Emergency and Rescue

In all probability nothing serious will happen to you in the mountains - rescues are the exception and are unusual. The best thing for problems in the mountains is prevention - the vast majority of health issues are connected with altitude sickness in one way or another, and ascending slowly as well as monitoring everyone’s progress is easily the best way to manage a trek.

It’s important to listen to your guide and don’t jump to the conclusion that your condition is really serious straight away - altitude sickness often goes away after a day or two - treat it as a warning sign at first.

If things don’t improve, the first option will always be to simply walk downhill, reversing the effects. This will work.

There are of course other health issues and possibly accidents.

There are health centres at:

• Health Centre, Khunde 3,840m

• Macherrmo Resue Post, Macherrmo 4,400m

• First Aid Post, Himalayan Rescue Association, Pheriche 4,280m

They deal especially with the prevention and treatment of:

• Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS),

• High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE),

• High Altitude Cerebral Edema (HACE).

These First Aid posts have foreign doctors besides other volunteers. They help trekkers to help identify problems early, to render aid to those in trouble, to help evacuate people by whatever means are available, and also provide information on their prevention. Every centre has a Gamow bag, an inflatable pressure bag large enough to accommodate a person inside for treating severe cases of altitude sickness.

Climb High Himalaya is associated with Ciwec Clinic, a travel medicine centre in Kathmandu, Nepal. Those trekkers who return due to altitude related sickness is treated here. The clinic has a modern and well equipped facility. They acknowledge medical insurance from any country.

For rescue during emergency, Climb High Himalaya is also associated with Mountain Helicopters. The sick will be airlifted either from Pheriche, Machhermo or Khunde and brought to Ciwec Clinic in Kathmandu. Every trekker or climber must have insurance which also covers helicopter evacuation in case of an emergency and is valid for the whole period of the trek/climb/expedition. This policy must be shown to Climb High prior to departure from Kathmandu.

Helicopter Rescues

In recent years helicopter evacuation has become a charged issue in Nepal. Many helicopter operators ‘encourage’ others to insist that clients are ill enough to be evacuated by helicopter when this is not necessary. The biggest single measure to improve the health of someone with any altitude sickness is immediate evacuation downhill – not necessarily by helicopter.
Climb High do use helicopter evacuation, but we only use it when necessary or at your request – we won’t push you to use this unnecessarily so that others might profit.

Your trekking/climbing guide will carry,

First Aid Kit including medicines for AMS, HAPE, HACE

Walkie-talkies

Satellite phone

Prior to departure from Kathmandu each participant must leave a guarantee with Climb High in the form of an authorisation letter. This enables Climb High, in the event of an emergency, to initiate emergency services and any other services necessary without delay.