Everest 2: Beyond the Limit–An Inside Look at the Team

Just a last minute reminder to have your DVR’s ready as the premier of Discovery Channel’s second season of Everest: Beyond the Limit airs tonight at 10pm eastern. (check your local listings)

This season promises to be a great one.  Yesterday I posted the Official Discovery Channel release about the upcoming season, and while I am at it, I thought I might give you a rundown of the climber’s involved in this season’s program.  This release is also coming from The Discovery Channel.

Team Profile of Everest 2: Beyond the Limit:

RUSSELL BRICE
Expedition Leader, Himalayan Experience (New Zealand)

This will be Russell’s 18th year on Everest, and as expedition leader for Himalayan Experience, no one knows the risks quite like he does. In his own words, “80 percent of my friends are dead.” Controversy surrounds the ‘King of the Mountain’ following the 2006 expedition – the second deadliest season on record, and Russell is known as a tough leader. Though climbers pay a $40,000 fee to join the Himalayan Experience team, Russell has final say as to whether or not climbers progress far enough to actually attempt a summit.

ROD BABER
Climber (England)
Rod Baber, 36, gained a Guinness World-Record for ascending the 47 European summits in the shortest time. In between summits, Rod now runs a climbing center in the west of England, where he and his colleagues teach anyone from corporate business teams to young offenders how to deal with heights and fear, instilling interpersonal skills in their charges along the way. He’s planning to make the first ever cell phone call from Everest’s summit.

BETSY HUELSKAMPClimber (California, USA)
A Los Angeles-based journalist, 46-year-old Betsy interviewed Tim Medvetz last year following his 2006 attempt, and was inspired to give it a go herself. Her motto has always been, “if you are not living life on the edge, you are missing the view!” Betsy has been featured in motorcycle documentaries (on Discovery Channel, TLC, National Geographic Channel and Travel Channel) and writes for numerous biking magazines. She’s an ice climber, trekker, bungee jumper, diver, Kung Fu black belt, and has worked much of her adult life as a personal trainer.

MOGENS JENSENClimber (Denmark)

A former elite Iron Man, Mogens Jensen is a chronic asthma sufferer who is determined to summit Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen. A schoolteacher turned professional mountaineer from Denmark — a country with no mountains — Mogens attempted to summit in 2005 and 2006. Last year on entering the Death Zone, Mogens was hit by altitude sickness – and for almost two weeks after he returned home, he continued to suffer blurred vision and loss of balance. Is he dangerously obsessed? This year, Russell wants him to abandon his ambition to climb without oxygen.

TIM MEDVETZClimber (California, USA)

MONICA PIRISExpedition Doctor (England)
Born in Oxford to Spanish parents, she is truly bilingual. Monica Piris spends her summers rock-climbing in the Spanish Pyrenees, her winters skiing and ice-climbing, and in between earns the money to fund her hobbies by working as a locum doctor in English emergency rooms. In 2006, she completed a Diploma in Mountain Medicine – and her trip to Everest is the next step in her ambition to become a specialist high altitude doctor. She will follow Russell to North Col, from where she can best monitor the team’s health. Along the way, she’ll tend to numerous climbers on other expeditions who fall ill while trying to reach the summit.

DAVID TAIT
Climber (England)
David is planning a world-first “double-traverse” of Everest with Phurba Tashi. His goal is to summit from the north side, then descend down the south side, where he’ll reverse and climb up the south side and down the north. David first attempted a summit in 2004, but his body just couldn’t cope with the extreme altitude. In 2005 as part of Russell Brice’s team, he made it to the summit. That year, David’s climbing buddy, Brett Merrell, went through the same disappointment David had a year prior. David could relate and offered to pay for Brett to try again – and he did in first season of Everest: Beyond the Limit. David’s generosity stretches beyond other climbers. A millionaire fund manager, he is on the board of the NSPCC (National Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children). Abused as a child himself, David plans to raise money for the charity close to his heart.

PHURBA TASHISherpa
Phurba is Russell’s most experienced Sherpa – his lead guide, or “Sirdar.” He has summitted Everest an incredible ten times. He is Russell’s eyes, ears, arms and legs on the mountain. Incredibly strong, even at high altitude, he is entrusted absolutely with the climbers’ safety. Last year Phurba was on the spot to deal with two climbers’ near mutiny on summit day. This year Phurba will be attempting the double traverse with David Tait – if successful, an Everest first.

DARIUS VAICIULIS
Climber (Lithuania)
A cell phone dealer from Kaunas, Lithuania, who works across Eastern Europe, Darius climbed Cho Oyu three years ago with Russell Brice. Darius is married with children aged 11 and 3. His family is worried about his latest adventure, but supportive. “I tell them it is my dream – I have to go.”

KATSUSUKE YANAGISAWA
Climber (Japan)
At the age of 71, Katsusuke hopes to become the oldest person to ever summit Everest.

FRED ZIEL
Climber (California, USA)
Fred is a physician and family man from South Pasadena, California, where he runs the local Diabetes Care Program. His passion for climbing and mountaineering dates back over 30 years, and he’s completed successful ascents on both rock and ice throughout North America and Asia. This marks his third trip to Everest.