dilluns, 23 de setembre del 2019
Aquesta és la desena i darrera entrega dels relats de l'Expedició Catalana al Manaslu de 1982
Vells papers i recerques de 2017
A.- L’HIMNE DE L’EXPEDICIÓ
Evangelos Odyseas Papathanassiou, de nom artístic, Vangelis.
Escolteu l’Hymne de l’Opera Sauvage imaginant que sou en una tenda metre i mig sota la neu, pelats de fred i de gana, i que el cor us diu que no podreu escapar. Només us queda pa i aigua per dos dies. Pell de gallina, encara, quan l’escolto.
Aquest era el cassette que teníem. El podeu trobar fàcilment al YouTube, per exemple.
B.- OBITUARI. 1988
Afegeixo el recordatori publicat per Miss Elisabeth Hawley a l’Himalayan Journal sobre la mort d’en Mike Cheney. La meva sorpresa va ser grossa quan vaig saber que l’any 1979, quan el vaig conèixer, només tenia 50 anys. La fotografia és de l’any 1968 als 41 anys.
IN MEMORIAM MICHAEL J. CHENEY (1928-1988)
ONE OF NEPAL'S best known expatriate Britons and a leader in its trekking and mountaineering scene, Michael John Cheney, known as Mike to all his acquaintances, died in his sleep at his home in Kathmandu in the early hours of the morning of 20 February 1988 apparently from heart failure. He had been ill for the previous week or two after having had what doctors suspected was a stroke. He had also broken his left arm close to the shoulder at about the same time while on a trip in one of the more remote areas of western Nepal.
Mike was only 59 years old but had had several episodes of serious illness during the past two decades which had taken a severe toll of his strength. He actually should have died years before, but his fierce will to carry on the work he found all-absorbing kept him going against great odds. But finally his strength gave out. He was buried in the hillside cemetery maintained by the British Embassy in Kathmandu with about 200 Nepalese and expatriate mourners at the graveside.
Although he kept his ties to his family back in England and considered Beckford Grange, Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, one of his homes, it was his wish to live and die in Nepal, where he spent the last 22 years of his life. He never married - women seemed to terrify him - but he was generous with his kindness to Nepalese children as well as to adults in distress.
After obtaining his school certificate, Mike served in the British Army from 1946 to 1957 in the Royal Armoured Corps and the 10th Gurkha Rifles. During these years, he saw active service in Korea, Kenya and Malaya and rose to the rank of Captain. He then became a tea-estate manager in the Darjeeling area of northeastern India. In 1965 he moved to Nepal and spent two years in tea there before ill health forced him to stop working for two years.
When he was able to resume work, Mike returned to Nepal and took a job in the fledgling trekking industry with the world's first trekking agency, Lt Col Jimmy Roberts' 'Mountain Travel', which had begun sending mountain lovers on treks in the northern regions of Nepal just four years previously. He remained in trekking till the last day of his life, although he left 'Mountain Travel' in 1976 and was an executive of three successive other agencies. His last post as General Manager of 'Rover Treks & Expeditions (P) Ltd.'
Mike was a champion of the poorly paid porters who carry heavy loads under difficult conditions for expeditions and trekking groups and he actively promoted the employment, as trek leaders and mountain climbers, of men who belong to tribes other than the Sherpa clan. He was certainly no desk-bound trekking organiser. He spent many weeks each year out in the hills scouting new trekking routes in central and eastern Nepal for clients who wanted to travel away from the paths that have become greatly overcrowded in the Everest and Annapurna areas. And he some-limes went with the mountaineering expeditions whose logistics he helped to arrange, most notably as a member of Chris Bonington's 1975 British Southwest Face Everest Expedition, which he served as base-camp manager. He was very proud of having been an actual member of that historically successful team.
Mike was an active member of the Trekking Agents Association of Nepal and of the Himalayan Rescue Association in Kathmandu, the Local Hon. Secretary of the Himalayan Club, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of The Alpine Club. He followed the mountaineering scene in Nepal closely and was correspondent for several alpine journals and mountaineering magazines in Europe and the United States.
Elizabeth Hawley
C.- ACTUALITZACIÓ DE MEDICINA DE MUNTANYA
Durant l’expedició, aquest metge va enviar al campament base un expedicionari per uns dolors als peus que empitjoraven dins del sac i amb l’escalfor, tot i que no era capaç de veure cap lesió que ho expliqués. Pensava que era alguna congelació que encara no donava la cara. Error. Diverses expedicions després i viscuts uns quants casos més es va veure clar que es tracta d’na lesió dels nervis més allunyats (els dels peus) i de fibra més petita (els del dolor, el fred i la calor).
L’any 2002, després d’estudiar en profunditat uns quants casos, amb l’equip de Neurologia de l’Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge vam publicar el següent article:
NEUROPATHIC PAIN AND DYSESTHESIA OF FEET AFTER HIMALAYAN EXPEDITIONS
High Altitude Medicine & Biology. 2002 Fall;3(4):395-9.
Autors: Antoni Ricart de Mesones, Janina Turón Sans, Mercedes Misiego, Hisao Onaga Pueyo, Rosa Real Soriano, and Javier Botella de Maglia.
Com que el Copyright no em permet posar l’article encara que en sigui l’autor del text, us poso el resum / abstract que és d’accés lliure.
Abstract
High-altitude peripheral nerve disease secondary to frostbite or trauma is a well-recognized medical problem during mountaineering expeditions. However, in our experience of medical professionals on 19 expeditions to the Himalayas in the years 1977–2000, an unusual syndrome of neuropathic pain and/or dysesthesia in both feet apparently unrelated to frostbite or trench foot was observed in 8 (4.8%) of 165 European mountaineers. Mountaineers complained of persistent and continuous pain, which was consistently described as a ‘corky’ sensation in their feet, associated with severe lancinating exacerbations. Pain improved with cold and worsened with heat and gentle pressure. Symptoms were incapacitating in a third of cases. Treatment with carbamazepine was effective and the disorder evolved to total resolution in 4–8 weeks. We present the case of a patient who had this syndrome and in whom complete work-up studies done on his arrival home, 14 days after its presentation, were unrevealing. The paucity of information regarding this particular variety of neuropathic pain of the feet may be due to lack of clinical suspicion in the field, favorable outcome, and difficulties for further study and evaluation.
D.- RECULL DE PREMSA.
El Mundo Deportivo. Barcelona. Dimecres 11 Novembre 1981
El Correo Catalàn. Barcelona. 24 de Març de 1982
Avui. Barcelona. Divendres 22 i Dissabte 24 d’Abril de 1982
Avui. Diumenge 11 d'Abril de 1982
The Rising Nepal. May 25yh. 1982
The Motherland. Kathmandu. May 25yh. 1982
La Vanguardia. Barcelona. Divendres 28 de Maig de 1982
El Alcázar. El País. Madrid. 23 de Maig de 1982. Avui. El Periódico. Barcelona. 25 i 28 de Maig de 1982. Noteu que alguns diaris van publicar la noticía el dia 23, el que implica al Ministery of Tourism del Nepal i a l’ambaixada espanyola de New Delhi. Nosaltres no vàrem enviar el primer telegrama a New Delhi i Barcelona fins el dia 24.
La Vanguardia. Barcelona. Diumenge 23 de Maig de 1982. Avui. Barcelona. 28 de Maig de 1982.
El Correo Catalán. Diumenge 23 de Maig de 1982.
El Mundo Deportivo. Divendres 28 de maig de 1982
La Vanguàrdia. Divendres 28 desembre de 1982
Avui 23 de Maig de 1982.
El Correo Catalán 28 de maig 1982.
El Mon. 28 de Maig de 1982
Diario 16. 2 de junio 1982.
El Correo Catalán, dimarts 28 de Desembre de 1982
Un últim detall dolorós.
La nostra expedició al Manaslu va ser a la primavera de 1982, el període premonsó.
El permís per la següent expedició, al postmonsó o tardor del mateix any, va ser per una expedició francesa liderada pel veterà Louis Audoubert. En tornar, el seu relat incloïa la troballa d’una tenda esclafada i dos sacs de dormir buits a més de 7000 metres a la via normal. Sobre les roques ventades del coll Nord; si hagués estat sobre la neu, hauria estat molts metres a sota.
En la seva secció setmanal dels dimecres al “El Mundo Deportivo” dedicada als esports de muntanya, en Manuel Cabanillas posava en dubte la nostra versió dels fets. Sense preguntar-nos a nosaltres ni a en Louis Audoubert, sense informar-se ni assessorar-se, ens tractava de mentiders. Afegim la pàgina perquè cadascú es pugui fer una idea del rigor periodístic.
Després d’una entranyable reunió amb mossèn Louis Audoubert a casa seva escrivíem aquesta rèplica a “El Mundo Deportivo”. Mai es va publicar la rectificació. Van ser fidels a la coneguda màxima “No deixis que la veritat et faci malbé un bon relat”.
