By T. Scott Boatright
Ruston’s John Kyte felt like he was on top of the world during a trip he took last March.
And in fact, he was close to it, living a lifelong dream in the process.
That’s because in March, Kyte took up an offer from his son Rob and joined his son and three others.
“I saw Mt. Everest in an encyclopedia when I was 7 years old and have been fascinated by it ever since,” Kyte said. “I’ve always wanted to go there and see it, and my son knew that. I’m the one that first introduced him to rock climbing and different things. We have this common interest.
“So, he asked me in February of 2023 if I would consider making the trek to Everest Base Camp with him and I said ‘yeah, absolutely.’ When your 26-year-old son asks you to do something like that — that’s an epic adventure. So, it was three 26-year-olds, a 29-year-old and 68-year-old me who made the trip.”
So began a year’s worth of preparation to make the journey to Nepal.
“My first thought was what the hell had I gotten myself into?” Kyte said. “So, I started training, but realized I didn’t know what I was training for, so I got a trainer — Lynette Talbott of Billy Goat Swift, the in-house trainer for Alpenglow Expeditions, the company Rob works for, to get me ready.
“I began training in April of 2023, with a lot of focus on balance, core strengthening, and especially my legs — single leg presses, squats of every type and variety, lunges, hiking at Lincoln Parish Park with a backpack filled with 20 pounds of birdseed while also doing a lot of road and mountain biking.”
As his training continued, Kyte realized he needed to find out if he could handle hiking in a high-altitude region like hiking near Mt. Everest would take.
“Robert and I went to the Eastern Sierras in California last August and went up to 11,300 feet the first day and to 12,300 the next,” Kyte said. “I did it, I was sore as hell afterwards, but I had no problems with the altitude. So, last October, we did two 14,000-foot hikes in Colorado — Mt Bierstadt and Quandary Peak — in three days in October and again, no altitude issues.
But coming down was hard on my knees — really hard. You think going up would be harder, but it’s actually coming down that’s harder because you have to fight the gravity pulling on you. So, I added knee-specific exercises to my training — sissy squats, step ups, wall squats, walking backwards on the treadmill at a 20-degree incline, and lots of time on a Stairmaster.”
Kyte was feeling better and better about his preparations until December, when sharp knee pain led to the discovery that he had a torn meniscus in a knee.
“By the time that was fully diagnosed, we were eight weeks out and I had to think about surgery. The decision was easy — my surgeon said the knee was a ticking time bomb and he advised me against making the Everest trek unless I had the surgery. He said I would need seven weeks to heal – and I was eight weeks away from the trip.
“The surgery went well, but I had to work through a lot of residual pain and limit my training, at least for that leg, for several weeks. But in the end, all the work I had put in before the injury paid off, and I recovered pretty quickly.”
Then came the last training test —- testing himself in a low-oxygen atmosphere like he would face in Nepal.
“I slept with the upper part of my body in a Hypoxico (low oxygen) tent for the last four weeks before the trek,” Kyte said. “And because of that, when we arrived in Kathmandu, I was already acclimatized to 16,400 feet.
“So, when we first got there in March, we spent the first two days in Kathmandu. We saw some incredible sights and ate some good food. The Nepali people were so nice and accommodating. But we learned two important things. You do not drink the water and you don’t eat meat because you have no idea of what it is, how it was killed, how it was prepared, or how long it’s been unrefrigerated.”
The on the third day, the party headed to Lukla, landing at Tenzing Hillary, which Kyte said is one of the most dangerous airports in the world because of its short runway, unpredictable weather and 2,000-foot drop on one side.
“WE landed, got all of our gear out of the plane and it was gone,” Kyte said. “So, we hiked to a tea house there and began the real journey the next day.”
Tea houses are accommodations along trekking routes in Nepal that offer basic lodging and meals. Many Sherpas in the Everest region own and operate tea houses along Everest’s trekking routes. In lower elevations, tea houses may be multi-story concrete buildings with private rooms and attached western style bathrooms. The farther you hike up, the more basic the accommodations get.
“The people at the tea houses were so great and the food was wonderful,” Kyte said. “We often had American breakfasts, sometimes even with a little sausage. The protein we needed was lentils and rice. They would put a big dent in rice in a bowl and pour the lentils into that dent.
“It’s high-energy food. We ate a lot, but we still all lost about 14 pounds throughout the trek — about a pound per day. So, we ate a lot of good food and drank a lot of water which had been purified.”
Kyte said the trails were often quite narrow and the party had to cross high-suspension bridges also being used by animals.
“We had to cross one of the world’s highest and longest suspension bridges above a raging river,” Kyte said. “We shared the bridge with yaks, horses, donkeys and other animals. Everything has to be carried in, so the animals are very important there. And they always have the right of way. The animals wear bells so that you can hear them coming. And when the animals are coming your way, you are instructed to ‘hug the mountain.’ Get out of the way because the animals don’t care that you’re on their trail and will bump you off the trail or bridge as they pass if you’re not careful. And it’s a long way down should that happen.”
Eventually, the group saw the prize — a towering Mt. Everest in the distance.
“The weather conditions made it tough, but we still were able to see Everest,” Kyte said. “It was the most incredible scenery and a very emotional experience for me. As far as you could see, there was nothing but massive mountains and on such a grand scale. It was very humbling and kind of intimidating and made you realize how small you are. Those mountains are twice as tall as any we have here in our country. It was actually quite spiritual. It truly was incredible.”
Gorakshep was the last point of civilization before they reached the Everest Base Camp.
After reaching base camp, they made an eight-hour hike to the place dedicated to the Sherpa people and discovered a plaque placed in honor of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation that was created to support safer climbing conditions.
On that plaque was a name special to John Kyte and Ruston — Ross Lynn.
“Ross was a local from north Louisiana who was tragically killed at a young age,” Kyte said. “But he was an incredibly accomplished climber who was great friends with giants in the climbing world. And now there is a climbing wall placed there in his name. So, Ruston is always there. It’s a very special place.”
Kyte’s group faced one last challenge trying to head home as the airport was closed because of weather conditions, so they descended the mountain toward a field where they hoped to leave by helicopter.
“It turned out to be the most rugged hike of the adventure,” Kyte said. “All downhill, rugged and wet, passing through tiny villages with some of the nicest people you could find. So, we finally reached a field that had been cleared for helicopters to land.
“When we got down there, we found about 300 people waiting for helicopters. But we got on one — there was one group of people throwing their gear out and then departing the helicopter before we got on. That was only about a four-minute process. Then we couldn’t land in Kathmandu because the airport gets too busy with small plans in the afternoon, so they don’t let (helicopters) in,”
So then came a long — timewise — drive to Kathmandu.
“We landed in Ramecchap, which is six hours from Kathmandu. Only 16 miles, but a long drive away because the roads are so bad, and you have to driveway out of the way to get to a bridge to cross the river to be able to reach Kathmandu. The roads are terrible and incredibly narrow in places with potholes everywhere/ The road was almost nonexistent in some spots.”
“So, we got back to Kathmandu and spent another two nights there before flying back home.”
Kyte said one of the biggest surprises of the journey was the cost.
“Setting aside airfare, the cost for us be picked up at the airport in Kathmandu, taken to a nice hotel with two nights and meals included with that, 14 days of trek with a guide and three porters, three meals a day, bus back to Ramecchap to (Kathmandu), and then two more nights at the hotel.
“All of that was $2,500. We asked the guide how much we should tip the porters and he said $100 — for the entire 14 days carrying out our stuff, and $300 for the guide. So, we tipped the guide $500 and gave the porters $200 each. And they were so grateful I thought they were going to kiss us. That was considered by them to be exceedingly generous.”
Kyte said that was an incredibly low price to experience a dream fulfilled.
“It was just an amazing experience from start to finish,” Kyte said. “One that I will never forget. It made me want to try it again. Machu Picchu in Peru seems like it would be another great experience.”
