Sea to Summit Expedition

Mountaineering Team

Together we go further

My mountaineering network includes around 20 international stakeholders, which I have organized into teams and cooperative relationships. In practice, teams and mountaineering support networks are made up of friends, friends’ acquaintances, semi-acquaintances, local operators, service contracts and partners with whom I have built expertise on big mountains.

In addition, I have built media channels, sponsor cooperation, cooperation networks and a logistics chain from Europe to the top of Mount Everest and between Finland and the Alps. An incredible amount of time and resources are spent on freight between countries, warehouses, acquiring equipment and building high mountain camps.

One of the most important teams consists of guys who transmit weather information from Europe via satellite connection to the slopes of Everest at an altitude of 6,000 to 8,850 meters in the upper mountains, where there is no internet.

Business partners

Arctic Climbers

 

Climbing team in the Alps

Our climbing team in Chamonix trains four times a week, 2 to 6 hours at a time. On weekends we climb longer routes.

My mountaineering coach in the Alps is Rob Powell, who has climbed the North Faces of the Alps and the Trango Tower. “His accomplishments include the Eternal Flame on Trango Tower, the Eiger North Face, the Grandes Jorasses North Face, the Petit Dru North Face, as well as creating new routes in, New Zealand, Mexico, India, and Greenland.”

Endurance team in Finland

 

Endurance coaching and testing in Finland

In Finland, my endurance coach supervises endurance training, which is regularly tested with a testing station in Tampere or Zion, Switzerland. A sports massage therapist is responsible for muscle care, and a medical center is responsible for health. The sports medicine center is responsible for health care, vaccinations and necessary rehabilitation

Acclimatization team in Finland

My acclimatization know-how has developed in cooperation with Heikki Karinen, doctor of medicine who has a thesis on mountain sickness, and by reading articles on acclimatization and mountain sickness and applying what I have learned in practice. Our partner Medidyne Nordic Oy has provided me with a wrist pulse oximeter, which I have tested in Switzerland at an altitude of 4,000 meters and used daily on my first Everest trip in the upper mountains. In addition to Medidyne Non’s wrist pulse oximeter, I use a GPS heart rate monitor and a smart ring, from which I get versatile data. If necessary, I can get an oxygen tent from my endurance coach, which can be used to shorten the acclimatization time.

Weather service in Switzerland and weather team in the Alps

Weather Team in the Alps – one of the most important team

In climbing Everest, the second biggest challenge is surviving in the peak flow, whose freezing effect in the wind rises to a deadly -60 degrees Celsius in the winter and tolerable -35 degrees Celsius for a few hours in the summer. In strong winds (over 40 km/h) it is more difficult to climb mountains, which consumes more oxygen and the risk of frostbite is greater. In warm weather (frost effect -25 C), the air pressure is higher, so there is more oxygen in the air, and in a light wind, the oxygen consumption of the muscles is lower.

Mountain weather is a decisive factor for the success of the summit. Forecasting the mountain weather determines when you should go to the top. From the 1980s to the 2020s, the accuracy of weather forecasts and the lightness of equipment have developed the most in mountaineering. In the 1980s, we were pushed against strong winds, when the weather window between the windy winter and the monsoon season could not be predicted accurately enough. In the 2020s, sensors and advanced data analytics for air traffic passing over the Himalayas will enable better weather forecasts. The information is available through Everest’s internet connection in the base camp and through satellite connections in the upper mountains.

At the start of the Covid pandemic, air traffic over the Himalayas decreased by 90%, causing weather forecasts to deteriorate, demonstrating the importance of air traffic to the accuracy of weather services.

My friends in the Alps and in Finland transmit weather forecasts to the upper Himalayas via satellite and bluetooth connection to my phone. I get weather forecasts from the Swiss weather service, free mountain weather services (mountain-forecast.com), from my operator, by following mountain weather conditions and by asking information at Base Camp and my own weather station.

Swiss weather service

 

Some team and production company in Finland

Some and website team

Nardus Media LTD has developed my website and updates things on my website during mountain climbing. Nardus Media Oy is currently building an online store for the mountain climbing and mountain running business. Nardus Media has expertise in design and technical layouts and implementation.

Cooperation with the Go Expo Outdoor trade fair has been prepared, which will be realized at some point.

I have a website, four social media channels, versatile filming equipment and a few cooperation agreements with media companies. During the next year, I will start paragliding and Jeep mountain video shoots in the Alps.

If you are interested in joining the social media team as a social expert or as a drone pilot in a mountain videography project, please contact us.

Production company

 

Logistics system in the Alps and in the Himalayas

 

_______________________

Logistics Chain from Sea to Summit

My logistics chain includes warehouses in Finland, France and Nepal, the use of freight services and flights to Nepal, and movement between Finland and the Alps by car and ship. Local flights in the interior of Nepal are carried out by an operator who is responsible for the logistics chain from the international airport to the base camp.

Logistics has been the black swan of Himalayan climbing project management. My departure to Nepal has been postponed twice due to logistics. The first time, I waited 1.5 years for warm and light Scarpa’s new mountaineering shoes from the Italian factory. Another time, my logistics chain stopped at Geneva airport, where I spent 1.5 days trying to figure out the freight costs for additional luggage, which would have been $10,000 for 130 kilos. The airline only told me the price after I bought the ticket. Usually €1,000 – €2,000 is enough for flights and freight. On the third occasion, a couple of equipment bags ended up in Qatar and the equipment was stolen from an altitude of 7100 meters.

Due to equipment, logistics, upper mountain camps and weather, Himalayan mountaineering is a kind of strategic chess, where 2-3 years before you have to imagine yourself at the solution point of 8000 meters and start to unravel the mountaineering equation backwards.

Operator in the Himalayas

According to Nepalese law, a mountain climbing permit can only be obtained through a commercial operator, i.e. a Western or local company providing services. As an individual, you cannot get a mountaineering permit from the Nepalese government for Everest. I think it’s good that the activity is organized, because mountaineering only starts at the base camp.

My operator in Nepal is an experienced operator with several different employees. In practice, I have agreed with the contact person on the contract and arrangements, the necessary documents and the logistics from Europe to Nepal and the base camp. The operator is responsible for mountain climbing and other permits as well as payments to the Nepali authorities and local operators and service providers. The operator takes my gear to the base camp, and I get the food at the base camp. Above the base camp, I climb the mountain without a sherpa, a guide and a carrying aid.

In 2022, I got to familiarize myself with the operations of a large operator, and you get some scale from the fact that they have two helicopters, more than 20 warehouses, operations in 14 Base Camps on all mountains above 8000 m and 300 employees in the Everest base camp, which does not even include porters.

Search and Rescue (SAR) in the Himalayas

The Search and Rescue service enables real-time satellite tracking from the web map, satellite messages as SMS messages to the internet, rescue service from the SOS button and trackback function in whiteout.

The SAR service of the 100-gram satellite device is based on messaging, positioning and rescue services. The rescue is started by pressing the SOS button. The positioning is done using the location and height of the web map, after which a risk analysis is made of the safety of the rescuers and the difficulty of the rescue. Rescue is carried out by Land Patrol or Air Rescue as a rescue service, i.e. in practice organized by operators on foot by Sherpas and other mountaineers or by rescue helicopter by authorities and mountain helicopter pilots. The rescue is first carried out at the Base Camp, where a doctor makes an assessment, from where they are transported by helicopter to a hospital in the capital, Kathmandu, where they are given the necessary treatment and further transported to their homeland, where rehabilitation takes place.

You can also get a message connection from the upper mountains with a radio phone to the operator, and from there on through the wlan connection of the Everest base camp.

If necessary, the operator sends a rescue team on a rescue mission, but from above 7100 meters you have to come down to 6500 meters on your own feet. Today, rescue operations have been carried out in the so-called on the long line from an altitude of 7,100 meters, but it requires good weather and the rescuer to be conscious. An unconscious person can be rescued from a height of 6500 m.

Through the membership of the Austrian Alpine Club, I have been able to use the rescue service in the Alps. Similarly, on the French side, the helicopter rescue service is free for local mountain rescue helicopters. In the Alps, a mobile phone can be heard almost everywhere, unlike in Nepal, which is largely covered by a mobile phone network.

When it comes to rescue, the primary option is self-survival in the mountains. Rescue helicopters have limited options in terms of altitude, weather and terrain. Communication connections must always be in order on the mountain so that the rescuers can be contacted at all. Positioning is also another must-have to create the conditions for starting a rescue mission. Mountain climbing and survival in difficult conditions always involve evaluating one’s own capabilities, terrain, altitude and weather. In the mountains, the weather can change in an instant, so you need to have enough energy and fluid in your body and power in your headlamps so that you can continue traveling in a storm while your body produces heat. In White Out, you can use 50 cm sticks placed in the snow every 100 m and use the GPS trackback function.