EVEREST LIVE

May 5, 2001

From: Didrick Johnck

The weather forcast for the next week seems reasonable and seeing as my tongue has healed from the vicious sunburn, I am itching to get out of basecamp and head up the mountain.

Note to self and others when on the Lhotse Face, under no circumstances, expose your tongue to the elements. If you've never had a sunburned tongue, let me explain the process.

First of all, it sneaks up on you. A slight tingling feeling on the tip, like maybe you bit it by accident. The tingling soon turns to an itchy feeling when the little red bumps appear on the tip. The little red bumps begin to grow until they turn white and then, the real pain begins. My drink mix in my water bottle burns. French fries burn. My favorite Nepalese food, Momo's meat or veggie filled dumplings which I usually take with horseradish sauce is no longer an option.

I thought I could take it, so I took the sweet little momo between my fingers, swabbed it in the horseradish sauce and gingerly placed it in my mouth, trying to avoid contact with the tip of my tongue. No luck. I used to think I was tolerant of pain. Last year when I was doubled-over in Cambodia with the severest of severe stomach cramps, and my girlfriend was insisting that if I was a girl, it would not be a big deal, I was adamant that my pain tolerance was as high as anyone. But now as the horseradish oozed into the grooves of my tongue, bringing the pain of a thousand bee stings I relented. The pain in my calves after climbing the Lhotse Face was no match for the 5 square millimeters of sunburned tongue.

So anyway, five days later, with the healing process complete, we are here in basecamp waiting to get up that hill.