Thursday, July 27, 2006

Update on Lisa's Whereabouts...

Thursday, July 27th at 7:30am

Lisa and five of her crewmates went for the Mt Whitney summit last night. Unfortunately, the attempt was unsuccessful. Lisa was befallen by altitude mountain sickness - her symptoms included a headache, pain in her ears, and nausea. The crew supported Lisa by bringing her to a lower altitude and by doing all that was possible to keep her warm.

Lisa is sleeping right now, but I know Lisa would want me to assure everyone from the start of this entry that all her crew members did a great job in supporting her and that each one of them made it through the attempt in great health. Crew member Marshall Ulrich remarked on the collective strength of the crew - Mike Artino, Pam Burwell, Todd Milbert, and Finlay Woodruff. Marshall also talked about the unpredictability of experiencing altitude mountain sickness - it could befall anyone on any given climb, even experienced veterans like Lisa and Marshall, both of whom live at altitude.

One thing has remained unwavering throughout this epic adventure - Lisa's commitment to the kids supported by the Religious Sisters Filippini. May this guide her forward...

I will post again when Lisa wakes up.

Thank you for thinking of Lisa and crew - we are thinking of you, too!

--Colleen

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well - sometimes life just throws you a curve ball, doesn't it?

Some of us thought Whitney Portal was the turn around point (vs. going to the summit), anyway.

So, is going to the actual summit truly that crucial to the overall journey?

Or - is there a way Lisa can recover sufficiently to consider simply continuing on and adding on that bit of mileage (shy of the summit) to the tail end and still proceed with the 300 miles as a "round number"?

Whatever the case - she's done SO much for so many people and given such a tremendous effort that the journey is ALREADY a huge success.

Sometimes the real challenge can be truly accepting that - absent some tangible "proof" of going the distance. She already has - in oh so many ways....