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Date:
April 27, 2003
(Opps. The last email, I accidentally sent my rough draft.)
As I was saying the road to Mount Everest, the largest mountian in the
world, was pleasing difficult, as it should be.
By three in the afternoon, the wind roared down the cold flanks of
Everest and funneled through the valley at¾ 35 KPH average (according
our gadgets) and gusted up to 44 KPH, and probably much higher but we
couldn't get a measurement.
The wind stole every scrap of energy my
overtaxed body could produce and was so intent on humiliating me that
during a potty break behind a wall, the updraft caught my urine and
sent it straight into my face.
The wind, the rocks, the bumps, the sand, and the dust storms caused
seven members of our group to resign themselves to the truck, leaving
only Edwin and myself. And, I admit if it wasn't for Edwin blocking the
wind and his undying optimism, I too would have fallen alongside the
road.
As I mentioned, I bicycled only five percent of the distance to outer
space but the air is half as thick as sea level and the oxygen level
about forty percent. If you were suddenly teleported to Everest Base
Camp you would die. Still, after several weeks of acclimitization,
grinding through the lose rock and sand, I suddenly lost my breath and
began gasping for air. My whole body burned and my lower intestine and
anus began to spasm. It felt as if I was drowning in air. I crouched
alongside the road gasping and coughing -- altitude sickness.
After several hours of grunting, we rounded the corner to view the full
height of Mount Everest, "Qomolangma", in Tibet.
I stopped and held my breath¾ so not a sound but my beating heart
separated me from my surroundings. The trinkle of dust sculpting the
mountians. The blazing high-altitude sun roasting my freezing body. Mt.
Everest looming in the distance knocking the moisture out of the air
obscuring itself from view, the sun illuminating only a portion,
leaving the rest a mystery.
Mt. Everest is so big, like the moon, it confuses my perception. I
bicycled up to 5200 meters leaving 3658 meters, yet the mountain only
loomed larger. (I would have ridden farther but the Chinese restrict
everyone from going past base camp.) Even on the approach to the
mountain, the walls of the valley are immense; tan walls of dust and
tiny rocks occupied my entire field of vision. Deviod of detail, the
walls mades my eyes dazzle and pop and go blurry. It is the same with
the sky which at high altitude is not graduated and the stars are
almost visible.
I have bicycled through many mountain ranges including, the Andes and
the Rockies. The summits are usually hidden from view and it appears as
if I am bicycling up endless rolling hills and switchbacks. However,
Mt. Everest rears its whole mass above the valley, like the cobra I
encountered in Nepal, both a warning and a beautiful temptation.
Mt. Everest -- the epitome of many superlatives.
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