A woman who lost a leg to cancer 32 years ago now plans a Mt. Everest trek.
Early in May, if all goes well, 52-year-old Sheila Brashear of North Kansas City, Kan., will have trekked to the base camp on Mt. Everest. On crutches.
There, at 17,500 feet, Brashear will celebrate 32 years as a cancer survivor.
She was just 20 years old when she lost a leg to bone cancer. Never comfortable with a prosthesis because of a high amputation, Brashear has walked on crutches ever since.
“I was very lucky. The odds were against me,” said Brashear of her cancer, a tumor on the upper thigh. “I can’t complain.”
The trip comes about through her connection with Tom Whittaker, a disabled mountain climber from Arizona who hopes in May to become the first disabled person to stand atop the world’s highest peak. It will be his third attempt to reach the summit.
While Whittaker is headed to the mountaintop, 29,000 feet up, Brashear will join a group of eight people with disabilities whose base-camp objective is less lofty but still a considerable challenge. As Brashear pushes herself physically, she said the effort is part of another goal, to help broaden the view of what is possible for people with disabilities.
Last September, while visiting friends in Idaho, Brashear heard about Whittaker’s plans. She had accomplished other adventures with Whittaker, whom she met while living in Idaho in the early 1980s, including two whitewater trips through the Grand Canyon, sea kayaking off the coast of British Columbia and dog-sledding in Montana.
Whittaker, 49, had lost a foot in a car accident in 1979, but he never stopped loving outdoor adventure. He founded the Cooperative Wilderness Handicapped Outdoor Group, or C.W. HOG, in Idaho, and Brashear was an enthusiastic participant.
Eventually Brashear moved back to Kansas City and Whittaker to Arizona, where he teaches college courses in outdoor adventure education.
Brashear, who works in assistive technology, helping people with disabilities overcome restrictions and live independently, was struck by the Everest idea, the trip of a lifetime.
“I really thought about it all the way back,” she said. “And I decided this is something I really want to do.”
Brashear knows the trek won’t be easy for her. The trails are well-established, with Sherpa villages and monasteries along the way, and there is no actual mountain climbing involved. Still, parts of the trek will be rugged and steep. And muddy, she just found out. Brashear bought special tips for her crutches to help her navigate the muck.
Whittaker, who has already left for Nepal, earlier told her what to expect.
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“He put the fear in me,” she said, “because you need to understand this is a very difficult thing to do.”
Whittaker’s wife, Cindy, will lead Brashear’s group, which includes other amputees, a person with cerebral palsy, someone with a spinal cord injury and Whittaker’s father, who is 80 and has had both hips replaced.
“I have no worries about whether they can do it,” Cindy Whittaker said recently by phone from Arizona. “I’ve been on this trail. I know what’s coming.”
They will fly to Katmandu, Nepal, then take a helicopter to the mountain airfield in Lukla to begin their 40-mile trek to base camp. The pace will be slow, she said, and horses will be available for trekkers who can’t walk or use their wheelchairs. The expedition to base camp will take about 20 days, with time set aside for rest and getting accustomed to the altitude.
Cindy Whittaker said she was impressed with the group’s powerful desire to make the five-week trip. Some have had to take leave from their jobs without pay. And because of the lack of sponsors, some, like Brashear, are taking on personal loans for the trip. Brashear estimated her costs at $5,700.
“They’re doing it for themselves,” Cindy Whittaker said, “and they’re doing it to try to change the face of disabilities in our country, to help change the way schoolchildren view and value their peers with disabilities.”
Cindy Whittaker said her husband’s team ought to reach the summit about mid- to late May. He wears a prosthesis and must expend about 35 percent more energy than a climber without disabilities.
But Cindy Whittaker isn’t overly worried about her husband’s safety, even with all the recent publicity about fatalities on Everest. His is a group of seasoned climbers with lots of experience on Everest.
“He has really good mountain sense,” she said.