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Dhani Tackles the Globe 2

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DTTG2, ep.10 Nepal   

If you have been all over the world, what might be the quintessential challenge for an athlete who revels in major challenges?  How would climbing Mount Everest do to cap a successful season? That’s what Dhani decided to do in this final episode of season 2 of Dhani Tackles the Globe. Mt. Everest is the highest non-ocean mountain on our planet at 29,035 feet and growing. Take a look at the map of the region between Kathmandu and Mt. Everest in northeastern Nepal at the bottom.

To get there Dhani needed to do the following:
1.   get himself and his crew to Nepal, flying into Kathmandu
2.   get acclimated to the elevation in Kathmandu of 5225 feet
3.   fly east to Lukla at the base of the Khumbu trekking region, elevation 9,350 feet and get reacclimated
4.   trek down to about 9000 feet through the entrance gate to Sagamantha National Park and on to Namche Bazaar
5.   climbing straight up for about 2000 feet
6.   reaching Everest Base Camp above 17,700 feet and re-acclimated, where Dhani felt obligated to leave “Dhani was here” scribbled on a rock.
7.   continuing on up to 18,192 feet at the summit of Kala Patthar before
8.   descending

A slideshow of approximately the same route is available at www.allpineascents.com, a trekking company which leads climbers up as far as they can go toward Mt. Everest (Sagamartha to some in Nepal and Chomolungma to others).

There are a lot of interesting things to observe along that route. Dhani elected to do his praying up front this trip and went to the Boudhanarth stupa (temple), one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world and tone of the holiest in Nepal. The flight to Lukla requires a safe landing on a difficult landing strip. The rest of this trip after Lukla is on foot because there are only footpaths, high bridges crossing streams or rivers, and rocks to climb up. Dhani’s trek group requires a large number of porters to carry the equipment and provisions. Dhani’s guide Ang Fervor has previously reached the summit of Mt. Everest. Ang has pre-selected the Sherpa (indigenous human transportation system with each one carrying a load exceeding 100 pounds on a body much smaller than the typical America) team so that they are experienced and used to working together. That avoids the crush of hundreds of Sherpas begging for work for all plane arrivals into Lukla.

 Advanced Mountain Sickness (AMS) is a common ailment on high altitude treks. At high altitudes there are fewer molecules of everything present, including oxygen. Although the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere is the same 21%, the thinner air means there is less oxygen to breathe. Dhani reached the Mountain Rescue Association and received an educational lecture on the effects of AMS and how to avoid them. He is the guinea pig for the group , so he goes into a hyperbaric chamber briefly to discover how it works.

Dhani had to cross numerous bridges along the route. He had done his homework and cited a reference to the movie “The Man Who Would Be King” starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine in 1975 in which one of two British adventurers who had stumbled into a mountain kingdom much like Nepal were killed when the natives discovered that they weren’t really kings when the bride bit one and drew blood during a marriage ceremony. Dhani had an encounter with a boxed head of a man-eating yeti at a monastery along the route, but he was unable to resolve the perpetual question of whether yeti really exist today.

The indigenous people of this region, the Sherpa, appear about half our size, somehow twice as strong. Watching the Sherpas navigate the peaks and valleys of the region so effortlessly provided non-stop encouragement because they trek the same route but with more than 100 pounds on each back. Next was a reoccurring cycle of challenges by ascents and descents on difficult trails, breathtaking scenery and camaraderie with the expedition’s guides and with each other. Sir Edmund Hillary, the to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953, established the Himalayan Trust to provide the provide basic infrastructure needs the Sherpas really want - education, health, forests, monastery repairs and response to natural disasters.  The Himalayas are a gracious host provided that you play by their rules. which are go slow, hydrate and listen to your body. Even the fittest athletes in their prime have been taken down by the elements in the Khumbu region.

Dhani passed the rock cairns and tombstones at the Mount Everest Memorial to all of “the fallen mountaineers," a reminder that death might be around every corner.” Indeed, above 16,000 feet the human body cannot survive long periods of time. Everest Base Camp is a brief stopover, then Dhani is on to Kala Patthar for a close-up view of Mount Everest. He had to stop and rest after every 5 steps, but he made it to the top of Kala Patthar. That’s at least 2500 feet higher than I have ever been in Peru.  Dhani said that he would think about another climb to the top of Mount Everest some other trip.

On the way back to Everest Base Camp, he encountered a team of climbers with a 67 year old trekker suffering severe AMS symptoms. Dhani as the largest and strongest person in the area volunteered to take this man down to safety on his back, which took only 30 minutes but had to have been grueling (which Dhani said on camera it was not given the urgency of the situation where every second counts in getting an AMS victim into a hyperbaric chamber).

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