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Learning to Think Backwards
Base Camp - Thursday, April 27, 2000
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Tejas

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Good morning Mountain Zone, this is Vern Tejas, at Base Camp on Mount Everest, with Alpine Ascents. Today we divided and conquered. That's right, this morning we went for an acclimatization hike, hiking out two hours...two-and-a-half hours just to stretch our legs, get a little oxygen on board, and to clear our heads. It was wonderful; most all of it took place at about 17,000 feet, hiking down-glacier and then once the afternoon snow showers started we turned around, headed home, and had a wonderful lunch.

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We were also visited today by a member of the...couple members from the Nepalese Women's Expedition. They're a group of five Sherpa women who are now trying to climb to the top of Mount Everest and we'll be climbing on very similar schedules so we'll get to see them a lot. But along with the team members there, they also had reporters from the Kathmandu newspaper and they, of course, were very interested in Al Hanna and who we were and what our game plan was. So we had quite a wonderful afternoon sharing with them all of our insights on mountaineering. It is very interesting to see such a young and yet active women's group up here in the mountains. So we look forward to keeping you abreast of the situation in the future.

Also, this afternoon we went over oxygen systems. Everybody tried on their masks, make sure they fit and then we were able to put a regulator onto a bottle of oxygen and make sure that they actually were getting oxygen flow through the mask. It's very important to do this, of course at these lower altitudes, of 17,000 feet, where you can still think straight because once you get up high it's a much different story. You want to make sure you know what you're doing.

Now I should just mention that the systems are Russian, Soviet, systems, the same thing that the MiG fighter pilots used and a little bit different that what most Westerners would be familiar with and the actual on-and-off valve is just backwards of what you would expect. It's absurd, crazy to think that you're going to go up to altitude and have the correct mental functions and then have to think backwards. You know the old 'righty tighty, loosey lefty'? Well guess what, it is just the opposite of that, so it's a 'righty loosey, lefty tighty.' Oh my goodness, it'll be something that we hopefully...we need to practice over and over again, so that when we get up to Camp IV, high on the mountain, we are not confused at all by it.

The weather has improved, for the most part the snow has melted away and the temperature is in the reasonable range of 5 or, excuse me, ­5 degrees Celsius. Again, we're at Base Camp, which is about 5,395 meters above sea level and it's been fairly clear. For those who are following our acclimatization we now have an average oxygen sat of 88% for the group and our pulse rate is 70. So we can see that we actually are making some progress on the physiological front.

We're wishing you all the best from Mount Everest. Bye for now.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent

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