Heikki Karinen bound for Mount Everest

Assistant teacher and mountaineer Dr. Heikki Karinen of the School of Public Health at the University of Tampere is bound for Mount Everest in company with the Airborne Rangers Club of Finland. The expedition set off from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport on 21 March and will attempt the ascent of Everest from the Nepal side. The expedition, if successful, will be the first ever all-Finnish group to reach the summit of Everest.

Heikki Karinen is the group's medical officer. He will be gathering data for his forthcoming doctoral dissertation on human adaptation to extreme conditions. Dr. Karinen aims to find out about the body's warning signs of acute mountain sickness at high altitudes.

Dr. Karinen and the Airborne Rangers have already had a taste of Everest when in 2005 they stopped only a few hundred metres short of the summit. The present expedition was set for an attempt one year ago but was obliged to abort when China closed the border with Tibet claiming environmental problems.

Homepages of the expedition and net diary

Photo Jonne Renvall