Matthias Baumann (r.) in the hospital of Dhulikhel

He did not hesitate. When the first reports on the devastating earthquake in Nepal came in, the German doctor and climber Matthias Baumann packed his stuff. The trauma surgeon from the town of Tuebingen flew to the disaster area in order to help. For more than a week, the 43-year-old worked in a hospital in the mountain town of Dhulikhel, 25 kilometers east of the capital Kathmandu. Before he will fly home on Sunday, he wants to make another trip to the countryside to get an overview about the situation there and to help wherever he can.

Matthias, you have now been in Nepal for one and a half week. How long did you work each day?

We started in the morning at 8 a.m. with a meeting of all senior doctors and nurses. We discussed what was needed at the hospital and at the ambulance stations in the countryside. Then we got going. There were no prescribed working hours. Everyone worked as long as he was able to do so. Mostly I left the hospital at 10 or 11 p.m.

Patients waiting patiently

What was your job in the hospital?

I spent most of the time in the operating room. We were treating particularly fractures of arms and legs. From time to time I joined the team in the emergency room.

Where did the patients come from?

Dhulikhel is an hour’s drive east of Kathmandu, it is very hilly there. The city is situated at the road to Tibet. Therefore we got patients particularly from the eastern mountain regions. For them, it was the first major hospital on the way to Kathmandu.

Are these people traumatized?

Yes, definitely. But I admire them for accepting the situation without complaining. They have suffered an incredible fate: They lost their loved ones; they had a long way to come to the hospital; they have to sleep in the corridor or even outside; they have to wait perhaps for hours in front of the operating room until it’s their turn. But they deal with it patiently, without complaining about the conditions. After all, it is an organized chaos, because the patient flow is so great.

Is the situation outside the hospital chaotic too?

My impression is that the situation in the countryside, especially in the mountainous regions, is not yet under control. In the last two days, our hospital organized shuttle flights by helicopter to very remote villages in the Langtang region. I have seen terrifying pictures. These villages have just disappeared. But our help could only be selective. I think there are still villages which no one has reached since the earthquake two weeks ago.

Do they still bring in injured people from these areas, or only dead?

In the mountain villages, most bodies were burned quickly in order to prevent epidemics. They still bring injured from mountain villages, but of course not as many as at the beginning.

Living in ruins

How do the people of Nepal assess their future?

Recently, someone told me that Nepal was set back by 20 years. I did not only stay in hospital but made some trips outside the city of Dhulikhel. The damage is incredible. I think it will definitely take years to rebuild the country. On the one hand you can feel a great cohesion of the Nepalese people. On the other hand they are all traumatized. Yesterday someone told me: “We suffer!”

Are the Nepalese afraid of getting forgotten, when the earthquake disaster will disappear from the news headlines?

From time to time I hear that. Otherwise, Nepal is popular throughout the world, not only because of its beautiful mountains, but mainly because of its nice people. There is a huge number of international aid agencies working in the earthquake zone, in some places almost too many. And so many individuals have come here in order to help the earthquake victims. I do not think that the Nepalese will be forgotten.

P.S. Matthias Baumann has launched a fundraising campaign for the earthquake victims in Nepal – like he did before for the families of the avalanche victims 2014 on Everest.

North side of Everest

First of all:  Compared to the suffering in Nepal after the earthquake of last Saturday – now more than 5,000 deaths and 10,000 injuries have been counted – it seems almost insignificant what is happening on the Tibetan north side of Mount Everest. But I also give reports on the consequences of the terrible tragedy in Nepal for the climbers in the region – and there are still several hundred mountaineers in Tibet, including many Sherpas from Nepal. All will go home now. Whether they like it or not, they have to. “It’s official: Everest is closed for this season”, expedition leader Dominik Mueller, head of the German operator Amical alpin, writes from “Chinese Base Camp” on the north side of Mount Everest. Yesterday Mueller had abandoned his expedition, one day before the decisive meeting of the expedition leaders with representatives of the China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA) in Base Camp at 5,150 meters.

Road to Nepal closed

Other climbers confirm that the Chinese authorities have forbidden any further activities on the highest mountain on earth and on other Tibetan mountains too. “Dreams are just gone”, Austrian climber Alois Fuchs writes in his internet diary. “It is supposed that earthquake activity will shift towards Mount Everest (Tingri) and has not yet finished. No one is able to assess accurately the danger of falling rocks and avalanches, therefore all mountains in this area have been closed. For us, this means: Mount Everest cancelled, we have to collect our equipment, to rebook flights and to wait in BC (Base Camp) for the mates who are still in ABC (Advanced Base Camp).” Ralf Dujmovits, the most successful German high altitude climber, is in ABC too. Ralf will now pack his things, his office in Germany confirms. According to Adrian Ballinger, head of the US operator Alpenglow Expeditions, the road between Tibet and Nepal is closed. Therefore his team wants to leave the country like many others via the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

Insufficient surgical equipment

Matthias Baumann confirmed that the road link between the two countries was interrupted again. “There have been new landslides, some regions are cut off”, the German doctor and mountaineer told me by phone from Nepal. The trauma surgeon is helping in a hospital on the outskirts of Kathmandu. “We have been operating mainly fractures of arms and legs, and spinal fractures too.” There is a lack of surgical equipment such as plates, nails and screws. He is now trying to organize supplies from Germany. “We have to treat so many fractures that there would be a lack of equipment in any hospital in the world.” Matthias is sleeping in a tent. “That’s what a lot of people do here.” He counted three aftershocks on the first day of his stay. Baumann said that caring for the earthquake victims in Kathmandu in his opinion was “quite well, but there are still so many mountain regions cut off. And there are far too few helicopters.” Those helicopters which were used for rescue on Mount Everest until yesterday are therefore urgently needed. On Tuesday evening, there were reports about an avalanche in the region Langtang with at least 250 people missing.

Only after helicopters come free

Although many climbers have already started to make their way home, the season is officially not yet finished on the Nepalese side of Mount Everest – despite the terrible avalanche disaster after the earthquake. “Our Himex team will stay at Everest BC for the next few days and we will then decide if we will continue or not”, writes Russell Brice, head of the New Zealand organizer Himalayan Experience. This morning, when he was at the airport, he had a meeting with the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) and the Tourism Minister. “He gave us permission to fly loads to Camp 1, but only after the helicopters come free from rescue operations which we of course totally agree with.”

Baumann visiting the family of avalanche victim Chhiring Sherpa

There was no climbing on Mount Everest on this Saturday. At the Base Camp at 5,300 meters, more than 300 western climbers and an equivalent number of Sherpas commemorated the 16 Nepalis who had been killed in the avalanche in Khumbu Icefall exactly one year ago. It was the worst avalanche disaster in the history of Everest. The German climber and physician Matthias Baumann had witnessed the tragedy at the Base Camp. Later he visited the families of the victims and launched a relief campaign for them. In March, the 43-year-old trauma surgeon from the city of Tuebingen traveled again to Nepal. He distributed money to the families of the victims and launched financial sponsorships to guarantee the education of the avalanche victims’ children.

Matthias, a year ago, you were at the Base Camp of Mount Everest, when the avalanche released in the Khumbu Icefall. You were among the doctors who first treated the injured climbers. Are you still thinking of what happened on 18 April 2014?

In recent days and of course especially today on the anniversary, I’ve been thinking of it again. I’m not traumatized because I am daily facing suffering in my job as a trauma surgeon. But it moves me emotionally, on the one hand because of my own passion for mountaineering, on the other hand because the avalanche victims were Sherpas, whom I do appreciate anyway.

You’ve collected a total of 100,000 Euros for the families of the avalanche victims and you were just now in Nepal to distribute the donated money. How are the families today?

My impression is that they have regained stability again, but not completely. When I visited them, most women of avalanche victims burst into tears. That was not the case last year – maybe because they were still in shock, maybe because they wanted to show strength in the presence of their children. This time it was much more emotional.

Meeting with Sherpa families in Kathmandu

The families lost their breadwinners. Do they make ends meet?

It’s difficult. As always in such a case in Nepal, other relatives have to help. Women in the mountain areas have almost no chance to make money. In Kathmandu, that works a bit better. The Nepalese government increased its emergency aid for the families from 400 to 5,000 US dollars and handed over the money. Some expedition operators which had employed the Sherpas who died in the avalanche, for instance Alpine Ascents International, gave money too. Therefore the families are not fully dependent on themselves. But I got the impression that they still do need help.

In Khumbu, I also donated money to a Sherpa family whose breadwinner died on Everest in 2012 [Namgyal Tshering Sherpa fell into a crevasse near Camp 1]. This family had received only the emergency aid which was usual then, means $ 400, nothing else. That was brutal. After all, last year’s avalanche disaster draw a little attention to the fate of the Sherpa families that lost relatives on Everest.

Did you feel that the atmosphere within the Sherpa community has changed due to the avalanche incident?

Definitely. There were these different groups among the Sherpas. We saw that in the attack against Simone Moro and Ueli Steck in 2013. And last year I experienced myself how aggressive a small group of Sherpas was, while the majority actually wanted to continue climbing. I got the impression that after the avalanche disaster Sherpas have moved closer together again. There was a small positive effect, even if not all the demands of the Sherpas have been met.

Everest Base Camp

Currently, again more than 300 foreign climbers are at the Base Camp on the Nepalese side of Everest. Is it business as usual?

I think, actually the number of climbers should be reduced. But this is a double-edged sword. On the other hand so many income opportunities for local people are connected with climbing on Everest. Therefore, there is largely business as usual again, except for the fact that the permits cost additional $ 1,000 each [The price for an Everest permit is now $ 11,000 per person, regardless of the number of expedition members] and that the additional revenue is to go into a relief fund. In addition, the route through the icefall was relocated to some extent. But everything else remains the same.

The Nepalese government has decided that the permits from 2014 remain valid to 2019. That goes for you, too. What’s about your plan to try Everest again?

Dreams do not disappear, nor does the passion for climbing. For me, it was not possible this year because I changed my job. I would have preferred the north side of Everest, because there are now so many German high altitude mountaineers. That would have interested me as a physician too, because many of them want to climb up without bottled oxygen. Honestly, I really would have liked to join them.

Matthias Baumann in the Khumbu Icefall

Would you return to Everest with a different feeling?

I always felt personally connected to the Sherpa people. But after the experience of 2014, I have even more respect for them and their performance. For me, they are the true heroes on Everest.

It seems to me that many other climbers on Everest don’t show this kind of respect.

I think so too. Many see the Sherpas only as unskilled workers. Instead many of them are better climbers than the majority of the western Everest aspirants. This makes it much more interesting when you’re out with them. I do respect the Sherpas at eye level, and they realize me doing it this way. They tell me a lot about their culture, and we have lots of fun together. This is a real enrichment for me. Sometimes respect is greater than money.

P.S. Matthias continues collecting donations for the families of Sherpas who died in the Himalayas.

Matthias Baumann in the Khumbu Icefall

18 April has changed many things: on Mount Everest, in the lives of the families of the 16 avalanche victims – and also for Matthias Baumann. The 42-year-old trauma surgeon from the German town of Esslingen was the expedition doctor in the team of the Argentine twin brothers Damian and Willie (Guillermo) Benegas and actually wanted to climb Everest in his second attempt, on the Nepalese south side. In 2011, his first attempt on the Tibetan north side had failed at 8600 meters: When he wanted to change his oxygen bottle at the Second Step, the key point of the normal route, Matthias realized that his Sherpa had packed an empty instead of a full bottle.

Three years later, this spring, Baumann climbed through the Khumbu Icefall, on the day before the avalanche. “I knew that avalanches had been coming down from the West Shoulder of Everest for four or five years. Up there, the seracs are threatening”, Matthias told me. Even if the fun at climbing gained the upper hand, the respect remained. “I was always looking up to the seracs.” On the following day, the Khumbu Icefall became a death trap for 16 Nepalese climbers. With other physicians, the German doctor took care of the injured climbers who were brought down to the base camp. After the end of the expedition Matthias visited almost all the families of the Nepalese who had lost their lives – and launched a fundraiser for them.

Doctors take care of injured climbers

“Matthias, at the time of the disaster you were at base camp. How did you experience the avalanche?

I was lying in my tent in the morning and was already awake. Suddenly there was this incredibly loud noise. I looked out of the tent and saw the snow dust that was falling over the whole Khumbu Icefall. I stood up quickly. There was an eerie silence in the base camp. I woke our expedition leader (Damian Benegas) up and said to him: ‘A large avalanche has come down. At that time many climbers were on the mountain. Something must have happened!’’ He got up at once. We agreed that I would stay in base camp to wait for injured climbers. Then he went up to the accident site.

Rescue helicopter over the Khumbu Icefall

Did the rescue operation work well?

Considering that it was not organized, it worked fine. People with experience in rescue, just like Damian Benegas or Michael Horst of “Alpine Ascents International” climbed up. The Sherpas who were already above returned and came down to the scene of the accident. They led the slightly injured down through the Khumbu Icefall. I’ve rounded up the doctors in base camp, it was an international team. Two doctors are stationed permanently on site, in the tent of the “Himalayan Rescue Association”.

As a doctor you have provided first aid. Did you onlyyour work as a physician or have you been charged emotionally too?

It has really shocked me. If such a disaster happens just where you are doing sport or climbing, it is not as easy as in the clinic to draw a bold line between these things. But of course, in the first place you are working. We took care of the patients quite well although we doctors did not know each other.

After the end of the expedition you have visited many families of Sherpas who lost their lives in the avalanche. What motivated you?

I trekked down from base camp by myself, because I wanted to process my experiences. I thought maybe I could visit a family. But before I reached the first family I thought: No, you have to visit all of them! It was just a spontaneous idea. I had never started a fund-raiser before. It was very sad, very emotional, but also a good feeling that I could help. I’ve been to all the families as the first who visited them.

On the way to a family of an avalanche victim

How many families did you visit?

14 of the 16 families. I could not visit two families because they live in the Solu district and thus too far away. I didn’t have enough time to meet them too.

The members of the families were surely still traumatized.

Yes, they were heavily traumatized. They had just burned their dead father or husband. In most homes, the monks were still present and were doing pujas (buddhist ceremonies). In the most remote houses, there were only four, five monks, in Kathmandu 150. First it seemed to me that the women were very strong, they did not show much emotion. But in the end, when I gave a small donation to them and said goodbye, most of them were crying.

How did they respond to you as a western climber who wanted to express his compassion?

I felt no aggression and no reproach. Most were very grateful that someone came along and showed that he was thinking of them. They are all living in very remote areas. I felt that they were a bit disappointed that until then no one of these many, many mountaineers and expedition leaders had looked after them.

The families have not only lost a loved one but also their breadwinner. What does that mean for them? What happens to them next?

It is a very difficult road. In Sherpa families, the man is responsible for the finances, the women are at home and look after the children. For a woman in Nepal who has already children it is difficult or even almost impossible to find another man. The relatives and neighbours must support them. In a family I  visited, the woman has some yaks and therefore she has a small income. But that is not comparable with the income of an Everest Sherpa, who earns 5,000 to 6,000 U.S. $ per season.

Matthias with one of the Sherpa familes

Many Sherpa families have many children. Had the children that you met already realized what had happened?

Of course this depends on the age. In Kathmandu, I met a daughter of an avalanche victim who was already 19 years old. She has already fully perceived the tragedy and feels the responsibility to care for her mother and grandparents. I visited another family with a baby of one month. The father had seen his child only once. And a family that is living north of Thame (a small village in the Khumbu region) near then Nangpa La (pass between Nepal and Tibet) had children of between four and twelve years. The twelve-year-old daughter picked us up on our way from Namche Bazaar (village and trading centre of the Khumbu) and led us to her home. During these four hours of walking I had the impression that she had not yet realized what the disaster meant for her family.

You’ve launched a fund-raiser for the families of the avalanche victims. Have your visits made you say: I can not simply return to my everyday life, I need to do something?

Yes, that was my motivation. Initially I visited the families only to give them first donations. I had not planned the larger project at this time. But the more families I visited, the greater became my wish to deepen the project to help them in the long-term.

Do you think that the Nepalese government’s help is not sufficient?

First it looked as if the officials would only give U.S. $ 400 per family. There were protests. I think the accident has caused a stir worldwide so that the Nepalese government is forced to do more. Above all, I hope that it will do more to support the children.

How do you ensure in your project that the money will actually reach the families?

I do know Pemba Sherpa for 20 years now, he is working for “Asian Trekking” and is one of those in the company who are responsible for the Khumbu region. We know each other since we attended an international mountain guide course in Chamonix. We stayed in touch and I visited him many times. I can trust him completely. But in addition, the families should confirm to me how much money they got and who brought it.

There have been discussions whether it was a good idea to finish the season on Everest. How do you think it about this, as someone who was on site when the tragedy happened and who did visit the victims’ families?

I think it was right to end the season. There was too much concern in base camp. Of course, 500 climbers have 500 dreams. But these dreams are not comparable with what has happened to the families. You have to postpone your personal dreams. I think it would not have turned out all right if climbing had continued , with Sherpas, who actually did not want to climb. There were some who wanted to continue but the majority was inhomogeneous. You have to work together to fix ropes. Actually, too much had happened.

There were also reports about pressure that was exerted by a small group of Sherpas. Did you notice that?

Yes, I did. I have spoken to many Sherpas. Within the expedition groups, there were divergent opinions between the Sherpas. There were many who wanted to continue. Other Sherpas have threatened to break their legs if they would enter the Khumbu Icefall again.

Are you going to return to Everest once more? And if so, will you do it on the Nepalese side?

Of course the dream lives on. If I have the time and financial opportunity, I’ll try it again someday. To me, the north side seemed objectively much safer. The south side was interesting because the route was a new experience for me. If I should ever get the chance again, I tend to go once more via to the north side.”

P. S. For those who want to support Matthias’ fund-raiser with donations, here are the bank details: Himalayan Project e.V., Kreissparkasse Biberach, IBAN: DE45 6545 0070 0007 0581 89, BIC: SBCRDE66, description: “Sherpa avalanche victims”. Thank you!

Snow banner on Everest

Waiting for the calm after the storm. Currently the wind is blowing strongly in the summit region of Mount Everest – with speeds up to 60 knots (about 110 km per hour). A summit attempt of one of the about ten teams on the Tibetan north side of the mountain is out of question. Not until 16 May a good weather window with low wind is expected. On the south side of Everest, according to the U.S. expedition leader Eric Simonsen, the “Icefall doctors” brought down their ladders and ropes from the Khumbu Icefall. Until next season, the material is deposited in a storage in Gorak Shep, the last permanently inhabited small village near Mount Everest at 5200 meters. Thus there will be definitely no climb to the 8850-meter-high summit from the Nepalese side this spring. This week in Kathmandu, the Japanese climber Ken Noguchi presented on behalf of his environmental protection organization “Seven Summits Actions for Sustainable Society” a donation of $ 100,000 to Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA).

NMA to coordinate the aid

With the money that Noguchi collected in Japan, the families of the 16 victims of the avalanche on Everest (look at the moving video of the New York Times “Last minutes on Everest” below) shall be supported. The Nepalese government has commissioned the NMA to ensure the education of the children of these families.

Ang Tshering announced that his association was in the process of creating a relief fund to which the NMA would add a matching sum. “We are receiving emails and phone calls from our friends around the world with the interest to support the family members”, said Ang Tshering. In many countries climbers have started charity projects for the relatives of the avalanche victims – such as German doctor and mountaineer Matthias Baumann, who was at Everest base camp when the avalanche came down:

In 1999, Ken Noguchi became, at the age of 25, the youngest person at that time to scale the “Seven Summits”, the highest mountains of all continents. The cancellation of an entire climbing season on the Nepalese side of Everest like this spring should not repeat, the 40-year-old Japanese said: “If this happens again, foreigners will give up on Mount Everest.” Or switch to the Tibetan side of the mountain. The blind Austrian climber Andy Holzer is planning to do that next year. “I want to walk away from the chaos that has arisen on the Nepalese side. I do not want to become a pawn in the hand of the Nepalese government and the Sherpas”, the 47-year-old said after his return from Nepal.