Mount Everest Mount Everest - iamWKU

Mount EverestMay 23, 2010. Camp 2, 7,800 meters, -30 degrees CI summited Mt. Everest/Chomolungma! It still hasn’t really sunk in but Ihave a lifetime to contemplate it. It was an awe inspiring summit but the weight of somany dead hangs over any feeling of accomplishment beyond survival.Anil told us that in the rush to get the torch onto the summit of Everest in time forthe 2008 Olympics, 10-15 Chinese climbers died. You can’t schedule Everest and thereare very few good Chinese climbers (fewer now). Even in the best conditions, climbersdie. But if someone tells you to go up during a snowstorm, many climbers die. Officiallyno one died and they closed the Tibetan section of Everest for a big chunk of the nextclimbing season in 2009 and had to hire a bunch of Sherpas from Nepal to hide thebodies - which is how anyone even knows about it. They left all of the older Westernbodies; which is too bad because the bodies are what ‘altered’ the experience for me sodramatically.I should mention - climbing the summit pyramid and even on the North East Ridge- you are dying and you can feel it accelerate with every step. There is no specificorgan or body part that is dying. Somehow you can feel inside yourself, every cellitself is dying. It is like you are a snowman walking into brighter and brighter sun.You don’t die all at once, but slowly disappear. The oxygen mask puts the process atbay to some extent, but you know you have such a limited time here and that you aredoing your body harm that may be irreparable. All it would take would be to run outof oxygen and lay down for a few minutes, and you die. Simple, quick, and probablypainless.At around 6 a.m. Nepali time, I summited the highest mountain in the world. Iwish I could say it was a beautiful summit. The views were stunning. But the summititself is just a small high point on the ridge. Maybe one meter by three meters of highpoint and then it heads south down one ridge and north down the other. If you weren’tpaying attention, you could walk right past it. To the west it is a cliff but not too steepfor a while. To the east is the largest cliff on Earth, and the snow is undercut there andif you go within a meter of the edge of the snow, it will break off underneath you andyou will fall 5000+ meters. There are no guardrails and everyone just tries to steparound each other without getting too close to the edge. That cliff side is beautiful -fluted snow that looks like it has been sculpted as far down as your eye can see.Read More of John All’s Blog Onlinewww.alumni.wku.edu/wkuspiritwww.alumni.wku.edu | WKU SPIRIT | 19