Team Geared Up

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The London Evening Standard is reporting the death, as pictured above) of a City Entrepreneur who was attempting to snowboard Mustagata, a remote 24,600ft mountain in China. He was on a full expedition team with guides and while suffering from bad altitude illness he was feeling ok.

The next morning Jon was found dead in his tent. Writing on the expedition team’s website, leader Arnold Coster, said:

“It all seems very unreal what happened. Everything was going fine and then tragedy happened. Normally you see a problem coming, but this time it struck the camp like lightning.”

Listen to the MP3 recorded by the Team Leader.

MP3 Transcript:

Today there was a big tragedy for our team. This morning Jon Peacock, from the UK, died in his tent in Base camp.

Jon went up to Camp 1 on the 8th of July. He had a hard time, but he recovered and went on to climb a little bit higher. The next day on July 9th he came down to Base camp again for a few days of rest. He was doing fine until suddenly he became chronically fatigued. Our first thoughts were that he had acquired altitude sickness, but his lungs and oxygen situation were fine. Somehow he was very weak. At this time we made the decision to send him back to Kashgar. On the 12th we carried his gear down from Camp 1, so he could leave to Kashgar the next day.

We sat and had dinner with Jon on Thursday, July 12th in the Base camp dining tent. Jon drank and ate more than he had been able to during the past few days. Jon talked about his wife, two children, and about the past two years of being able to see his kids in the morning and evening. He talked about his home and his plans for his future. He said he hoped to work for 2-3 days a week, so he could still spend a lot of time with his family. He looked relieved to be going home and he didn’t want to call his wife until he got to Kashgar, so he wouldn’t worry her.

In the morning, our team members checked in on him at 6:30 and found him unconscious in his tent. Immediately they tried rescue breathing and proceeded to CPR. Jon did not respond to any attempts of reviving him. At this time, the team leaders came down from the high camps. By the time the leaders arrived, 4 people had been performing CPR for a couple of hours already. I made an emotional and difficult decision to stop the CPR.

On the last night of his life, Jon spoke fondly of his wife and two children and how much he was looking forward to returning to the UK. It’s a terrible day in Mustagata Base camp and John and his family are in our thoughts and prayers.

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Inner page of London’s Evening Standard 24th July 2007)