It's called K-2 and at over 28,000 feet tall, it's the second highest mountain in the world. More than that it is considered more dangerous than the famed Mount Everest. And now Belizean rescue specialist Walter Santos is going there at the border of Pakistan and China in support of a National Geographic/NASA Science team. Santos and British Resident in Belize Lynwen Griffiths have been selected from a field of 150 applicants worldwide to spend two months on K-2 as part of the science support team. They will live at a camp at 17,000 feet in some of the harshest conditions on earth. How will they do it? Well that's what we asked them before they left on Friday.
Walter Santos,
"I cannot express how I feel at this point but I am very excited and proud to be a Belizean, to go up on this trip."
Jules Vasquez,
What will you be doing up there as part of, I understand you will be there as part of an emergency response or support team?
Walter Santos,
"Yes since I'm a rescue technician specialist, which covers all the rescue aspect of any emergency or disaster, could be small to very big, mass casualty disasters, and what I'm going to do is since my experience in disaster and emergency medicine, austere medicine, which you know its 15 days before you can get to the hospital so that's one of my goals, go and provide medical and rescue assistance to the scientists who are going out there."
Jules Vasquez,
Are you mentally prepared for two months of living in some of the most austere prohibitive conditions on earth?
Lynwens Griffiths,
"As I said no, I don't think that anything can really prepare you for that, I've been reading a lot about it so I think I know what to expect. We're going to have very high temperatures during the day, its very dry climates, it's going to go down to -20 at night so we're going to have some real extremes there and the only thing I can do is make sure I have the right gear and the right equipment."
The expedition begins on June first. The pair will have some time preparing and buying supplies in before they depart for Pakistan. They hope to use a satellite phone to call in to Love FM's Open Paki radio show every Sunday.