Name: Ross Barnard
Age: 19
Home town: Sherborn, MA, 30 minutes outside of Boston
Area of Study: Undecided
Year in School: I just finished my freshman year
- I joined the Everest Base Camp Expedition because… I have loved hiking since I was about 12. I have hiked pretty much the whole presidential range, and many major peaks in the New England area. Obviously I am not skilled enough to summit Everest but it is extremely cool to be given the opportunity to hike around one of the most well known mountains in the world
- I’m involved with the SU research studies by… I am different from many of my peers on this trip because I am undecided and most others are focused on exercise science. Still, I plan on participating in pretty much every study and area of research.
The Syracuse University Everest Base camp research team shortly after arriving in Kathmandu - I’m most looking forward to…see the culture surrounding Everest base camp and getting to hike around with amazing views.
- My favorite part of the trip so far has been… seeing what Abu Dhabi (because we missed our connecting flight) and Kathmandu have been like. I walked around Kathmandu last night and it was unlike anywhere I had ever been before.
- The worst part of the trip so far…This is not a bad thing, but the culture is so different from the US and while it is a lot of fun to see how the people on the other side of the world live it is also a little sad because you can see that many of the citizens are poor and trying to do anything they can to make a little money on the streets with shops or individual areas where they can sell their products.
- One thing most people don’t know about me… Most people do not know I am color blind. I am not good at telling the difference between red and green and blue and purple.
Expedition leaders Dr. Tom Brutsaert (L), from Syracuse University, and Dr. Trevor Day (R) from Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, lead the first trip dinner at the Kathmandu Guest House.
Daily Recap
Today we flew out of Abu Dhabi at 9:30 am and were in Kathmandu by 1:45 in the afternoon. Right when we got off the plane, I could tell we were a far way from home. I have traveled out of the country multiple times before but not to anywhere like as Nepal.
Yesterday made me extremely excited about this trip because of how cool the Nepalese culture was. We had a team dinner, debriefed the upcoming trek and got to meet everyone who will be involved on the trip, including the expedition’s lead guide, Nima Sherpa, who summited Everest in 2009. Walking around the streets at night, we saw all these small shops that were very unique. We saw dogs and cats running around the streets with children chasing after them. The streets were filled with people and you could hear the same type of electro music coming from different bars all located on second or third floors on the side of the street.
Tomorrow we will start research and experiments with urine, saliva, and blood samples to measure a base line for our bodies at relatively low altitude. Over the course of the trip we will keep measuring how our body reacts to higher altitude. I can’t wait for the next two and a half weeks!
(All photos by Andrew Burton, © 2018)