Roar
January/February 2008

Climbing with Heart

On May 16, 2007, Swiss mountaineer Veronika Meyer, 56, summited Mount Everest, reaching her goal of climbing all seven summits. An impressive feat in itself, the prestigious chemist-by-day shocked both the mountaineering and medical communities by doing five of the seven summits with an artificial valve in her heart. Veronika’s accomplishment also marks the 30-year anniversary of the mechanical heart valve.

I was 23 when the doctor told me that I had a valve disease; and even though I was aware that his diagnosis was correct, it was so surreal and strange. At the time of my diagnosis, though I pursued my outdoor passions, I was not yet a mountaineer; I loved the mountains but had only hiked, not climbed, the Alps.

It was 23 years later, at age 46, that I was given an artificial valve. Four weeks after surgery, I completed a four-hour hike on flat terrain. Although I was stiff and my chest was painful from the operation, I thought I could climb an easy mountain just one week later. I decided to climb Elsighorn (7,680 feet) in the Bernese Alps. I walked very carefully with a steady pace. On the summit there was a box with a book inside to sign, and I remember that I wrote, “Five weeks ago I was in intensive care.” After Elsighorn I continued climbing mountains, and I really knew that everything with my heart was healthy and perfect again. I heard about the seven summits idea in the late eighties and was drawn to it.

I tried to climb Everest for the first time in 2002. The year before that, I had climbed Denali (the highest peak in North America) and Mount Vinson (the highest peak in Antarctica). Both are very demanding as there are no porters or other support; so after I successfully climbed both of those, I knew that I was not such a bad high-altitude-expedition climber. So I trained for Everest by going to the mountains and intensified my weight training a bit. Although my first expedition to Everest was not successful, I wanted to try again and kept preparing by mountain climbing, weight training, jogging, and running up stairs.

I had a really good time on Everest. You have plenty of leisure time, and you don’t know what is going on out in the real world. The longer the expedition went on, the more I enjoyed it. I had decided before I went that I didn’t want any stress and that I would just go try it. In this sense every day was great. But, obviously, my favorite day was May 16, 2007, when we finally reached the summit. I was lucky enough to walk all the way down to the Advanced Base Camp (ABC) that same day. It took 15 hours from the summit to the ABC. On Everest it was just a matter of course to be on the top. We came to reach this goal, the weather was fine, the conditions on the mountain were excellent, and I was healthy.

After a surgery you know that a lifetime is limited and that we shouldn’t waste our time. I have learned that it isn’t possible to get everything you would like in your life. Reaching the summit of Everest was a rather strange and very distant idea, but I wanted to attempt it.

I didn’t want to be 70 years old without having tried it.

—As told to Bryn Fox