MOUNTAIN CLIMBING

SAPANA SAKYA and RAMYATA LIMBU, Producers, “Frontline”, May 29, 2003
CZIKOWSKY: How does a person physically prepare for this (climbing Mount Everest)? I presume one needs to develop endurance. Do most of the climbers practice by going partially up the mountain, or do they attempt to climb to the top all at once?
SAKYA and LIMBU: Well, it always helps to be in shape, to build up endurance. But what I’ve seen with local sherpas is that they are acclimatized to the altitude so they have less problems than people from lower down. When people climb Everest, they don’t go to the top at once. That’s a sure way to kill yourself. You go up a certain height, to camp 1, set up camp, then come down again to base camp. The next time you try to go up till camp 2, set up camp, and then come down to base camp again. Then again up to camp 3 or higher. That’s how teams acclimatize. Once they feel ready and the weather is good, they climb up till South Col from where they make the final push to the summit. In an exceptional case, after acclimatization, and in an attempt to set a speed record, Lakpa Gelu, a sherpa climber made it from the base camp to summit in 10 hours, 56 seconds.