Barrington man tries climb of Mt. McKinley for his friend

East Bay Newspapers

Thursday, October 12, 2006

At 14,000 feet, Chris Downs realized he wasn't going to make it to the top of Mt. McKinley, North America's highest peak. He had contracted a virus on the flight to Alaska, and knew the symptoms weren't going to get better as he and the four other members of his team ascended the icy face of McKinley, also known as Denali, this June.

But for Mr. Downs, 56, a Barrington native and avid climber who has conquered dozens of mountains, this failure was anything but: His team made it to the top and, more importantly, raised $137,000 for medical research of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gherig's disease. Some of the money was also donated to a college fund for the daughters of Joe Shambo, a colleague and friend of Mr. Downs who passed away from the disease a year ago.

Combined with funds Mr. Downs had raised in a previous expedition up Denali six year earlier, the total sum of his (and his contributors' efforts) is now $268,000, which has and will continue to go towards some of Mr. Shambo's favorite charities, such as the Cambridge-based ALS Therapy Development Foundation and the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass.

"This really wasn't about me," Mr. Downs said. "The real story was that it was done to honor Joe, and it was a very successful climb in that regard. In some ways, we've helped people who have ALS today, in the future, or maybe, down the road, even preventing others from getting it."

In 2000, Mr. Downs had been planning to ascend Denali for his own satisfaction when he realized the potential to help his friend, who had been diagnosed with ALS in 1998.

"I thought there were a lot of analogies," he said. "On a mountain, you look up and think you see the summit, but really you have thousands of yards to go. When you finally get there, you feel tremendous success."

Even though Mr. Shambo never made it to his own summit against ALS, Mr. Downs said the climb was something "I thought ... he'd really appreciate." A big, athletic guy, Mr. Downs said his friend was "full of life ... he had an incredible amount of courage. In spite of all he was going through, he just had a sense of humor, an upbeat attitude and persistence that just amazed me."

Bearing the burden

A fatal and untreatable neurological disease with no known cause, ALS progressively causes muscle weakness and atrophy throughout the body, until the patient becomes "imprisoned in [his or her] own body over time," Mr. Downs said.

In addition to causing physical and mental anguish in the victim, the disease is also damaging in that it creates a financial burden for the family, who must pay for the high cost of treatment and home-based care.

Mr. Downs said he gained much respect for Mr. Shambo when his friend sacrificed himself to the search for a cure by subjecting himself to experimental therapies. According to his wife, Maureen, Mr. Shambo actually outlasted most survival projections for ALS.

"He wasn't even able to lift his hand to shake someone else's," she said. "But he outlasted a lot of the statistical [projections]. And he made me a stronger and better person today."

But even as his body attempted to stave off the disease, Mr. Downs said he could see the toll ALS was taking on the family, especially his young daughters.

"Your first impression of life is your father losing his motor capabilities," he said. "I think we all sort of began to understand the elements of the disease, and realized what a tragedy it was. It's an incredible stress on any family."

Inspired, Mr. Downs made it his goal to help the family by raising money with his first Denali climb, which ended at 17,000 feet due to poor weather. As word of his mission spread, he began to receive the help of Citizens Bank, where he is employed as a group executive vice president.

"I was able to raise the money because of the efforts of many, many people at Citizens," he said. "It was a big commitment on their part. I purposely never asked [for help] inside the company, because it was never my intention to twist anyone's arm. [This climb] hatched from an idea I had, but was really built upon by Citizens."

Second try

With the support of his company and many contributing vendors, Mr. Downs was ready in spirit for his second attempt at Denali, though his body eventually was not.

A longtime athlete who discovered mountain climbing while a student at Middlebury College in Vermont, Mr. Downs had ascended a number of mountains in his 35 years of experience, including Mt. Rainier, the Grand Tetons and the Canadian Rockies.

Denali, however, is a unique challenge for any climber. At 20,320 feet, the mountain has an even steeper rise than Mt. Everest and is known for a high number of cases of altitude illness and extremely cold weather, with temperatures dropping to 20 or 30 below zero even during the summer months. A climb up Denali can take an entire month, Mr. Downs said, and "is nothing to take lightly" because of the ever-present threat of avalanches.

"It's an effort over a long period of time," he said. "You're carrying a pack, pulling a sled, living in tents, and there's nothing but ice, rocks and snow around you. After a time, that wears on you."

Teamed with two climbing friends and two professional guides from Rainier Mountain Guides, Mr. Downs said the climb was aided by the fact that the party would be making the attempt during the summer time, when the sun stays over Alaska for 23 hours a day. But Mr. Downs was destined from the beginning to not join his team on the top.

"It was a little frustrating" he said of his sudden viral infection. Thinking he could shake it off in time for the climb, he managed to make it 14,000 feet up the mountain — 7,000 from the base camp — before he made a choice that may have ultimately ensured the success of his party.

"I didn't want to become a liability," he said. "A lot of bad things can happen at 17,000 feet — it's not a place you want to be stuck when you're sick. I realized I was going to be a drag on those guys."

Not disappointed

Even though he was not able to accompany his team to the top (which they reached in 15 days), Mr. Downs said he wasn't disappointed.

"The reality is, it's not about getting to the top," he said. "It's just about being in the mountains, being with friends. It's very clear in climbing, unlike life ... in life, we get bombarded with so many things, and it's tough to sort out how you're going to move ahead."

Climbing, meanwhile, was an instinctive and liberating pursuit, one that gives a person a feeling of peace, he said — "It's not a feeling we feel in our everyday life."

Mrs. Shambo said that, at least for her family, Mr. Downs' efforts have already made a huge impact.

"It's very comforting to know my daughters are secure," she said. "Our options are not as limited now.

"[Chris and Citizens] have been extremely supportive from day one ... we could count on them for anything."

A perilous peak — Local man aimed for summit

Barrington resident Chris Downs and his climbing team were forced to part ways as they attempted to summit Mt. McKinley, North America's tallest peak. Mr. Downs was climbing Denali in order to raise money for ALS, in memory of his late friend, Joe Shambo. Here's some more information about the mountain and the mission:

* Steep rise: Mt. McKinley, known as Denali among mountaineers, reaches a height of 20,320 feet, including an actual vertical rise of 18,000 feet. Mt. Denali has an even higher vertical rise than Mt. Everest (approximately 12,000 feet) because it sits on a much smaller plateau.

* Route taken: Mr. Downs and his team were flown to a base camp at 7,000 feet. Like most climbers, they would take the West Buttress route, which typically takes two to three weeks to ascend.

* Climbing practice: For the first 17,000 feet, the team repeated a common climbing practice of hiking 2,000 to 3,000 feet with a small portion of their load, bury it in the snow with a marker, then climb back down to their camp. The next day, they would climb up with their remaining load, and set up base camp where they had buried the rest of their load. This practice enables climbers to not only lighten their load, but also allows them to gradually acclimatize to the low oxygen levels as they ascend the mountain.

* End of the line: After 10 days, the team set up camp at 14,000 feet. With the most time-consuming and tedious work behind them, the next 7,000 feet would unfurl much more rapidly, as their load lightened and the colder weather made travel possible at all times of the day (in the summertime, when Mr. Downs made his attempt, it is not safe to climb during the day for the first 7,000 feet because the sun melts the snow, making for poor hiking conditions). Unfortunately for Mr. Downs, a virus he contracted on his flight to Alaska jeopardized his chances at accompanying his team the rest of the way, and he was forced to turn around and go back.

* Reaching the summit: The remaining four members of the team reached the summit of Denali in only five days. The final 7,000 feet of the mountain, which Mr. Downs said demands more technical climbing skills, is also difficult because climbers do not get much rest as they continue through all weather conditions (at the bottom, he said, climbers can count on spending entire days in their tents as they wait for bad weather to pass).

* Lofty company: In reaching the summit, the team joined the lucky 50 percent of all climbers of Denali who manage to reach the peak. With dangerous weather and severe risk of altitude sickness, the mountain has claimed the lives of nearly 100 mountaineers since the start of the 20th century.

BY SCOTT O'CONNELL

soconnell@eastbaynewspapers.com

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