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The Sherpas are sought not just for their climbing skills, but much more importantly for their physiology, which is uniquely adapted to high altitude in the Himalaya.

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."