From: Rob Saxe 
To: "Saxe, Rob " 
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 02:04:47 PDT

Tashi Dele (Tibetan Greeting),

Hey everyone.  As I'm lazily passing my last couple days in
Kathmandu, I feel the draw of email as I pass by the local
shops.  With the spread of the internet here, there is a price
war where you can get 1 Rupee/minute, which translates to $1/hour.

Well, as promised, here's a recount of my experiences other than
just factual day to day activity:

The Porters
===========

Nepalese porters in the Khumbu (Everest) region work extremely hard.
They're paid based on the load.  We had seven porters for 12 people
(including our trekking leader).  They carried our kit bags, tents,
and other equipment.  They carry all the equipment in dokos, wicker
baskets on their backs with straps that go across their foreheads.
The porters usually carry about 100 lbs. which for most of them is
their entire body weight, since the Sherpas (or other tribes) are
very small people (smaller than me!!!).  Despite the weight they're
carrying, they just blow right by you on the trail, leaving you in
their yak dung dust.  They work for between 80-120 Rupees per day
(which is $1.50 - $2.50).  Despite a really tough life, they seem
to be a very happy people, always joking around, laughing, and
especially gambling (cards).

The Kitchen Staff
=================

We had seven kitchen staff preparing our meals.  They've all been
well versed in Western hygene.  Most of our meals included bread,
vegetables, and D'al Bhat (a Nepalese stable with rice and lentils).
Most Nepalese eat only two meals a day and both are D'al Bhat.
Batam was our head chef and his sidekick was Babu who look like a
Nepalese Leonardo DiCaprio.  They porter all the kitchen equipment
and blow by the porters.  I've never seen anyone run down a rocky
terrain like they do.  They run down so they can have tea ready for
us when we reach our daily destination (or stop half way to prepare
our lunch).

The Guides
==========

Rudra was our Sirdar (head Sherpa).  Actually, all our guides were
Guruns (another tribe other than Sherpa).  In fact, they were all
related.  Lal (Rudra's cousin) was the assistant Sirdar.  Then there
was Raz, Mois (or Mouse), and Amrit.  They spoke fairly decent English
and were alot of fun to trek with.  They must laugh at us slow
Westerners, out of breath at even 11,000'.

The Altitude
============

Being at high altitude was a trip.  When you're above 10,000' in
an unpressurized plane back in North America, you are required by
law to provide extra oxygen.  We spent 11 above the 10,000' mark,
and even 48 hours above 17,000'.  You don't feel the decrease in
air pressure because you've acclimatized properly, and even at rest
you seem to breathe normally.  But getting out of a sleeping bag,
walking to the mess tent, etc, you find yourself starting to breathe
heavier.  It's not unconfortable, it just doesn't feel normal.  While
trekking, you normally breathe heavier, so it doesn't feel any
different, except you need more breaks and when you break, you
need to stop longer.  Most people experience slight headaches and
that's normal.  It's your body adjusting to the decrease in oxygen.
Sleep hypoxia is also normal and quite harmless.  This is when you
wake up gasping for air.  At Kala Patar (18,500'), the amount of
oxygen in the air is 50% that of sea level.  Normal blood oxygen
saturation is around 92%.  After Kala Patar, I had mine checked and
it was 76%, quite low.

To combat altitude sickness, you need to constantly rehydrate yourself,
which meant frequent visits to the toilet tent at night.  I thought
I could beat the record of 18 visits in one night, but my best was
the night I was on Diamox and that was only five.  You can only sleep
300m (1000') above your previous night's altitude, otherwise you
risk getting pretty sick.  Also, every 3000', you need to spend
an extra night at the same altitude.  The motto is "Hike high, sleep
low".  So during the day you can hike as high as you feel, and then
descend to sleep.  If you start feeling a bit of a headache, or dizzy,
then you can descend a couple hundred feet, wait about 20 minutes or
so and then re-ascend.  Just the opposite of diving.

There are three major problems that can arise from altitude.  The first
is HACE (High altitude cerebral edema), where your brain swells (that's
the most dangerous), HAPE (pulmonary edema), where your lungs fill
with fluid.  The third one, unfortunately, the entire group suffered
from and that was HAFE (High Altitude Flatulence Expulsion).  The
fact of the matter is, there's not enough air pressure outside to
keep the air in your bowels inside.  Luckily we were a group of all
guys, so it wasn't too embarressing, but you did get quite the
musicals going up.

Things above 10,000' don't heal.  I sunburned my lower lip going
to Tengboche (day 4), and I had to wait until Day 12 before it
started to heal.  There's just not enough oxygen up there.

The higher we got, the less people talked on the trail.  Most people,
including myself, would withdraw a little.  It took too much energy
to talk.  Our mess tent was silent above 16,000'.  Also, appetite
decreases dramatically, especially for anything with spices or
anything fancy.  Most of us were happy with soup or rice, and then
went to bed.

The Gang
========

The group I was with, coincidentally happened to be all guys.  No other
CHE (Canadian Himalayan Expedition) group before had been.  There
were 11 guys, plus our trekking leader Steve (from Hamilton).
We had five Americans (all but one got sick - altitude and GI), the
rest were Canadians (none got really sick).  Out of 11 people, 9
were on Diamox, and about 5 were on Cipro (GI problems).  Me, I
only took Diamox once and that was a safety precaution.  In the end
it was just minor heat exhaustion.

There was a bit of a rivalry between the Americans and Canadians.
Mostly due to Walt (from Virginia).  He was 6'5", 240 lbs, worked
out obsessively, and believed that there's not greater nation than
the good ol' USA.  He constantly (partially jokingly, but a hint
of seriousness) praised the greatness of the USA and how it had so
much more than Nepal (and Canada).  He did provide us with many
hours of entertainment (at his ignorance).

The Average Day
===============

We were woken up at 6am (most of us were up by then - sleep hypoxia)
with Bed Tea and washing water in our tents.  By 6:30am, we needed
to be packed up and ready to go.  Breakfast was at 6:30am.  By 7am,
we were on the trail.  We would hike for about 4 hours, then stop
for lunch.  Our porters would pass by us with our equipment and usually
have it at our destination before or around the time we got there.
Despite leaving before the kitchen staff, they usually arrived at
our lunch spot and had lunch ready by the time we got there.  After
lunch, we would hike for another 3-4 hours.  At 4:30, we had tea and
cookies and dinner was at 6:30pm.  By the end of dinner, everyone would
retire to their tents for the night.  I didn't like the early bedtime
and would usually go for a walk, or read/write, etc.  I tried to get
to bed by 9pm-10pm, since I can't sleep from 7:30pm till 6am.  That's
just way too much, despite all the phyisical exercise.

At each camp site, our guides would dig a hole 2'long x 1'wide x 2'
deep.  A small tent would fit over the whole and that was our toilet.
Squatting isn't as bad as I thought.  The major problem is that at
sea level, squatting and getting up quickly would give me a head rush.
At 16,000' you'd be lucky not to pass out and end up head first in the
hole.

The Trail
=========

The first part of our trek we were in the lush tropics.  At 14,000'
the trees disappear and are replaced by grass and shrubs.  By about
16,000' all vegetation disappears and you're left with bare rock.

The weather was great most of the time.  The mornings are crystal
clear, but by noon, the clouds start to roll in.  By evening there's
scattered clouds all over the place.  In the early hours of the morning
the clouds disappear.  It was pretty much like that the entire way,
with minor exeptions.

The temperatures during the day were pretty hot.  The sun is extremely
powerful up there and anything not covered is subject to harsh UV
rays.  My hands are the most tanned part of my body, despite the 30
sunblock.  At night, above 16,000 (2 nights), it got down to a little
below 0.  We never did walk on snow.  The closest we came was Base
Camp, which was rock on top of the glacier.  We saw alot of snow at
the peaks, but never got a chance to whip a snowball at anyone.

Anyways, my hours almost up, so I'll sign off for now.  Hope
everyone's doing well and thanks for all the emails.  I'm off
to Thailand tomorrow afternoon.

See ya soon,

Rob