Mick Fowler

First I had to swallow. He has cancer? That cannot be for real. “For us in the ‘Club of 50+’, people like Mick Fowler are acting like an antidepressant,” I once wrote about the British extreme climber. In my view, the now 61-year-old proves that true adventure knows no age limits.  Year after year, Mick sets out to remote Himalayan regions to enter unexplored climbing terrain. And with great success: Mick has been awarded the Piolet d’Or, the “Oscar of the Climbers”, already three times. Again this year, he had planned another first ascent in the Indian Himalayas, as in 2016 with his compatriot Victor Saunders, another “oldie”, aged 67. But then, a few months ago, Fowler received the devastating diagnosis: “‘You have cancer’ was both a shock and a relief,” Mick writes looking back. “The uncertainty was over. No more dithering. The trip would have to be cancelled. But what would lie ahead?”

Very odd

Mick during the chemotherapy

It began when Mick noticed one or two unusual coloured faeces and a little weight loss. However, the climber actually felt fitter and healthier than for some time. In addition, he had to organize the expedition. “I had slipped comfortably into a ‘monitor the situation’ mindset,” Mick writes. It was his wife Nicki who urged him not to treat these things lightly and to go to the doctor. A colonoscopy and a biopsy were made. The result: Fowler suffered from colon cancer. “I felt well but the doctors told me I was very ill,” Mick recalls. “But they also told me that if all went according to plan then in six weeks time they would class me as well (all cancer cells wiped out) but I would feel ill (after radiotherapy and chemotherapy). It all felt very odd.”

Positive prognosis

Fowler (r.) and Saunders on the summit of the 6000er Sersank (in 2016)

The treatment in a hospital in Sheffield is now behind Fowler. “I would like to reassure those that ask if I am about to die that I am not,” Mick writes. “The prognosis is positive and Victor and I are getting on with re-arranging our Himalayan trip for 2018.” Fowler has started out to gently running and climbing. Mick recommends everyone to take care of their own body: “And get straight down to the doctor if you sense anything odd going on. Nothing (even a Himalayan trip) is more important.” In addition, there is the offer of regular cancer screening that everyone can and should use. After all, climbers do not have an anti-cancer gene, this can happen to any of us. All the best, Mick! I keep my fingers crossed.

P.S. I would like to point out once again the initiative “Outdoor against Cancer” (OAC) founded by the German journalist and mountaineer Petra Thaller. It offers outdoor activities for cancer patients. “I just realized that my psyche benefitted from my sporting activities,” Petra told me at the trade fair ISPO in Munich last February. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2014 after an expedition to the Carstensz Pyramid in Papua New Guinea.

Petra Thaller

After the expedition to Papua New Guinea, another one followed: the most dangerous expedition in Petra Thaller’s life. In December 2014, the German journalist had climbed the Carstensz Pyramid, with an altitude of 4,884 meters the highest mountain of Oceania, making it one of the “Seven Summits”, the highest peaks on all continents. Shortly after her return Petra realized that her breast was changing. The doctor’s diagnosis: cancer. Six tumors in her right breast. Later, even a seventh developed. Thaller was committed to fight against the disease, the full program: surgery, chemotherapy, antibody therapy. And she continued to do sports. “I was really fit back then,” the 55-year-old from the German town of Munich tells me. “I started super-trained into chemotherapy, and I’ve always been doing sports during all twelve therapy cycles. I continued to run. And I was fine.” Petra wanted to share this experience with other cancer patients. Therefore she founded the initiative “Outdoor against Cancer” (OaC).

Good for the psyche

Snowshoeing with “Outdoor against Cancer”

“At that time there were simply no outdoor activities for cancer patients,” says Thaller. She ran along with her daughter and her son. “I told them, ‘If I feel bad, you can kick me in the ass and send me out.’ And that’s what they did.” Thanks to OaC, the situation for cancer patients who want to do outdoor sports despite their disease has changed. Groups meet regularly, whether for jogging, circuit training, snowshoeing, mountain biking or sailing. And the project is expanding: from Munich to all of Germany. OaC programs are soon to be available in other European countries too. “I just realized that my psyche benefitted from my sporting activities,” Petra describes her experiences during chemotherapy. “I just had no depression. I never thought about the reason why I got cancer, even though I always had eaten healthy and done a lot of sports. And I also didn’t think about the possibility to die of cancer. It was just not my scene.”

Here and now

Petra at the Carstensz Pyramid in 2014

Thaller exudes an immense joy of life that is contagious. “I don’t want to miss enjoying life,” says Petra. She tells of a 44-year-old man who is suffering from a brain tumor. He did not leave his house for five months after the diagnosis of cancer. Today he is one of the regular members of her training group: “He once said, ‘Petra makes me fit again’. That was actually the biggest gift.” I ask her whether doing sports is more training for her body or for her soul.  “It’s training for life,” answers Thaller. Survival Training? She shakes her head. “Training for life. It has nothing to do with survival. Enjoy life, here and now!” This is the message she wants to give to other cancer patients: “Get out! Do something, go on a trip! Life is taking place now and not in maybe five years, when someone says, you are out of the woods now.”

Next destination: Aconcagua

Her last chemotherapy is long behind Petra Thaller, half a year ago she underwent her last antibody therapy. Is she over the hump? “When in your live you are ever over the hump?” Petra says, laughing. “I never thought that it could go wrong. Therefore maybe I am a good example that it can go well.” The expedition to the Carstensz Pyramid is soon to be followed by a new one: “I already have a goal for next year,” says Petra. “I’ll go to Aconcagua.” The highest mountain of South America (6,962 m) also belongs to the “Seven Summits”. The highest of all mountains is not an issue for her, says Thaller: “Everest has never interested me.” She has already climbed her personal Mount Everest anyway.

Heidi Sand (in Patagonia last November)

Impossibly Heidi Sand could have foreseen that Denali would change her life in this way. When the German mountaineer and sculptor descended from the summit of the highest mountain of North America (6,190 m) in 2010, the then 43-year-old suddenly had strong stomach pain. Soon after the shattering diagnosis: advanced colorectal cancer. After the emergency surgery, chemotherapy followed. “If I survive, I want to reward myself with an eight-thousander,” Heidi then promised herself – and fulfilled this dream of her life: On 26 May 2012 the mother of three children stood on the summit of Mount Everest.

Meanwhile Heidi Sand has passed the critical five-year mark after her cancer diagnosis. She is considered to be cured – and has realized further climbing projects after having summited Everest. In autumn 2013, for example, Heidi scaled Cho Oyu without using bottled oxygen and in spring 2014 she stood on top of Makalu (with breathing mask). With Billi Bierling, Heidi shares the honor of having been the first German women to reach the summit of Makalu. Sand dedicated her three successes on eight-thousanders to her children, for her husband remained the Eiger North Face which she succeeded to climb a year ago, in December 2015. And last November, she tackled, along with the Swiss mountain guide Lorenz Frutiger, the legendary granite giant Fitz Roy in Patagonia – in vain, the weather put a spoke in their wheel. I asked the 50-year-old four questions about her climbing.

Heidi, what do you owe to the mountains, especially Mount Everest?

At Mount Everest (© Athlete / Bob Berger)

It is simply an incredible feeling to be able to stand on the highest point on earth. Knowing that your mental strength and physical fitness have brought you up there. Every new summit gives me a new perspective – not just the surrounding area, but also particularly on myself, on my life. It gives me strength and confidence.
I set the goal of climbing Everest during the chemotherapy, and this goal drew me out of my valley. Do not sit down and fall into self-pity, get up! Move and find the light at the end of the tunnel!

As a cancer sufferer you cheated death. Has this experience made you more courageous or at least more willing to take risks in the mountains?

I am now focusing more on things that really matter to me, which are close to my heart. We owe it to ourselves and the others to make use of every day. You have only one life. Use it!
I am not more willing to take risks than before. But since I am now more often in the mountains and pursue my goals more consistently, I take, at large, higher risks, but it’s worth it.

Heidi on Fitz Roy

After Everest you also climbed Cho Oyu and Makalu. That’s it? Or are you planning to scale other eight-thousanders?

I had a score to settle with Cho Oyu and in addition wanted to climb an eight-thousander without bottled oxygen. Makalu is climbed far more rarely than Everest and is a technically much more challenging mountain. Each project was planned in detail, but of cause sometimes things happen that can not be foreseen. So I was very lucky to be able to climb all three of them. At the moment I don’t want to say that I will never again climb an eight-thousander. We will see what the future holds. But there are many more mountaineering challenges for me, which are defined not only by altitude, such as the Eiger North Face (which I climbed on 20 December 2015), Fitz Roy in Patagonia, Mount Foraker in Alaska and many other mountains in the Alps and worldwide.

What pattern do you use to select your mountain destinations?

I don’t have any sophisticated strategy. A mountain destination must be attractive to me. Emotionally, visually, because of its history or its mountaineering challenge. There are usually several of these factors.
On the descent from Everest, I fell in love with Makalu. This overwhelming rock pyramid had beckoned to me. It is also considered to be a difficult 8000er, because of his height and technical challenges. The Eiger North Face – at the foot of which I had often been skiing and devoured the book “The White Spider” (by Heinrich Harrer about the first ascent of the wall in 1938) – of course fascinated me because of its tragic history. Only when I have found such a mountain, I start out to plan and prepare the project.