photo by: Contributed
For years, Rhett Evans of Olathe had his sights set on climbing Mount Everest. But when he arrived in Nepal this spring (and became seriously ill with a parasite), it was possible that he would not even make it to base camp.
Evans, 55, had eaten spoiled meat near the start of his week-long expedition. Even before reaching the staging area for the Everest climb, he was “extremely ill,” he said. His fight against the disease lasted only a few days, but it cost him much weight and strength that he had accumulated for the long climb.
“I really thought that might get me off the climb,” Evans said.
But Evans, who works in Lawrence as executive director of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, wasn’t about to quit. He had already climbed some of the highest peaks in the world: Kilimanjaro in Africa, Denali in Alaska. And he knew that unexpected challenges are part of the deal.
“Anytime you’re out in nature, there are a lot of things that can go wrong and your body can face challenges,” he said.
And he persevered. He went through a period of acclimatization and conditioning high in the Himalayas (injuring himself along the way and having to work with an injured arm) and finally reached the summit in May in a grueling five-day effort.
Last week, Evans spoke to the Journal-World about how he overcame one of mountaineering’s biggest challenges, as well as the lessons from climbing that he says are equally useful in business and all of life’s other challenges.
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It was in April when Evans began his long journey. He and a climbing partner set out from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, which sits about 4,600 feet above sea level. Their goal, the summit of Everest, is more than six times that elevation: just over 29,000 feet above sea level.
For the climbers, who enlisted the help of a mountaineering company called Pioneer Expeditions, the first step of the journey is reaching base camp, about 17,500 feet above sea level, and even that is no small feat. That phase of the trip (illness and all) lasted 14 days and covered about 40 miles across the Himalayas, Evans said.
In a way, getting to base camp is a reset, he said: “Once you’re at base camp, that’s where the climb really begins.”
But it’s also a sign that the job is about to get a lot harder.
While preparing for the climb at base camp, you live for an extended period of time at an altitude 3,000 feet higher than any mountain in the Colorado Rockies, Evans said. Including the climb to the summit and the return, he said he spent more than a month in these conditions, at an altitude of around 17,500 feet or more.
Everest itself is more than 10,000 feet higher than base camp level, and conditions at the summit are much harsher. That’s why much of the time at base camp is spent on practice expeditions, climbing higher and higher to acclimatize.
Evans said climbers do a series of “rotations” on Everest itself and other nearby mountains, partially climbing and then returning to base camp repeatedly and going a little further each time.
On one of these climbs, Evans said, his adventure almost ended for the second time.
It was while he was on a nearby mountain called Lobuche Peak. Lobuche is 20,075 feet high, and Evans said the idea was to spend a couple of nights camping there in addition to base camp rotations.
He climbed the mountain well, but on the way back misfortune struck: “I fell on the descent with a faulty rope and ended up hurting my shoulder, wrist and leg.”
“I thought again that might be the end of my rise,” he said.
Once again, he had to rest for a few days before returning to action. He now had to use a modified climbing technique that favored his uninjured arm.
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The five-day “summit push” to the top of Everest is, as expected, the most difficult climb of the trip. As you climb higher and higher, the challenges begin to compound, Evans said.
“There were many more challenges to face, whether it was a lack of appetite at high altitude or a lack of energy,” he said. “There is only 33% of the oxygen that there would be at sea level. “Your body is just deteriorating and really has to fight a lot of adversity.”
When you face a tall mountain, you must be prepared for nightmarish conditions. When Evans was climbing Denali, “known for being one of the coldest mountains in the world because of its northern latitude and its strange climate there in Alaska,” he said, his climbing group got caught in a severe storm and was trapped in camp. half way. through.
“We had a great adventure there, where we were cooped up for nine days while we waited for a massive snowstorm to pass with snowy conditions and temperatures of -40 degrees,” Evans said. The climbing group in Denali was unsure how long the storm would last and whether they would run out of food supplies before they could move on.
The Everest climb didn’t have as long a delay as that, but the weather there can still be wild, Evans said. It’s not necessarily cold all the time: “The weather is going to change constantly,” he said. Some parts of the mountain are extremely cold, while others can be comparatively hot.
That’s not the only cruel trick Everest can play on you.
Before reaching the summit, Evans and his climbing partner reached an area called “Balcony” or “south summit.” This is what is called a false summit. Everest has more than one of them. At first it seems like you’ve reached the top, but then you realize that you still have a long way to go.
“A lot of climbers think they’re there, and once they get there they realize, ‘Oh my God,'” Evans said. “They still have to go around that ridge and climb the Hillary Step, which is a technical area” – an area that requires specialized equipment to traverse – “and then the summit ridge, which is the final summit.”
Evans and his climbing partner continued and on May 23 they finally reached the summit.
“Only 40% of those who try make it to the top,” Evans said, “and I was lucky enough to be one of those people who managed to get there and fulfill my dream.”
photo by: Contributed
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Evans’ harrowing climbs may seem daunting to the average person, but he said success in mountaineering, like success in business and a host of other activities, is the result of good planning, perspective and perseverance.
“In business, and in life in general, we all have those mountains, those Everests to overcome,” he said. And they come in many shapes and sizes: “There may not be people who want to climb Mount Everest, but there are people who are thinking about running a marathon or getting off the couch to run a 5K.”
“Whatever your Everest is, yes, you can do it,” he said. “It is feasible. If you can. The human spirit is capable of much more than we really know. “I believe our minds are our most powerful tool that we can harness to be successful in life.”
But how to do it? Evans said what works for him is taking it step by step. An Everest is only intimidating when you look at the challenge in its entirety and try to overcome it all at once.
“When you look at mountaineering, it’s very methodical, very thought out,” he said. “You have trained, you have prepared and you are going step by step.”
Once Evans has rested again, he plans to begin that methodical process again with a peak that is as extreme as Everest in some ways: the Vinson Massif in Antarctica. It may take a while to get there, he said, but the approach is the same: step by step.
“We have challenges, we have obstacles, but when we stick to the basics and just look at where we need to be next, pretty soon we look back and say, ‘Wow, we’ve really come a long way and we’ve reached the top and we did well.’ ‘” Evans said.
photo by: Contributed
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