Unplugged: Dr. Frank Slachman

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Climb Every Mountain

By Marion Anthonisen

As if being a heart surgeon weren’t enough, some guys want to be contestants on “Survivor” and climb all the world’s highest mountains. So, do you feel inadequate yet?
    Dr. Frank Slachman is a highly regarded Sacramento cardiac surgeon who works a risky, demanding and emergency-ridden job. In his precious off time, the overachieving surgeon is in the midst of climbing each continent’s tallest mountains.
    To date, Slachman has tackled Kilimanjaro, McKinley and Aconcagua — three of the “Seven Summits,” an elite group of mountains comprising each continent’s highest peak (These represent the continents of Africa, North and South America). Slachman recently summitted Mount McKinley, climbing with a German physicist, a Danish lawyer and a Spanish bike-shop owner. Slachman is a self-professed “total amateur. I was easily the most inexperienced of all the climbers (in the McKinley group).”
    Fewer than 200 people worldwide — amateurs or masters — can claim all seven, and most who have hit the peaks are highly experienced, near-full-time climbers. Slachman, by contrast, must dedicate most of his energy to the risky business of cardiac operations. “Heart surgery has a few safety nets,” Slachman explains, “but with every move, you’re hung out there. We’re often working in extreme, novel circumstances.” Does this air of peril extend to his climbing persona? “Some of the guides are wacko risk-takers,” Slachman says, “but I’m conservative when it comes to climbing.”
    Slachman is in his 15th year as one of Mercy General Hospital’s five cardiac surgeons. Mercy is considered the best major cardiac program in all of California, based on number of patients treated and number of positive outcomes.
    High-risk patients from Southern and Northern California are referred to Slachman’s team. It’s not uncommon for him to leave the hospital after 10 p.m., and after particularly grueling surgeries, he doesn’t make it home at all. Slachman averages seven heart surgeries a week and operates on call for nearly half of his weekends. Just in case you thought he wasn’t perfect, Slachman never misses his 5:30 a.m. gym appointment. “Feeling better, feeling stronger helps me in the operating room,” says Slachman. 
    Summiting a mountain is usually breathtaking but sometimes anticlimactic, according to Slachman. “On the summit of Aconcagua, I used a satellite phone to call my wife and my best friend, who was in the middle of heart surgery. That was special,” says Slachman, “but on the summit of McKinley, it was 10:30 p.m., and I was exhausted. All I could think about was the five-hour hike back to my sleeping bag.”
    While reaching the summit is a climber’s ultimate goal, there’s more to the experience than the mountaintop, Slachman says. He loves the human-bonding power of a three-week climb toward the common goal of “standing on top of a continent.”

Ripped Fabric, Snapped Poles
Slachman has been lucky to avoid serious injury on his climbs. His most frightening climbing memories are shrouded by extreme weather. He’s experienced wind gusts up to 100 miles per hour, and in these rough environmental conditions, it’s not uncommon to see shredded tent fabric and snapped tent poles.
    During one particularly harrowing storm more than 14,000 feet above sea level on Mount McKinley, Slachman and his team set up camp for a woman with a broken leg and for a few other climbers with frostbite. While Slachman is aware of the danger inherent in his unusual pastime, “there is no way to remove the dangers, and sometimes one has to take calculated risks to reach the objective.”
    With a fortified interest in outdoor adventure, Slachman and his operating room co-workers auditioned for CBS’s reality show, “Survivor.” Slachman says it was “just great fun” for the staff, and he was pleasantly surprised to be called back for the second round of auditions. While he ultimately wasn’t invited to follow in the well-calloused footsteps of Richard Hatch (“their loss, not mine,” says Slachman), his non-televised outdoor adventures are still in full swing. He’s been invited to a 2007 Everest team and is eager to cross the next mountain off his list.

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