Sarah and Carl Persson - hiking to Mt. Everest

(Please note: All photos used in this blog are the property of Carl Persson, all rights reserved.)

What do you want to experience or accomplish in your lifetime? Most likely you can name a few goals or ideals, but chances are that hiking to Mt. Everest isn’t one of them. Especially if you’ve had back problems or torn knee cartilage.

Sarah Persson has always loved hiking. Glaciers in Alaska, the Colorado Rockies, Austria and New Zealand have all provided backdrops for the sport. But Sarah had a bigger hike in mind. In her words, “Getting to Everest is like the “pinnacle” of hikes, wouldn’t you say?”

Sarah and Carl Persson in Nepal

One of Sarah’s earlier memories is a church youth group trip to Sky Ranch, Colorado when she was 15. “I still remember Pastor Klein driving the van down I-70 and my first view of distant mountains,” she said. Sarah spent spring breaks during college hiking in national parks. She and her husband, Carl, chaperoned a Holy Cross youth group on a hiking trip to Colorado in 2001. On a 2008 Alaska hike, a guide told Sarah and Carl that she had hiked Mt. Everest. “So once I knew it was possible, I added it to my bucket list,” Sarah said.

Hiking to Mt. Everest takes a lot of preparation. But being healthy enough to consider it comes first. For Carl, that meant recuperating from ACL/meniscus surgery. He had damaged his knee while trying to catch a fly ball in a softball game. Surgery was necessary to repair the tears, followed by a period of rehabilitation. Sarah has two degenerative discs in her lower back. “At their worst, a few years ago, my discs actually had hairline cracks which allowed fluid to leak out,” she said. “It was extremely painful, and it took more than a year away from sports, doing physical therapy and walking, to recover enough to even consider a major hike.”

Sarah at entrance to Sagarmatha National Park

Once they had both recovered, they figured that hiking to Mt. Everest was now or never, so they began serious preparation this past January. Sarah and Carl braved the Kansas City winter and walked everywhere they could, nearly every day, wearing weighted backpacks. “One of our favorite training walks was actually to take glass to the recycle bins at Wal-Mart!” Sarah said. “Our coldest training walk was around two degrees Fahrenheit, and our longest training walk was around 17-miles round trip. We hiked in the snow, on the snow, and even dug up our ice spikes after one of the ice storms last winter.”

They also found a small hill along a trail that they walked up and down for over an hour several different times. “All this must have been the right thing to do,” Sarah said, “because we made it to Everest Base Camp (EBC) and back without any soreness or blisters.”

final climb to Namche

The south base camp of Mt. Everest, altitude 17,598 feet, is on the Nepal side, and is the most popular, visited by thousands of trekkers each year. To get there, you fly into Kathmandu. Sarah spent some time researching the best price on a three-leg maximum route from Kansas City to Kathmandu. Sarah and Carl’s flight took them to Chicago, where they ran to catch their 13-hour flight to Doha, Qatar. After a 14-hour layover, they left for Nepal, arriving in Kathmandu about four and a half hours later. The return trip was similar, Sarah said, except they came back through Philadelphia. 

Early morning start to Dingboche on snow covered trail

“I’ve traveled internationally before,” she said, “but I had the worst jet lag I’ve ever experienced. It probably took two weeks before I was functioning on normal time again.”

The Everest trip had some challenges, starting even before the hike. First, the airline lost Carl’s luggage for three days. The domestic flight that would take them from Kathmandu to Lukla, the trailhead, was cancelled twice, so they had to book a helicopter. Sarah got the flu, and both she and Carl got chest colds. Next came altitude sickness for Sarah. These conditions contributed to forcing them to change certain aspects of their hike.

The highlights of the trip were meeting many interesting fellow travelers, realizing that their hard training had paid off, and of course, the scenery. Sarah’s job involves sitting at a computer in a corporate environment. “So my first thought on a hike, or walk, or anywhere away from the office is ‘yay, it’s not the office!’” she said. “Hiking gives me access to clean air and unspoiled land, seeing creation the way God intended it. I get sad when I see clear-cut hillsides, paved roads in pristine wilderness, or even trash in the local park.”  

Sarah pointing to first view of Mt. Everest

A surreal and sad part of the journey occurred when Sarah and Carl had just started back down the mountain. “The day after we were at Base Camp was the single deadliest day in recorded Everest history, an avalanche killing 16,” Sarah said. “We had met people on the way up who were planning to climb, so my first thought was whether or not they were safe. We saw quite a few rescue helicopters that day, and I still get choked up over the loss of so many, especially when I hear that their families may barely receive enough money to cover the funerals.”

Sarah was aware of the hardships the Sherpas (guides) endured before she booked her trip. “The tourism industry in Nepal has changed a lot of lives there, but the real money apparently doesn’t get to the people who do the hardest work,” she said. “That’s actually why I chose a tour company based in Kathmandu rather than one which is ‘westernized.’”

Though Everest was a primary goal, Sarah and Carl hope to take a few more hiking trips while their backs and knees allow. Sarah offers the following advice for anyone considering hiking to Mt. Everest. “My advice to anyone planning a similar trip is to always put your hiking boots in your carry-on luggage, have toilet paper in your pocket wherever you go, put some kind of mask over your nose and mouth, and take lots and lots of pictures,” she said. And that’s the voice of experience.

Reaching EBC, elevation 17,600 feet!