(Wisconsin State Journal, Sunday, July 16, 2000, Forum section, page 1B)
By Kerry G. Hill
National/Foreign Editor

Life's Peaks
IDEA 2000 climbers prove that diabetes is no barrier to achieving great heights

David Panofsky of Madison and the international group he has helped to assemble have staked out some towering goals.

First, they want to scale the 22,834-foot peak of Argentina's Cerro Aconcagua, the highest summit in the Western Hemisphere, in an expedition set to begin in late December.

They also want to use the expedition to raise $2.1 million and give 95 percent of the proceeds to three charities that provide diabetic supplies and education to areas of Latin America where care is inadequate.

And they want to show the world that diabetes -- the sixth leading cause of death by disease in the United States -- need not stand in the way of active lives.

Panofsky, a 34-year-old environmental engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and his fellow climbers all have Type 1 diabetes. Their lives depend on regular injections of insulin to metabolize sugar, along with careful attention to diet and exercise.

They call their endeavor the International Diabetic Expedition Aconcagua 2000, or IDEA 2000, which they've incorporated as a private, non-profit organization.

"Being in the mountains is what we love," explains Panofsky. "Diabetes is something we have to deal with."

The self-described "flatlander," who grew up in Evanston, Ill., has been dealing with diabetes since 1984. He was diagnosed at age 18, during his first semester at UW-Madison.

He refused to let the disease get in the way of his burgeoning interest in road bicycling racing. While diligently managing his diabetes with the medical tools available, he spent 10 years as a top category road racer in the U.S. Cycling Federation and participated in the 1988 Olympic trials.

By the mid 1990s, Panofsky left competitive cycling for activities that enabled him to enjoy nature, such as long-distance trekking, backpacking and mountaineering. His mountain-climbing trips have taken him to such ranges as the Alps, Rockies, Sierra Nevadas and the Andes.

All along, he has bucked the myths that diabetics must be resigned to restrictive and bleak lives, and has found plenty of company around the world.

For his most recent efforts, Panofsky received the 2000 LifeScan Prize for Athletic Achievement Friday at the International Diabetic Athletes Association conference in Vancouver, B.C. He considers it an award to be shared with his IDEA 2000 teammates.

"It's been a pretty crazy ride," he says, in regard to the IDEA 2000 effort.

The ride began two years ago when he answered an online call for diabetic mountain climbers. That put him in contact with Todd Clare of Norfolk, Va. Panofsky also had written to Ernest Blade of Spain after reading about his climbs in the Himalayas in a magazine for diabetic athletes.

From those initial contacts, a network of diabetic climbers developed, from which the idea of climbing Aconcagua emerged.

"I had some interest in this particular peak," Panofsky says. Besides its distinction as the highest mountain in the Americas, Aconcagua is easily accessible from Mendoza, Argentina and Santiago, Chile and offers climbers a range of approaches. The choice "seemed pretty natural."

What started out as an adventure for a group of active diabetics soon became more. Grateful for the medical advances that enabled them to pursue their passions, the climbers wanted to help bring these tools to diabetics who hadn't been so fortunate.

"This made sense to raise money for people who needed it," Panofsky says.

The group decided to channel the money through three organizations that serve Latin America -- San Francisco-based Insulin for Life, the Declaration of the Americas on Diabetes and the International Diabetes Federation's South and Central American Region.

The IDEA 2000 group -- with Panofsky, Clare and Blade as directors -- set an ambitious fund-raising goal of $2.1 million, and set a strict limit of 5 percent of the money raised that can go toward expenses of the expedition itself. The rest of the costs will be picked up by the participants.

"We're climbers, so we have gear and things," Panofsky notes.

With the big climb now less than six months away, he and his teammates have stepped up preparations. That includes members getting together in smaller groups for a series of preliminary climbs.

Last month, Panofsky joined teammate Doug Bursnall, a Welshman living in Colorado, to climb Ice Mountain in western Colorado. Next month, he will head for the Alps for to join European members on a climb led by Blade, IDEA 2000's most accomplished climber and designated leader.

"It's so important for every climbing team to know each of the members," Panofsky says. But he already has developed high regard for the IDEA 2000 group. "It's like the dream team of diabetic climbers."

He adds, "It really is a wonderful group of people. They truly care about one another."

The climbers, who will be accompanied by an endocrinologist and diabetic care nurse, also want to contribute to medical research.

The Institut d'Estudis de Medicina de Muntanya (Institute for the Study of High-Altitude Medicine, or IEMM), based in Barcelona, Spain, plans to use the expedition to study how altitude affects diabetes and its treatment. Those involved hope to produce results that the institute can present when it hosts the 2002 World Congress on High Altitude Medicine and Physiology.

And then there's the matter of raising money.

Several companies involved in diabetic management have signed on as sponsors. Other donations have come from individuals and participants' employers, but still total far short of the target, which the group wants to reach by November 2001.

"It's hard because we're not professional fund-raisers," Panofsky says, adding that the group now is "trying to ratchet things up."

But he isn't measuring the success of IDEA 2000 in monetary terms. Raising awareness about diabetes, especially the message that diabetics can "lead a life that even better and more active" than most people, ranks at least as high, if not higher.

Before and after the climb, he says, "each of us will be doing a number of lectures and presentations."

Clare, who was diagnosed with diabetes at age 22 months, especially "finds a lot of satisfaction at being able to help kids," Panofsky says.

Meanwhile, as the expedition approaches, some participants are looking even further ahead.

"Some folks in the group are already thinking about our next project," he says with a grin. "It'll be another adventure."