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Heart Transplant Survivor goes for Matterhorn
14:28 p.m. EDT Aug 20, 2003
Climber Kelly Perkins is now in Switzerland preparing for her climb on the Matterhorn, an exceptional undertaking for this heart-transplant survivor.
Several years ago, a rare virus left Kelly dying with congestive heart failure. She received a life-saving transplant in 1995 and began her post-transplant climbs in 1996, 10 months after her surgery, by reaching the top of 8,842-foot Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Later she reached the top of Kilimanjaro and Mt Fuji. As a tribute to the donor, a 40-year-old woman killed when thrown from a horse, Kelly's husband Craig brought her ashes on their climb of mount Fuji.
Kelly's transplanted heart is not capable of communicating with the brain in the same way as one’s original heart. Kelly’s brain is unable tell her heart to beat faster to take in the appropriate level oxygenated blood when exercising. Adrenaline kicks in to compensate, however, there is a delay which makes the effort to climb much more challenging on altitude.
Located on the border between Switzerland and Italy, the Matterhorn is one of the most familiar mountains in the Alps. Its distinctive chiseled pyramid, cut to near perfection by centuries of glaciation, pierces the sky as it reaches 4,478 m (14,693 ft); its four faces are exceedingly steep and avalanche prone leaving only small amounts of snow and ice clinging to them.
Early climbers called the peak simply, “the awful mountain.” After several failed attempts, the Matterhorn was first successfully summited in 1865. By contrast, sister alpine peak, Mont Blanc at 4,820m was first summited nearly 80 years before, in 1786.
A record heat spell this June forced the close of the Matterhorn for several days when melting permafrost triggered enormous landslides and rockfall. 70 climbers stranded above 3400m were airlifted to safety.
Kelly is climbing with husband Craig, filmmaker Michael Brown, and guides Jean Pavillard and Tim Brown. Michael was also the filmmaker for the blind Everest summiteer Eric Weihenmayer and this past spring for Global Extremes Expedition to Everest.
Tonight the team will stay in the beautiful Almagerller “hut” pictured here and climb the rock ridge behind it tomorrow as they continue training for the climb. The expedition is using Contact 2.0 and have already transmitted several pictures and dispatches.
Says Kelly of her climbs: "Maybe this will provide a sense of additional freedom for other transplant recipients or people with chronic illnesses or other obstacles in their lives. Maybe someone who thinks they can only walk one block might walk two blocks."
Image of Almagerller Hut courtesy of Michael Brown
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