JOURNEY - on Mastering Ukemi (23 page)

We followed Bim closely around the mountain and after a few hours began to climb up to Khumjung. Normally we would bypass this village, however there is a small restaurant there that makes a particularly delicious apple pie and it is worth the extra time it takes for the diversion both as a means of acclimatization and a great piece of pie. We would not be concerned with traveling great distances now. Our concern now was to make certain that we acclimatized correctly and did not push our way into the mountains until our bodies had adapted. Climbing up to Khumjung and eating a piece of pie would help accomplish that.

As we sat in the restaurant Chris asked me, “Sensei, what was all the talk about how hard it is to climb? It isn’t so bad.”

“
Well, Chris, if I told you that we’re going to climb from 9,200 feet to 11,300 feet in an hour you would have shrugged it off, maybe said it sounds hard, but still... Let me try and put this into perspective for you. Imagine being in Orlando. You walk into a gym and sit at a leg machine. You adjust it so that you push 200 pounds with each exertion. That is, you will lift 200 pounds with each leg press. I stand there and tell you to do three sets of 10. You do it. I tell you do it again, and you do. You’ve now pushed 12,000 pounds with each leg. At this point you would probably be breathing a little heavy, yeah?”

“
I probably would,” he laughed.

“
So, if I told you to do another 3 sets, but this time you had to hold a half inch diameter tube in your mouth and breathe through it, how would you feel?”

“
I’m not sure I could do it.”

“
Let’s assume that you can do it and you do. You have done ninety presses with each leg. So now we take the tube out of your mouth and you’re breathing pretty hard. Right? Okay, now I want you to do three more sets, and this time I want you to breathe through a tube that is one quarter inch in diameter.”

“
I’m pretty certain that I can’t do that. In fact I know I can’t do that.”

“
All right, when we made the climb from the Dudh Kosi valley to Namche Bazaar you did 1,500 leg presses with each leg while breathing through a straw. That is the percentage of oxygen in the air here. You did a total of 3,000 leg presses of 200 pounds with one half of your usual oxygen.” I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “If I had told you that the climb would be easy and then you had had to face that challenge you would have failed; you would not even have started. You would have known you could not do it. I told you it was hard, though, and so you worked yourself up, challenged yourself, took it on, and won. It’s just like your first black belt test. Most guys are hyperventilating when they walk out and bow to O’Sensei. Well, most never even get that far, but those who do can’t catch their breath because they’re so nervous. But they somehow survive, and when they test for second dan it is much easier. They know they can do it.

“
When I sent you up to Khunde the day after we arrived you walked up, looked around, and came back. I think that climb is at least as hard as the climb from the Dudh Kosi to Namche Bazaar, and you didn’t like it, you bitched about it a bit, but you didn’t really have to rest up from it or anything...You took it in stride, you could say. It’s sort of like that first break fall, it’s scary as hell, but after you’ve done a few you just shrug and carry on. We acclimatize to all sorts of things in this life and I just wanted you to understand that it was going to be hard as hell and you need to brace yourself for the challenge. Now that you’ve done it you can shrug it off all you want and I’m thrilled for you.

“
In the United States Navy there is a group of warriors that go out each day and challenge themselves to do the impossible. And they are allowed to quit any time they want. The only caveat is that they cannot quit while engaged in an activity. They have to finish what they are doing and then they are allowed to quit. Allowed to go walk up and ring the bell. Most of the instructors will tell you that those that ring that bell and quit, do it out of fear that the challenge of the next day will be harder than the day they just survived.

“
They want those guys to quit. They don’t need anyone on the team who is afraid of the unknown. They only want people who are stimulated by challenges and get jazzed when faced by the unknown. The system works. The teams employ the toughest, bravest warriors on the planet. They only know ukemi. They face every adversity and challenge with all their life force and will and live to escape and fight on.

“
You guys are already acclimated to life at 11,000 feet and we’ll take it easy and get our bodies used to climbing higher each day. But we can’t dawdle forever and eventually have to make an assault on the peak we’ve chosen and need to be ready. You already understand that you can do it. You already know that you can climb high and then come back down. I’m proud of you.”

I paused and realized I was breathing very hard. It took a few minutes for me to catch my breath. We must be close to 13,000 feet here.

We finished our break and headed out. Bim led us to a little used trail that would take us back to the main path and not back along the way we had come. It was much rougher and steeper than we were used to, and we had to exercise caution on the descent. Eventually we found the main trail and wound our way past Syanguasa and turned toward Gokyo Ri. We labored on and finally crested the ridge above 13,000 feet. It was drizzling and we walked in a cloud bank. I felt really badly for the guys as this is a truly spectacular trail when clear. We were surrounded by monstrous Himalayan Mountains, the tallest in the entire world, and all they could see was the ground in front of them. We had to place our hiking poles carefully as the trail had become greasy and slick with the pounded clay becoming a course slip.

Now the trail descended toward the Dudh Kosi once again and we carefully followed it down. The cloud bank broke for a few moments and we could see across the river. The town of Phortse lay on the other side of the ravine and I wished we could go there, but it required a huge detour that would amount to at least an entire day. We had sent our porters on to Dole and I knew they were already there hunched over small fires and probably sipping tea. The rhododendron forest was tight to the trail and it was very unnerving. Long tendrils of some type of tree fern or moss hung in ghostly shrouds across the branches and offered glimpses into a nether world where lost kingdoms lurked behind hidden entrances…or so my mind wandered. The rhododendrons gave over to what appeared to me to be some type of fir or juniper along with a variety of spruce or pine. I could not tell, they are not the trees of my forests. But eventually we finally climbed back up to the village of Dole and found Nawang waiting for us outside a small lodge. The bunk room was exactly that. No individual rooms here. We all slept in what looked like a dorm room. At least the beds had curtains around them offering a small amount of privacy to the wandering weary.

I chose a bunk, dragged my sleeping bag and pad out of my duffle, threw the duffle to the back wall of my bunk space and sat down. I took off my soaking wet boots and socks and lay back on the bunk. We were at 13,500 feet and I was not breathing well. I could hear the guys all settling in. There was little conversation. I think the combination of altitude and drizzling rain and a cloudbank that lay right on the trail was sapping the enthusiasm out of all of us. I wondered what Celine and Esra were doing. In a camp full of Italians? Probably listening to their mandolin player, having a glass of wine and some nice hard Parma cheese. Laughing at the antics of those colorful, carefree…

“
Sahib? Would you like tea?”

I dragged myself out of deep sleep and made some gesture of affirmation, something. Eventually I managed to sit up and the kitchen boy… maybe our only kitchen boy, now, handed me a warm cup of tea and a few cookies. I thanked him and tried to concentrate on the cup in my hand. I had developed a piercing headache that I fervently hoped was not the onset of altitude sickness.

Cerebral edema, pulmonary edema, and many other major problems caused by altitude bring strong men and women to their knees every year. It’s not just a headache. People die of these conditions and no matter how tough you want to be or think you are, certain conditions should not be ignored. I would have to make certain that everyone knew what to look for and exercise caution. We had taken more than the minimum amount of time for acclimatization. We should be fine. We would see.

I drank my tea and lay back down. Curtis and Chris sat at the small movable table that had been placed for us against the far wall. Christian couldn’t seem to decide what to do. I closed my eyes and heard Chris ask the time.

“
It’s about 4:30,” said Curtis.

“
Man, my head is pounding.”

Curtis said, “Yeah, mine too.”

“
I wonder if it’s the altitude or the damn weather. Humid, damp and cold, man I was not expecting this; cold, yeah, but not the constant clouds and drizzle.” Chris slumped into the small chair and leaned on the table with his tea cup in his hand. And this tea sucks.”

Christian called over, “I like tea, but the new stuff isn’t very good.”

New stuff? I don’t drink tea and couldn’t tell one cup from the next. I sat up. “Chris, do you drink coffee?”

He shook his head.

“
Curtis, do either of you guys drink coffee? I haven’t paid any attention. Have you been drinking the coffee in the morning?”

They both nodded. I sighed and got up. After conquering a little dizziness I went across the dorm and through the door. The lodge kitchen, such as it was, was there and the woman who ran it had a small set of shelves with trade goods. There were all the usual things and at least six bottles of Chinese Coke. I gathered them all and nodded at the woman making a writing motion at her and took the bottles back into the dorm.

“
Chris, get out that bottle of rum you’re hiding and bring it over here.” He frowned but went to his duffle and brought it over. “Don’t worry; you can get more on the way. Once we’re above 14,000 feet you’re not going to want it anyway, trust me. Guys, I think I need to talk to Cook and ask about the coffee and tea he got in Namche Bazaar. I think he might have gotten de-caf. This headache feels like a monster caffeine withdrawal headache.”

They looked at each other and in one movement had the coke bottles open and pouring coke into their cups and drinking. I waited and added a little of the Khukuri brand rum to mine and then drank it down. We all had one then, and then another. After about a half hour we were all feeling much better. As the headaches abated and the rum asserted itself we began to revive. Eventually Cook came in and told us that he would bring supper and I asked him to please bring the tea and coffee he was now serving us so I could look at the containers. He shrugged and left. When he returned he set the dishes on the small table and handed me a jar and a cellophane package with loose tea. I couldn’t make heads of tails out of the tea – the label was written in Chinese, but I immediately recognized the green label on the bottle of Nescafe. Decaf.

“
Cook, can you get other coffee? This is no good.”

He frowned and lifted up the jar and smelled the coffee crystals. He was clearly not happy. I called Bim over and explained the problem and he spoke to Cook and then they spoke rapidly together and Cook started shaking his head in the negative.

“
Ask him if it is possible to get black tea or traditional Chinese green tea. They both have some caffeine.”

Bim did and the conversation once again became heated. Cook left and did not return. The kitchen boy brought plates and we happily found small potatoes that had been boiled and then sautéed in some kind of oil until they were browned and delicious. There was a dish with greens and pickled beans of some type and sardines. We all ate hungrily now that we were feeling better. Before we finished, Cook returned and handed me a bag of black tea. I smelled it and nodded at him.

“
We will have this in the morning and with breakfast, please. No more coffee.”

He smiled at that and left again. I stretched and went back to my bunk. I listened to the guys talking and laughing. They must have been still sipping on the rum and as I was hoping they would not get too carried away I fell asleep.

Chapter 15

Atemi

I woke to sunshine and had a moment when I believed the weather had broken, but by the time I woke everyone and told them to get outside I remembered that there was nothing to see. We were in a valley and until we climbed out there would only be the towering cliffs soaring 10,000 feet above us. We ate breakfast and hit the trail climbing up through Bhabarma. There were occasional yak shelters and the trail became uncomfortably steep for me.

My knees had begun to ache at first in the humidity and now were fairly screaming with the exertion and constant reminder of the arthritis that is the unrelenting result of forty years of aikido training. At least I still had my knees. My old friend Hiroshi Ikeda underwent knee replacement surgery years ago and I was very happy for him that it seems to be working out well. He is truly an aikido master of another magnitude. His skill and understanding of this art are unrivaled in America. I hope his artificial knees last for many years. I may need a set myself, some day.

Eventually I had to stop and Christian came back to wait with me.