As noted for Day 5, the students are suffering from less oxygen they are used to. Using the Hilo sounding, the students started out breathing in air with about 73% of the oxygen available at sea level; at the top of the mountain (4200 m), the oxygen available per unit volume was 65% its sea level value. No wonder some of the students were suffering from altitude sickness!
Notice that Anna really worked hard to get fit for the climb – this seems to make a difference, even with changes in altitude. If fitness didn’t help reduce the effects of altitude on the body, the Universities of Colorado (5400 feet or 1600 meters elevation) and Wyoming (7200 feet or 2200 meters elevation) would win more home games in basketball and American football!
The hikers were obviously surprised by the power of the sunlight at these elevations. There are two reasons. First, there is less atmosphere overhead to filter out ultraviolet radiation. According to the World Health Organization, levels of ultraviolet radiation increase by 10-12% for each 1000 m altitude. And secondly, the rock reflects sunlight, so that normally shaded parts of the body might get more than if there were ample vegetation.
Why is there less vegetation higher up? The grasses the students walk through on Day 5 may not be able to exist in the cold, dry conditions higher up. The dry air that is good for astronomers isn’t necessarily good for plants. I wondered also about whether vegetation might have been destroyed by eruptions, but some quick research on the Web indicates that Mauna Kea is considered a dormant volcano – it last erupted 4,500 years ago.
Day 6 – 16 October 2007
Anna – 16
Operation: Deep Climb participant
I didn’t have a great sleep last night. The left side of my neck hurt and I realized that I must have been sunburned. I had forgotten to use sunscreen yesterday and I think this is the worst sunburn that I have ever suffered. My left arm and hand we so red they stung to the touch and the left side of my neck and even my left ear were throbbing from the pain. It did not help to have the strap of my pack rubbing it. It turned out that everyone had been burnt from the sun, but mine wasn’t the worst of it.
Before we started the hike David and I were chosen as team leaders. We were able to have some say in the rest our teams. David’s team included Collin, Santannah and Savannah. That leaves Evan, Andrew and Mack in my team. This morning when we started off my team was in the lead with Bebe, and David’s team kept falling further and further behind so we kept stopping for them. It turned out that some of David’s team weren’t feeling well and may have been experiencing symptoms of altitude sickness. So David and I talked it over and decided that my team would slow down and David would keep an eye on his teammate’s symptoms and make sure that no one’s symptoms became worse. This definitely worked out successfully, it was hard to keep my team’s pace in check but because the three other people in my team were cooperative and understanding we were able to help the other team.
Today the terrain we saw was either many large boulders or no rocks at all but just gravel. For most of the day we could see the telescopes at the summit, but they never seemed to be getting closer. At one point we came across some shrapnel from a helicopter crash from years before. When we stopped for lunch we all cooled down and started to get really cold and so we added more layers, which once we started hiking we had to take another break just to put our jackets back in our bags.
After a little while we came upon the dirt road that led up to the summit and then I knew that there was no way that someone wouldn’t make it. This road took longer than I thought but it seemed to give most people a burst of energy. We reached the top and had to wait for someone to come back from the summit before we could pass the guard rail to finish the last two minutes. Waiting at this point I became really cold, mostly because the sun was getting close to setting.
Then we were told that the time had come to finish the climb. This last part was very short, but in these few minutes I thought about my triumph and I realized that the main reason that this accomplishment was so significant to me was because of what I had done to get here. After weeks of running cross country, going to gym, stressing over packing, wondering if I would let my team or SCUBAnauts down, and not collapsing under the pressure of probably the greatest achievement of my life; I had made it. I had started off the trip doubting myself and gradually each day I realized that I would make it to the top of the summit.
The people that I was with made an impact on the journey; if anyone hadn’t been there, the trip wouldn’t have been successful. I am so thankful that Mark Fowler, Devin and Sergeant Gregory were with us.
Once we were at the top we unfurled the flags and took a lot of pictures. As I stood on the top of Mauna Kea holding the Explorer’s Club banner I could not help but think that I was now a Mountain Climber. I remembered reading something Sir Edmund Hillary, the most famous climber of all time, had said about reaching the summit of Mount Everest. He said “We knocked the bastard off!” Standing here I know what he meant. It wasn’t just the 13,796 foot (4206 m) climb but every other hardship that we had overcome to reach this point. From hard physical training, car washes to raise money, studying for the trip on top of my school work, blisters, sunburn, altitude sickness, freezing wind chill, no showers for three days, and sleeping on rocky ground. But my friends and I had overcome all of that and we had “knocked the bastard off!”
We left right before the stars came out; I am kind of disappointed that I wasn’t able to stargaze. We were taken down in vans back to Doug Arnott’s lodge where we had pizza that everyone practically inhaled. My sunburn was very painful and Bebe showed me a tea leaf to use to help take the heat out. Now I am lying down to go sleep and I can predict this to be the best sleep of my life.
Mack – 15
Operation: Deep Climb participant
Day six once again started before the sun even rose. We started off by breaking down our tents, filling out water, and cooking our breakfast. After a short talk with our guide we hit the trail for a semi short day. The terrain was once again just a bunch of lava rocks. Around two o’clock in the after noon we stopped for lunch, we where about half way down for the day. After lunch we hit the trail and hiked up the rest of the way to the summit. We finally reached the summit at about five-thirty in the afternoon.
When we reached the summit the sun was setting, making it a beautiful site. After we spent a little time on the summit we hiked back over to the observatories where our vans were waiting to take us down the mountain. The drive back to out hotel lasted about an hour and a half, most of us fell asleep. When we reached the hotel we all took showers and then went straight to bed.
David – 15
Operation: Deep Climb participant
Today is the third and final day of the hike of Mauna Kea. I am very happy because I was chosen as a group leader. At first, my group started off slow; but with little adjustments, we were able to keep the groups together. Today we were able to do a lot better because everyone learned that one of the things that really help was pacing. Because we paced ourselves, we had fewer breaks and were able to get to the summit on time. At the end of the day, we went to the summit where we were able to hold up our flags and show how we were the first kids to hike the whole mountain. In the end, I learned so much about myself and other things too. I learned that even though at times you may feel like giving up that if you just strive to be the best that you can be, you can accomplish anything. You just have to try whether it is big or small (in this case, big)!
Savannah – 14
Operation: Deep Climb participant
The third day. The best day and worst day of the trip. The route will be shorter, and we will reach the summit, but after that we will be over with our expedition. The third day was the hardest as it turned out because we were so tired that walking on the sand like lava rock was taking a toll on our muscles. When I reached the summit I felt as if the last three days were worth everything I went through. The view was so beautiful. We also saw the only space shadow that you can see from earth which was amazing. When we finished the climb, we went straight back to the Arnott lodge. They served us pizza which tasted so good.
Santannah – 14
Operation: Deep Climb participant
It was now the last day of our hike and I felt so far under the weather that it couldn’t even find me. Everyone had nothing but positive reassurance though. Amazingly, just like the days before I started off extremely slow and the suddenly progressed to super speed. If anything I think the thing I learned the most was my limits. I feel as though that was my body’s way of pacing myself, that without it I might have gone into overdrive and burnt out completely or injure myself. Either way it didn’t happen due to my body’s knowledge of how I try and operate. This was an amazing point for me to grasp.
The last bit to the summit was the hardest. I had three days of exhaustion, two days of sleep deprivation, soreness to last me a life time, and a core temperature that could freeze water. I couldn’t do anything but cry. Why was I crying I don’t really know. Maybe because of the joy of reaching the end brought me and maybe just simply because I couldn’t function and this was my response. Like I said, I don’t really know why I was crying.
We went back to Arnott’s lodge and stuffed my face with what had to have been a whole pizza. The funniest part of the night was that we finally got beds and none of us wanted to sleep.
