Global Positioning System equipment from Trimble is atop the world today helping researchers determine the exact height of the world’s tallest mountain. The measurements are being made following Wednesday’s successful ascent of Mt. Everest during which climbers placed a Trimble GPS receiver on the summit.
“We’re excited to be a part of the Everest Expedition,” said Charlie
Trimble, president of the company that bears his name. “The work being done on
the mountain can help us understand more about the world around us, how it
changes and how the body works. This information can be applied to everyday
life. The science on the mountain above 29,000 feet will have value to those
of use who live at sea level.”
American Wally Berg, a mountain guide from Boulder, Colo., and Apa Sherpa
reached the summit at 9 a.m. on May 20. Base camp reported that the weather
was so clear that Berg spent two hours on Mt. Everest’s summit at
29,028 feet-fulfilling the expedition’s science mission of securing a GPS
receiver on the summit of the world’s tallest mountain. Now GPS data is being
collected at four points along the mountain-Kala Pattar, Base Camp, the South
Col and Summit-to precisely track the slow geological movements of the
mountain over time.
The 1998 Everest Extreme Expedition, organized by geographer Brad Washburn
of the Boston Museum of Science, consisted of an expert team of climbers,
doctors, and scientists for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
and Yale University. The scientific mission placed geological equipment and
GPS surveying receivers on the mountain to measure the peak and to conduct
experiments in physiology and tele-medicine to determine how the extreme
altitudes affects the climbers bodies. The task — measuring both man and
mountain — is as challenging as the mountain itself. The climbers endured
climactic extremes that can torture the body and impair the mind.
Temperatures on Everest can drop as low as -45 degrees Celsius, so cold
that plastics become brittle and batteries stop working. The altitude is more
conducive to jetliners than mountain climbers. The thin air pressure causes
laptop computers to crash. It can also kill a human with no acclimatization in
a matter of hours. Mental capacity is also reduced.
In this hostile environment, both man and machine must perform to
perfection. Unlike Sir Edmund Hillary’s first ascent in 1953, today’s climbers
use complex space-age technology that must be both highly reliable yet
easy-to-use. Among the tools: Trimble GPS receivers not only helped to survey
the mountain, but also assisted scientists monitor the medical effects of the
climbers as they ascend the mountain.
The four Americans climbing Everest were fitted with bio-paks recording
how their bodies reaction to the environment. That information, coupled with
positioning data from Trimble’s Lassen GPS receivers, provided researchers at
the base camp with the most detailed information ever compiled on the effects
of altitude and climbing. From there, the information was either logged or
transmitted by satellite phone to an earthstation in California and
transmitted to MIT for further analysis. It is the ultimate in tele-medicine.
“We’re trying to piece together new instrumentation to record a richer
picture of the mountain and the people on it,” said Michael Hawley of MIT,
which is teaming with Yale University to compile research on the ascent. “The
data should tell us a lot about the nature of the body in such an extreme
environment. No one has looked at this before.”
Despite Everest’s notoriety, no one knows the mountain’s precise height.
The accepted elevation of 29,028 feet includes the icecap, but can vary by as
much as 20 feet depending on the season. In addition, movement of the earth’s
crust — a geologic bump and grind — is raising the Nepal Himalayas up to a
centimeter a year. But scientists also wonder whether erosion is negating an
overall increase.
The climbers attached weather probes and Trimble 4800 receivers at various
points along the summit, providing position and altitude information to within
a fraction of an inch. Repeat observations of these stations in the future
will allow scientists to determine the true, bedrock height of Everest and
monitor the rate of movement.
Despite the climatic extremes, the Trimble equipment is strictly
off-the-shelf, the same as the receivers typically used by surveyors and civil
engineers in friendlier climates. It is simple and easy-to-use, important
factors when altitude befuddles brains and when bodies are seemingly mummified
in bulky protective clothing.
The severe climate and unexpected quirks leave little room for error. But
the biological and geological data obtained from the climb is expected to
benefit even those who never get closer to Everest than a newspaper photo.
“So far, medicine has focused on fixing you when something breaks,” said
MIT’s Hawley. “This is about finding out how the body works all day. It will
become as simple as strapping on a wristwatch and creating a day-to-day
medical chart. That’s where we are headed. By targeting Everest we have a
great propellant for the technology and then over the next few years we will
bring it home so Mother can use it.”
