Abstract
When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mt. Everest in 1953, it was the culmination of many attempts beginning in 1921. Alexander Kellas had actually predicted as early as 1920 that the mountain could be climbed, but the extreme altitude of 8848 m with the consequent oxygen deprivation had foiled previous attempts. One reason for the success of the 1953 expedition was the work done by the British physiologist Griffith Pugh in 1952 when he studied many of the physiological factors at high altitude including the oxygen requirements. Seven years later, Pugh and Hillary teamed up again for the Silver Hut Expedition in 1960–1961 that elucidated many of the problems of very high altitude. A group of physiologists spent several months at an altitude of 5800 m in a prefabricated hut and studied many aspects of exercise, pulmonary gas exchange, control of ventilation, and blood changes. Maximal exercise was measured as high as 7440 m and raised anew the question of whether Everest could ever be climbed without supplementary oxygen. The answer was shown to be yes in 1978 by Messner and Habeler, and 3 years later the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest clarified the physiological adaptations that allow humans to reach the highest point on earth. Five people reached the summit, the barometric pressure there was measured for the first time, and alveolar gas samples from the summit showed the critical importance of the extreme hyperventilation. However, the maximal oxygen consumption for the summit inspired PO2 of 43 mmHg was shown to be only about 1 l min−1. In other words, the highest point on earth is very close to the limit of human tolerance to oxygen deprivation. As we celebrate the anniversary of Charles Darwin, it would be nice to have an evolutionary explanation for this, but in fact it is a cosmic coincidence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hillary EP, Doig D. High in the thin cold air. Garden City, NY: Doubleday; 1962.
Kellas AM. A consideration of the possibility of ascending Mount Everest. High Alt Med Biol. 2001;2:431–61.
West JB. High life: a history of high-altitude physiology and medicine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1998.
West JB. Failure on Everest: the oxygen equipment of the spring 1952 Swiss expedition. High Alt Med Biol. 2003;4:39–43.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by NIH Grant R01 HL 60968.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Additional information
Author’s Note
This manuscript was written as an invited introduction to the presentations by Mike Grocott and Tom Hornbein. It makes no attempt to be a comprehensive coverage of the vast amount of work done on Mount Everest, and it is limited to field studies.
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
West, J.B. (2016). Everest Physiology Pre-2008. In: Roach, R., Hackett, P., Wagner, P. (eds) Hypoxia. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 903. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7678-9_30
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7678-9_30
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-7676-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-7678-9
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)