(Posted December 8, 2003)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Chemist Paul Schettler, a noted researcher and teacher at Juniata College, will take his audience to ?the most outrageous real estate on Earth? in his lecture on ?The Ultimate Mount Everest Trek,? as part of the Bookend Lecture Series at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 9 in Neff Lecture Hall in the von Liebig Center for Science on the Juniata campus.

Schettler?s talk, which is accompanied by a detailed and spectacular slide presentation, is free and open to the public. His talk is part of the Bookend Lecture Series, which features afternoon lectures each month by Juniata College faculty.

Schettler, Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry, spent the past summer on a trek through Nepal that started with the group?s pilot landing a small airplane on a runway pitched up at a 45-degree angle. Schettler, his son, and his traveling companions spent three weeks in Nepal, spending time in tents at Gorak Shep, which at 17,000 feet elevation, is the highest town in the world

?From the front of our tents at Gorak Shep, we could look up at the 9,000-foot wall forming the Nuptse face of Mount Everest,? Schettler says. ?My son and I joined 12 other trekkers. We were led by a trip leader, about five Sherpas and a small army of porters.?
Schettler reports the group trekked about four to eight miles per day, usually in vertical climbs of 2,000 to 4,000 feet. The trek also visited Sherpa towns and shrines, as well as a Tibetan bazaar.

Schettler, professor of chemistry at Juniata, has been a member of the faculty since 1967. He earned a bachelor?s degree from the University of Utah and a doctoral degree from Yale University. He also received the Beachley Distinguished Professor Award in 1978 and received the Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service in 1995.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.