“Faszination Todeszone – Forschung in 8000 m Höhe”

Alpine Documentation (), Jan Kerckhoff (Deutschland/Germany) 45 min

It is 8,035 m high and therefore one of the highest mountains on earth. Its summit is most often storm-tossed and covered with meters of snow – the Gasherbrum II in the Karakorum Mountains on the border between Pakistan and China. On this mountain giant it is extremely cold and the air is “thin”. Breathing is difficult, every step hurts. The mountaineers call this altitude “the death zone.” However, increasingly more climbers want to reach Gasherbrum II; among them, two doctors from the university hospital Grosshadern in Munich. They are not only fascinated by the mountain giants of the Karakorum and the Himalayas, but they also want to explore the altitude sickness. Almost everyone who climbs in such altitudes is concerned with this sickness. One of the most dangerous consequences of altitude sickness is cerebral edema, which can be fatal on a mountain such as the Gasherbrum II. The doctors intend to develop a new method, which would allow for immediate detection of the first signs of cerebral edema to alarm the mountaineers in time. In order to test the new method, the doctors accompany the expedition and risk their lives for science.