April 2009: At EBC
Taking It Out of Ya.
The mountain is trying to kill me. I mean it; seriously, the mountain is trying to kill me. It’s not Chomolungma, the mother goddess of earth, or some evil mountain spirit. It’s simply that this high altitude environment and my wimpy human physiology don’t mix.
We have arrived at Everest Base Camp after 12 days of trekking up hill. Here, in the Himalayas, at the end of the Khumbu Valley, is the world’s biggest dead end. When you finally get here you are surrounded by 270 degrees of 6000-foot vertical walls. Above those walls are the biggest mountains in the world. Five weeks ago we where in the remote southwest corner of Tanzania. In Africa it seems everything that is alive is trying to kill you. From viri to alligators the competition among the living is fierce. Compared to Africa there a few living things here that have you in their sights. Oh sure, there are bacteria and virus here, but they can’t be doing well either - no living thing does well here. No, compared to Africa, it’s what’s NOT here that will kill you. And what’s not here is oxygen. Between the lack of oxygen and the vertical world of rock and ice I’m dying. The higher you go, the steeper it gets and the less oxygen there is. So, like I said, the mountain is trying to kill me.
From the time you arrive and settle down into a life any where above 17,000 ft you are a dead man walking. You struggle and suffer and you literally suck wind. But eventually you learn to adapt. You feel pretty good as you figure out how to do the simple things all over again. Things like putting your boots on or brushing your teeth. You reconfigure these simple activities of daily living. They take on a new significance, as if they were a really important part of your day. So, putting your shoes and socks on, that could take 5 mins. Brushing your teeth; well just go slow. Its something that if a normal person, that is someone from sea level, were watching they might wonder “…oh yeah, must be brain damage” And at this altitude, they might be right.
Even if you think you’re getting better, getting your adapting, and acclimating down, you're not. Little by little, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, it’s taking it out of you. Life is being sucked out of your body by that big mother mountain that you’re planning to climb. So, like a guy on death row……your time is going to come. That doesn’t mean you have to die. You can get a pardon. But it does mean your time is limited. Closing time is coming for you and what’s left of your slowly atrophying body. And like the song says, “you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here”
Humans just don’t belong here. The highest permanent settlement or city in the world is Wenzhuan, China at 16,700 ft (5100 M) I’m not sure what they do there in Wenzchuan but I know they do it very slowly. At extremely high altitude oxygen levels in your arterial blood drop faster then today’s stock prices. A scientific study done here on Mt Everest in 2007 showed Pao2 ( arterial blood oxygen level) of 20 mm hg in climbers who summited. That’s one-fifth the level of oxygen in your blood at sea level!! Bring someone up here directly from sea level, like in a jet….. they’ll be dead in 6 minutes. That’s not dead on arrival but they shouldn’t have bought a round trip ticket.
More evidence, I cut my hand 4 days ago on my crampons preparing to go up the Khumbu Ice Fall. I had 3 nice clean slices on my fingers. Sort of embarrassing but it stopped bleeding after a while. No big deal. But since then nothing has happened. No healing, no nothing. Now I have 3 open wounds on my hands that have just sat there for 4 days and done nothing. At this altitude cells don’t work, wounds don’t heal and your body is just slowly decomposing. Like I said, the mountain is trying to kill me
