The top of Mount Timpanogos is an unlikely spot for a New Year's Eve party, but that is where members of the Utahns on Everest expedition will ring in 1990 - the entire first three weeks of it.
The Utahns on Everest's New Year's Eve party won't feature champagne, paper whistles or confetti, but there will be tanks of high altitude air that the climbers will breathe to get a taste of how their bodies react to being on a mountain 24,000-feet high - twice the altitude of Timpanogos.And if everything goes just right there will be howling wind, subzero temperatures and snowstorms galore.
A trip to the top of Timp in January presents the perfect opportunity for team members to test their mettle against the kinds of conditions they'll face when they climb the north face of Mount Everest in 1992, said Doug Hansen, owner of Hansen Mountaineering in Orem and leader of the expedition.
"The only thing we aren't going to get is altitude, but by using the breathing apparatus we'll be able to simulate that well," Hansen said.
Team members will take turns trekking up Timp and staying in a camp on the mountain's west face, Hansen said. They will practice load hauling, fixing lines, maintaining a camp and working with oxygen equipment in winter conditions, and performing meteorological tests and avalanche studies. They also will test the menu they plan to take to Everest.
"We are staying away from freeze-dried stuff," Hansen said. Nevertheless, diet will play a crucial role in the team's assault on Everest.
"Above 17,000 feet they say man's body doesn't rebuild very well," Hansen said. "The body lacks the ability to regenerate itself, you lose weight and it is hard to keep warm." And, climbers are prone to high-altitude sickness, which makes a person feel like he or she has a bad case of the flu, Hansen said. It also can cause more serious problems, such as pulmonary and cranial edemas and retinal hemorrhage.
"A lot of this if you have the right diet and acclimate properly will be minimized," Hansen said.
The Mount Timpanogos winter summit is one of a series of training exercises team members have participated in since receiving permission in 1987 to climb Everest. Training events have included climbs on Mount Rainier's Emmons Glacier and on Mount Orizaba in Mexico. Hansen said the drills are geared at fine-tuning each team member's climbing skills and at building the synergistic team effort that will be required to place at least one person on the summit.
Hansen hopes to extend that synergistic feeling to the entire state by the time the team heads for Everest.
"When we stand on the summit it is going to be more than a personal or team success, it is going to be a Utah success," Hansen said.
Hansen acknowledges that the trip up Everest presents a monumental challenge: Only 16 people have successfully made it to the summit from the north side; 11 died trying.
"We want success: to climb, spend a month together and come back friends," Hansen said. "If we make the summit, great."
But if the climb up Everest is fraught with danger, so is the trip up Timpanogos this January.
"I'm always a little apprehensive," Hansen said. "Even something like this has the potential for death. Our team is very safety-conscious. We are quite conservative, but there are no guarantees."
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Team members
-Doug Hansen, 35, married, four children; owner of Hansen Mountaineering in Orem; team leader.
-Howard H. Lewis, 39, married, five children; conference coordinator at Brigham Young University; deputy team leader.
-Keith R. Hooker, 50, married, nine children; director of the emergency room at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center; team physician.
-Leland S. McCullough Jr., 45, married, six children; director and president of Callister, Duncan & Nebeker law firm in Salt Lake City; team director of fund-raising.
-Robert V. Weston Jr., 37, currently single, one child; program manager at Teleflex Defense Systems in Springville and director of North American Arms; team director of marketing.
-Howard Chuntz, 43, married, two children; attorney in law firm of McAllister and Chuntz in Provo; team attorney.
-Craig Bishop, 34, single; sergeant first class in the Utah National Guard; team director of training.
-Dennis S. Chapman, 42, married, four children; administrator in the Provo School District; team director of communication.
-Pamela P. McCullough, 41, married, six children; registered nurse and stock broker; team base camp manager.
-Corey R. Child, 25, single; Brigham Young University student majoring in public relations and business, and director of housing supervisors at Helaman Halls; team public relations director.