DECEMBER 2004--Two interesting things that have to be procured are a down suit, so warm that you cannot climb in it until you get over 25,000 feet, and climbing boots so well insulated that they are only of use on Mt. McKinley in Alaska and Mt. Everest.

At least these two items can be found in the United States or on eBay. A friendly Fed-Ex van delivered these two recently. Now I need to find a place to test them.

Help wanted: sherpas
With the down suit and the boots sorted, the next needs on the list are Sherpas and oxygen. If you want to hire a Sherpa for two months, you just have to e-mail some guy in Katmandu and promise to pay a king’s ransom. The old way was to have a large expedition and many Sherpas.

The whole expedition works together to place the high camps, and only a small number of lucky climbers get to attempt the summit. More recently, expeditions have hired local climbers, the famed Sherpa of Nepal, whose job it is to help carry and set up these camps. While the Sherpas, by all accounts, enjoy the challenge of climbing, theirs is a hard and dangerous job, though well rewarded by local standards.

We have the option of hiring Sherpas and are trying to decide whether one or two Sherpas would help us without pushing us into the “pampered and unencumbered” climber class. Their local knowledge alone would be helpful.

O2--that life-sustaining gas
Oxygen--how hard can it be to source oxygen? The stuff is available all over, unless you want it in little lightweight bottles, that is. For some reason, the climbing oxygen comes from Russia. There is some new expensive gas from Britain or some hard-to-find Japanese oxygen, but the most readily available is Russian "Poisk" oxygen.

A big advantage of the Russian gas is that, with many other climbers using the same system, one can hope to find spare parts for regulators and masks along the route. We don’t fail to recognize that some expeditions will have generous amounts of oxygen that they will carry to high camp and, not wishing to carry it back down, we may find compatible, extra oxygen high on the mountain, leaving us with some flexibility.

The Russian oxygen can be purchased directly from the manufacturers in St Petersburg or, less expensively, refilled cylinders can be procured in Katmandu. The bottles from Katmandu apparently come with colorful histories. Tales of leaking gaskets resulting in empty cylinders when the bottle is cracked open at 25,000 feet or bottles filled too close to the exhaust of the compressor providing a most unpleasant high-altitude valley smog.

The small Russian cylinders weigh 5 or 6 pounds apiece and hold about 800 liters of oxygen--enough for six hours climbing at 2 liters per minute. Our current plan is to have three bottles per person, which will allow us to use them for one night at high camp and then during the following day on the summit bid.

What has not yet been decided is whether we will try an oxygenless attempt. To summit without oxygen is worth lots of kudos. The decision may not be taken until high on the mountain when each of us knows how we are performing.

Remoteness and high altitude
The difficulties of Everest include, of course, severe weather, steep terrain, extreme cold and a remote approach. But the real problem of Everest is the exponential increase in difficulty that is bought on by the extreme altitude. Climbing to 15,000 feet is OK. To 20,000 is tough . To 23,000 is hard. To 25,000 is big time. Those last 4,000 feet to the summit of Everest are just impossibly difficult. Not only is the physical effort much greater at altitude, but the logistics increase exponentially, too.

In order to place a camp close enough to the summit, the tent, sleeping bags and stove along with a myriad of other gear have to be carried far into the high altitude zone. More gear carried further by climbers with less oxygen.

Not on a AAA map
This time last month we were a team of five. Since then, Laurie our mountain guide from Shasta has had to drop out. On the plus side, the remaining four of us have purchased air tickets, which are usually a pretty good indicator of commitment. We are flying into Katmandu, Nepa, and then traveling overland through the mountains to Tibet and the north side of Everest.

To add to the excitement, the Maoist uprising in Nepal has disrupted road transport near the capital and occasionally causes problems for tourists, although suposedly they recognize the importance of foreign travelers to the local economy and usually steer clear of anything that would further discourage tourism.

From Nepal, we have a one-day drive to the Chinese border, where we have to actually change vehicles. All the gear is carried across the border and transferred from Nepalese vehicles to Chinese vehicles.

The first night in Nepal is at 6,000 feet. The second night is at 12,000 feet, and we are already in need of acclimatization, so we will stay for a day and an extra night. On the road to Tibet, we reach 17,000 feet, so altitude is a problem before we even begin to hike in.

Katmandu, by virtue of being the climbing center for the Himalayas for many years, has a thriving market in climbing equipment and support services. In the climbing gear bazaar in Katmandu is probably the best second-hand equipment in the world. Once we leave Katmandu, though, there is no place to re-supply. If we are lucky. we will find some batteries of questionable quality. but that is about it. Once at base camp it is a three-day journey to Lhasa if we have forgotten anything.

Yaks--not exactly your U-Haul
From base camp a two-day trek takes one to Advanced Base Camp, ABC. This is where the yaks come into the picture. It is a rough hike over glacial moraine from 17,000 feet to 21,000 feet. The only animal that can tolerate these altitudes, apart from the mountaineer, is the yak.

These obstinate animals don’t take kindly to being loaded with equipment and require constant shouting and stone throwing to maintain progress. If luck is with us, the yaks will carry an ample supply of gear to ABC. It is from there that we will carefully repack and ration the equipment that must be carried, by man, higher onto the mountain.

Next month: Camps, route, gear list and shipping.

To contact Crane, e-mail him at info@teamkarma.com.

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