Caption: A photo looking down on to Namche Bazaar. It took several hours to climb to the top (@AdamGT )
Other than a couple of leaderboard type achievement posts with lots of numbers, for well over 6 months now I’ve missed writing travel and photography type posts like my Photos of a Different World post. As well as commenting on many posts, I have however been reading and enjoying many interesting posts like @plavarda 's series of posts about his trip through beautiful Sicily with bicycle and because of my love of trekking, various posts about different treks around the world including @rizbab28 's post on the challenging trek to the hill fort of the historical Badal Mahal palace in Kumbhalgarh, Rajasthan, India, @RameesRa 's post about Kehelpathdoruwegala (1529m) at Knuckles forest reserve, @Myshop 's post about Trekking to the summit Burangrang, and more recently, @PaolaGiordanino 's post about Trekking to Laguna Esmeralda. So for some time now I’ve been eager to write a post, even just a short one and then a thought entered my mind when in his post about Stage 11 Mazara del Vallo - Selinunte of his Sicily with bicycle series of posts, @plavarda wrote in his reply to me:
“I would love to be like you but I am almost 66 and I have to be careful not to make the mistake of believing that my body is 20 years old like my mind…”
His mentioning of age. body and mind triggered a story that I’ve had in the back of my mind for some time, it was a prompt to write this post.
Throughout my travels, I have seen some make the mistake of not listening to their body. I recall that over the many months when our team for Everest was being formed, a young Canadian at the prime of youthful life joined our team and I remember looking up his profile and photos and thought, wow this guy will surely save me. Truly, Michelangelo’s David and for this post, rather than use this Canadian’s real name, I’ll call him David!! David was 6 foot 4 inches tall, a gym junkie, and told us about his many trekking and climbing adventures including the peaks of The Canadian Rockies (altitude 4,000m, 13,100ft) 6 times. I spent some time online talking and getting to know David and this continued on when many months later we all first met up at our hotel in Kathmandu. Yes he epitomized Michelangelo’s David but when I first met and stood in front of him he reminded me of those guys I’d seen so often back home on Muscle Beach. He just towered over me with youth, muscle and strength, and had extensive mountaineering experience. Oh I was so glad that he joined our team! I’ve changed my mind, for the point of this post I think rather than calling him David, his name hereinafter will be Hercules as I really do think it’s so much more suited to this muscular and warrior looking young man.
Caption: @AdamGT being arrested (not) tacking photos at Muscle Beach Venice!
Our plan was to all meet and relax a bit in Kathmandu and go over our plans before flying out to Tenzing-Hillary Airport (Lukla) and then trekking to Everest. While relaxing in Kathmandu I spent quite a bit of face-to-face time with Hercules. You may have heard about Lukla airport, at 2800m altitude rated as the most dangerous flight and airport in the world (sheesh another Map review I need to add)! On the day we were ready to catch our flight to Lukla, I watched Hercules move our supplies like they were bags of feathers. This guy just never stopped to impress me with his strength, endurance and agility. I also sat next to him on our scary but short flight to Lukla. As well as his life back in Canada, his young wife and two children aged 3 and 5, I loved hearing about all of his trekking and mountaineering adventures and this was a pleasant distraction from the scary flight to the most dangerous airport in the world!
Caption: I just kept watching Hercules move our heavy supplies like they were bags of feathers @AdamGT )
Surprisingly, even though the small 14-seater plane swung up and down in both left and right, and front and back directions, and the flight was the worst ever of the many hundreds I’d had, our flight to this most dangerous airport wasn’t too bad and our landing was pretty smooth. It’s a short J-curved airstrip perched on a steep cliff and surrounded by several nearby mountains. You’ll see on Youtube how some flights didn’t make it with tragic crashes. Some crash into the mountains, some miss the airstrip altogether and hit the cliff and others continue on beyond the short airstrip, missing the J-curve and hit the boundary at the other end. Takeoff aren’t any easier! Add fog to this and you just add another level of difficulty and fear to both landing and taking off at this airport. Understandably, the flight to Lukla puts many off this adventure (must save this for another post one day).
So we arrived safely at Lukla and were now at high altitude. This is when the atmospheric pressure and the amount of oxygen in the air is lower than at sea level and this can cause very serious illnesses - altitude sickness, high altitude pulmonary edema, and high altitude cerebral edema!
Caption: The very short airstrip at Lukla airport dangerously set on the edge of a cliff at high altitude amongst high mountains @AdamGT )
Caption: It was the scariest flight ever but we made it to Lukla @AdamGT )
I also spent hours talking and listening to Hercules, sharing travel and adventure stories at overnight stops along the trek towards Mt Everest. We also shared a cabin in Namche Bazaar (first image above) which at an altitude 3,400m, 11,200ft, is the gateway to the high Himalaya. As I mentioned in a previous post about Namche Bazaar, this is a small village that any trekkers or expeditions to Mt. Everest or Gokyo regions will very likely stay and rest. It sits on a plateau and rises very sharply up the side of a hill and because of its altitude it’s a good place to start your acclimatization for the high Himalayas.
As shown in the first photo above, immediately after leaving Namche you are faced with an exhausting, severe steep uphill climb that will take some 2 to 3 hours to ascent. It becomes much steeper and more difficult with each step you take, as and you move higher and higher in altitude, where with less oxygen every ounce you carry starts feeling like a bag of gold that, regardless of its worth, you wish to just drop on the ground. It was during this part of the journey when I noticed that my new Canadian Hercules friend was dragging his feet and slowly slipping further and further behind. With our snow peaked destination ahead of us, I kept looking back for Hercules and was becoming increasingly concerned about his well being.
Caption: I kept looking back and was becoming increasingly concerned for Hercules @AdamGT )
We were now at very high altitude and by the time we made it to Hotel Everest View, I was convinced that young Hercules would not make it (I must add my review of this hotel as at an altitude of some 4,000m (13,000ft) it was rated as the highest hotel in the world). Hercules was slipping further and further behind, and unable to convince him to go back down (the smart and best thing to do when suffering from altitude sickness), or getting our team leader to insist that he does for his own personal safety, I believed that we were soon going to end up needing an emergency medical helicopter evacuation of Hercules.
The choice from here was Tengboche, a Sherpa community at 3,870m (12,700ft) altitude and 6.4 km, 5 hours away but where at the Tibetan Buddhist monastery (which I visited later and I do need to add a review on) there was a helipad and helicopters that with emergency evacuation and an excess of say 700 USD were capable of flying Hercules back to Kathmandu from where he could be taken by ambulance with sirens blazing to Era Hospital, or stop over at Khumjung at 3,840m (12,600ft) altitude and only 2.4 km away but where there was a small hospital, Khunde Hospital (built by Sir Edmund Hillary). The decision made was to take the shortest distance and quicker route and head to Khunde Hospital. Nonetheless it was a slow crawl all the way and it was here that it became clearly evident that it was just impossible for this Rocky Mountain Canadian conqueror to go on any further. Suffering from severe altitude sickness, he ended up spending the rest of his time being looked after and recovering at this hospital!
Caption: Dropping Hercules off at Kunde Hospital in Khumjung, Nepal @AdamGT )
At the time I couldn’t figure out how Hercules, built like a tank, who had climbed the Canadian Rockies some 6 times, but here in the high Himalaya was near death at near 4000m. However, most likely this was due to insufficient or proper acclimatization. I know that after spending countless hours on planning over many months, months of long workouts and training, buying all the necessary equipment, mentally preparing, and flying to Nepal and then to Lukla to accomplish a long held dream, and then having to walk away from achieving that dream is a very hard thing to have to do. To get that far and have to stop with your destination virtually right there in front of you, as Mt Everest is (see map below), is an extreme disappointment! Hercules never got to fulfill his dream of standing on Mt Everest but I’m so glad he recovered and made it back home safely to his young wife and children. Yes follow your dreams but no matter how old or how fit you are, you must listen to your body!!!
I hope you enjoyed reading this story and if so then you might also enjoy reading A photo taken at the top of the world.
Do you have a story that you would love to share about this topic?
