MOUNT VERNON — Attempting to reach just the flanks of the world’s tallest mountain takes will, strength and endurance.

Just ask Rita James of Anacortes.

In March, James set out for Mount Everest’s base camp at 17,600 feet of elevation. She had no interest in climbing the 29,029-foot mountain, but getting to the base camp sounded appealing.

And as it turned out, it was difficult as well.

The 54-year-old James came up about 1,000 feet in elevation short of reaching her goal. After about 10 days, she left the mountain because of illness.

“All along the trail our group had various things,” said James. “I developed a cold probably about a week into the trek. I trekked with it. It eventually forced me to come down after reaching the town of Lobeche, located at 16,700 feet. During the night, it got very cold and I got very sick. I could tell I was having trouble breathing and my chest really hurt. So I got up the next morning and spoke to my friend (physician Eric Johnson) and he said I had to turn around and go back down. Altitude illness is not something you mess with. It’s a very serious condition.”

James is not entirely disappointed to come up short.

“I mean part of me probably was,” said James. “It was obvious I needed to go back, but I am very proud I made it that far. Realistically, once you get to base camp, you are sleeping on a glacier and you can’t even see Mount Everest (because of clouds). I would have liked to have made it all the way, but I don’t feel that I missed too much.

“It’s half a world a way and a completely different culture. For somebody like myself, who’d never been to Asia before, it was fascinating.”

Being surrounded by magnificent mountains made an impression on James.

“You know, Mount Everest itself is impressive,” she admitted. “But Mount Everest is just one of a whole number of mountains.

“There are so many mountains and peaks around, it’s just phenomenal. It’s not like looking at Mount Rainier where there is one mountain sticking up. There is one and then another and another. It’s an amazing sight.”

The descent proved difficult.

“You think coming down is easier, and in a way it is because of the lowering altitude,” said James. “But it was really hard on the legs and knees because of all the stairs.

“I had a Sherpa right behind me at all times. If he saw I was having trouble getting up or down, he would hang on to me. Overall, it was exhausting. Physically, it was harder than what I expected.”

The trek was unlike anything James had attempted.

The weather was good as her group began its trek in forest, then had the topography change from trees to glacial landscapes. Each step was a calculated one. A misstep along the route could have had dire consequences.

The group stayed in tea houses, or what James explained as trekking lodges, where only one room had a heat source. Folks would gather in the heated room for discussions.

Filling her bottle with boiling water, James would retreat to her unheated room and climb inside her sleeping bag. The water was used for warmth during the night, and to drink the next day on the trail.

“The trails were pretty amazing,” said James. “Most of the way, they were about three feet wide. And they have all these steps. Thousands of stone steps. You would climb and climb and climb and there would be a shear drop-off on one side.

“I am not a person that heights bother, but it was really freaky at times to look down and see this drop-off. You really wanted to hug the one side of the trail. As we walked, the higher we got the slower we went. You had to watch your feet. You couldn’t be walking and taking photos. If you were taking photos, you had to stop.”

Despite the dangers, James enjoyed the trek.

“I really liked the trekking part,” she said. “I like the rhythm of walking. And there was nothing else to think about. There were no distractions, just one foot in front of the other for six to eight hours a day, with a break for lunch.

“They don’t speak in terms of miles when it comes to distance. Because you are walking so slowly, you aren’t covering a huge distance. It’s very methodical. I couldn’t even venture a guess as to how many miles we walked.”

James visited a makeshift memorial for those who have perished while attempting to summit the mountain.

“I did get to go out through the area where all the memorials are located,” she said. “That was a pretty amazing experience. It’s way up there. All the climbers that have died have their memorials there. It was very moving.

“I had taken some prayer flags from Anacortes, so I left them there. That was cool. I was able to leave a little piece of Skagit Valley there.”

There were some creature comforts she would have liked to have had along the way.

“It would have been nice to have hot water and a comfortable bed,” James admitted. “That wasn’t what this trip was about. There were times where a hot shower would have been like heaven.

“When I got home, I had to have fresh fruit and vegetables because we didn’t have any of that.  (I had) a long, hot shower, then slept in a comfortable bed. The trip did make me realize that some of what we have we really don’t need. Leaving all that stuff behind can be pretty liberating.”

So, how did the public relations coordinator for the Anacortes Arts Festival end up in Nepal trekking toward Mount Everest? Well, her friend Johnson volunteers his time as a physician for the Himalayan Rescue Association.

The association was formed to reduce casualties in the Nepal Himalayas. It operates clinics in Pheriche and Manang, and began staffing a clinic at Everest’s base camp in 2003.
The base camp clinic is open in April and May, the two months of the climbing season.

“He (Johnson) is an expert in altitude and wilderness medicine,” said James. “He’s been one of the physicians at Everest base camp on four different occasions, this being his fourth time.
“He and his wife, Michelle, asked me two years ago if I would interested in trekking with them to base camp. I said absolutely without even batting an eye. Then the reality hit me. It was really just a great opportunity for me to go with people who had been there before and who had great support. It would certainly be a trip I would never have done on my own.”

The support James received came from Sherpas, the Himalayan people known for their mountaineering skills. They packed much of the supplies for James’ party, leaving the trekkers to carry only food for the day, water, extra clothes and camera gear.

“They are amazing people,” James said of the Sherpas. “I just can’t say enough how about how wonderful they were. I don’t think that anybody who does this trek or that climb could do it without the help of Sherpas. They are the real heroes.”

James was shadowed by two Sherpa brothers. They anticipated her every need as she made her way toward the mountain.

“If it was getting cold, all of sudden a jacket would appear on my back,” said James. “If I obviously looked as though I was drooping, a water bottle would appear in my hand and they would say drink. They would remind me to eat. They would hold stuff when I stopped to take pictures. They are nothing short of amazing.”

James’ group was led by a celebrity in the climbing world, Wonshu Sherpa, who led an IMax team to the top of Everest for a documentary. He also got James’ group an audience with a lama, a Buddhist spiritual leader.

“This lama individually blessed each one of us,” said James. “It was really neat. He tied a string around each of our necks and gave us a kata prayer scarf for good luck. I came back with 20 katas. The silk scarves are given to travelers.”

One might assume James is an experienced mountaineer. That’s not true.

She is not a climber, but an avid trekker who prefers slow journeys through mountainous areas.

“That was exactly what this was,” said James, “a trek. I am not a mountain person and I am by no means a climber. I’ve never backpacked in my life and I don’t like cold temperatures, so this was really going to be a challenge on many levels.

“And I was going to be traveling without my husband Michael (of 35 years) or family, so that was a challenge. I was traveling with a small group, most of whom I did not know and most of whom were young men.”

The trek was no easy sell for her family, some of whom thought she may have lost her mind. James said she saw her age as a benefit because she was less prone to take risks.

“My husband Michael was very supportive,” she said. “He knew these friends and trusted them. This was the first real vacation I’ve taken away from my husband. We travel rather extensively and we travel well together.

“It was really challenging because you realize how much you rely on people you are comfortable with. Doing a trip where you don’t have that is a real challenge. You don’t have anyone there for you, emotionally.”

And what about her children?

“My kids, they were amazed and excited that I was doing it,” said James.

James’ mom, however, was less pleased.

“My mother freaked out,” she said. “I called her when I got back to the states and she couldn’t speak to me because she was crying so hard.”

After the decision to go on the trip was made, James began to train.

She set up a climb of Mount Baker with her son for last August. She ruptured an Achilles tendon on the attempt and spent the next three months off her feet.

The idea of trekking near Everest began to fade.

“At one point, I thought to myself that there wasn’t any way I was going to be able to do this trip,” she recalled.

Her trekking companions had other ideas. Two physicians — her friend and her personal doctor — believed she could still do it, despite the Achilles injury.

So James returned to training.

“I started walking in December,” said James. “It wasn’t like I was all of a sudden back to normal. I just started working with supports on my ankles. I just went at a little slower pace than some of the others (on the way to the base camp). It was a challenging thing to go through even if you aren’t training for a trek.”

Training at sea level is one thing. Training for a high-altitude trek is another.

“In terms of the altitude, people were always asking me, ‘How do you train for it?’ The answer is there really isn’t any way to prepare for the altitude,” said James. “You approach the trek in a way where you give your body the time to acclimatize as you are going up. Fortunately, none of our group got altitude illness. We did have a fair amount of other sorts of illnesses, including some serious intestinal issues, despite the fact we had Sherpas and a guide who was very careful in monitoring what we ate and what we drank.”

James enjoyed experiencing a different culture, though it had been a bit of shock.

“Arriving in Katmandu it was just sensory overload,” she said. “That is the best way to describe it. The sounds and the smells and the colors. The lack of infrastructure was so eye-opening. We only had power for four to six hours a day, the rivers had a lot of trash and sewage in them, yet the people were so wonderfully warm and welcoming.”

Vince Richardson can be reached at 360-416-2181 or by e-mail at .