Everest quest beckons researchers, alumna

Everest quest beckons researchers, alumna

Sean Egan

Two University of Ottawa researchers and an alumna will be trying to reach the top of Mount Everest this spring (2005), and in the process, leave their marks on history.

Sean Egan, a professor in the School of Human Kinetics, who is co-leader of  an expedition sponsored by Kanatek Technologies, hopes to become, at age 63, the oldest Canadian to scale the world’s highest peak at 8,848 metres.

The team, also led by Peter Luk of Ryerson University, is expected to arrive at Everest’s base camp in April. Plans are underway to play a real ‘Summit Series’—a hockey game against a Russian climbing team on the Khumbu Glacier, which would then become the site of the highest Canadian hockey game ever played. The glacier is near base camp at about 5,400 metres.

Shaunna Burke in front of Mount Everest in 2004

However, the trek is more about research than climbing. The group, which also includes researchers from brown University and the Sydney Sleep Institute, will study such aspects as coping with hypoxia (lack of oxygen), the relationships between fitness and ageing, and tourism in the context of extreme adventure.

Egan, an accomplished mountaineer and athlete, trekked to Everest base camp in 1998 and 2000 to conduct research. He expects to make his summit attempt in May.

Meanwhile, sports psychology doctoral researcher Shaunna Burke, who abandoned her attempt to reach the top of Mount Everest last year, is heading back to Nepal. Burke, 29, will continue her research on the factors that influence the performance of Everest climbers.

Like last year, Ben Webster leads her expedition. This time, it is sponsored by Telecom Ottawa and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB).

Both expeditions will put Canadian technology to the test, as they will establish communications networks and send satellite transmissions back to Ottawa. Egan and his team will have a videoconferencing unit to communicate with researchers in Ottawa and Toronto. Webster and Burke will do real-time satellite video from base camp to six OCDSB schools in Ottawa.

In a third expedition, Peggy Foster, who holds a master’s degree in special education from the University of Ottawa, will attempt to become the first Canadian to reach the top of the highest peaks on all seven continents. Her previous attempt to reach Everest’s summit in 2003 failed when her oxygen mask broke.