At the Foot of the World
Medicine runs on control. We measure, we intervene, we count a life in vital signs. The Himalayas do not grant us any such authority. Over two weeks in Apeil 2025, we walked to the Everest Base Camp at 5,364 metres, where survival is rationed in breaths and granted only on the terms of the mountain.
What follows is that journey in three parts:
- the climb,
- the people we met along the way, and
- the silence carried home.
companion guide
A Physician’s Guide to the High Mountains
The practical counterpart to the series. Acclimatization, hydration, reading our body, and the physiology of going slow.
Dr. Shashikiran Umakanth (MBBS, MD, FRCP Edin.) is the Professor & Head of Internal Medicine at Dr. TMA Pai Hospital, Udupi, under the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE). While he has contributed to nearly 100 scientific publications in the academic world, he writes on MEDiscuss out of a passion to simplify complex medical science for public awareness.
