By Fred Delkin

 You’ve been flat on your back for two days with altitude sickness, your fingers are scarred from cold blisters, you dropped 21 pounds you could ill afford to lose, you’ve “never been so dirty for so long,” you paid thousands for these hardships, and yet you can state with obvious  conviction that you enjoyed “a magical experience” on what you expect to remember as the “vacation of a lifetime.” (Photo: The highest place on Earth.)

This is the testimony of Oregon attorney Stephen Thompson, just returned from a month-long adventure among the highest mountains on earth—a jaunt billed by the tour operator as “The Ultimate Everest Trek…a comprehensive exploration (on foot) of the most outrageous real estate on the planet.”  This three week hike begins at just under 9,000 feet elevation and ascends to no less than 18,300 feet at its apex.  It is “designed for flexible, energetic people (with) a spirit of adventure and a positive attitude.”  The latter helps participants persevere despite prolonged exposure to temperatures ranging below zero, camping amidst vast alpine rock fields and hiking up to eight hours a day on stony trails, portions of which would be a challenge at sea level, let alone at elevations averaging over 14,000 feet during your stroll.

Thompson fits the profile of a fit outdoorsman that the tour company (Mountain Tours Sobek) deems qualified to frolic amidst the Himalayas.  He is a veteran Columbia Gorge windsurfer and Cascades skier.  “I trained for several months before this trip, but you can’t imagine the physical challenges presented by extreme altitude and temperature…this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done!”  That is underlined by the fact that Thompson was confined to his tent with altitude sickness for two days in mid-journey.  “The cold was constant…unrelenting, and I couldn’t wear enough clothes to compensate…even though I brought the best fleece and down garb available  and donned several layers.”

A small cadre of companions

Thompson’s small party included “a Denver couple in their ‘50’s, a young couple from Aspen, a ‘40ish Hawaiian doctor who competes as a female triathlete” and a California couple who proved to be the odd-folk-out that seems to infect any travel group.  “They showed up with big American flags sewn on their backpacks (OMED: What's wrong with that?), he with a gold Rolex and both with an attitude.”  The male of this pair complained of constant diarrhea, was finally downed by severe prostate troubles and had to be removed from the heights by a Nepalese military helicopter.

The tourists were led by a Spanish guide and served by a group of 21 Sherpas, Himalayan residents of Nepal who have gained legendary status while supporting western mountaineers on their climbs of Mt. Everest and other monoliths at the top of the world.  “These guys were earning less than three dollars a day, but they always wore a smile,” Thompson notes.  He admits to feeling guilt over the underpaid and selfless service, and marvels at the natives’ energy…”they’d play games of tag at the end of each day’s trek, while we could scarcely walk.”  (Photos: What isn't carried on a yak is carried on the back.)

Most noticeable Sherpa loads along the way were cases of beer stacked high…”you could get a beer at even the highest points we reached above 18,000 feeet,” Thompson says.  Nepalese poverty was prevalent, but Thompson saw no evidence of greed.  He reports tolerance as another common trait of the natives, with Hindu and Bhuddist shrines side by side on the mountain paths. 

Yakking it up

The Thompson party porters were backed by Yak pack animals.  Each morning as dawn broke, Sherpas roused the Yaks by singing to them.  This was background to a smiling Sherpa appearing at your tent door with a steaming mug of tea.  Thompson says his group’s beasts of burden are a cross-breed of cattle and Yak, and seemed “generally good-natured and cooperative.”  In contrast, a party of Tibetan traders encountered along the way were utilizing purebred Yaks for their loads, huge animals weighing up to 1,500 pounds apiece and “just plain nasty.”

(Mother and child. Photo is a hot link to an American yak farm website.)

Trekking is done during daylight hours, and that light is quite intense, according to Thompson.  “We had nothing but sunny days, and above 14,000 feet the sky was an intense cobalt blue that I’ve never seen before.”  He describes nights in the crystal clear air and “shining with silvery light.”  Speaking of nightfall, Thompson says he would look over his shoulder for wandering Yeti (“abominable snowmen”) when he roused for an outside bathroom break in the wee morning hours.  This action was enhanced by his meeting of the Nepalese woman who carries the fame of making the last reported Yeti sighting (in 1973).

Local battle view

Thompson says his most profound meeting with a native was at the home of his group’s Sherpa leader, “a solid, contented man” determined that his son will not follow him in the Sherpa climbing and portering profession.  The Oregon barrister watched televised coverage of the Afghan war with the Sherpa elder on a video set carrying just two channels, Chinese and Indian.  Thompson says his devout Bhuddist host bemoaned the sight of Afghan casualties and destruction of Afghan homes and “echoed what seemed to be the general Nepalese opinion that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.’ “

Other highlights of the adventure described by Thompson include visits to monasteries situated at heights of 14,000 feet and more, struggling assaults of vast glaciers, climbing through three distinct layers of landscape (lush, junglelike growth of lower valleys, spectacular evergreen forests of fir, pine and 20-foot Rhododendrons extending to a 13,000-foot timberline, and topped by dry and barren rockscapes accented with permanent ice)…and, of course, pushing your protesting body to a ridge at over 18,000 feet to view the full majesty of Mt. Everest.  The towering Khumbu Icefall that has claimed many Everest climbers’ lives drew Thompson’s party to its base and he avers he will never forget the intense blue glow of this frigid wall.

So, maybe adversity and challenge are the clues to making your vacation memorable…not lounging on a warm, white sand beach massaging a Mai Tai.  That cup of steaming tea your poor but happy porter offers you…as mountains more majestic than any on our continent form a backdrop and a chorus is awakening your Yak load…as your weary, aching muscles protest another sun-drenched day of a shivery negotiation of the world’s highest rocks and ice…this, Pilgrim, is truly living!

Text (C) 2002 Oregon Magazine      Photos which are hot links will take you to the originating source.  Several are by the brilliant Jeroen Neele. A visit to that website is a must for those who love photography of both people and places.  For more on Yaks, see The Story of the Yak