Dr. Buddhi Rai and four University of Hawaiʻi Maui students spent three weeks in Nepal, including time at some of the highest altitudes in the world.
Tara Apo, Dustin Palos, Brissa Christophersen and ‘Ale‘a Kimokeo embarked on what they call the "trip of a lifetime."
Dr. Rai is an associate professor of science, technology, engineering and math at UH Maui. He’s also a native of Nepal and said altitude has a huge impact on life in the country.
“As the altitude changes, the pattern of life changes immediately,” he said. “As soon as the altitude changes, the culture changes. The faces of the people, they will change. Their profession will change, their food will change, their clothes. The way they speak, they will change."
As a physicist, he’s studying the effects of altitude on the human body. He said he wants to know more about why Sherpa people have stronger lungs than others.
"We had a group of seven people,” he explained. “One of them was my Sherpa colleague. On the way, three of us, we gave up our travel because we could not. My oxygen level was below 70. It was supposed to be at least 95. And other two students had the same situation.”
From sea to summit
Nepal’s altitude ranges from near zero to Mount Everest’s peak at more than 29,000 feet. Rai is comparing data from Nepal to the same elevations in Hawaiʻi, from sea level to Maunakea’s peak at about 13,000 feet.
The group traveled from the city of Pokhara into the depths of the Himalayan Mountain Range. “It was breathtaking. We were in awe as we drove along the winding dirt road, next to a massive gorge with majestic rising mountains on either side of us," Apo said.
"Once you get past the Himalayan Mountain range, the climate is dry and arid — much like the crater in Haleakalā," he said.
They passed through small remote villages, staying at one called Jarkot Muktinath, about five hours from Tibet. "It was so humbling to feel you were in one of the most remote places in the world," Amo said about the homestay.
Rai wanted his students to experience firsthand how high altitude feels.
“At the highest elevation, it was hard to even walk. You felt like the air you were taking in just wasn't enough,” said Christophersen, who just graduated from UH with her master's in environmental management.
“And then after doing the oximeter, it's like 'Oh yeah, actually, you're not taking in as much oxygen as your body usually does.' So it's more fatiguing in that way," Christophersen said.
The group visited cultural sites, spent time with Nepali scientists and toured the high-altitude research facility Pyramid International Laboratory, the world’s highest lab at more than 16,000 feet.
Palos describes how it felt being at the base of Mount Everest.
“So many wonderful, awesome treks getting to be in places, some of the highest places, even the Himalayan range and at the base of Mount Everest, known as the top of the world,” he said.
"Living in sea level and being at the top of the world was kind of emotional and breathtaking," Palos said.
The trip was also an eye-opening look at Nepal’s way of life.
“Their culture is an ancient culture that still exists because they continue to practice these cultures, their cultural practices, their traditions and their belief system,” Palos continued. “And they seem to be happy. Everybody who I talked to lives in extreme poverty and they're happy because they don't know about materialistic, all these technologies.”
More than a field trip
UH Maui College funding helped pay for the students' travel.
“Who wouldn't want to go on a paid trip for an experience of a lifetime, going to one of the highest mountains in the world? And experience an underdeveloped country for lots of first experiences,” said Palos.
“And everybody knows here in Hawaiʻi it's so expensive, we don't ever leave the islands. And if we do leave the island, some of us don't ever come back. That is another important takeaway about this experience is how important our home really is, and we should appreciate it and love it, because if we malama the ‘aina, the ‘aina will malama us," he said.
Some of the most memorable moments of the trip were the cultural exchanges that took place.
“We reached up to 14,000 feet, but our goal was to reach18,000 feet, but it was not possible because of the altitude effect,” said Rai.
Rai said after they climbed down, they reached one of the lowest altitudes in Nepal so that he could collect data to bring home to Hawaiʻi.
After the work was done, the rest of the time was spent with the people in the community.
"We lived in community homes, we ate their food, we lived in their homes, we shared our cultural values, we sang Hawaiian songs. And we listen to their songs as well," he said.
Christophersen said she is so grateful for the experience.
“There was a major communication barrier, but we both spoke aloha in that way,” she said. “We couldn't actually talk to each other except through our professor but the same type of hospitality that we would give people visiting us here was the same exact aloha that was reciprocated over there."
Over the next six months, Rai will review and analyze the scientific data they collected and plans to publish a paper on their results.
