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TREKKING EVEREST ON 75 YEAR OLD LEGS

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Contributed by: Dave Hughes on 10/2/2007

TREKKING EVEREST ON 75 YEAR OLD LEGS

Part II

Getting the World's Highest Cybercafe - 18,000 feet high - linked only by Wi-Fi radios to the Satellite Internet during the grand 50th Anniversary of the first successful climb of Mount Everest was a great success in May 2003. Not only were the Base Camp parties able to communicate to the outside world but even the Press got in on the act. When a huge Russian Helicopter, one of the few able to fly at that altitude crashed right at Base Camp, killing 3, Reuters was able to send the digital photos and story right from the super remote scene.

I didn't even have to go there. Just sent my instructions around the world to the Sherpas, who did the work, and climbed the Solo Khumba to do it.

I congratulated myself for pulling it all together, remotely from my living room (connected to the Internet wirelessly myself, naturally) here in Old Colorado City, half a globe away from Nepal.

But when it was all over, the Sherpas especially Tsering , realized that guy in Colorado, Dave Hughes, really knew what he was talking about wireless.

So I got ANOTHER email from Tsering Sherpa, who lives at 15,000 feet in Namche, Nepal, where Trekkers and Climbers stay over on their way up to either climbing those stupendous peaks, or carrying cameras, themselves after they have gotten in shape in countries around the world, stop over, sometimes for a week, at that altitude.

And enjoy the fantastic scenery, the Buddhist culture, visit the 'Tibetan Marketplace' in Namche, Nepal, acclimate their lungs and legs better, before pressing on higher. And with Sherpa porters who only get $5 a day, carrying their heavy loads go higher to the valley across from Mount Everest, Nupste, Lhostse, take pictures of Everest itself from 6 miles away and lots lower, and gather stories to tell their colleages how brave and fit they were at 18,000 feet. Bragging rights.

But they ALSO want to communicate back to the rest of the world from Namche, just about the very last place before disappearing into the really, really, high mountains. "Hi Mom, I am on the slopes of Mount Everest. I'd like to visit the Taj Mahal with my new girl friend from Switzerland. Send Money "

But Tsering's Cybercafe in Namche linked to satellite Internet could only handle 4 or 5 people sitting at the terminals at a time. They stand in line. Stack up. Bribe. Stagger out of their lodge at night to try and get a slot at the computer when the line is short.

So Tsering had his Third bright idea

Ask good old Wireless Dave Hughes, the Cursor Cowboy how he can put wireless into Namche, to link the Lodges to his base system, after Lodge owners buy their own desktop computer hook them to a radio provided and installed by Tsering so that their guests can 'share' the Internet feed, charge a fee, and split the difference with Tsering. 10 at once using the Internet - 4 from his place, 5 connected across the village.

Perfectly logical and by my calculation, economic and profitable. Especially after I studied that classic photograph of Namche, which is a 'bowl' clinging to the side of a mountain where all the lodges are arrayed around the rim of the bowel with a clear Line of Sight and less than a mile distance down to one point at the bottom.

THAT, technically, could be straightforward.

But Tsering had another, more complex, request. He pointed out that unless Sherpa children learn some ORAL English, they are mostly doomed to spend the rest of their lives carrying heavy loads for westerners - at $5.00 an hour. They can't even graduate to becoming a better paid guide. Could I help with that too????

I took a deep breath.

Even though I had trained my three children from very young ages (in their 40s now) how to get the most out of technology, I said to myself "Only the old man - me - has the years of experience putting wireless systems in remote places with no grid power - Alaska, rain forests of Puerto Rico, out on the Lakes of Wisconsin, and across Ulann Baatar, Mongolia. To pull this one off would take a trip right to Namche. Not only to deliver and site and install radios, power supplies, batteries, solar panels, but to train Tsering on what it would take in the long run to run and maintain the wireless network."

I also knew that the Cisco 350 Model Wi-Fi radios that worked for Base Camp a year earlier and were ok for that 30 day milder weather climbing period, would be wrong for what Tsering wanted. First of all they are more expensive than many Wi-Fi radios. Secondly they are too complex - more designed in their features and software options for corporate clients, with tech staffs, than with less educated Sherpas who barely spoke English, much less follow convoluted manuals only engineers could love. Thirdly they cannot go much below zero. Fourthly they require 24 volts, rather than 12 volt batteries. Not easy to do even in Colorado in the mountains.

Then something else dawned on me. We live here in Colorado Springs at 6,500 feet elevation. I am already 'acclimated' enough to handle between 12,000 and 15,000 feet of altitude without lengthy waiting around in Namche 'acclimating' like even many trekkers who come from sea level have to do.

However I was also 75 years old in 2004 and while reasonably healthy, I knew I would have to get a lot more to condition in my 'Korean War' era infantry legs - where I, at 23, had to march 100 miles in the bitter cold retreating before the Chinese armies 50 years earlier - to now trek the three days it would take to reach Namche from the closest trail head. Even with Sherpas carrying everything for me but a light pack and my water.

But I live only 8 minutes drive from my Westside home, to the Pikes Peak Barr Trailhead. So I could work out on Pikes Peak to get in shape without taking too much dead time traveling to and from. Maybe I could do it before the next trekking season, three months away.

And, to do it right, I really would have to shell out, besides the flight to Nepal and back, enough to buy the right kind of radios, solar panels, and connectors. Maybe around $6,000. The Sherpa Tsering didn't have that kind of money. But he seemed entrepeneurial, like his grandfather Gysalten, who, 50 years earlier, WALKED all the way to Calcutta from Nepal after he was paid for his support of Hillary, WALKED all the way back through Namche to Tibet, sold goodies he carried on his back, was paid in silver, and became the richest man in Namche. I suspected that Sherpas are good traders! Its in their blood. So I would be, in effect, helping Tsering get started in the highest Telecommunciations business in the world!

I also knew, having experimented with them, that Smartbridge outdoor Wi-Fi radios out of Singapore would be lower cost, could go to 40 below zero, only requires 12volts of power (one battery), and were more straightforward - simpler- in their software menus.

The whole thing looked challenging.

I was talking myself into it.

Then of course my family damned near rioted. YOU at 75 are going up Mount Everest? Alone? My daughter was about ready to handcuff me to Old Colorado City. My sons were plenty skeptical, but they knew I had handled a hell of a lot more during my military career. At least nobody would be shooting at me! And knew I was willing to die on a glacier or under an avalanche if I was going to go anyway. I had pioneered telecom in Colorado Springs before anyone else did, so I was always ahead of the curve. Why not on Mount Everest, where every trekker and climber wants communications?

So the die was cast.

Here is a photo log of my preparations and the trip itself. Just paste this into your Browser, and follow me to Shangra La.

http://gallery.linkingeverest.com/main.php?g2_itemId=6157

I have posted a few other pictures from the trip here on the Hub too

And later I will tell you, in another - Part III Hub story - how I helped Sherpa Tsering teach the kids of Thame, Nepal, oral English from a teacher in Pittsburgh!

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CONTRIBUTOR INFO

Dave Hughes

Colorado Springs , CO

Dave Hughes has posted 79 stories and 87 comments since joining on 3/1/2007. Dave Hughes 's average story rating is 4.9.

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