Hardrock Extra - To the Top of the World

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TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD Alumnus RC Scull traveled around the world to climb the tallest peaks on each continent, and he accomplished this amazing feat all before his 22nd birthday. He summited the tallest of all, Mount Everest with an elevation over 29,000 feet, while still a student at South Dakota Mines.

Scull has shared his personal adventure photo album and excerpts from his travel journal to Nepal and the 2008 Mount Everest expedition.

Introduction Climbing the 29,035 foot Mount Everest started as a dream in sixth grade when I was called upon to read about Mount Everest from our world geography book. It was a dream that became a goal—to not only climb the tallest mountain in the world but to be the youngest person to climb the tallest mountains on each of the seven continents.

Introduction to the Sherpas As we left Katmandu, we had a pretty exciting flight into the Khumbu valley.

The landing strip was very short and carved into the mountainside. I came into contact with the Sherpa people for the first time.

The broader and more well-known meaning of Sherpa refers to Sherpas as being porters for the climbers in the Nepalese part of the Himalayas; most commonly Mount Everest. This type of Sherpa is known for their physical endurance and ability to adjust to extreme altitudes. With Sherpa villages being set at elevations above 10,000 feet, these people have a natural ability to live with the lower levels of oxygen present as elevation above sea-level increases. Most villages also do not have roads or cars, so Sherpa people carry 1

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everything on their backs. Living on the sides of the Himalayan mountain range involves hiking to get everywhere, even to school.

After several hours of hiking each day we would always stay in tea houses. These are nice little huts that provide tea, dinner, and a place to stay the night. After a week in Nepal I had passed under thousands of prayer flags, had spun hundreds of prayer wheels, and got to visit a few Buddhist monasteries.

Beginning the Climb As we gradually started going higher and the altitude increased, hypoxia (a lack of oxygen in the body) kicks in, because there is simply less oxygen in the air.

Above 10,000 feet the human body can’t handle going more than 3,000 feet a day without being risk to altitude sickness.

Base Camp, Camp I, and Camp II After ten days of trekking, we finally arrive at Mount Everest base camp at 17,500 feet, 3,000 feet taller than any mountain in the continental United States. Base camp is a little surreal.

It is a tent city, with climbing teams from around the world.

Roughly 400 to 500 hundred people, thirty-one expeditions,

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Never have I ever experienced such a route: dozens of vertical and horizontal ladders, with one to four ladders lashed together. There are deep, deep crevasses—which are deep voids in the snow similar to a canyon—and when you look down inside them they appear to be bottomless. The way we cross these crevasses is with the ladders lashed together. We have crampons on the bottom of our boots that are likely to be balled up with snow. We haul 40-pound backpacks. The wind is blowing, and now we have to cross these ladders that tilt and wobble. It gives you a very uneasy feeling.

We are also hooked to a fixed line to climb 75 percent of Mount Everest. A fixed line is rope anchored into the snow with 6-inch ice screws or 3-foot aluminum snow pickets.

Everyone clips onto the rope and it is your safety line to the top of the world. are all trying to do the same thing—get to the top of the tallest mountain in the world. Base camp is home away from home. We each have our own three-man tent to ourselves, DVD players powered by solar panels, a dining tent, a cook, a communications tent, and if we are lucky a shower once every ten days or so.

Living at this elevation feels much different. The air is noticeably thinner; headaches and shortness of breath are more common. Simply walking to the outhouse gets you out of breath. There are no trees, no shrubs, and it is definitely colder. You can hear thundering booms of avalanches all around you. Our bodies are now busy building red blood cells, and gradually we will adjust to this elevation. As the sun sets at Everest base camp, the temperatures plummet and drop well below freezing. It does not help that we have a campsite built on a glacier with about one inch of rock on top of it for a little insulation.

The Sherpas are a very superstitious people and before they start climbing they perform an elaborate Puja ceremony. The Buddhist Puja ceremony is a critically important morning service in which the Sherpa pay homage to the mountain deity. The offerings include everything from Halls cough drops to cans of beer. There was a lot of chanting, juniper burning, and throwing of rice into the air. Additionally, each climber had their gear blessed, primarily their ice axe, crampons, and climbing harnesses. The ceremony lasted several hours.

Camp I is at an elevation of 19,500 feet. It is significant in size, and there are about 120 tents all in a perfectly straight row.

This tent layout provides the best protection again storms.

From Camp I we move to Camp II at 21,500 feet. The air is really thin and headaches are common, as are other signs of Acute Mountain Sickness, characterized by headaches, stomachs, and vomiting.

Camp II is also known as advanced base camp, we have a bathroom and a dinning tent, even though at this elevation it is near impossible to eat anything because you lose your appetite and nothing sounds pleasing.

The spectacular thing about Camp II is that you are directly at the base of Mount Everest. We can now see the true summit 8,000 feet straight above us.

After spending a couple of nights at Camp I and then a couple of nights at Camp II to acclimatize, we drop back down to base camp to let our bodies recover and create more red blood cells.

May 10 We woke at 3 a.m. to start heading up to Camp III at 24,000 feet. It was still bitter cold, and I was concerned about frostbite on my fingers and toes. I entered into a climbing trance, breathing, stepping, and clipping and unclipping from the fixed line that ran along the steep incline. Before long we saw a few

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tents precariously perched on a platform. We crawled into camp in a near zombie state and collapsed into our tents to rest in the extreme altitude.

May 11 This was a night from hell, a contender for the worse night of my life. Our oxygen saturations levels were extremely low, in the mid 60s range (if you are at sea level and your oxygen levels drop below the 90s you will instantly be put on oxygen).

You have a pulsating migraine so horrible that everyone on the team was vomiting. If you are lucky, you got two to three hours of sleep. This is normal during a night’s stay at Camp III. We have now finished our acclimatization process and head all the way back down to base camp to help our bodies recover.

I have lost about 17 pounds on Mount Everest. We will now actually drop below base camp down to 12,000 feet for about a week to help our bodies recover. We will eat about six meals a day and notice our bodies getting stronger. It is odd how powerful of an impact oxygen can have on you. In that amount of time we will put about 4 pounds of weight back on before heading back up the mountain for our summit push.

May 21 We left Camp II at 3:30 am and started heading up the Louste Face. It is long, hard, steep, and potentially dangerous ascent, but we did it! We arrived at Camp III, and were instantly given oxygen bottles, and what a difference that makes. We are officially on our summit push with no stopping the clock now.

May 22 We started heading up to Camp IV, 26, 500 feet, also known as the death zone. It is called the death zone because the human body can’t survive above 26,000 feet for any period of time.

Your body can’t process calories. Your thought process is slow, your decision making is difficult, and your judgment clouded.

Dressed in down suits, a couple of oxygen bottles in our backpacks, a hose coming around to feed the gas of life to the mask, we were constantly using oxygen now.

The Summit Push May 19 We navigated our way through the icefall and reached Camp I in five hours, less than our earlier times. After a short break we pushed on to Camp II. Each section on its own is doable, but combine them and you have a long, hard day. During the climb, I am purely focused on my breathing. One doctor up here mentioned that 95 percent of a climber’s energy is spent on breathing while the other 5 percent goes towards moving each foot. If you don’t get enough oxygen you can be in deep trouble.

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Camp IV is strategically positioned on a saddle, right on the border of Nepal and China, and 3,000 feet directly above me is the summit of Mount Everest. I can see it well. To dream so long of a goal and to be now looking it in the face—and to have a real crack at making it a reality—is a very powerful experience.

May 23 We departed Camp IV around 9 p.m. Our summit team consisted of three guides, eight climbers, and a Sherpa. On our backs and stuffed in our pockets we had the provisions necessary for our summit bid: oxygen tanks, lots of Gu, cameras, many candy bars, extra clothes, one liter Nalgene

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bottles full of Gatorade tucked into insulated sleeves to prevent freezing. It felt like we were true mountaineers, as we ascended steep, foreign inclines in the dark, bitter cold.

It was clear that our minds and bodies would be put to the ultimate test today. Hour after hour we climbed in the darkness. Unlike on other sections of the mountain, on the summit push we rarely stopped for a break. It was simply too cold (with wind chill in the –70 degree range). Our goal was to keep moving and hope to stay warm. The night sky was clear, and nearly a full moon appeared to help light the way.

Stars were bright, too, creating an environment that was both beautiful and deadly. In time, the eastern sky started to lighten.

The view that was slowly revealed is perhaps the finest I’ve seen. Magnificent peaks towered around us. A layer of clouds were far, far below us, and as the sun appeared a shadow of Everest was cast upon this layer. The colors, the landscape, and all of it was breathtaking.

Not long after sunrise, we reached a highly exposed ridgeline.

The route was narrow and complex, maybe six inches wide at points. Should you venture off the path, you would find yourself dropping thousands of feet, either into China or Nepal (the death drop was available on both sides).

We were clipped onto a rope for protection, but it was a mere

4 millimeters in diameter, no bigger than your pinky finger.

Adding to the challenge, we had to pass a few teams going the opposite direction. It was truly crazy and certainly the scariest situation I’ve encountered.

Soon, we were standing on the summit. The time was roughly 7:30 a.m. The feeling was incredible. We were standing on the top of the world! The cold and wind cut the celebration short, though. For me, I took in the view, congratulated a few teammates, and snapped just a couple of pictures. I would have loved to stay longer, but the conditions demanded a rapid decent. Most accidents happen on the way down, so danger was still present. Battered, cold, yet triumphant, we arrived back in high camp before noon. Our summit attempt was a success! We had climbed Mount Everest, and we did it as a team.

Climbing Mount Everest was an adventure of a lifetime. It was an adventure that has changed my life forever. With the mighty eight summits behind me, I am not sure what is in store for me next. Although I don’t see any big mountain expedition in the near future, I hope someday I can return to the place that has forever changed me.

By RC Scull (CE11, MS ConstMgmt13)

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