My Everest Base Camp trek At 64

Contours of my maiden tough trek- Everest Base Camp(EBC) - My take for those who haven’t done and those who have lined up their maiden EBC attempt:

By attempting EBC trek and finishing it successfully, I can candidly summarize it as an exercise of firming up a positive mental frame adjustment with a much needed stronger dose of chutzpah in adventure cum endurance space, wherein every step on the mountain range is different from other previous one, making the trekker gasping for good breathe and a pause for some seconds at regular intervals, for most of the time. Despite these, the volume of trekkers one can see out there, I feel justified to call EBC attempt is more synonymous to CARNIVAL of jubilant mountaineers especially.

While retracing my 8 days of upward journey on the EBC path through my memory lanes, I remembered what is known as GOODHART’s LAW in Public Policy (coined by the British Economist Charles Goodhart when he served as the Chief Economic Advisor to Bank of England) - it is an Adage that “ any measure that becomes the target of a policy eventually STOPS being a useful measure”...This is because people simply trying to meet the target, as gauged by a certain measure, may fail to focus on the very underlying basis of the target itself - this anomaly exists because for instance, if a Government is solely focused on boosting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may decide to engage in wasteful spending just to boost GDP even though such spending does NOT improve the living standards of citizens.

In the current context, anyone would say if reaching EBC is the target,why would one undergo such hardships for 9 days against withering blast of cold winds @ deep under sub-zero temperatures when they could as well reach the target in flat 20 minutes by a helicopter at a cost remaining almost the same as the cost of actual trek. But, it is a matter of personal judgment as to how one feels about what is the target and what are the measures to gauge it. It is more out of an information that one gathers. However, the measure of achieving the target through actual climbing of the tough path under severe weather conditions is what is adjudged as the real target to be achieved and the hardship one undergoes and learning one gains are the measures of achieving the target.

I found the above concept augured well with my “EXPEDITION ” - I would like to call it like that way at least for myself, though the term may refer to a different meaning for many veteran mountaineers and expedition teams who travelled from Pole to Pole on the Earth for a phenomenally higher objective target finally achieved by them and were measurable by many yardsticks/ metrics etc. - but, a real measure is that of their physical toughness and unassailable mental grit. Despite being a recreational marathon runner since 9 years, I had to gather “ cautionary learning “ tips from veterans, say “SLOW IS THE GAME OF EBC ” - but such tips developed a trajectory of my own assumptions wherein even well settled facts turned out to be a mere conjecture initially, unable to stand by any measure to gauge my performance to reach my target.

This was initially a target for my wife in real and definitive terms. However, I had a great degree of personal resistance not to go with her but lately I just began to train myself along with her for the EBC attempt; but, the religiously tough training given by brother-in-law, Capt Swaminathan Iyer, forced me with a great amount of reluctance to attempt EBC and started off to join my wife with a target (with a measure by way of actual trek for about 18,000 feet on the tough and rough Himalayas) to ensure a “touch down at EBC point” - reluctance was due to the financial outlay for this trek, serving as a differently concocted hard measure - but I did overcome it and went on just to do it to ensure that my wife who was advised against such attempt; it was mainly for her absolute determination and long lasting wish to do EBC and I did want to accompany her in her pursuit.

When the process of target accomplishment has started off, slowly my initial mental resistance started weaning away and got transformed into finding my purposive measure losing its hard stance by appreciating the immeasurable “experiential learning” on each segment of each day’s trek (1) over the huge sections of single pathways irregularly sequenced, (2) long and sneaky but well supported strong iron wire based hanging / oscillating bridges at many places with rivers flowing through the hard rocks with a good current and at about 70 feet right below our feet, (3) large sections with many varieties of big boulders to cross over even till the last phase of EBC on day 8, (4) frequented non-slip-grip rocks, easily pierceable sharp stones clubbed with hard and slippery sands (thanks to the unforgettable high Richter scale earthquake in EBC zone some years back) and (5) the can’t-be-avoided- traffic of Himalayan strong Yaks, horses and strong Native Nepalis as well who move from all directions carrying huge loads of goods on their back - they serve as logistic service providers to tea houses located over there and to people living in such high altitude regions - and these animals rank high and merit a strict norm of preferential status to walk ahead and overtake the trekkers too ( even the stray dogs which one can get to see out there, should comply with such norms - see one of the videos posted here on the movement of these animals)- all these are routines on our path during trek with an average of 9 hours of walk per day and with a definitive and progressively increasing elevation gains that can’t skip mention.

KNOWLEDGE MAPPING and EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROVIDERS:

Despite many Natives of Himalayan region - NEPALIS - who guide trekkers on Nepal side of EBC, throughout the entire exercise with their valuable on-the-spot and pre-trek advices, the lessons we get to learn from them are NOT practiced by themselves largely on many counts - a departure by way of absence of common knowledge mapping - like (1) not hydrating themselves during the trek at frequent intervals (2) NOT taking the universally advised DIAMOX tablets to ease breathing which will mostly turn hard for many non Native Nepalis, as one goes up on increasingly higher altitudes (3) NOT wearing so many layers of warmers and down jackets as any general trekkers are adviced of etc. (4) NOT wearing trek specific shoes etc.. These negations/deviations cannot be taken differently, as the Natives are well acclimatized to the prevailing weather conditions and their bodies are well turned to remain in sync with such rigmaroles of harsh weather and moreover their life revolves in this region all through the months of any trekking seasons - even through the periods of heavy snow falls/ winters however severe may that be, auguring well with their physical conditions.

Many cautionary advices that I could read from many write-ups of veterans and those from the horse’s mouth were indeed tested during my experiential learning process.... those are like (1) trek with a pace of a tortoise and NOT that of a rabbit - SLOW IS THE EBC GAME, (2) pick up learning points from the Yaks, Tahrs and the horses etc, while crossing big boulders/ rocks and steep slopes filled with rocks with slippery sands - they first take a few seconds break just to analyze the position of such hurdles ahead and then decide decisively where to keep their next steps with added heavy loads of stuff on their back- such lessons are found to be very useful to me to carefully avoid some slippery rocks which might cause a fall - I never saw any one animal do a faulty step any time nor did they ever speed up too on some flat /plains and on relatively non patchy pathways, (3) NOT TO SKIP breakfast and lunch despite a poor taste one may experience for the foods on high altitude regions and to eat some supplements like chikkis etc to offer some instant energy when it is at low during trek, (4) have a short break and have a deep breathe through nose and mouth when I feel uneasy breathing, (5) to cope with the development of lesser sleep / or even sleepless nights amidst very cold weather inside and outside temperature reaching very much well under Zero degrees Celsius, even after strenuous trek all through the day as one moves higher on altitudes, (6) to cope with sudden rain fall followed by too cold snowfall many times on high altitude regions, (7) a kind of irritation while talking with fellow group members too could also be noticed on some people, mainly attributed to the higher altitude sickness, vomiting, severe head-aches are some of the symptoms needing timely cognizance and to inform the guide accordingly, and (8) the acclimatization exercise of doing a slope climb for about 4 to 5 hours, at Namche Bazar and Lobuche where a next level of tough altitude climb is to be witnessed the day next, were unmistakably a non-avoidable one because they (1) helped a lot in the very next day steep tough climb and for longer duration too and (2) they gave enough cushion to guard against the increasingly lesser availability of oxygen even as low as 40% of the normal - how to cope with this new low normal oxygen level is purely an experiential learning and NO READS OF ARTICLES OR hearing someone say these aspects can be of any help.

The experiential learning is the measure of my target (EBC) gained so much elevated importance, I forgot my target itself- ultimately proving the Goodhart’s law -tenets. The measurable experiential learning I gained, brought a dimensional change in my approach in my EBC attempt and brought about great deal of satisfaction disproportionately higher to the initial resistance and reluctance I discussed earlier. Such learning equally on the other side made me to experience the sublime beauty of the serene and near zero pollution environment and get submerged myself in such atmosphere; the huge eerie of calm seen descending on us, me especially, at regular frequency made me to feel humble and subdued in the canopy of Mother Nature and could feel the superiority overkill of the Nature to remind our need to shed self aggrandizement and narcissistic attitudes if at all they exist in oneself - in one’s mental frame, thereby calling for a positive mental frame adjustment which I referred to in the beginning.

EPILOGUE:

A final remark to reinforce my learning - a better grasp of what we are and a fair appraisal of how well we pay care to the advice when we are into oblivion like state/ locations and the need to ensure a sustained connection with one’s cautionary and experiential learning is the call here. This deep connection, some emotional and intellectual attachment ( love, respect, and commitment for such tough attempts) is an important condition before we embark upon our longing to do such tough tasks.

Submitted to the Supreme Mother Nature