Base Camp and Camp 2 continue almost daily.

Some climbers, including Alex Txikon, have left Everest Base Camp in exasperation with the COVID situation. Others are in quarantine or isolation. We don't know if anyone is in the hospital back in Kathmandu.

No international flights

Most of those who decided to stay have started their final pushes. The first teams reached the top today. But when they return to Base Camp, they'll hear some unpleasant news: First, the audiences are not particularly enthusiastic about their accomplishment. Their single-mindedness, with COVID raging throughout Nepal and in Base Camp, has not been an asset for once.

Second, Nepal has extended the ban on international flights until the end of May, The Kathmandu Post reports. So those who planned to helicopter back to Kathmandu and promptly fly home will be disappointed. Stranded trekkers currently in Kathmandu describe a grim situation, isolated in hotel rooms, with the city closed.

The Nepal Mountaineering Association has asked climbers to retrieve and repatriate their empty O2 canisters back to the cities. There is a shortage not only of oxygen but of oxygen canisters, and theirs may help keep people alive in hospitals.

More summits

Elia Saikaly and his four partners (Scott Simper, Hélène Drouin, Frank Løke, and Javier Remón) with the Ascent Himalayas group also summited today. Eleven Sherpa guides accompanied them: Pasang Tenzing Sherpa, Tsering Pemba Sherpa, Pasang Kaji Sherpa, Dawa Gyaljen Sherpa, Tsering Dawa Sherpa, Danurbu Sherpa (A), Danurbu Sherpa( B), Pasang Yella Sherpa, Kalsang Dorji Sherpa, Lakpa Sherpa, and Mingmar Sherpa. Everyone has safely returned to Camp 4 for the night.

There is no news about summits from Tibet or the already infamous "line of separation" that Chinese guides allegedly set up on top. China's Xinhua News, however, reports that nearly 50 climbers summited today from the Nepal side, including 12 Bahrainis.

Xinhua quoted Seven Summit Treks' Mingma Sherpa that another four in the Bahraini team could not climb because of illness. Mingma Sherpa denied that any of those four had COVID. Seven Summit Treks has not yet released the list of summiters.

More climbers should summit tomorrow. Among them, Mingma G could become the first no-O2 summiter this season. He planned to join his Imagine Nepal team. Arjun Vajpai of India was evacuated from Camp 2 with excruciating back pain. "It was almost impossible to move," he wrote.

David Goettler and Kilian Jornet have made a second partial rotation up the normal route. They set off from Camp 2, reached 7,900m, and returned to BC for dinner, Goettler reported. Jornet says that he considers their acclimatization done.

COVID empties Dhaulagiri

Meanwhile, 26 more people have been evacuated from Dhaulagiri, says Carlos Soria. Given the spread in recent days, it would be interesting to know how many remain healthy up there. Everyone has returned to Base Camp, for now, frustrated by the tough conditions above Camp 3 and by the increasing number of COVID cases. Some experienced the onset when they were already up high. Others, such as Stefi Troguet, only found out when tested back in Base Camp.

Carlos Soria is among the few healthy souls that we know about in Base Camp. He has not said whether he will still attempt the mountain or leave it for the 12th time. His team's six Sherpas are down to three, and there are no fixed ropes beyond Camp 3.

Only Peter Hamor, Horia Colibasanu, and Marius Gane -- the three isolated climbers attempting the Northwest Ridge -- have evaded the pandemic. Their problem remains the climb itself. It isn't just the steep, unknown terrain but the avalanche that buried them while they slept in Camp 3. Presumably, this danger persists. Luckily, they managed to return unharmed to Base Camp. "Now, they will rest," Horia Colibasanu's team reported. "Afterward, they will decide what to do next."

Mountains marking the borders between two countries may unite or separate. Everest seemed to represent the former when Chinese and Nepali topographers remeasured the mountain and jointly announced their result -- 8,848.86m. Now, COVID has shown the other side of bilateral relations.

While all attention has focused on Everest's south side, the north side has embraced a tourism boom. And the China-Tibet Mountaineering Association has approved 21 climbing permits, all to Chinese nationals, to climb Everest from its Tibetan side.

Prudent move or political gesture?

According to the (scarce) news shared, Base Camp is operating less like a climbing hub than a laboratory. "The CTMA set up a checkpoint 300m from Base Camp, keeping non-related persons outside," Xinhua News reported. "Daily disinfection is required in climbers' sleeping camp, canteen, washrooms, and all other common areas.

It went on: "Climbing teams are fully equipped with enough masks, sanitizer, medical gloves, and other medical equipment for at least one month. All personnel and cars coming to the camp must be disinfected. Anyone who develops symptoms of COVID-19 will be transported to local medical facilities."

All fair enough: They are taking steps to prevent any spread of the disease. But what has caused an international flap is that China is apparently concerned its nationals could catch the disease from people climbing from Nepal. So they want to create some sort of barrier, line, or other demarcation at the summit.

Nyima Tsering, the head of the Tibetan Sports Bureau, said that they are in touch with the Nepal side of the mountain, in order to organize a strategy to avoid contact between groups.

To ensure this, the Chinese are going to set up a "separation line" on the summit itself. They have already dispatched guides to take care of the task. It is not clear what it will be. A line of red dye in the snow? A fence? How it will be enforced? Apparently, they are still working on the details.

Everyone is wearing masks

Perhaps the Chinese simply want to ensure that their 21 climbers have a few square centimetres on a summit likely to be a-swarm at times with hundreds of climbers from the Nepal side. In fact, the chances of getting COVID atop Everest are next to nil. Although the summit area is relatively small, about 25 square metres, virtually everyone is wearing oxygen masks. It's breezy. The virus likely wouldn't carry well in the thin air. Climbers won't remove their masks and shout at each other from arm's length.

Nor are the teams likely to take off their gloves and hug in congratulations. While it's true that safety measures in Nepal have failed abysmally, everyone has learned to stay in their own bubbles.

Some Nepali officials are not happy with what they consider a political pose impossible to enforce, as Nepali authorities told The Kathmandu Post. Moreover, erecting a line on any border is always extremely provocative.

“No one is allowed to create a ‘separation line’ at the summit,” said Rudra Singh Tamang, director general of the Department of Tourism. “Everest is an international boundary."

In the end, it is unclear whether the roughly 300 climbers, foreigners and Nepalis, will mind staying on "their" side of the mountain, and what this "separation line" will look like. Most importantly, will the division remain, or will the wind sweep it away after the climbers return to thicker air?

These days, we should be reporting on a summit push on Dhaulagiri. The Sherpa team reached Camp 3 yesterday, and the commercial climbers were expected to follow today. According to plan, everyone would summit tomorrow. But things are not going remotely well on Dhaulagiri.

Purnima Srhestha confirmed that the team was retreating from Camp 2 because of "heavy snowfall and the COVID-19 situation." The Indian photojournalist dismissed that same COVID situation as "nothing serious" two days ago. But the outbreak is now totally out of control.

Some climbers are reportedly refusing to take a test while others are falling sick. Antonios Sykaris started having respiratory issues at the higher camps and has returned to BC to take a COVID test. But he fears the worst.

The danger that climbers may reach higher camps, where a rescue is much more difficult, before showing symptoms has put a sudden end to the Dhaulagiri push. It may repeat on Everest, where massive summit waves are expected this week.

Wlademar Kowalewski, Stefi Troguet, Dominic Trastoy, and Moeses Finamoncini reached Camp 3 yesterday and were confident that they could continue. But they have all chosen to retreat. Back in Base Camp, Troguet is feeling well. But she too has just tested positive for COVID.

Meanwhile, in Carlos Soria's team, Nima Sherpa, Tenjing Sherpa, and Danu Sherpa also tested positive and are in isolation. Today, a helicopter evacuated the team's cook, Ngati, with more serious symptoms. Soria and his two partners have tried to help combat the spread of the virus, but the rate of contagion continues to rise. As of yesterday, the three Spaniards were all right, and 82-year-old Carlos Soria has received both his mRNA vaccinations.

Both Dhaulagiri and Everest Base Camps do not have access to PCR testing, so are using rapid antigen tests that some climbers have brought. According to the Cochrane Library, which publishes rigorous reviews of multiple studies, antigen tests give false positives just one percent of the time and detect the presence of COVID between 58 and 72 percent of the time.

Rows about the ropes

But the coronavirus is not the only reason for the tension in Base Camp. Carla Pérez told Desnivel that she and Topo Mena were climbing on their own in front partly because they wanted to be on fresh terrain and to make their own decisions, but also because they wanted to avoid conflict. "There were some bad vibes in Base Camp between the Sherpas and some clients who were "not-so-clients", because they had not paid for the ropes," she said.

This is a recurrent problem among climbers in a Himalayan base camp. Some pay for a fully serviced expedition, which includes the rope fixing and usually personal Sherpas and oxygen. Others only hire base camp logistics -- food, tents, cooks, etc.

In these cases, climbers often pay for the use of ropes or help work on the route. Sometimes, though, the climbers may refuse to pay and claim that they will not use the fixed ropes -- although on normal routes, this is unlikely.

Occasionally, the outfitters responsible for the rope fixing are not interested in negotiating a deal. They simply want climbers to pay. The exact cause of the tension on Dhaulagiri remains unclear.

Mena and Pérez's story

Topo Mena and Carla Pérez said that the going was great until Camp 1 and slightly harder to Camp 2. It then became really difficult until Camp 3, because of very hard ice in places, and definitely tough beyond.

Perez said that they set off from Camp 3 very early on May 8. They progressed slowly because of the difficult, exposed sections. Pérez has summited Everest and K2 without oxygen. Yet even she admitted that climbing alpine style over a mix of hard ice and avalanche-prone slabs that required constant testing was highly taxing, both physically and mentally.

Eventually, Pérez turned around because of the cold. Mena continued until the infamous traverse at 7,700m, but conditions were simply too dangerous. He broke trail in several directions, looking for some acceptably safe direction, but the wind slab on the steep slope was too weak. Eventually, he also turned around.

"Ivan Vallejo [Ecuadorian 14x8000er summiter] had warned us about that traverse," Pérez said. "Carlos Soria, who knows this mountain so well, told us that conditions were dangerous, and I can only agree with him."

Mingma Gyange, aka Mingma G, is unstoppable this year. After summiting K2 in winter with his Nepali partners, he led the rope-fixing team on Annapurna. Now he has set off toward the summit of Everest on a fast, two-day push without supplementary oxygen.

Mingma G leads a team on Everest with his company, Imagine Nepal. Like many other teams, they are already poised in Camp 4 to begin the first massive push of the season.

"I will climb to Camp 2, then tomorrow night I will join my team from Camp 4 to the summit of Everest," he wrote.

The tomorrows/todays may be somewhat confusing because of the different time zones and the exact moment when his post appeared on social media. But it seems that he intends to summit on Wednesday, one day after the first wave of climbers.

Txikon leaves

Alex Txikon has taken the opposite direction and called off his own no-O2 attempt because of the rampant spread of COVID-19 in Nepal and specifically in the mountains. For the time being, Kilian Jornet and David Goettler are staying and going ahead with their plans, whatever they are.

Early today, a small group of climbers set off from Camp 1 on Dhaulagiri. Waldemar Kowalewski's home team reports that conditions are tough because deep snow has buried the trail and the fixed ropes.  We expect further news soon, although the team's trackers (such as Viridiana Alvarez's below) locate them near Camp 2, at roughly 6,300m. Stefi Troguet's tracker last connected yesterday, when she checked in from Camp 1.

Sophie Lavaud, who is leading an all-women's expedition, is not among those heading up. Lavaud and her two Sherpas have contracted COVID. "The team from Annapurna spent six days in Pokhara and none of them was tested before getting into the helicopters that brought them here," she said. "What a lethal mistake."

On their second rotation earlier this week, Lavaud noticed that Ang Kami and Dawa Sangay, with whom she shared a tent, had this "funny cough". Upon returning to Base Camp, they were told of the outbreak and took a quick test from an expedition doctor. All three tested positive.

Lavaud said that the the illness has thwarted her entire Women Who Dare project, so more unannounced team members are likely ill. Sick climbers had hoped to be evacuated to Kathmandu yesterday, but bad weather engulfed Base Camp and delayed their flight.

News of Carla Perez and Topo Mena is also expected soon. Perez and Mena were climbing ahead of the pack on the normal route. The Slovak-Romanian team of Peter Hamor, Horia Colibasanu, and Marius Gane expected to reach Camp 2 on the unclimbed Northwest Ridge today.

Teams at Everest and Dhaulagiri are currently focused on their summit bids, but afterward, they may face an even bigger challenge getting home.

As usual, a fleet of helicopters are ready to transfer them to Kathmandu: private heli operators are still allowed to fly "rescue missions", and the Pokhara, Lukla, Surkhet and Nepalgunj airports remain open. Getting out of Nepal, however, won't be so easy.

Trekking groups are also facing a dire situation, as exemplified by one Spanish group currently in the Khumbu Valley. "We aborted our climb to Imja Tse [Island Peak] when two members of our group who planned to head home early tested positive in a PCR test before heading to the airport," Ramón Ladra told ExplorersWeb yesterday from Tengboche.

"They lost their flights and are in quarantine. Now half of our group of 25 is showing symptoms of something that might be COVID." (Full disclosure: Ladra is a friend of mine.)

The group was told that a flight from Lukla back to Kathmandu is not an option. "We will try to get back by road," he said.

Reaching Kathmandu will take at least one more day of trekking and a long drive on bumpy roads -- assuming that they can find transportation since mobility is also restricted.

"The authorities closed the airport until May 15, and our flight out is on the 17th, so we're crossing our fingers and hoping they won't cancel it," Ladra said. "Our main concern is for those feeling sick. If they test positive, they'll lose their flights and have to quarantine."

The situation was radically different when the group arrived in Nepal two weeks ago. "We were asked to show our certificate of a negative PCR that we had taken just before flying, and that was all," he said. No second PCR and no quarantine, although only a few in the group had received their vaccinations.

Government to rescue tourists

Today, the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has formed a Disaster Management and Communication Cell, to coordinate and rescue the tourists stranded in different parts of the country after the travel restrictions were imposed," The Kathmandu Post reported.

Yesterday, "11 foreigners, including five policemen from Langtang, four Ukrainians from Pokhara, and two Americans from Lukla have been rescued and brought to Kathmandu," they announced.

There is no word yet about those currently on Everest and Dhaulagiri, who don't plan to leave before summiting.

Once the tourists are in Kathmandu, the NTB promises that they will charter flights to the tourists' home countries. But how timely will these charters be? Last year, during the first lockdown, foreign climbers such as Horia Colibasanu had to wait in Kathmandu for weeks.

The new rescue "Cell" is also in charge of controlling quarantines on Indian citizens coming into Nepal. Nepal has closed its borders to virtually the entire world but has surprisingly allowed a Nepal-India bubble. The two countries share a 1,750km border and three flights per week continue between Kathmandu and Delhi.

Everest climbers insist that everything is under control in Base Camp. COVID-free groups have been quick to point out their status. Still, climbers are speeding up their plans. In the meantime, public hospitals in some areas have stopped accepting COVID patients because of lack of oxygen.

The pandemic has roared back into Nepal, both in urban areas and in the mountains. The virus has reached not just Everest Base Camp but also Dhaulagiri and the Khumbu Valley.

The news of COVID in Everest BC has made headlines around the world, but outfitters, climbers, and Nepal's government have continued an increasingly senseless policy of never mentioning the virus or anything that might throw shade on Nepal or mountain tourism. The few who dared to post critical comments later deleted them.

The public backlash is well underway. Many now demand that the expeditions stop. Also, in Everest's case, that thousands of bottles of canned oxygen for climbers be donated to local hospitals that lack oxygen for severe COVID cases.

Everest climbers are going up to Camp 3, and the first summit wave could be just around the corner. But when the good news comes, the reaction might not be as enthusiastic as usual.

"However successful the climbing season may be, however worthy the personal achievement for those who reach the summit, the employment to the community, and the friendships made, it will weigh heavily against the lives that will be lost to COVID-19 and the impact on Nepal’s already fragile health system," blogger and climber Mark Horrell wrote in his latest post.

Dhaulagiri hit

Secrecy was impossible to keep on Dhaulagiri. There, some climbers played the Everest game of denial. Others, such as Carlos Soria, just stated the truth plainly.

"Yesterday, the first positive cases were detected and evacuated by helicopter," said the 82-year-old Soria. "We are all okay, taking all possible precautions. The priority now is to keep the situation under control."

They discovered many of the COVID cases because Soria's partners had brought along testing kits. Soria himself had two doses of an mRNA vaccine before leaving Spain. It is unknown whether either of his two companions also received a vaccine. They are younger and therefore not on the government's priority vaccination list.

Yesterday, photojournalist/climber Purnima Shrestha happily reported: "We are safe and sound at Dhaulagiri Base Camp, no lockdown, no COVID."

Only a few hours later, The Himalayan Times reported more than 10 climbers with the coronavirus. "Five climbers including a foreigner were brought to Kathmandu yesterday while nine more -- four foreigners and five Sherpas -- will be evacuated today after some of them tested positive during the antigen and RDT tests carried out by a medical team from the Nepal Army stationed at base camp," they wrote.

No evacuations happened from Dhaulagiri today because of bad weather.

Antonios Sykaris admits that he will have a hard time returning to Greece, but continues to play seek-and-hide with COVID. "We here in our small community do not seem to have a problem for the time being," he wrote obliquely. "About five or six people have left for personal or health reasons, but the rest of us remain healthy and optimistic."

Sykaris was less discreet about COVID on Everest, where he cited 150 cases already. The lack of official information makes it impossible to know whether that figure is exaggerated or real.

Khumbu Outbreak

Trekkers and climbers are contacting ExplorersWeb or posting in our Comments section. One trekker just back from the Chola Pass and Everest Base Camp wrote: "Of 11 [trekkers], nine of us have contracted COVID-19, probably at Gorak shep (even though all of us had done a PCR test twice before starting the trek). While trekking back to Lukla, we were extremely fatigued with a bad cough, which at that time we attributed to the infamous Khumbu Cough. The Nepal Government should be more strict with PCR testing and also make locals take the test."

On that score, there is some good news. "The Himalayan Rescue Association clinic at Pheriche was asked by the government a few days ago to do antigen COVID testing and [it] has probably already begun," Dr. Ken Zafren, Associated Medical Director of the HRA, told ExplorersWeb from Gokyo.

Dr. Zafren also expressed concern about the careless behavior of some climbing groups at lodges. "[Last night] there was a Czech Baruntse expedition that had just crossed the Rinjo La," he said. "They monopolized the stove in the dining room and never wore masks. When asked about the lack of COVID precautions, they proudly announced that they had quarantined for 10 days in Kathmandu and didn't need to take further precautions...I hope you will warn your readers that such behavior is not only dangerous but will likely result in further limitations for future expeditions."

Perhaps because of the spottily enforced quarantines for foreigners in Kathmandu, the virus has already reached the Khumbu Valley. The chances of getting sick and spreading the virus rise every day. Unlike visitors, local families lack travelers' insurance policies that provide swift evacuation and treatment. So irresponsible behavior is not an option.

Empty streets -- and airports

The now-empty streets of Kathmandu recall last year's lockdown, but the death toll is much higher this time. Everything is closed, except for stores selling essential goods. Those only open from 7 am to 9 am.

International flights have been canceled. Domestic flights ended some days ago, although climbers currently in the Khumbu confirmed that flights linking Kathmandu and Lukla continue three times per week. So trekkers and climbers can return to the capital. Helicopters remain an option (although not a cheap one) to reach Kathmandu. But from there, it is unclear how passengers will manage to leave the country.

Large numbers of foreigners lined up yesterday for the last flights leaving Nepal. Among them was Billi Bierling of The Himalayan Database. She had already booked her flight before knowing that all international departures were about to cease.

"It makes me incredibly sad," Bierling said before leaving. "My heart goes out to this beautiful country that I have grown to love...I hope I will be able to come back soon."

It seems likely that COVID, not the monsoon, will end this year's climbing season on Everest.

Spiking COVID numbers have forced authorities to lock down Nepal, as in 2020. On Everest, teams hurry to notch their summits before they are forcibly evacuated. But that could be in days, or hours.

At Everest Base Camp, COVID cases continue to spread, though not regularly. Some teams remain COVID-free, while others reportedly have many cases, prompting urgent measures from the Himalayan Rescue Association medical team.

COVID sweeps Nepal

This latest wave of COVID infections has struck Nepal hard. Skyrocketing case numbers have overwhelmed the hospitals. In Kathmandu, the lockdown is now in full effect, but Kathmandu alone still had 3,500 new cases yesterday, ExWeb correspondent Shashwat Pant reports.

PCR tests show a 43 percent positivity rate, the highest in Nepal during this pandemic, according to The Nepali Times. The situation is especially dire in towns bordering India and in the densely populated Kathmandu Valley.

As a result, the government has decided to stop all flights, both international and domestic (except for a link with Delhi twice a week), starting on Tuesday at midnight. We don't know how this measure will affect trekking and climbing groups currently in Nepal. Everest expeditions can use helicopters to return to Kathmandu. But once there, it is not clear how they will return home.

The circumstances now resemble last year's: Some climbers who did not flee the country quickly enough, such as Peter Hamor, Horia Colibasanu, and Marius Gane, had to remain in a locked-down Kathmandu for weeks. These three climbers are currently on Dhaulagiri's NW Ridge and could find themselves stranded again.

Everest's unsustainable situation

Meanwhile, at Everest Base Camp, the overall situation has not improved. Some religiously follow safety protocols and have kept their teams COVID-free, while others are far from safe.

"We hear about the [COVID] cases only from the media as our team is totally isolated," Lukas Furtenbach told ExplorersWeb. "We have no contact at all with other teams."

Furtenbach has also regularly tested both clients and staff, even during their trek into EBC. "We use COVID-19 antigen rapid test kits," Furtenbach said. "We have our own  doctor, and most team members are vaccinated."

Some outdoor media, including ExplorersWeb, have received anonymous messages purportedly from Base Camp saying that a certain team has many cases of COVID and that several of their members have already been evacuated -- yet the team still intends to climb to higher camps. As everyone clusters around the fixed ropes, it may be difficult to avoid other teams on the upper slopes of Everest.

Doctors particularly fear the onset of COVID symptoms in a previously asymptomatic climber at Camp 2 or higher. The stress of altitude could trigger a fast development of the illness and require a riskier rescue. Helicopters may be less available without domestic flights, and hospitals in Kathmandu are full.

Expedition leaders held a meeting today with the medical staff of the Himalayan Rescue Association at Base Camp. Doctors reemphasized the need to avoid camp-to-camp interactions and the need to use face masks even inside one's own camp. "Suspected COVID cases are to be sent to Everest ER clinic for evacuation," the Nepal News blog reported.

The public turns against "selfish tourists"

On Saturday, a climber was airlifted from Camp 2 with symptoms of High Altitude Cerebral Edema, according to Hungarian Journalist Laszlo Pinter. Apart from this legitimate use, helicopters are flying daily between Base Camp and Camp 2. But why? They are not rescue missions. A rather upset Elia Saikaly points out that these are simply designed to get climbers safely to C2 without having to deal with the Khumbu Icefall! There were nine such flights last week.

"Why climb when you can fly?" Saikaly said cuttingly in his Instagram post, which included a video of one flight. "You know who you are."

The route through the Icefall, by the way, was closed yesterday after part of a serac fell, blocking the way and injuring two climbers.

Judging from comments, the public is increasingly pushing back against "selfish tourists", "spreading the virus", and "sipping O2 so badly needed in the country's hospitals".

COVID spreading down Khumbu Valley?

Petro Shamborovkyi and Oleg Ivanchenko of Ukraine spoke to ExplorersWeb from Namche Bazaar. They stopped here for two days after summiting Ama Dablam and want to do Lhotse without O2 next.

Now, given the uncertain and fast-changing situation, they aren't sure what to do. Many climbers and trekkers have given up their plans and are trying to rebook their flights home, they said. In Namche, people wear masks, and they have started hearing about some cases.

Dhaulagiri: summit or leave?

Besides Everest, Dhaulagiri is currently the busiest 8,000m peak. Most climbers have spent acclimatization time at Camp 1 and/or Camp 2. They are ready for a summit push as soon as the weather clears.

Snow has fallen on Dhaulagiri every afternoon, but conditions should improve this week. If so, look for a massive summit push. Carla Pérez and Estaban Mena are also prepped for a fast, no-O2 ascent.

COVID seems not to have touched Dhaulagiri Base Camp yet. At least, no reports have appeared. But Pokhara is also in lockdown. Dhaulagiri climbers will also find it hard to return home if flights stop completely.

How did COVID get to Everest Base Camp? Should the season be canceled? A doctor weighs in.

The voluntary medical team of the Himalayan Rescue Association first revealed the possible cases of COVID at Everest Base Camp on April 23. But after that initial report, they have mostly remained silent.

However, one of the physicians with the International Society of Mountain Medicine (ISMM) at Everest Base Camp recently admitted that "many people" have been evacuated from EBC with suspected COVID, and later tested positive in Kathmandu.

The doctor went on: "We have protocols in place at the Himalayan Rescue Association's EBC clinic for treating patients with suspected COVID," he said. "We have been denied permission by the Ministry of Health to do PCR testing. Khumbu Cough and other respiratory ailments can look like COVID, so we basically treat all cases as if they were COVID...Many climbers are isolated in their tents at the moment. Expeditions are also isolating themselves, minimizing interactions with other expeditions. In Kathmandu, hospitals are not yet at full capacity, but ICUs are filling up quickly.

"The Government seems determined not to close down the climbing season, but this could change any time. I agree with my colleagues that, for those who are not already here, now would not be a good time to come to Nepal."

To understand how the situation in Base Camp may have developed, ExplorersWeb sought out Dr. Iñigo Soteras, the medical head of Spain's Mountaineering Federation and a professor of Wilderness Medicine. Dr. Soteras is not currently at Everest Base Camp but he is in touch with colleagues who are. He has also collaborated with the HRA for years and knows EBC well.

ExplorersWeb: How is it that COVID cases were not identified until tests in Kathmandu?

Our standard protocols in high-altitude environments dictate that unless proven otherwise, all problems coherent with AMS [Acute Mountain Sickness], are primarily diagnosed as AMS and evacuated for further examination. Now, in the current pandemic situation and after the first cases of COVID were confirmed, the analysis has changed. Most AMS symptoms, such as tiredness, shortness of breath, headaches, and intestinal problems are also typical of COVID.

COVID at altitude

Many climbers hurried to leave for Camp 2 and some plan to extend their stay there. Could they carry the disease up to 6,400m?

Well, I doubt anyone not feeling well would go up to Camp 2. Even if they suspect that they are having acclimatization problems, climbers know that they should definitely go down and not up. It would be a different story if the symptoms presented themselves once the climber is in Camp 2. Then he/she might get a wrong perception and take his ill-being as acclimatization problems rather than COVID. But again, they would need evacuation. That's more complex in Camp 2 than in Base Camp.

Does COVID hit harder at altitude?

Yes, high altitude will exacerbate the symptoms because the virus is attacking already weakened bodies, under conditions of dehydration, less O2 saturation, tiredness, and possibly weakened immune systems. It's similar to someone with previous ailments getting COVID: The risk of developing serious symptoms is higher.

Supposedly, open air is the safest environment. So how did they catch it? Is EBC a safe place or not?

That depends on what you compare it to. A Base Camp is somewhat safer than other accommodations, thanks to the time in the open air and individual isolation when in personal tents. But a crowded base camp is dangerous compared to a BC with only one expedition at the foot of a lonely peak. So, in that sense, Everest's is the worst of all BCs. Even in the mountains, there is no such thing as zero risk. Collective tents are usually badly ventilated because of the cold, and social distance is not respected at all. I am sure that the doctors at the HRA's clinic were not surprised when the first cases appeared.

In your medical opinion, is it wise to continue with the expeditions?

It's a difficult call but as a doctor, I have to say that the risk is too high. Despite helicopters, technology, and communications, Everest Base Camp is still a remote, isolated place. If I were leading a team, I would only have gone if I had very clear criteria of self-sufficiency and no contact with other people. Otherwise, it is really difficult to control everyone, everywhere and all the time -- not only the foreign climbers but also the local Base Camp staff, possible visitors, workers, and suppliers serving several expeditions, etc. Even if I were leading a trekking group, I would not continue the trip: contacts in lodges, with local people and other trekkers, etc. The risk of infection or infecting others is far too high, in my opinion. Besides, the situation in Nepal is really concerning, and hospitals are going to be full very soon.

Nepal running out of hospital beds

According to The Kathmandu Post, the shortage of hospital care has already arrived. Nepal's Minister of Health said today that "as the number of infections has been increasing, the health system is not able to cope. A situation has already arisen in which hospital beds cannot be made available."

Yesterday, Nepal registered over 5,000 new cases, bringing the number of active cases to almost 40,000. This is a huge number in a country with limited medical resources, and with neighboring India fighting a devastating wave that has no signs of slowing down.

Everest Base Camp, a canvas village of over 1,000 people, earlier this week. Video: Sandro Gromen-Hayes

Everyone in Everest Base Camp keeps quiet about the COVID outbreak, while high above, the Sherpa rope-fixing team is just one good day from the summit.

Kami Rita and the Everest Fixers sounds like a rock band. They are certainly rocking on Everest right now. With lead man Kami Rita Sherpa, these first-class Sherpa climbers are the only ones doing Everest without ropes. That's because they are the guys setting the ropes. A difficult job, especially this very dry year.

 

Despite snow yesterday in Base Camp, a significant number of climbers have decided to spend several days in Camp 2. This includes Colin O'Brady, who set off with Dawa Sherpa today for Camp 2, bypassing the usual night in Camp 1. He won't return to BC before next week.

Money talks

Meanwhile, Nepal authorities continue to deny/avoid discussing the COVID outbreak. The Department of Tourism continues granting Everest permits: From an already record 394 on April 27, it rose to 408 on April 28. At $11,000 per permit, Nepal has already earned close to $4.5 million from those alone.

At the same time, authorities have imposed a two-week lockdown in Kathmandu, Pokhara, and other areas with high contagion rates. They also reestablished a 10-day quarantine for everyone entering the country.

As usual, confusion surrounds certain of the new regulations. Since road transport is banned for the next two weeks, except for essential services, climbers and trekkers returning from the mountains may have trouble returning to Kathmandu. The Kathmandu Post published some useful information about this earlier today.

Kathmandu sources also report that the Department of Tourism refuses to take calls from the media and insists that tourism officials, expedition operators, Base Camp staff, and climbers (except those already infected) hide the truth.

Nepal's worst-kept secret

This half-secrecy -- word does get out -- is not only useless, it's harmful. Travelers about to leave for Nepal aren't sure what to do. Those in Base Camp behave as if nothing has happened, but they face increasing criticism on social media, for selfishness, and for ignoring safety measures. Some have even accused climbers of bringing the virus into the country.

Yet most Everest hopefuls felt safe, thanks to their double negative PCR test. Some may be vaccinated, but in a number of countries, including all those in the European Union, vaccines are not available privately but only through strict protocols. With the virus already established in Base Camp, teams are now trying to avoid contact beyond their social bubbles. But the harm is already done.

COVID cases in Everest Base Camp are multiplying, but the government of Nepal clings to a strategy of denial, censorship, and threats.

COVID infections continue to spread not just at Everest BC but along the Khumbu. At Everest Base Camp, cases might be 10 times the four known infections, according to Alan Arnette. Sources in Kathmandu spoke of about 20 people evacuated with COVID symptoms. However, hospitals are not allowed to provide information on patients. Nor are the expedition outfitters or the climbers themselves.

Censorship

Some people in contact with the climbing teams report censorship and threats to the outfitters. The government has warned them that they will be "treated unfavorably" when applying for climbing permits next year if they spread the news of the COVID outbreak at Everest Base Camp.

Tourism officials "have been reportedly making individual phone calls to doctors where COVID-infected climbers were treated, doctors at EBC, and expedition agencies to block COVID info," the Everest News blog tweeted. "Outsiders or media [are] not allowed at EBC tents without permission."

It went on: "A group of outsiders who recently visited EBC after an outfitter allowed them, tested positive for COVID-19 before returning to Lukla. [They] are now receiving treatment in Kathmandu."

Everest Base Camp, population 1,000

According to the Department of Tourism, the number of permits for Everest reached 394 yesterday, breaking 2019's record. With guides, cooks, and other staff, Everest Base Camp is essentially a small, cramped town with a population of 1,000.

Alex Txikon, on his way to Everest for a no-O2 ascent, is concerned but is going ahead, he told ExplorersWeb from Pheriche today. "I brought a fresh negative PCR test from home, and I took another after arriving in Kathmandu," he said. "Once I got the negative result, I could leave for the Khumbu."

Other sources told ExplorersWeb that forged PCR certificates are easy to obtain in Kathmandu, for about $60. So while Txikon got a proper test, it is not clear whether every visitor has bothered to do so.

COVID worsening throughout Nepal

Meanwhile, the situation in Nepal itself is worsening quickly, largely thanks to the 1,770km long porous border with COVID-ravaged India. The border closed during the virus's first wave last year, but it has since reopened.

Kathmandu will enter another lockdown on Thursday, and road transportation will cease. A second border closure is under discussion.

We don't know how this could affect climbers and trekkers in the Himalaya. For now, both international and domestic flights are operating normally.

Denying evidence is not a good strategy. News leaks from Base Camp anyway, increasing the uncertainty and seriously damaging the credibility of official sources. Reality contradicts the Department of Tourism's "Good News Only" politics.

In Nepal, the number of active cases surpassed 20,000 today, according to The Kathmandu Post. "The country reports 3,442 new cases and 12 deaths," it stated.

"We have detected the UK variant and the double-mutant variant detected in India," Krishna Prasad Paudel, the director of Nepal's Epidemiology and Disease Control Department, told Reuters.

Hospitals near the Indian border are already crowded and in a precarious situation. Nepal's vaccination campaign has nearly ceased because of shortages. Most vaccines come from India, which is dealing with such horrid infection rates that it has stopped exporting vaccines. It needs them for its own population.

Hospitals in crisis

"The virus is mutating very fast," said Rabindra Pandey, a public health expert. "What started in India has now entered Nepal." If the trend continues for another week, he adds, the already-stretched hospitals will run out of beds.

Nepal's former king Gyanendra and his wife tested positive for the virus after returning from India to attend a religious festival. They are undergoing treatment at a private facility in Kathmandu.

"The situation is really frightening," said Prakash Thapa, a doctor at Bheri hospital in Nepalgunj, a city bordering India.

He said the hospital was inundated with coronavirus patients requiring intensive care and ventilators.

"Even children and young people come in critical condition, and patients are even sleeping on the floor and corridors," he said.

Until yesterday, Antarctica was the only continent on earth with no cases of COVID-19. No longer. Thirty-six Chileans at their country's General Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme Base tested positive on Monday.

Known as the O'Higgins Base for short, it lies at the northern end of the Antarctic Peninsula and is one of 13 operated by Chile.

The 36 individuals have been evacuated to Punta Arenas on mainland South America and are in isolation. They include 26 members of the Chilean army and 10 maintenance workers.

Following Garrett Madison's success, another foreign team is heading to Ama Dablam. Lukas Furtenbach's group is currently quarantining in Kathmandu before heading to Ama Dablam, Mera Peak and the rarely climbed Nirekha, a technical 6,000'er close to Gokyo. "What an extraordinary privilege to climb in Nepal in absolute solitude," said Furtenbach. "This is once in a lifetime." All members have tested negative for COVID more than once to ensure that they are not going to spread the virus in the Khumbu Valley.

Meanwhile, climbers continue to confirm for winter K2. The latest is Pakistani's winter expert, Muhammad Ali Sadpara, who will climb with his son Sajid and Iceland's John Snorri.

Those hoping to explore the southern hemisphere may finally a chance: Chile, home of the Torres del Paine and Cerro Torre massifs, opens its borders to foreign tourists on Monday. Requirements for entrance include a negative PCR test (done less than 72 hours before boarding) and a health insurance policy covering COVID-19. However, Argentina's Aconcagua National Park will remain closed this season to foreigners. Only one small hospital services both the nearby El Calafate and El Chalten areas.

Mountaineering researchers from Scotland, France, Canada and Germany have produced a paper on the impact of COVID-19 on mountain sports, including hiking, trail running, bouldering, climbing and mountaineering. Their paper is currently under peer review, but it concludes that the main risk of infection occurs during transportation to and from the mountains, traveling in gondolas and staying overnight at lodges, rather than during the activity itself.

Their review of known infections found no reports of anyone contracting COVID-19 during actual outdoor sports. One woman came down with the virus during a 140km mountain hike, but she contracted it in her evening lodgings, not outdoors.

The researchers noted that many mountaineers belong to older age groups, which may mean they are more likely to participate in higher risk activities, such as traveling in gondolas. As we know, if older people get the disease, they are also more likely to experience severe symptoms.

The researchers recommend classifying the risk of infection during mountain sports as either high, moderate or low/negligible, to allow governments to make decisions whether to close a ski hill, for example, based on degree of risk. Their system does not consider ethnicity, gender or where the person traveled from.

The full paper can be found here.

Teams are currently heading to Ama Dablam and nearby trekking peaks in the Khumbu Valley, despite the uncertainty caused by a recent case of COVID-19 in Namche Bazaar.

Most groups plan to reach Ama Dablam's Base Camp by Sunday, according to guide Kenton Cool of the UK, who is waiting out his seven-day quarantine in Kathmandu. Weeks after a member of Bahraini's royal family summited Manaslu, Cool's Himalayan Guides expedition has drawn another Middle Eastern prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Thani from Qatar.

Garrett Madison is also in Kathmandu to guide a climb of Ama Dablam and a trek to Gokyo. Madison was recently in the news after a lawsuit by a former Everest client, whose expedition was called off because of dangerous conditions on the mountain.

SummitClimb's Tim Mosedale and John Gupta are also expected at Base Camp shortly. Other teams might confirm in upcoming days, although the confusion about permits and closures has not encouraged clients to invest in a trip to the Himalaya. All those hoping to enter the Khumbu have weathered a flurry of contradictory orders from authorities, who have closed and reopened the region at least twice in the last few days, after that initial case of COVID-19 turned up in Namche Bazaar.

On Friday, authorities closed Lukla airport and ordered massive testing. Finally (we hope), the valley reopened to foreigners today, October 26.

This is the last chance for the local lodges, porters and guides to earn some income this year. Sagarmatha National Park also receives a fee from every foreigner who enters.

While flights from India have not resumed, Nepal has opened to most international visitors since October 17. Newcomers must show a new negative PCR test and quarantine for one week at a hotel in Kathmandu. Entrance into the Khumbu region requires a trekking or climbing permit.

Just hours after Nepal announced that as of October 17, it would waive the mandatory quarantine imposed on foreigners, authorities changed their minds and delayed the country's tentative opening date to November 17, according to the Kathmandu Post. The sudden volte-face was apparently due to the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

This news is crushing to local and international tour operators, who had jumped to offer treks and climbs starting as soon as next week, based on the previous encouraging news.

Even if Nepal actually opens in a month -- no guarantee, as we've seen -- mid-November may be too late. Not everyone will want to trek and especially climb so late in the season, when days are shorter, temperatures almost wintry and storms likely.

But mainly, the continuing uncertainty is too great to arrange solid climbing plans, especially amid rumors of new lockdowns on the horizon. No one wants a repeat of last March, when hundreds of trekkers and climbers were trapped in Kathmandu for weeks.

Thanks to reader Damien Francois for alerting us to this news.

Just when it seemed that no foreign expeditions would visit Pakistan this year, SummitClimb Europe Director and guide Felix Berg showed up in Gilgit to lead a small team to the little-known peaks of the Shimshal Valley. Two weeks later, in perfect weather, the climbers notched two first ascents. Call it coincidence, but soon after their trailbreaking journey, a handful of other climbers soon showed up in the same area.

Check the complete report, including climbing details, route topos and a cool image gallery here.

Back home in Germany, Berg spoke to ExplorersWeb about exploring Pakistan’s mountains in Eric Shipton’s style, the impact of the pandemic on local communities, climbers and guiding companies, the forecast for 2121 and his own perception of risk.

ExplorersWeb: Pakistan was actually Plan B, since your original goal was Khan Tengri. What happened?

Actually, Pakistan was Plan C. Originally, we had two groups slated for Khan Tengri, but eventually, the only local company in the area decided not to set up a Base Camp for the season. We then proposed climbing the mountain self-sufficiently, walking in and climbing alpine style. That put everyone off, except for some adventurous clients with a strong alpine background. Meanwhile, time went by, and Kyrgyzstan remained closed to foreigners, while Pakistan decided to open its borders. Hence, Plan C. It was only possible because the clients were so flexible.

ExWeb: You were probably the first foreign tourists in the country, arriving just a couple of days after it opened. How were the COVID and tourism situations?

I was quite surprised by how easily everything went, especially compared to my recent experience in Europe. I had just visited the Pyrenees and Chamonix and had to deal with crowds, traffic jams, some people not respecting social distance, etc.

Then I flew to Pakistan. Airports were empty, and everything was well organized: temperature controls everywhere, we left our addresses, stated where we were going, and received our visas efficiently on arrival. Then I took a domestic flight, with more safety measures that I had seen in Europe, including the flight attendant in a protective suit!

In Gilgit I did find other vsitors, because while the country had been closed to foreigners, some local tourists were enjoying the mountains.

ExWeb: Did you guys get tested just before going?

Sure. We didn't need clean test results to enter Pakistan itself, but did need them to travel to the northern areas. We also had tests on our way home, after landing in Germany.

ExplorersWeb: Once the team gathered in Gilgit, how did you choose the peaks you'd climb?

During the planning, I suggested Shimshal, because for a long time I wanted to go to some less “standard” areas of Pakistan, rather than Baltoro and the 8,000'ers or Nanga Parbat. The Shimshal Valley seemed just ideal because of its large number of unclimbed peaks. I also knew that it had many smaller ones which were easy to reach. This suited us because we had planned a rather short trip of only three weeks. As for the specific peaks, I first contacted Mirza Ali, who was born in the area, and he sent us some pictures and ideas. However, once in Shimshal village, we discussed options, and in the end, we headed for a completely new area, just to look around.

ExWeb: Sounds like a expedition out of the old days.

Yes, it was an amazing experience. It is definitely not something guided expeditions typically do, go and climb a new peak.

ExWeb: Indeed! Wasn’t uncertainty and the unknown terrain an issue among team members?

Surprisingly, it all went very well. Of course, we had rather adventurous climbers, who were focused not just on a summit but were ready to explore. During the climbs, we went light, alpine style, belaying when necessary, but the members also moved unroped a large part of the time. In fact, we did have an incident on our third climb when one slipped and fell about 60 metres, luckily with just minor injuries. And the way back to Gilgit was edgy because of the heavy rains. So, there was adventure all along the way.

ExWeb: Your weather while climbing seemed good, although late August is not popular in Pakistan. Was it just luck or could this stimulate future trips?

It was odd, because August is considered the rainiest season in Pakistan. But based on all my previous expeditions, it seems that every year is different. Sometimes it's good in early June, sometimes August. It is really hard to predict, so we thought, why not give it a shot?

In our case, the weather in Pakistan was the best ever. On the way there, we didn’t have a single day of rain. When climbing, we had some minor systems one morning, but the rest was good.

But on the way out at the end of August, the forecast was good but the weather turned really bad. The two-day trek out and also the road trip from Shimshal to Gilgit were quite adventurous, with rocks falling on our car in the pouring rain and the drivers speeding as much as they could to get out before it got worse. We also had to leave the vehicle in places and walk on landslides which were still active, because it was raining non-stop. Then, on the Karakorum Highway, we had to walk several kilometres and changed course three times because of landslides.

ExWeb: Luckily, it all ended up well. Did you expect to bag two unclimbed peaks in such a short time?

I didn’t, because we headed for Pakistan with a single peak in mind, which we discarded during our discussion with Mirza Ali. We finally went to the other side of the valley, where there were more unclimbed peaks. The first one was relatively easy, the second ended up as quite a challenge, because the couloir was longer and steeper than it had seemed from below.

In particular, the final pitch was interesting: not too technical but hard to protect because of the mixed terrain and sketchy granite with loose snow on top. It was exposed but very rewarding to get to the top. It was also great to see the whole team  successful: Gabriel Stroe, Patrik Münkel and also Markus Hohle, who had suffered that fall. Arshad Karim, a local climber, was a great help too and enjoyed himself. He mentioned how different this kind of climbing was from his past experiences on K2.

Mirza Ali helped with local organization and climbed the first peak with us. The locals we worked with were happy to have had a chance to work. In Shimshal, they depend on tourism. Although Shimshal isn't as popular as the Baltoro, 20 to 30 trekking groups do Shimshal Pass in a normal year. This summer, however, we were the first and only group to hire local porters. Pakistan’s mountain communities are being hit hard. They do not have as much outside support as Nepal, where a number of NGOs operate.

The second half of the interview will appear tomorrow.

Three days was all Felix Berg and his SummitClimb team needed to complete their double-header. After their first success last Thursday, they bagged an even higher and more demanding unclimbed peak (6,105m) on Saturday, in ideal weather. Now they are back in base camp, with a week left and the whole Shimshal valley virtually to themselves. Now, the five Europeans and Pakistani Mirza Ali are free to just look around and pick their next choice, since peaks under 6,500m require no climbing permit in Pakistan.

Their original goal had been been Khan Tengri, but because of the pandemic, they were not allowed to enter Kyrgyzstan. But they stayed flexible, and when Pakistan opened its mountains, the climbers jumped on the opportunity. They all had negative COVID tests before arriving.

The first climbing permit of Pakistan's 2020 season was issued last week to the Czech team aiming for 7,453m Muchu Chhish, which of course does require a permit. Pavel "Kořen" Kořínek, Pavel "Doktor" Bém and Jiří "Punkáč" Janák (they call themelves Kořen, Doctor and Punk) trekked toward Hunza's Batura area, where Muchu Chhish is located.

Yesterday, Kořen injured himself in a very 2020s-style incident, not with the mountain, but with a drone that crashed into his hand. "Drone survived the encounter with two broken propellers and Kořen with a badly injured hand...Punk managed to fix the drone, Doktor managed to fix Kořen's hand, and so the show goes on," the team posted archly on FB.

Unfortunately, hope has faded for those hoping to get to Nepal in September. According to authorities, Kathmandu's airport will open only partially, mainly for diplomatic personnel and Nepali citizens returning home. No mention of tourists. That news was the final straw for Spain's Sergi Mingote, who has confirmed that his plans for Makalu and his No-O2 8,000'ers project will have to wait for better times.

As September approaches, COVID-19 cases continue to increase in Nepal. The government's policies remain hesitant and contradictory, and regulations change constantly. Local guides and climbers have all but abandoned the fall season.

After tentatively opening the country to international flights, rising coronavirus cases forced Nepal to postpone foreign flights again until at least September 1. Even if they resume then, it's unclear whether visitors will have to quarantine. The uncertainty was too much for Mingma G. "The Nepal government ended a three-month lockdown without proper planning, which resulted in a rapid increase of corona cases," he said earlier this week. "We plan to cancel all our upcoming expeditions till the situation improves." Tashi Lakpa Sherpa recently posted that his Seven Summit Treks is ready to operate, but the situation is not in their favour.

Several international operators are also throwing in the towel until next year.

Independent climbers such as Sergi Mingote of Spain have not given up entirely. Mingote has just completed a 48-day cycling and climbing trip across Europe, training and promoting Catalonia's bid to host Winter Olympics in 2026. He is fit and ready to go. "I still hope I will get a chance to go there," he told ExplorersWeb, "although possibilities are fading every day."

Pakistan

However, in Pakistan, there is a modest amount of action. The country has officially opened Gilgit-Baltistan to foreigners, and the local team on Rakhiot Peak that we reported on earlier is progressing up the Nanga Parbat massif.

"A bright and sunny morning from 5,310m on Rakhiot Peak," tweeted Sa'ad Mohamed yesterday. They initially had some bad weather while they set up base camp and Camp 1 but have otherwise progressed swiftly. Their live location can be tracked here.

In addition, German climber Felix Berg is in Pakistan with a party of five to attempt a 6,500m unclimbed peak in the Shimshal Valley. Berg is a seasoned 8,000m climber and high-altitude guide. He teamed up with Adam Bielecki for the first ascent of the west face of Gasherbrum II two years ago and for an attempt on Langtang Lirung and Annapurna last year. Berg reached Islamabad earlier this week. Further details are expected soon.

With international flights scheduled to begin on August 17, Nepal authorities have also granted trekking and expedition agencies permission to operate. Local companies are ready to outfit expeditions to Everest, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri, Cho Oyu and a number of 7,000'ers and 6,000'ers. The only element still missing is -- mountaineers.

International flights can land on Nepalese soil through a progressive process. It starts by allowing flights from "safer" countries and imposing quarantines until mid-August. The plan is to slowly lift these restrictions and have a regular flow of flights to Kathmandu by September.

Nepal's Department of Tourism is ready to issue climbing permits for autumn and is currently preparing safety procedures for tour operators and staff. Local outfitters, such as Tashi Lakpa's Seven Summits Treks, will offer climbs of Everest-Lhotse, Manaslu, Makalu and Dhaulagiri. Meanwhile, Mingma G's Imagine Nepal has set its sights on 7,140m Nemjung, should clients arrive. Nirmal Purja, currently in Chamonix, also announced Everest-Lhotse and Manaslu for anyone interested.

The problem is, it takes two shores to build a bridge. COVID-19 cases are still soaring in the Americas, Russia and the Middle East, and even Europe is busy trying to control new outbreaks while struggling with crippled economies. All around the world, countries are rife with unemployment. No wonder that Himalayan climbing has declined on everyone's list of priorities.

In the Himalaya itself, the risk of contagion remains too high just to relax and enjoy the scenery. While Nepal's figures are still moderate, neighboring India has the third highest number of cases worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.

Under such circumstances, international outfitters are cautious. "As much as I would love a return to normal, I’m not planning on sending any groups to Nepal for the post-monsoon," Adventure Contultants' CEO Guy Cotter told ExplorersWeb. "For one, I’m afraid of accidentally introducing COVID to the Khumbu. The Khumbu is a perfect bubble that needs to stay closed until this pandemic is resolved." Note that Adventure Consultants is based in New Zealand, one of the countries that has managed the pandemic most successfully.

Cotter also mentioned further issues, including travel restrictions from destination countries, insurance obstacles, crowded lodges, the need for rapid COVID testing in the (inevitable) event a person gets a cold in the Khumbu, issues with repatriation during an emergency, staff quarantine costs and the difficulty of getting staff back into their home countries at the end of the season.

"The situation we're in is similar to climbing a mountain: If you want to make the ascent safely, you hold back until all the conditions are favorable," said Cotter.

Innsbruck-based guide Lukas Furtenbach shares this point of view. His company will only operate at home in the Alps for the rest of 2020, until finances and the vaccine and outbreak situations are clearer.

Will this mean that no one is going to Nepal? Not necessarily. Independent climbers or small teams may still grab a chance to do something without the typical crowds. Those who have survived the illness and may be temporarily immune may feel safe enough. Others could simply consider the risks acceptable or little different from coexisting with the virus at home. Finally, financial issues are serious for most of us but not for those few with solid fortunes.

The determined ones, however, may still have to consider logistical issues: They will not find crowds on Manaslu, but nor will they find big teams to share the route-fixing. Likewise, they have a unique chance to experience Everest for themselves but they will need to learn from the recent winter expeditions and either find a Sherpa team to assist them in the Khumbu icefall, or dare a light, nearly-alpine style climb.

What do you do when you’re prohibited from international air travel but can’t fathom being away from your aged father? Sail 12,000km across the Atlantic, of course.

Juan Manuel Ballestero lives on the small Portuguese island of Porto Santo. When Argentina cancelled all international flights in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he reasoned that the best alternative to reach his 90-year-old father was by sailing. Ballestero‘s voyage from Port Santo to Mar del Plata took 86 days. He arrived on June 17 to a celebrity's welcome.

No stranger to the ocean, Ballestero, 47, was just three years old when he first experienced life at sea. He traveled aboard the fishing vessels that his father, Carlos Alberto Ballestero, captained at the time. Shortly after finishing school, he took a job on a sailing boat off the coast of southern Argentina. He later spent time sailing the world, with ports of call that included Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Venezuela, Bali, Spain, Costa Rica and Alaska. He’s worked in marine conservation and as skipper aboard yachts owned by wealthy Europeans.

Comfortable at sea, he bought his 29-foot sailboat used for this journey in 2017. He intended to loop the world with it.

When Ballestero learned that it could be indefinitely before he saw his family again, nothing seemed more important than to join them.

Even with his years of experience, sailing during a pandemic had its challenges. Portuguese authorities warned him that he may not be allowed re-entry if for any reason, he needed to return.

Three days into the voyage, Ballestero had a mild scare when he noticed a larger vessel seemingly trailing him. Fearing pirates, his only option was to travel as fast as possible. “I thought, if it gets very close, I’ll shoot.” Ballestero said. Thankfully, nothing happened.

Then on April 12, Ballestero attempted to dock in Cape Verde to restock on fuel and supplies. Authorities refused his entry, forcing him to continue more westward than he preferred. Left to feast on repetitive meals of canned tuna and fruit, he managed his fuel supply adequately until the next docking.

Later, while approaching the Americas, a brutal wave forced him to take an unplanned stop. The event added 10 days to his journey, which he initially expected to take 75 days.

To many people around the world, the decision to leave an island bearing no COVID-19 cases is an unlikely one. But Ballestero had no desire to live out uncertain times alone. In place of social distancing and self-isolation, Ballestero isolated himself in nature. “I was locked up in my own freedom,” he said.

Alone and at the mercy of the wind, Ballestero wished for company at times. Marine life helped to fill the void sporadically. A pod of dolphins accompanied him on and off for 3,000km. A skua paid a visit too. Coincidentally, that bird is also the name of his vessel. He took it as an omen and used it to keep his spirits high during the sometimes dark days. To stay up-to-date with the pandemic spiraling around the world, he tuned into the radio for 30 minutes each evening.

By the time Ballestero arrived on Argentine soil, news had broke of the determined visitor. He received a hero’s welcome, and photographers, journalists and local supporters showed up. The inspiring story has made headlines around the world. Elated to have made it to his family's home town, his first words on land were, “I did it! I did it!”

He was also greeted by a doctor who gave him a COVID-19 test at the dock. When the test returned negative 72 hours later, Ballestero was free to unite with his family, in time for Father’s Day.

Countries around the globe are at very different stages in the fight against COVID-19. Some hope that they have reached the peak, others are taking their first cautious steps out of lockdown and a few are girding up for a second wave. So where do the major adventure destinations stand in June? Will we see any expeditions before 2021?

Open

Pakistan

Technically, Pakistan is open to tourists. The government has announced that it will open to international flights this week. Pakistan is keen to revive a flagging economy and salvage something of the Karakorum summer, but as we recently covered, hope for a summer climbing season is nevertheless fading fast. The sharp rise in domestic cases should keep Pakistan’s “open” status theoretical for now.

Nepal

Nepal’s Department for Immigration (DOI) resumed services on June 15. However, regular international flights remain suspended until at least July 6. The DOI stated that only non-tourist visas (for example, marriage and business visas) would be processed until June 18, but no further announcements about the resumption of tourist visas have come since the last update on June 16. Like Pakistan, Nepal seems eager to welcome tourists as soon as possible, but may find its hands tied.

A nationwide lockdown has eased, though some businesses, such as cinemas and shopping malls, remain closed. Easing restrictions looks risky, as the Kathmandu Post reported a record 586 new cases on June 17, suggesting that the official tally (8,274 cases and only 22 COVID deaths at the time of writing) could climb quickly.  So many people, tired of the lockdown, have flocked to the streets since June 15 that the government announced a night curfew for all 77 districts on June 19.

East Africa

On June 8, President John Magufuli declared Tanzania COVID free. Tanzania's high season for tourists usually runs from July until October, but the country is expecting a 76 percent decrease in tourists for 2020. The country has allowed international flights since May 18 and does not require visitors to quarantine on arrival, but there are temperature checks at the airport, park gates and hotels.

Kilimanjaro is open, and operators are advertising tours, though with some caveats. They warn that international flights may be cancelled due a to lack of passengers and that safety precautions, including face masks, are required in public places and in vehicles.

In Kenya, the suspension of international flights was extended for 30 days on June 6. Mount Kenya, therefore, remains closed. But it has been spotted from Nairobi!

Like the sighting of Everest from Kathmandu, the photo sparked disbelief among residents, spawning some quite brilliant memes.

Pyramids of Cairo now visible from Thika road Nairobi. pic.twitter.com/j75bbUpD87

— Kenah (@1kenah) April 13, 2020

Opening Up

United States

Long a leader in so many ways, the U.S. is now sadly leading the world in the number of COVID-19 cases, yet some states are reopening. For example, Washington State has entered phase two of its Safe Start program, which will allow U.S.-based climbers to return to Mt. Baker. Madison Mountaineering is leading expeditions to the mountain as early as mid-July. (Interestingly, Madison Mountaineering is also taking bookings for Antarctica’s Mount Vinson with December 2020 start dates –- wishful thinking or a realistic target is hard to say).

National parks across the country are reopening in a phased approach. You can find out if a specific park is open through the National Park Service website.

Alaska does not currently limit business operations, restrict movement or large gatherings. According to the government website, "In-state travel is allowed for all purposes. However, local communities may enact their own requirements and rules for travelers. Always check borough and city orders before departing on travel."

At present, the U.S. remains closed to international visitors, with no immediate plans to reopen.

Canada

Like the U.S., restrictions in Canada differ from province to province. The Maritime provinces have set up border checkpoints to limit movement, while in others, inter-province movement is unrestricted (though sometimes discouraged) and stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. have reopened, with hygenic and social distancing adaptations.

Parks Canada has announced that from June 22, camping services will resume at “select parks", but only for those with existing reservations.

Some parks, including Banff, are already open, while others, such as Gwaii Haanas, remain closed and noncommittal about the immediate future. Parks further north, in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, remain firmly closed. Some, such as Auyuittuq in Nunavut, will remain closed until at least August 31, by which time winter is in the air. Entering the park before then could net you a fine of up to $100,000!

How about heading into the Canadian Arctic outside of national parks? Well, you'll need time and cash. It's mandatory for those flying into Nunavut to get a COVID test first and then to self-isolate for 14-days in one of four government-appointed hotels. Hotels in these remote Nunavut hamlets often cost $400 a night, so you can expect a hefty bill even before you set out on your expedition.

New Zealand

Before three new cases were confirmed this week, New Zealand had declared the virus locally eradicated. All three of these new cases involved individuals returning from abroad (two from the UK and one from Pakistan). The government is hopeful that their track-and-trace protocols will halt any wider spread.

The country has largely returned to normal. Businesses, schools and even ski resorts have reopened. A few international flights have also resumed, but these primarily allow stranded nationals to return home. Those arriving in the country are likely to undergo a 14-day quarantine for the foreseeable future.

There have been discussions regarding a Trans-Tasman bubble to reopen quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and Australia. However, recent comments by Australian tourism minister Simon Birmingham have muddied the waters. Birmingham has stated that Australia’s border would likely be locked down until 2021. Meanwhile, Australian foreign affairs minister Winston Peters assured the public that the Trans-Tasman bubble concept had not been jeopardized by a recent border bungle involving two active COVID cases, and could be easily established. Suggestions that COVID-free Pacific nations might join the bubble also remain up in the air.

Japan

Japan has counted 17,628 confirmed COVID cases as of June 17 but its daily new cases peaked way back in mid-April. Lockdown never really happened in Japan. Instead, an emergency declaration "strongly requested" everyone to reduce social contact. Further incentivizing a semi-lockdown, businesses that were deemed non-compliant were named and shamed. This declaration was lifted on May 25, and social pressure on citizens to avoid inter-prefectural travel was likewise lifted shortly afterwards.

The situation about outdoor pursuits remains ambiguous. Mt. Fuji is officially closed; the trails will not be cleared and mountain huts are not manned. There will even be an official stationed at the trailhead advising would-be hikers to turn back. Mountain huts elsewhere in the country have followed suit, although some plan to reopen in July, midway through the season. The big question is what this means for rescue services. Most Japanese hikers will obediently refrain from traveling in the backcountry until the government makes it clear that normalcy has returned.

Some international flights to Tokyo have resumed, but a 14-day quarantine is in effect for all visitors.

The European Union

COVID infection rates are finally falling across most of Europe, and lockdown rules are easing.

The EU plans to fully reopen internal borders by the end of June and to reopen their external borders in July. Italy, hit hard early in the pandemic but economically reliant on tourism, was one of the first to countries reopen. The map below shows the situation for EU citizens as of June 17.

Spain, currently closed, will lift their national State of Alarm today, June 22, and open to EU nationals.

Now that the majority of internal borders are open, most EU nationals can head to the Alps. The International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) have released some general COVID recommendations. These include keeping two metres apart, using a mask if around others and "staying well below [your] personal performance limit."

United Kingdom

Recently separated from the EU, the UK is battling the worst COVID outbreak in Europe. British nationals will likely face restrictions when traveling in the EU, even after external borders reopen in July.

Within the UK, a strict lockdown has eased slightly. The rules are quite convoluted, but outdoor pursuits are back, as long as you don’t stay out overnight or take unnecessary risks that could put rescue services in harm’s way. You must also stay in small groups, no larger than six.

Travel outside the UK is beginning to look more realistic, though the government still advises against all but essential travel, and the rest of the world would eye British holidaymakers suspiciously. Spain has announced that it will accept UK tourists from June 21, without the need for quarantine. The decision was made "out of respect" for the 400,000 Britons with homes in Spain. Though prospective visitors can avoid quarantine in Spain, they would currently still be subject to a 14-day self-isolation on their return to the UK.

Russia

Russia has the third most confirmed COVID cases in the world: over 575,000 cases at the time of writing. New daily cases have fallen to their lowest levels since early May, but the figures remain very high: 7,889 new cases were logged on June 20.

In Moscow, a two-month lockdown was relaxed on June 8. This included an end to compulsory travel passes within the capital. Individual regions set their own rules about the movement of people and isolation requirements, so travel within the country is still extremely limited. However, a national vote will take place on July 1, and it appears that most regions will relax their restrictions in advance of this.

The government imposed "temporary restrictions" on entry and exit at all land borders from March 30, with no word on when these restrictions will lift. However, it is still possible to fly into the country, as long as you don't mind spending 14 days in quarantine on arrival. Best to hold off on any plans to climb Mount Elbrus for now.

Closed

Antarctica

Geographically disconnected, Antarctica's isolation (and strict security) have ensured that it is the only continent with no confirmed COVID cases. Luck played a major role too, since the pandemic only emerged at the end of the Antarctic tourist season. An Australian cruise ship due to arrive in early March was turned around when COVID cases were found on board. Nearly 60 percent of those on board eventually tested positive for the virus.

Antarctica is now closed to tourism, but the continent's research stations still operate with skeleton crews. Person-to-person contact between bases is now prohibited unless essential. Those still required to travel to Antarctica have to undergo COVID screening and a 14-day isolation period.

China

Only one expedition made it to Everest this season, the Chinese survey team tasked with remeasuring the mountain. Since then, the mountain has returned to its new normal: deserted. But could we see any further mountaineering expeditions in 2020 within China? It seems unlikely. After almost two months publicizing its success at controlling the virus, a new outbreak has just struck Beijing. Over 200 new cases have been linked to a wholesale market in the city, sparking a return to lockdown for many neighborhoods. If the outbreak can't be controlled, lockdown restrictions will doubtless be expanded.

China remains closed to most non-citizens. Those that do manage to secure a visa will be subject to a centralized quarantine period of at least 14 days, the cost of which will be borne by the individual.

Brazil

Fancy a trip to the Amazon? Best not schedule it for this year. Brazil has banned entry to all foreign nationals (unless you are resident in Brazil, or the spouse, child or parent of a Brazilian national).

Brazil is in crisis, trailing only the US with over a million confirmed cases. At the same time, the president is calling for an end to lockdown and attacking regional governors who have introduced restrictions to control the virus. However, the death toll continues to rise, and the Amazon region has been hardest hit: The city of Manaus has the highest rate of infections per capita in the country. The further spread of the virus to remote communities in the Amazon is a particularly scary proposition. According to Al Jazeera, the virus has already spread upriver and infected indigenous communities.

Argentina / Chile

Any plans for Patagonia will also have to wait. Both Argentina and Chile prohibit entry to all non-residents. One of the first countries in the region to impose a lockdown, Argentina clamped down on internal movement on March 21 and has suspended all international flights until at least September. Recently, the measures have relaxed in some areas of the country, though Buenos Aires has extended its own restrictions until June 28.

Chile was slow to institute a lockdown but announced on Wednesday that they will be tightening COVID restrictions, particularly in the capital of Santiago. Recent reports state that "the new measures include a country-wide increase in policing, as well as penalties of up to five years in prison for violators of the quarantine or curfew."

Dexamethasone, the steroid commonly used to prevent acute mountain sickness (AMS), has been hailed the “biggest breakthrough yet” by Boris Johnson in the fight against coronavirus.

The RECOVERY trial was launched in March and is one of the world’s biggest randomized, controlled drug trials for the treatment of COVID-19. The UK study found that dexamethasone reduced deaths of COVID patients on ventilators by approximately a third. It is the first drug shown to reduce the death rate. “It’s a startling result, and will have a massive global impact,” said Kenneth Vallie, an intensive care physician at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the RECOVERY steering committee.

The study looked at more than 11,500 coronavirus patients in 175 different hospitals, who volunteered for a variety of experimental treatments. About 2,100 participants received a low dose of dexamethasone (six milligrams per day) for 10 days, and their results were compared to 4,321 people receiving standard care for the virus.

“What we saw was really quite remarkable,” said Peter Horby of Oxford University, who led the trial. The drug reduced death rates by around 35% for patients on ventilators and by about 20% for those who required oxygen. The drug has not had an impact on those with mild cases of COVID-19 (i.e. not receiving oxygen). 

Guidelines from the World Health Organization cautioned against treating coronavirus with steroids, since they suppress the immune system, but the RECOVERY study suggested that the benefits of the treatment outweigh potential harm. In fact, they found no adverse effects. “This treatment can be given to pretty much anyone,” said Hornby. 

The trial data is not yet published, so there is still some caution, but senior medics hail this as a huge turning point, and the treatment is now being recommended by the UK's National Health Service. Based on these results, one death could be prevented in eight ventilated patients, or one in around 25 patients requiring oxygen alone. Had doctors in the UK prescribed dexamethasone for the sickest COVID-19 patients earlier, up to 5,000 deaths could have been prevented, say researchers.

Weeks earlier, when some clinicians noted that COVID-19 pneumonia had similarities to high altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), both the British Medical Journal and the European Respiratory Journal questioned that connection. The European Respiratory Journal stated that using medications for altitude sickness to treat COVID-19 was unlikely to help and might even be potentially dangerous, but this was before the RECOVERY trial results.

As restrictions around the world ease, a few expeditions put on hold by COVID-19 have restarted. Others wait, while still others are indefinitely postponed.

Underway

Solo Row Across the Pacific

Paraplegic ocean rower Angela Madsen set off on April 24 to row the Pacific Ocean from Long Beach, California to Honolulu. Forty-five days in, the journey has been anything but easy, mainly because of adverse weather. She has deployed her sea anchor many times, but wind and seas often pushed her in the wrong direction nonetheless.

She has been ”swamped twice and had a knock down” when trying to row in a gale. The pitching seas swatted her off her seat into the gunwale and she considers herself lucky that she wasn't thrown entirely out of the boat. “I thought for sure I was going over, but I didn’t,” she said. She has also had to deal with sores from sitting too long and problems with her water maker.

Still, as of June 7, she had covered almost 3,000km and remains as positive as ever. When she turned 60 recently, her family called and sang happy birthday to her. She celebrated the event with a moon pie and a shot of Hawaiian-made Kōloa Rum.

On hold

Out of Eden Walk

Since 2013, Paul Salopek has been retracing the routes of the first hunter-gatherers. Starting in Africa he plans to mimic their global migration by walking to South America. After 18,000km, he had to pause and wait out the pandemic in Myanmar.

Initially, he self-isolated for three weeks but has now settled in an isolated village in the foothills of the Eastern Himalaya, which nudges into Myanmar. The electricity comes and goes, and soon the monsoon will hit and flood the roads, but he accepts the reverses stoically. “These matters are trivial," he says. "The ancient humans I follow hunkered for 10,000 years on the vanished land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, waiting for glaciers to melt. If nothing else, long walks teach patience.”

Running from the UK to Nepal

Seventy-five year old Rosie Pope set off in mid-2018 to run 8,500km from the UK to Kathmandu. She has been has been in Turkey since she was ordered to stop running on March 30 because of the pandemic.

She has been the sole guest at the Hilton hotel in Safranbolu since then. The hotel is technically closed but they have put a stationary bike and weights in her room, so she can exercise. “I’m so grateful for their help,” she says. Pope is ready to continue her run to Nepal the moment restrictions ease.

Round-the-world cyclist and cat

Scotland's Dean Nicholson has been cycling round the world since September 2018. Barely three months in, a stray cat named Nala decided to see the world with him. The inseparable pair are now in Hungary, the 18^th country so far, waiting for restrictions to lift. In May, Nicholson had to extend his visa to allow him to stay an extra 90 days in the country. Although a lockdown remains in place, some restrictions have eased, so Nicholson and Nala have been exploring the local area by bike.

UK Circumwalk

Karen Penny was in the Shetlands, about a third of the way through her UK circumwalk, when the lockdown forced her to return home. Since then, she has been constantly monitoring government updates to try to plan a restart date. Currently, Wales Scotland and England each have different restrictions, and it will only be feasible to restart when there is full movement everywhere, including in the Shetlands, where local barriers to travel remain in place.

Postponed or changed

Walking the length of the UK

Ben Cook was about to begin his two-year, 12,000km walk across Africa when COVID-19 grounded him in the UK. At the moment, the former member of the Hairy Handlebars duo, who cycled last year from London to Tokyo, says that his Africa plans have been “put on ice”. In the meantime, he has decided to walk the length of the UK with his dog, Darcy. “I want to reconnect with my homeland the best was I know how, by walking,” he says.

He plans to begin the 2,000km walk from Landsend to John O’Groats on June 21. He figures that it will take six to seven weeks, if he walks about 50km a day. As no hotels or hostels are open in the UK, Cook will be wild camping all the way. Although his start and end points are fixed, the exact route remains flexible. “I like to make it up as I go -- way more fun that way!"

Ultra running across the Himalaya

Belgian ultrarunner Peter Van Geit had planned to spend six months fast hiking 5,000km and 300 passes over the Himalaya. As he was making his way across India to start his expedition, the state of Himachal Pradesh curbed the entry of all foreign travelers, forcing van Geit to return home to Chennai.

Currently, the lockdown continues across India, and van Geit admits that even if restricted lifted tomorrow, he wouldn't be able to cover the 300 passes he originally intended. Still, he remains hopeful that the Himalaya will open in time for him to traverse at least 100 passes. "The summer lasts until October, so we still have four to five months,” he says.

Van Geit has used his stay-at-home time to document his completed journeys and create webinars to advise others who dream of undertaking similar projects.

Neal Moore’s 22 Rivers canoe project continues across the United States, despite COVID-19.

Moore's 12,000km odyssey began on the West Coast. He plans to paddle 22 rivers, portaging his fully laden canoe on a cart where necessary, and finishing in New York with a celebratory spin round the Statue of Liberty.

This will be his second attempt. In 2018, he stacked up 2,700km from Oregon to North Dakota and survived a scary dump on the St. Regis River. In North Dakota, his second boat (and second set of portaging wheels) gave out, and his resolve crumbled. Moore decided to take a break and returned home to Taiwan, where he works as an English teacher and freelance journalist.

He eventually decided to give his project another shot in 2020. He went back to his original starting point on the West Coast, to ensure he achieves his original vision of a single continuous journey across the U.S. He has already paddled up the Columbia and Snake Rivers. On Saturday, he crossed the Continental Divide in Montana, roughly three months after he set off.

Moore describes himself as a storyteller and he had hoped to tell the stories of those he met during the journey. Clearly, COVID-19 has changed this ambition somewhat. Campgrounds are closed and bumping into other travelers is rare. But he remains positive. “It’s actually still possible to chronicle stories,” he told a regional newspaper. “The thinking now is to underscore...what people are facing with the virus, as well as the economic fallout.”

His expedition should take about two years. His route continues via the Columbia River and then heads south towards the Missouri and the Mississippi. He’ll follow meandering rivers through the southeastern states before working his way up through the Ohio River system toward the Great Lakes. Finally, he’ll paddle down the Hudson into New York. Let’s hope he’s not still reporting on COVID-19 by the time he rounds Lady Liberty.

Bill Norrie, 67, set out from Port Renfrew, Canada, nine months ago on a year-long solo circumnavigation of the world. The experienced sailor planned to make his way from Vancouver Island to the Southern Ocean on his 28-foot yacht, Pixie. So far, he has passed South America, Africa and Australia.

While he was at sea, the world he is sailing around changed dramatically. In September 2019, when he began, coronavirus had never been mentioned. Norrie first heard the term while in the Southern Ocean. He was last on land in early February, when he made a pit stop in South Africa to make repairs and buy some supplies. At that point, he said, “the outbreak barely registered”. It was only as he continued across the Southern Ocean that the scale of the pandemic dawned on him.

His only connection to the outside world was satellite emails from his wife. She attempted to explain to him the extent of the virus and the bizarre new world he would eventually re-enter. Then, south of Tasmania, an unexpected wave washed through the doorway of his cabin as he was walking through it. It drenched his electrical cabinet and ruined most of the equipment, including his satellite phone. He could now only receive positional information through his online tracker.

Norrie arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand on May 15, after three months alone at sea. He was shocked when officials questioned him about his self-isolation plans. Initially, when they said he couldn’t land, Norrie couldn’t help but see the funny side. “I was the most isolated person on the planet, and they didn’t want to let me in!” Eventually, he was deemed not a health risk, and a welcoming party of police officers and local sailors met him as pulled Pixie up to the dock.

He has since become a bit of a celebrity in New Zealand. "I can't walk down main street without people stopping me, wanting to take a picture with me. I go to a restaurant, there's a crowd around me….I've never had this attention in my whole life."

Currently, he is carrying out repairs on his boat and electronics, and stocking up for the three-month trip back to Canada. Local sailor Vicki Moore has been helping him gather supplies and she has had to endure a few hostile glares at the supermarket, because her bulk purchases were interpreted as hoarding. “When I bought three packets of yeast, I thought I was gonna be lynched,” she said.

Norrie will wend his way back to Canada through French Polynesia. “I'm just so relieved to be out of the Southern Ocean and on my way home," he said. "It's a very emotional time."

Editor's note: COVID-19 has not only canceled adventures, it has also led to some. To kick off this casual series, a polar cyclist struggles to get home to northern Spain, still wearing his arctic gear.

Gaizka Aseguinolaza enjoys cycling in the polar regions and was planning his second attempt to cover the Iditarod Trail in Alaska this March. The year before, he missed the chance to do the 600km version of the bike race when the organizer went broke.

He decided to do the route by himself, without racing. He says it was the best experience of his life. Unfortunately, unseasonal rain and mild weather forced him to leave the final third of the route undone. Aseguinolaza vowed he'd return to complete the challenge.

When the time came to buy his ticket to Alaska, however, an uneasy feeling made him change his mind. News of a virus spreading in China had barely started, and nothing suggested the crisis that would soon follow.

"Call it intuition or whatever," the cyclist told ExplorersWeb, "but I had that feeling that this was not going to be the right year for long-hauls, so I decided to try something shorter and nearer."

Aseguinolaza eventually decided to cross 125km-wide Lake Inari in Lapland with two friends, brothers Alex and Eduardo Benito. They planned to use the well-supplied cabins along the way -- a conservative enough project for experienced adventure cyclists.

But as their departure date loomed, so did the news about the disease spreading to Europe and causing havoc in Italy. On the other hand, they figured they'd be isolated in a lonely place. Surely the problem would be over when they returned?

The three drove from their home in Bilbao, in northern Spain's Basque country, to the Barcelona airport. Here, they took a flight to Helsinki and then Ivalo. "The trip itself was awesome: a  week to cover 125km in mainly good (that is, cold), hard ice conditions, which let us ride fast," he recalled. Just once, they endured strong winds and snow which forced them to drag their bikes all day.

A busy entrepreneur in his daily life,  Aseguinolaza enjoyed the silence, the openness and the isolation, especially thanks to the the lack of cell phone coverage. The itinerary was not as popular as they had expected, and they only crossed paths with a French skier. Little did they know that that countries had by now begun restricting travel.

"Our cell connection only came back the day we finished the crossing, as we approached the village of Sevettijärvi," the Basque cyclist said. "Then we saw the missed calls and texts from family, friends...and the airline, informing us that our return flight had been cancelled, since borders were closing."

The ride had ended, but the true adventure was about to begin.

"We thumbed a ride and begged the driver to take us to the Ivalo airport. Once there, I droned on and on at the check-in counters until at the last minute, I managed to get us on one of the last planes leaving the country. It would take us to Munich, from which we hopped another plane for Barcelona."

"We had to rush to check our duffel bag to Barcelona, with no time to change clothes or shower after seven days cycling in the cold. I, in particular, looked quite ragged in my polar gear: aging bright-orange pants, second-hand Sorel boots and my old parka with its homemade ruff of fox tails from a 1980s coat that my mom had forgotten in the attic."

"We felt happy because it seemed an easy way out, given the circumstances. But in Barcelona, a new obstacle arose: We picked up the bikes, but our duffel bags had gone astray, with all our spare clothes -- and the car keys!"

"We had been traveling for 23 hours, but we couldn't afford to wait for our luggage. Spain had declared a state of emergency and imposed a strict lockdown on the entire country. All non-essential movement was forbidden. But we managed to rent a van and drove at night out of Barcelona, which looked like a town under siege. It was far from clear what would happen if we were stopped at a roadblock, wearing polar clothing and ready to tell the cops that we had just come from the Arctic Circle."

"Maybe thanks to the fact that we drove late at night, no one stopped us, and we managed not to fall asleep along the way. We finally arrived home at 5am.

Aseguinolaza has no regrets about the trip: "The experience and freedom gave me the needed calm to endure the confinement," he said. "Some may think that going ahead with the trip was irresponsible, and I admit that adventure travel has a selfish side, but we harmed nobody nor jeopardized anyone's safety."

Restrictions have now begun to lift in Spain, and outdoor exercise is permitted once a day. Aseguinolaza cycles and kayaks near home, and dreams of Alaska. "I definitely want to return there and complete the Iditarod Trail," he says. "But my first trip out of  Basque Country will be to Barcelona airport -- my van is still there!"

Below, the video of their Inari crossing:

While COVID-19 has aborted or postponed countless expeditions around the world, others have found themselves stranded in midstream, unable to continue yet often unable to find a way home. Here, the latest updates on some of those.

Out of Eden Walk

In 2013, former war correspondent and National Geographic correspondent Paul Salopek started a 34,000km walk to retrace our ancestors’ global migration. Starting in Africa, he plans to make his way across the world to the tip of South America. Over the last seven years, he has trekked 18,000km across Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Currently, he is stuck in place in Myanmar. Although few cases of coronavirus have occurred there, the government has taken preemptive steps to stop its spread.

Salopek notes that many of the places he has already walked through may cope better with the pandemic than those in the western world. “They're, in some ways, even more prepared for it than people who are in the Global North — people in Canada, the United States or Europe — who haven't had to contend with this kind of massive disruption at least in three generations or so, going back to World War II," he said.

Salopek hopes that he will be able to restart his walk in late summer and make his way across Thailand, Laos and China.

Running from the UK to Nepal

In July 2018, the exuberant Rosie Pope started her run from the UK to Kathmandu. The 8,500km route will eventually take her through 18 countries but she is currently stalled in Turkey. The pandemic became serious as Pope was wending her way through northern Turkey. At the age of 73, despite her fitness, she still falls in the most vulnerable category, and police began to trail her.

On March 30, she was ordered to stop running. She had just passed a hotel and so turned around and checked herself in. She is now the only guest at the hotel and is running up and down the stairs three times a day to stay fit. The hotel kitchen is closed, so she is surviving on tea and pasta that she cooks herself on her camp stove. While she is grateful to her hosts, “I hate being stuck here,” she admits.

She also worries that she might be deported. Whatever happens, she is determined to reach Nepal, even if that means returning to the UK and finishing the last 5,000km when the world returns enough to normal that such projects are again possible.

Round-the-world cyclist and cat

In September 2018, Dean Nicholson left his home in Scotland to cycle around the world. Three months later, as he was peddling his way up a hill in Montenegro, he heard mewing and found a tiny grey-and-white kitten, who had decided that she was going to adopt him. Since then, Nala has been his constant companion, as he continues to cycle around the world. In February, Nicholson reached his 18th country and Nala's 10th -- Hungary.

Nicholson went briefly to London in March to arrange a visa for Russia, leaving Nala with friends in Budapest. The embassy in London wanted to keep his passport for a few days, but Nicholson decided that he couldn't afford to wait, amid the ever-growing travel bans. He had vowed never to leave Nala, so he flew back to Hungary and they are now on lockdown there together. If Nicholson's 90-day visa runs out before they are able to leave, he will try to extend it. For now, they are passing their time making lockdown videos.

UK Circumwalk

Last year, 53-year-old Karen Penny began circumwalking 30,000km around the UK. She had completed 10,310km but had to hit pause in March when the UK implemented its lockdown. “On a cold and blustery day here in Shetland, I have had to make the very difficult decision to break off from my walk and return home to South Wales,” she said.

And some notable postponements...

5,000km over the Himalaya in six months

Belgian ultrarunner Peter Van Geit had planned to spend his summer fast hiking the trails and passes of the Indian Himalaya. After spending three months in the Himalaya in 2019, he wanted to double his time and cover 300 new passes across the region.  He had initially planned to begin in April but tried to bring his trip forward to avoid the ever-increasing lockdowns. But as he made his way to the Himalaya, the state of Himachal Pradesh blocked the entry of all foreign and domestic travelers.

He is now at home in Chennai waiting with “all maps and gear ready to get out again as soon as things settle.” But he worries that India's outbreaks are a few weeks behind Europe's, which will likely delay the easing of restrictions in his adopted country.

Vagabonding Africa

As one-half of the quirky duo known as The Hairy Handlebars, Ben Cook cycled last year from London to Tokyo. He was finalizing his kit for a two-year, 12,000km solo walk across Africa when COVID-19 stopped him in his tracks. He is now biding his time at home in the UK, ready to begin once restrictions ease. He plans to start in Cairo, cross 10 countries and finish in Cape Town.

Unofficial First ExWeb Expedition

ExplorersWeb writer Ash Routen and editor Jerry Kobalenko would have been most of the way through their 700km Baffin Island ski expedition by now. The duo were to have hauled from the hamlet of Clyde River, midway up the east coast of the world's fifth-largest island, to Pond Inlet, on the north coast.

Routen, who skied the length of Lake Baikal in 2018, and Kobalenko, who has done 20 previous manhauling expeditions, were to have left on March 25 but missed the COVID cutoff by two to three weeks, when the territory of Nunavut first discouraged, then shut its borders to visitors from the south. They have rescheduled their sea-ice journey for 2021.

The 26-strong Chinese team currently on Everest, the only one granted a permit this season amidst the COVID-19 confinement, has the opportunity to face the mountain in all its magnificent wildness, with only the wind as company, as no one has done in decades during the pre-monsoon season. It is a fitting way to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first Chinese ascent of the mountain's north side.

However, the team's presence also coincides with a less romantic, more technological presence: In a joint venture, China Mobile and Huawei have managed to install three 5G antennas at Base Camp (5,300m) and at 5,800m on April 19. Yaks and porters carried more than eight tonnes of equipment, and "dozens" of technicians from the telecom giants fixed the antennas in place.

China Mobile claims that the whole peak will enjoy 5G coverage, beginning this Saturday, when two more 5G stations -- the world's highest -- go up at a 6,500m.

Although there is no news about the climbing team's progress on the mountain, no one is likely to reach the summit for several days yet.

Currently, webcams are streaming 4K HD live from 5,300m. One webcam points at the camp, the other at the peak. Other 360-degree VR cameras were installed nearby.  "We want to give the Chinese people who are staying at home due to coronavirus a chance to enjoy panoramic views of the mountain's beauty through cutting-edge technology," said Liao Hongfeng of China Telecom. Here in the West, we can view the webcam footage from China Daily's Facebook page -- somewhat ironically, since Facebook is blocked in China.

The entire operation is bittersweet. It improves communication and allows better safety and easier logistics, but at the expense of some of the aura of "unreachable, furthermost" Everest. Somehow, the summit now looks less tall.

As some countries start to see light at the end of the COVID tunnel and authorities struggle to balance safety and the economy, a few signals hint that hope is not lost for the summer climbing season in Pakistan.

Like every other country in the world, Pakistan is suffering from the pandemic. Tourism had already started to decline in February, following the first whispers of the coronavirus, and the escalating crisis and lockdowns turned hotel bookings from a healthy 95 percent in January to 40 percent by early March. Presumably, the decline is much, much lower now.

However, earlier this week, the government allowed some industries to reopen, mainly construction and e-commerce. While public gatherings are still banned and schools and non-essential businesses remain closed until at least April 30, the government is trying to save the lucrative climbing season.

Currently, the country's borders are not entirely closed. The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation has announced that those foreigners wishing to visit the country must show negative results from a PCR test taken within 24 hours of departure. The measure, which started on March 29, would allow climbers from countries with fewer restrictions and where the disease is under control to enter Pakistan by the time the Karakorum season starts. Some teams have already confirmed their willingness to come if some sort of normalcy resumes.

Ali Saltoro of Alpine Adventure Guides confirmed to ExplorersWeb that the Ministry of Tourism is determined to issue permits for summer mountaineers, as long as the pandemic is in check by the end of May. Considering Pakistan's low fatality rates -- currently 128 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's running tally  -- this scenario is not unlikely.

"Right now, in Skardu, only five people are sick with coronavirus, all of them coming from Iran," Saltoro said. "So far, we have confirmed expeditions for Gasherbrum 1,2, K2, Broad Peak and K6. Others [have expressed interest] in climbing 8,000'ers from the end of June, or rock climbing in July-August, if the situation is stable."

Meanwhile, European and U.S. operators still have not made any decisions, although reservations and paperwork would require them to make up their minds within the next couple of weeks. This is also true for a number of Nepali operators and guides for whom Pakistan now offers their only chance for some 2020 income, after Nepal's own season was a bust.

Right now, climbers' main concern is not getting to Pakistan, but exiting their own countries, especially in the U.S. and Europe, COVID-19's current hotspots. In Spain, with almost 20,000 dead, the situation remains dire. Sergi Mingote, who still hopes to break the record for the fastest 14x8,000 without O2, is trying to keep his spirits up and his weight down. "I am training every day, as if I was leaving for the mountains tomorrow," he told ExplorersWeb. "I have actually lost two kilos since the lockdown. I have a plane ticket booked for June 14, and I guess I could delay leaving for another two weeks if necessary."

Mingote hopes that the warm temperatures will slow the virus's spread in Pakistan. However, he is aware that the weather patterns for the Baltoro giants -- including Gasherbrum I, his goal -- require that they are climbed before conditions worsen at the end of August.

The exception -- and thus an interesting option -- is Nanga Parbat. "The monsoon affects Nanga Parbat differently," Mingote explained. "It has its own climate, and that's why it's typically climbed first in the season, in June. But it may also have good conditions in late August or September, even though there's less snow." Considering this, outfitters such as Mingma G's Imagine Nepal have already announced a Nanga Parbat climb for late summer-fall.

Like all local outfitters, Alpine Adventure Guides hopes that the upcoming season can be salvaged, both for themselves and for the local communities, especially Gilgit-Baltistan. Equally, at ExplorersWeb, there is nothing we would like more than reporting again on the expeditions setting off from the Skardu plains to the rugged peaks of the Karakorum and the mighty Baltoro. It may still happen.

Some people under lockdown stream Netflix; a few imaginative ones make home movies worthy of Netflix. Here are four of the most original do-it-yourself projects we've seen.

Freeride Skiing at Home

Shred It In Place

Virtual Climb to Everest Base Camp

Backyard Chair Lift