Nikki Campbell '98 hikes in California after a month at the base of Mount Everest.

Meeting the 'Goddess of the Sky'

As Nikki Campbell '98 ate her breakfast in the mess tent at the Mount Everest base camp last May, she was startled by a loud noise. "There was this initial crack followed by a brief silence," she says. "Then there was a loud boom and this deep, low rumbling that just kept going and going and going." Everyone in the mess tent knew they were listening to an avalanche, and it was coming their way.

The members of the Inventa Everest 2000 Environment Expedition raced out of the tent and looked to the north. A cornice of snow had broken off the peak of Pumori, a 23,507-foot neighbor of Everest, and a crest of snow was frothing toward them. They could see the wave slowing as tents from other expeditions disappeared in the roiling white. "We watched it rip for thousands of feet before the snow cloud literally settled at our feet," Campbell says.

An amateur climber who majored in English and kinesiology at UNH, Campbell was selected to be one of the expedition's base camp managers. Her team's mission was not only to send climbers to the summit of Everest, but also to clean up litter strewn along the route. Although she wasn't being paid for her work, Campbell looked forward to the opportunity to do some serious climbing and to see the great mountain known in Nepal as Sagarmatha, "Goddess of the Sky." Now, as she reflects back on the trip, she comments, "I didn't know what I was getting into."

Most of the time Campbell's duties kept her close to base camp, a mere 17,600 feet above sea level. Still, she ran into difficulties from the very start, coming down with a brutal case of giardiasis, caused by an intestinal parasite found in contaminated water. Then, just over a month into a planned two-month stay, she damaged her left knee on a three-day downhill hike and had to return to California to recuperate.

One of the biggest challenges she faced as camp manager was dealing with the strong personalities in her group. The combination of anxiety, anticipation and physical duress created a lot of tension. "There are so many unknowns," Campbell says. "Will the technical stuff work? Will the film crew's equipment work? Will we have enough food?"

Over the past 10 years, mountaineer Robert Hoffman has led four environmental expeditions to Everest. They have removed more than a ton of waste from the mountain, as well as some 1,300 oxygen bottles and more than 200 used batteries left behind by earlier climbers. Trash and debris collected on the mountain are taken to base camp, where it is sorted, catalogued and packaged for transport to waste-management facilities in Nepal and the U.S.

In addition to cleaning up waste and abandoned materials, Campbell's team collected snow samples to send to the University of New Hampshire for analysis. The composition of the snow and ice is affected by local and distant pollution, changes in atmospheric circulation patterns and extreme weather events. The results of the analyses at UNH will be used as a baseline for future tests.

--Elibet Moore Chase '81

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