Close, but Everest wins again
A Spokane woman attempting to climb Mount Everest had to retreat to base camp and recuperate while her teammates pushed on to the summit Saturday morning.
Kay LeClaire, 57, had reached her personal high point last week by climbing to 24,000 feet on the 29,035-foot peak before bad weather forced the nine-member climbing team of guides and clients down to base camp. During that time, LeClaire developed congestion, said her husband, Jerry LeClaire, in Spokane.
She climbed back up to Camp 2 with the team but turned back because of high-altitude respiratory complications from a common cold, he said.
“Colds can also be dangerous if they turn into pulmonary edema,” according to a Web-site message from Ellie Henke, base camp manager for Alpine Ascents International, the company guiding the climb. “She is disappointed not to be up with the team but is a lot more comfortable here in base camp.”
On Saturday, the rest of the team made the summit. On Sunday, they had safely retreated down as far as Camp III.
“I am thrilled for my teammates and personally devastated,” LeClaire said in an e-mail to her husband.
“After six years of stepwise preparation and two months this year spent on Everest, she was stopped on the final push,” Jerry LeClaire said. “She established a personal record by climbing to Camp 3 (24,000 feet) on the Lhotse face on an earlier acclimatization effort, demonstrating the physical capability to reach the summit. Beyond Camp 3 most climbers – all but the most physiologically gifted – use supplemental oxygen.”
LeClaire enrolled in the Spokane Mountaineers mountain school a few years ago, then set her sights on climbing the highest mountain on each continent. Everest was the last peak she needed in her “seven summits” bid.
This was her second attempt at climbing the world’s highest peak.
“I’m very proud of her and looking forward to having her safely back home,” Jerry LeClaire said Saturday.
Asked if he thinks she’ll try again, he said, “With Kay, you can never rule that out, but don’t expect an honest answer to that question from her for about six weeks.”