What made me trek Everest! My Top 7 Observations
By SK Shum
Anyone who knew me 6 years ago; I was an over-weight middle aged guy with good prospects of becoming the next heart attack victim. I weighed 190 lbs with moderate height. By Chinese standard, I was too heavy and risk of dying was high. I was depressed with my career at its plateau and had nothing much to go for. I was a classic example of a man who kept things to himself and a sample pressure cooking-pot in the making.
I didn’t turn to any religion at that time but instead drank heavily. Naturally, that got me nowhere either. I felt more depressed not knowing what to do the next 40 years judging from the average life expectancy of a Chinese man. I was too tired to do any physical sports but kept to drinking, eating and sleeping. These were the order of the day. One day I bumped into an old friend of mine from my banking days.
He told me he was engaged quite actively in trekking, and said some nonsense about Hong Kong being 65% Country Park. How could that be when I could only see concrete jungle in Central everyday. He then asked me if I wanted to try a hike. With nothing to lose, and hiking seemed to me a reasonably relaxing exercise just right for a pleasure seeking guy like me. I agreed to give it a try. My friend said he could only meet me at 6 a.m. next day at Tai Tam Reservoir. That blew my mind, as I never went to sleep before 2 a.m. and needed eight hours sleep like anyone else. I hesitantly agreed and without telling my friend, I thought I would drop out if it was not what I was looking for. I vividly recalled it was Spring and rained a bit. At six in the morning at Tai Tam, it was completely different scenery from anything that I could ever dream to find in Hong Kong. I fell in love immediately and returned to meet my friend the next day, and the next day and the next. Before I knew it, I did the same trail for over a month and by then it had become my habit. Several months later, I created my first hiking group, which started off with the same purpose for my overweight friends, who chose to live healthily. As you can imagine, most of them were skeptical at first, but turned into believers after awhile. Today, I have my own hiking group with some 110 members, scheduled weekly hikes free of charge for anyone who cares to join. Hikers as far as from Canada, U.S. and Europe would join us for trekking in Hong Kong.
Six months ago, our teammates decided to trek Mt. Everest region, which we knew was quite a hard thing to do, especially for hikers that are not trained for such endurance endeavor. But we went nevertheless. I discovered that my daily training routine that came with regular trekking over the last several years has helped me tremendously during the trip. I didn’t experience the mountain sickness that usually came with the altitude. I breathed very easily even as I approached mountain heights as high as 5,500 meters. Here are my top observations:
1) Know what you want – Just like anything in life, it is far better to know what you want. If you do, you are almost half way to success. Like hiking, if you know where you want to go and what it takes to get you there, you work backwards to find out what resources you need to achieve your goal. Trekking is the same.
2) Plan early – It pays to plan early even if your trip may be 12 months away. It prepares you physically and mentally. If you need to build shape and fitness for the trip, it’s far better to shape slowly than do it in a rush.
3) Preparation is the key if you want to enjoy the trip. Before our Everest trip, we have done research and read experiences on the web about other people who have recently traveled the same path. There were some horrific stories in scaling of Everest. People were killed by rocks and avalanche. Three months before, four hikers and three guides were killed by avalanche in one of Everest sister peaks and their bodies are still not recovered. There are certainly risks involved just like any other sports but preparation can help to reduce the risk that something bad could happen.
4) Gears are important. Proper gears including shoes, socks, hiking poles and accessories are absolutely essential if you want to have a safe trip. We can find useful checklists from experienced hikers about what to take along and what to wear in high altitude, exposed to extreme cold temperatures. (Outside temperature could be as low as minus 30 degrees). Proper gears are life saving.
5) Resources including daily intake of water and food are absolutely vital to maintain the vitality that allows you to stay alive. As a rule of thumb, water intake should be as frequent as possible but in moderate amount every time. There is no need to stuff the stomach, as you will not be able to digest properly and upset the stomach.
6) Support from teammates or fellow trekkers are your best bet in the mountain, even if you may not know them well. During the trip, which usually will take any where from 10 to 20 days, it pays to make friends along the way. Especially if you experience mountain sickness or get hurt, they can be your lifesaver. Support from friends and other hikers are important.
7) Stay focused to the goal. If your original goal is to attain a certain height, and go to a certain peak, stay with that goal, even if there is temptation to get higher or somewhere more challenging. Don’t change plans during the trek unless you face potential life risks. Usually, your guides will advise you not to detour to new places. Sometimes, we tend to get carried away by the hype of our ability and not focus to the original objective.
In summary, trekking has changed my life. I can’t imagine what my life would be if not for the change. Certainly, the Everest Trek highlights only a short part of my trekking life. If you give enough time to enjoy something that at first may seem boring, you may be surprised what you get in return. Trekking is one of these things, it appears boring but requires endurance, preparation, destination and patience. That is how I feel since I started my first trek six years ago and I never dream I could scale as high as 5,600 meters in the tallest mountain in the world.
