Posted on 05/16/2007 12:00:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The mountain was/is a religious item for them, I believe.
That too.
Very impressive. This guy must be in some kind of incredible shape!
a good mind helps but ya need a strong cardiovascular system too... he’s built for it.
Everest = Sagamartha (Nepali) = Great Mother Goddess.
You don't want to go messing around with the Great Mother Goddess unless there's a darned good reason for it, like making more money in a month as a porter or guide than you would in a year otherwise.
Aside from Kathmandu, the Khumbu region is the most prosperous and well-educated in Nepal (Hillary Schools). Trekking and mountaineering are huge money makers for the region. Lots of Sherpas speak competent English, and their physiology gives them a completely unique ability to go to high altitude (5,000 meters++).
The Great Mother Goddess has been very good indeed to the Sherpas.
This is just a hunch, but I think there would be a number of reasons for the drop in fatilities in the last two decades:
- Advances in lightweight cold weather clothing has made it easier to keep climbers warmer while at the same time making movement easier.
- Advances in communications, especially radio and GPS makes it easier to locate stranded climbers.
- The higher number of people on the mountain and in base camps probably has also resulted in more highly-trained doctors and medical experts capable of treating hypothermia and altitude conditions (especially when you consider how many of the expeditions are sponsored by very wealthy people who have the funds to cover all contingencies).
- The fact that there are more people on the mountain during climbing season (and many of the sherpas are seasoned climbers with multiple full and partial ascents) makes rescues easier and ascents safer.
But I can certainly understand why he would want to move to Utah and work for one of the mountaineering schools or companies that makes equipment.
I've been up to Everest Base Camp, Kala Patar twice (18,500 feet, 5545 meters), Gokyo Ri once (17,990 feet).
The photo above is from the standard trekking route south of Everest, probably Tengboche or perhaps Kumjung (with a good telephoto lens).
That's what you get to see for 3 or 4 days, then as you approach Pheriche/Dingboche, Everest (the peak in the background) disappears behind the Lhotse Ridge, which is the big wall in the foregound.
Some parts have permanent climbing aides installed (ladders).
I had heard that.
From what I’ve read, K2 is a MUCH HARDER mountain to climb. If someone is in good physical shape, has done a couple of high-altitude ascents, has a few hundred thousand dollars and the weather cooperates, they can climb Everest.
For us lowlanders, half the struggle of getting up even to the Everest Base Camp (17,500 feet) is acclimatization to the altitude.
You start in Kathmandu, which is about 4,500 feet, make your way up to Lukla (I recall about 12,000 feet) and start slogging your way up. Lots of folks take the plane from KTM to Lukla, which saves you 5 ot 6 days of slogging through the Nepali lowlands, but also denies you a valuable chance to acclimatize.
So after Lukla, the flyers need to get 2 or 3 days of adjusting at Namhe Bazar, those who took the extra 6 days of walk-in from Jiri are a little bit better off. This is also where acclimatization problems kick-in. I knew one guy who *could not get above Lukla* no matter what. His body just said NO.
As for the Sherpas, they'll fly into the heliport just above Namche from KTM, and be walking around like it was a nice day in the park while the Westerners are struggling. In fact they'll do that all the way up to 20,000 feet.
The Sherpas' high-altitude endurance is so grossly disproportionate to Westerners that it's actually funny. You're struggling up the hill, hardly able to breathe, taking two steps and stopping to get some air, and the Sherpas will amble over and politely ask if you're OK. You want to die, but seeing how unwinded they are, you just croak out "Yeah.......(take some breaths).... OK."
I would love to see Everest some time, but I have zero interest in putting myself through hell just to be able to say I’ve climbed it.
Absolutely. Along with the magnificant and awe-inspiring face of Nepal is one of poverty, corruption, near-medieval backwardness, and of course the (hopefully now finished) murderous attacks by Maoist revolutionaries.
Also, lots of Americans go to Nepal, and lots of Sherpas have at least visited America. Many have gotten various scholarships here and in New Zealand and elsewhere. He knew what he wanted, and he did it. Nothing wrong with that.
The Sherpa constitution goes well-beyond physical conditioning (it's not like the go running or jogging or something... they don't). It's DNA, genetic.
There are maybe a handful of Westerners who even come close to this, and have successfully climbed Everest without oxygen. Ed Veisturs and Reinhold Messner come to mind. Butu even they are outdone by your normal Sherpa high-altitude guide.
Climbers still get surprised by the weather and die but apparently not nearly so many now as in the past.
Maybe, maybe not. A friend from the past was support on one expedition, he went up to advanced base camp (20,000 feet) and that was it for him. Said he had zero interest in going higher, the whole thing really freaked him out.
Of course he didn't pay $200K, he only paid for his flight to Nepal.
Also acclimatization is a fickle thing. One year you go to 22K feet, the next year you're vomiting at 18,000 and can't get acclimatized.
"Fitness" doesn't guarantee it either. The first year I was there two guys died (days apart) on the Cho La pass, about 18,000 feet.
One was 22 years old (people said he was going up too fast), and the other a 54 year old Swiss mountaineer who'd done everything the right way. They both keeled over and dies with no warning, more-or-less instantly, from what I was told. No big melodramatic struggle to live. The Swiss guy was talking a group photo, suddenly fell over, and was dead. Boom.
Yep. They have advanced computers up there now and unless it is a freak episode, they have a pretty good idea what the weather will be doing.
That’s true. But my point was, that if you’ve got the money and your body holds up it’s “doable” for the most part.
But from what I’ve read, K2 is absolutely brutal even compared to Everest.
90 percent of those magnificent Everest photos you see are taken from Kala Patar, 18,500 feet and just a big hill, not really a mountain. It's the standard trek of the Khumbu.
Logistically it's incredibly simple and very cheap. Last time I did the first three days in Teva sandals, and the rest in lightweight dayhiking boots.
Accomodations are basic but readily available, $2 to $5 per night, food is plentiful and cheap but kind of monotonous, and the route is strightforward. If you start with $500 in your pocket, you'll get back to KTM with at least $200, and wonder how you did it that cheap.
The big thing as I said is getting used to altitude, which if you follow the rule of 500 meters per day or less is pretty manageable. You *are* acclimatizing every day, your legs are getting used to 5 to 7 miles per day of walking, so it's a minor struggle but not undoable. You get used to it.
And when you get back to KTM, you feel like Superman. After the trek, I had no problem *running* up the 5 or 6 stories of stairway in my hotel, and I wouldn't even be winded. True.
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