No guts know glory – it’s over

Two days after reaching Everest BC on April 6th, Robert Hill, 37, was forced down the valley with symptoms later diagnosed as a debilitating Crohn’s flare-up. “On April 13, Hill was flown out of the Khumbu region of Nepal by high altitude helicopter evacuation and taken to Kathmandu,” Robert’s support crew reports. “He then returned home to begin ongoing treatment for his illness under the guidance of his team of medical specialists in Vancouver.”

Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that attacks the small and large intestines. If left untreated, Crohn’s flare-ups can lead to internal bleeding and death. Through his No Guts Know Glory expedition, Robert hoped to become the first Crohn’s disease sufferer and person living with an ileostomy, to reach the Seven Summits.

Hill lost his entire colon to Crohn’s disease in 1995 when he had surgery to remove the diseased sections of his intestine and was given an ileostomy—a diversionary surgery that eliminates intestinal waste into a plastic pouch attached to his abdomen.