Friends in the High Places

Hi all,

On November 5th and 6th I got to ride in a 2-day road bike fundraiser for cancer research, 170 miles total, split 100 miles on Saturday and 70 miles on Sunday.

Saturday was a 100 mile ride from Dolphin’s Stadium down to Coconut Grove and then up to City Place in West Palm Beach.  It was in the mid 50’s when we started out in the morning, with a 30+ MPH wind from the North that would make the ride to WPB a bit of an epic.  I rode with the lead pack for the first 48 miles but left the Dania Beach water stop a little behind the group (my 2-year-old son was sick so I spent a little extra time checking up on him).  Unfortunately for me, that meant riding solo into the headwind.  Worse, when I stopped at the end of Las Olas to meet up with another colleague who had donated to the cause, I found I had been riding with a flat tire.  After taking time to fix the flat, I had totally lost touch with the peloton and had to ride the last 30 or so miles solo, getting sandblasted by the gusty winds off the beach.  Needless to say I was pretty happy when we finally turned West onto Okechobee in WPB for the last 2 miles to the finish.

On Sunday, however, we got the benefit of the strong wind at our backs!  It was a really nice ride back south, and though it probably angered a lot of motorists, it was a unique experience to ride West on 595 at close to 40 MPH!  I managed to avoid two big crashes and finished within sight of the leaders as we rode into the stadium for the finish.

Together we raised $1,500 to fight cancer (not including any matching donations, and close to $1M overall), and my dad, a cancer survivor, was there to share the moment on the field at the stadium.  Let’s hope that the results of our effort will mean more people will survive, and that someday soon we will find the cure.

I’m still not 100% recovered from my trip to Nepal to climb Lhotse, where I picked up some kind of intestinal parasite.  I still get some periodic recurrence of “GI distress”, but thankfully it seems to be getting better little by little, and I didn’t have any issues during this ride.

As the months pass and get closer to spring 2013, I’ll try to update more on training and preparation for Everest – starting to get excited and even though it’s still 18 months away, time flies when you’re having fun…

Crevasse between camp 1 and camp 2

Everest camp 1 above Khumu Ice Fall

Everest Camp 1

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It’s been quite a while since the last update, sorry.  We have had poor connectivity, were up high on the mountain, and I’ve been battling constant health problems.

Climbing update:

Mark and I spent time at camp 2, but neither of us made it up to camp 3 due to health issues.  I spent 3 nights at camp 2, Mark spent 5, then we came back down.  We both ended up coming all the way down to Deboche at about 12,000 feet to recover, hoping to go back up once we get healthy.

Health update:

Mark (and several others) got strep thoat at camp 2, that’s what prevented him from going to camp 3.  He’s been on antibiotics for several days and is doing much better.  The low altitude here has helped.

I have been dealing with several issues.  First, I was still battling a cyclical GI issue that came back in force at camp 2.  The docs at the Himalayan Rescue Association figure it is a parasite, so they gave me what they call the “Nuclear option” to kill everything in my gut.  Since taking that a few days ago, things are starting to get better a little at a time, but I fear my gut is wrecked after 4 1/2 weeks of dealing with this.  Just happy to be improving at this point.

I developed a high altitude cough at camp 2 which is getting better down here in the thick air, hoping it will heal in the next few days.

Lastly, I developed an infection in my left pointer finger at camp 2, likely an anaerobic infection due that thrives in the low oxygen environment.  Really weird though, no real cause.  When I got down to base camp, the doc at the HRA tried lancing it to drain the infection, but ended up having to scalpel into it “medieval style” with a tongue depressor between my teeth.  Good fun.  The next day, the doc in Pheriche scalpeled into it again.  No antisthetic again.  Glad that is behind me now and it seems to be healing up.

So…  The next day or two will decide my fate for this trip.  Mark is doing better so he’s probably headed back up day after tomorrow, and IF I can get strong and healthy again before then, I’ll be headed up with him.  But one of my objectives on these big expeditions is to make good decisions, and if I am not strong, I’m not afraid to make the decision to not go back up.  I won’t put others in the position of having to assist/rescue me.  Realistically, I’ve been dealing with a parasite in my gut for over a month, and probably half of those days I’ve eaten little to nothing.  But there is still hope, and we’re taking it day by day and see what the next few days bring.

One more note on the Sherpas.  These people have such character that we in the west can learn from.  I watched the Sherpa who came down with me shepherd a yak for several hours, because he knew it belonged way down valley.  When he got it to where it belonged, the owner asked him to carry a yak saddle down to the next villiage.  No problem.  He didn’t get paid for any of this, it was just what needed to be done.  Another example, Pemba Dorjee, our climbing sherpa, carried oxygen bottles from camp 2 to the South Col, in 8 hours (something that would take western climbers 2 days), then came down to bring me lunch in my tent when I was sick.  His 8 hour day was done, and then some, but he just felt that was what needed to be done.  The Sherpa are a really impressive people.

Thanks to all of you for your support, I’ll hope to update again in the next day or so.

Just a quick update…Mark and I made it to Camp 1.  We are doing great.  Last night was the best sleep I have had all week.  I think I am finally starting to acclimatize.  We plan on heading up to Camp 2 in the morning.  Hope to post more then.

Yesterday was a rest day here, trying to recover and get our strength back from the past several weeks.  Somehow, despite our challenges with illness,we’re still on schedule.  This afternoon we plan to train with the oxygen systems to get familiar with the regulators and masks.  Tomorrow we plan to do a test run about halfway up the icefall, then rest/pack the next day for the start of our 9 day acclimitization rotation higher up the mountain.  Two days at camp 1, two days at camp 2, climb halfway up the Lhotse Face to touch Camp 3 (then back to camp 2), rest day at Camp 2, then move up to sleep at camp 3, then back to camp 2, and then back to EBC.  All weather and performance permitting of course.

We met one of our climbing sherpas when we climbed Lobuche.  His name is Pemba Dorje, this is his 22^nd Himalayan expedition and he has 6 children.  22 expeditions tells you he knows how to be safe on the mountain, and he is incredibly strong – on our rest day yesterday he carried several bottles of oxygen from Everest Base Camp up to Camp II and back, and when he got back he still came over to check on my tent platform and shoveled some fresh gravel under it.  It is very humbling every day to see how strong the sherpas and porters are.

Attached are a few pictures.  First is a picture of Mark and I on the summit of Lobuche.  Next are a few pictures of IMG Everest Base Camp.  The secondpicture shows the dining tents down in the bottom of the hill, with some tents up the hill.  My tent is in the middle of the picture, second from the top, and Mark is the next tent down and to the left from mine.  The next picture shows the bathroom tent, and the last picture shows the communications tents (big brown tents on top of the hill).

Yesterday we summited Lobuche to continue our acclimatization.  We topped out around 19,500, a relatively small mountain for this region but still about a mile higher than the highest peak in the continental US.  The night before we got several inches of new snow so that made it harder, but we were able to get up and down without a lot of trouble.  The morning weather was nice and clear, not too cold, but it started snowing again just before we got to the summit so we didn’t get the good views we were hoping for. The GI bug came back to haunt me a few hundred feet below the summit so the last 20 minutes turned into an hour and a half of doubling over with intestinal cramps.  Much better today, hopefully that was the last I’ll see of that!

Mark and I were both wearing our 8000m boots, so the warm temperatures became a problem, both our feet were soaked with sweat for most of the day.  No matter how well your boots fit, walking for hours with wet feet is almost a guarantee that you’re going to get blisters.  Mark managed to avoid them but I picked up a couple on my toes.  Should be fine in a few days though.

Today we are packing up to head back up to Everest Base Camp for a few rest days.

I had planned to post this update 2 days ago but no service. Today we are on our way down to Lobuche base camp. Hope to post more if I have service.

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The day we moved up from Deboche to Pheriche, we were all exposed to some really…really…realllllllly nasty GI bug. That night, I started getting fever chills, so I zipped up in my mummy bag thinking maybe I could get over it. A few hours later, I was frantically trying to unzip myself, then completely dizzy I pinballed down the hallway to the, uh, bathroom. Words cannot describe the toilet conditions here in the Khumbu. OK, one sentence to set the stage for the next few days. For those with a weak stomach, skip to the next paragraph…

The three foot radius on the floor around the commode is wet with a slick, yet chunky mixture that we would contribute to over the next few days. We’re on the mend now, most of us opting to go on antibiotics (Cipro) and yesterday I was able to keep down three meals, with only a few bites of toast and a bowl of tomato soup each of the previous few days.

Today we moved up from Lobuche to Everest Base Camp in 5 leisurely hours, and feel pretty good here at 17,500 feet. Our base camp is interspersed in the glacial moraine, and getting around is quite a chore. Its probably a 10 minute walk on loose gravel covering glacial ice to get to a toilet, and Mark and my tents are located precariously up on the slope of the glacier. Tomorrow I’ll plan on making some cairns to mark the route to my tent in case it snows tomorrow. Seriously.

We were reunited with our climbing duffels here at base camp, so we spent a little time getting things organized for day after tomorrow when we will head back down to Lobuche base camp to acclimatize on +20,000” Lobuche. On the way to the charging tent I walked right past Russell Brice. Russell is the rock star of Everest climbing, a legend. I didn’t want to bother him for a photograph just yet, but I’m sure I will before this is all over. We are very happy to be here in base camp now and out of the tea houses. The good news is our respiratory systems are still doing very well. More tomorrow if I can get some time on the charging system. By the way, we thought we would have 3G service here in base camp, but no luck, I barely have any service at all.

On the way back to Namche from Thame

We took this on the way back to Namche from Thame today.  We probably put in about 10 miles and 2,500 feet of elevation change, but this one picture was worth it.  Glad today was a rest day 🙂

In the background are just your run of the mill 6,000+ meter peaks (probably 6,000 feet higher than the highest peak in the continental US).

Tomorrow we will move up to our next stop on the trail, Deboche. It’s about the same altitude that we’ve been to the last few days, so should be no problem.  I am constantly thinking how fortunate I am to be here seeing this spectacular part of the world.  I miss you all but hope you will enjoy sharing this with me through this blog.

One more thing… Today we noticed that there were some large stockpiles of granite blocks stacked in some of the villages.  We asked our sherpa how much it cost to buy blocks for building.  He said it was 800 Rupees for 1 cubic meter of blocks.  That’s about $11 for someone to quarry the stone, hand chisel it into blocks, then carry roughly 2,000 pounds several miles.  Eleven dollars.  That either means those people make very, very little, or that money just doesn’t mean that much to them.  My guess is the answer is a little of both.

First views of Everest and Lhotse from Namche

I wish you all could be here with me.  This morning we got our first view of Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam.  Pictures do not come close and words cannot describe how massive and majestic these peaks are.  Ama Dablam is, in my opinion, the most beautiful peak in the world, with a giant “tooth-like” summit, with a hanging glacier (the “dablam”, Nepali for necklace or pearl) that defies gravity.  Then off in the distance, but still dominating the skyline, are Everest and Lhotse, huge plumes of snow streaming from their summits, we estimated at about 100 miles an hour.  Not a good day to be high on the mountain, but from what we hear, they are probably just finishing the ice fall so nobody is anywhere near the jet stream right now.

Today we hiked around the Namche/Solokhumbu region for about 8 hours to acclimatize, going up to just under 13,00 feet.  Another mellow day, but good for acclimatizing.  Tomorrow, we’ll do more of the same, with a few of us planning a 9 mile trek up to about 12,800 feet to see the village of Thame.  Hoping tonight we can finally push the reset button on our jet lag and sleep through the night.  Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some time to upload a few pictures as well.

“If it can be remedied, why be unhappy?  If it can’t be, why worry at all?”

I’m starting to see why the people here are so spiritual.  This place is definitely inspirational.  The people here all seem very happy, the children laughing and playing, we saw a young boy playing chase with his dog this morning and a 2 year old reading a book (OK at least she was holding the book).  There is quite a bit of poverty here, but yet you don’t feel sorry for the people because they seem completely content.  There is a bit of building going on though, so it looks like they are benefiting from the boom in trekking.

Today we moved from Phakding up to Namche, up the famous Namche Hill.  We gained about 3,000 feet from yesterday, so we’ll send a few days here in Namche to acclimatize before moving up.  Right now we don’t feel like we need 3 days here, but no sense getting behind the curve at this point. It was a pretty mellow pace, and a pretty easy day, and we got hailed on which was good because it held down the dust.

For acclimatization purposes, it’s better to go slower for a longer period of time (heart rate under 120) than to go faster for a shorter period of time.  Tomorrow we’ll probably hike up to the school that Sir Edmund Hillary founded and in general we’ll try to keep active.  We’re going to get up around 5 AM and if it’s clear, we’ll hike up to the top of the hill to get our first view of Everest and Lhotse.

I’m expecting we’ll see quite a few “famous” people here.  Today we ran into a super strong climber who is a well-known porter on Aconcagua and put in a new route on the South face when I was down there a few years ago.  He’s here to climb Lhotse as well, so we asked him to kick in some nice steps for us!  I’m definitely looking forward to meeting some of the legendary figures from mountaineering over the next few weeks.