From: Rob Saxe 
To: "Saxe, Rob " 
Subject: Into Partially Thin Air...
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000 02:25:50 PDT

Namaste Sabai (Nepali Greeting to all which literally
               translates to:  "I salute the God in You"),

Success!  I have stood on the foot of the world's highest
mountain and have lived to tell the tale.  The trek was
amazing, with many stories to tell.  It's difficult to divulge
the whole lot in this simple email.  It may be long, so you
may want to read this when you have time.

Day 1: Lukla - 9850' to Phakding - 8500'

The flight in was in a Canadian made twin otter.  We flew
unpressurized at 14,000' and could feel the lack of oxygen.
The mighty Himalayas were to the right of us and the plane
suddenly went into a nose dive, only to pull into a flare
with seconds to go while landing at the Lukla airport (and
I use the term airport loosely).  The bottom of the runway
is 60m lower than the top, and the top ends in the side of
a mountain.  There's no touch and goes in this airport.  We
met our Sirdar (Lead Sherpa Guide) Rudra, the other guides,
our kitchen staff, porters, and Western Trekking Leader Steve
in Lukla.  We trekked down into the valley stopping at Phakding
to camp.  In the afternoon, we had an optional hike (acclimatization
hikes) to the Gumbila Monestary at around 9300'.

Day 2:  Namche Bazaar - 11,300'

Got up around 6am with "Bed Tea" and washing water.  At 7am, we
started our steep trek up to Namche, the Sherpa community's main
village.  The mighty Dudh Kosi River rips through the valley,
while peaks such as Khumbila and Tamserku break through the tree
line and touch the sky.  Namche is built in a natural amphitheatre
in the side of a moutain.  It has many shops and lodges.  We camped
in a little area with yaks (zokios - crossbreeds) wandering around
depositing matter around our tents.

Day 3:  Namche Bazaar - 11,300'

This is our acclimatization day in Namche.  We hiked up to Kunde
to visit the hospital and have lunch there.  Only in Nepal, do you
visit a hospital for lunch?!?  Then over to Kumjung to the Hillary
School, setup by Sir Edmund Hillary.  Then up to the Everest View
Hotel.  This is where rich tourists spend obscene amounts of money
to get amazing views of Everest.  They get helicoptered up and
sice they're about 12,500' above sea level, they end up spending
their entire stays in their oxygenated, pressurized rooms.  Only
the rich, eh?

Day 4:  Tengboche - 13,100'

I woke up this morning chilled and thought to myself: "there's no
way this sleeping bag is rated to -18 Celcius".  I rolled over and
realized that I was sleeping in about two inches of water.  It had
snowed and rained and my tent leaked something fearce.  I went into
the lodge and spent the rest of the night there, while my stuff was
in the dryer they airlifted there a few months prior (luckily).  We
hiked down the valley and had lunch in Phunki (or as we called it,
Funky Town).  Up to Tengboche where they have the most important
monestary in Nepal.  We took the tour and then settled into Deboche,
where we spent the night.

Day 5:  Dingboche - 14,300'

A few of us woke up early and went back to Tengboche to hear the
monks chanting at their early morning ceremony.  We missed it by
a few minutes, but were satisfied with a meeting with the Rimpoche
(On the same level as the Dalai Lama).  He was pretty cool for a
Lama (not that I'd ever met one before).  On the way to Dingboche,
Eric (from New Orleans) started to get pretty sick from altitude.  We 
stopped off in Pangboche for a couple hours until he felt better.  I
suggested Raz (our guide) take him down Pangboche, but his male pride
made him push on.  We got to Dingboche around 4pm and I started to get
a bit of a headache.  I lay down for a while and it seemed to have
gotten worse.  Bob (from Virginia) started to get ataxia (makes him
look really really drunk).  We decided to go walk down a few hundred
feet.  After the walk, my head cleared up and I felt great.

Day 6:  Dingboche - 14,300'

This is another acclimatization day.  Bob and Eric were really sick
from the altitude, so they decided to stop the trek and spend the
next five days in Tengboche.  I felt great the next morning and was
ready for our day hike up to Kumjung (15,600').  That night I woke
up with sleep hypoxia (which I didn't get rid of for a few days).
Because of the altitude, your blood CO2 concentration is changed, and
your body decides it doesn't need to breathe.  Then your brain says
"HEY, I NEED OXYGEN" and wakes you up gasping for air.  I went for a
bit of a walk and cleared my head, but had trouble getting back to
sleep.

Day 7:  Duglha - 15,300'

We had an amazing walk up to Duglha.  We could see Tawoche,
Lobuje, Lhoste, and Ama Dablam (one of the most impressive mountains).
On our afternoon hike, I got a bit of vertigo walking on a path
that was carved into the side of the mountain at around 60 degrees.
I decided to go for a walk down a couple hundred feet and that
cleared my head.  Again, another sleepless night because of sleep
hypoxia.  Duglha is situated on the terminal moraine of the great
Khumbu Glacier.  The same glacier that clings to Everest's face.

Day 8:  Lobuje - 16,300'

We walked alongside the glacier, which looks just like a gravel pit.
The ice itself is under all the rock and is about 4-5 miles thick.
Here we saw the chorna (Grave stone) for Scott Fischer, one of the
guides lost in the 1996 tragedy.  Lobuje is a really polluted town.
There's yak dung (and probably human as well) everywhere.  We camped
about 20 minutes outside where the environment was a little more
appealing.  I had an afternoon nap, which again, cleared my head,
and then we hiked up to an Italian Research Station.  Dinner was
early as tomorrow we would get up at 3am to bid for our summit
attempt.

At this point, out of 11 people, six were on Diamox, a drug that
alters the pH of your blood, to allow for better oxygen absorption.
Once you take it, you need to take it for the rest of your ascension.
About seven people were on Cipro at this point too.  This drug is
for digestive troubles.  Luckily, I hadn't gotten sick or had any
major altitude related problems yet.

Day 9:  Mt. Kala Pattar - 18,500'

Bed Tea at 3am and we were on the trail by 4am.  I was so pumped for
this part that I was leading the pack.  We got to Gorak Shep (where
we were sleeping that night - 17,000') by 6am and started the long,
steep ascension towards the peak.  We were supposed to refill our
water bottles there, but none of our guides or cooks were there to
boil the water (problem #1).  About 2-3 hours later I was about 300'
from the peak.  I had reached my physical limit.  My strength and
energy were depleted.  Through shear will power and adrenaline, I
clawed my way to the peak.  The feeling of reaching the goal was
overwhelming.  The weather was perfect.  I look back and saw the most
breathtaking view I had ever seen in my life.  Mt. Everest, the
Khumbu Glacier, Nuptse, and Lhotse.  It was incredible.  I went through
three rolls of film up there and spent an hour or so up there.
When you're at rest, breathing is fine, it's whenever you do something
(even something really minute, such as changing rolls of film), that
you start breathing hard.  It's not uncomfortable to breathe hard and
you can't tell that the air pressure is less than normal because of
your acclimatization.  My only discomfort was the sleep hypoxia.

After an hour or so, I knew my blood oxygen level was getting low, so
Rudra (our Sirdar) and I descended to Gorak Shep.  The sun was hot and
beating down considerably.  To get from the base of Kala Pattar to
Gorak Shep, you have to cross a half kilometre desert, which just bakes
you.  Rolling into camp, I begged the cooks for water, but they hadn't
prepared any yet (problem #2).  I lay on the tarp, out of energy,
waiting.  After 40 minutes, they brought the boiling water, but it
was too hot to drink.  Twenty minutes later I was able to drink it, but
it was a little late.  My head was pounding, and I was nautious from
heat exhaustion.  Steve (our leader) not taking any chances with
altitude, decided to join me up to the Diamox club.  I wanted to descend
a couple hundred feet, but after walking for an hour or so, was back
well above 17,000' (up before down in this area).  We headed back
down and I couldn't eat anything.  Altitude strips you of your
appetite, so when combined with heat exhaustion, you can't even look
at food.  I took a couple tylenol and went to bed.

One problem with Diamox, it's a diuretic, so I had to get up and pee
every hour.  The stars with the Himalayas silhouetted in the background
were the most amazing site I've ever seen.  It's was really an
awakening.  Down the valley, it looked like a war was breaking out
as a lightening storm was hitting the lower foothills.  By the
third time out of the tent (it was only about -5 Celcius outside),
my head had cleared and I felt great.  Also, the Diamox cured the
sleep hypoxia :-)

Day 10:  Everest Base Camp - 17,600'

Woke up at 6am and by 7am we were on our way.  This hike was extremely
difficult.  It was up and down along the Khumbu Glacier.  There were
many rocks that made the walking perilous.  It took us three and a
half hours to get to Base Camp and when we did, we made a beeline
for Byron Smith, one of the Canadian climbers.  He invited us into
his tent and we had pictures of his team and ours.  He was really
nice.  Then I wandered on my own to Ben Webster's tent (the other
Canadian team).  Ben was at Camp III at the time, but I met some
of the other people that I'd been reading about.  We stayed at
Base Camp for about an hour and then left back for Gorak Shep.
At Gorak Shep, we had a small lunch and were supposed to make our
way down to Pheriche (14,100'), which was another six hours away
(This would make it a 14 hour day).  Unfortunately, since I couldn't
eat the night before, I had very little energy, but trudged away
down to Pheriche.  My only light at the end of the tunnel was a
chocolate bar that I was saving for the end of the day (it was already
down at camp).

Day 11 - Day 15:

We backtracked back to Lukla through Tengboche, Namche, and Monjo.
The day after our Base Camp push, I felt great.  I had regained my
strength and was eating more.  The lower we went, the more oxygen
there was.  Even on the uphills, I was able to push pretty hard.
Dave, Rich, and I were the first to arrive back at Lukla, beating
the pack by a couple hours.  My arms raised in a "V", I had done
it.  As the group trekked into Lukla, we congratulated each other
with pats on the back, handshakes, and smiles all around.  Out of
11 clients, 9 made it to Kala Pattar and Base Camp.  That's pretty
good odds relative to what we had been hearing on the trail.

--------------
There's so much more to this trek than I have been able to put down
on paper (email that is).  I have been keeping a detailed daily
diary of everything that's been going on.  This email was just events,
but I will try and put down into words tomorrow alot of my
observations about the Nepali culture, about the trek, about my
fellow trekmates, and about the feeling of altitude.  For those
who want to read my journal, just let me know.  Hopefully it'll
be full of interesting tid-bits for you.

Perivertola (See you later),

Rob