This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Ellen Gallant quit her job as a Utah cardiologist to conquer Mount Everest.
But Saturday, during her second attempt to summit the world's highest mountain, a massive earthquake shook Nepal and triggered an avalanche. Ten climbers died and several were injured on the mountain, while far below, the quake claimed the lives of nearly 1,400 people.
Gallant survived.
"Fortunately all of our team members and Sherpa staff are all OK," her expedition team, Himalayan Experience, posted Saturday. The post adds that there was considerable damage to several camps.
Arlo Gagestein, Gallant's personal trainer who lives in Ogden, is unsure where this leaves their expedition.
Gallant, a woman in her 40s who lives near Park City, trained for more than a decade to climb the Himalayan mountain. She summited peaks on at least four continents in the meantime, including the highest mountain in Antarctica.
To fully commit to attempting the climb, she quit her job as a physician. There was no reconciling the time commitment and her work schedule, she said in a 2014 interview with Alan Arnette.
"Will I be strong enough? I just don't know but am looking forward to finding out the answer to that question," she said in the interview. She added later that "of late, I have dreams of standing on the summit of Everest, and I cry."
But during her climb in 2014, nature worked against her then, too, Gagestein said.
On April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed 16 people and injured several others. At base camp, Gallant and another doctor put their medical backgrounds to use in the camp clinic.
Gallant knows the dangers of the world's highest mountain. But, undaunted, she returned in late March, excited. Weather permitting, her team was to expecting to summit Everest around the first week of May.
On Friday, Gagestein received an e-mail from his trainee.
"She said [that] things are going great, all is well," Gagestein said. She and her fellow climbers were acclimating to the thinning oxygen, and with the right weather, they were preparing to ascend closer to the peak.
That's when the earthquake hit.
Soon after, Himalayan Experience, her expedition group, posted a notice on its website that everyone in the team was all right. Gagestein had yet to hear from Gallant directly, and wasn't sure Saturday whether the expedition is on hold or cancelled altogether.
He is thankful, though, to know that she is OK.
— The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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