Scott Smith of Princeton wanted to stand on top of the world.
By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Scott Smith of Princeton wanted to stand on top of the world.
That meant only one thing: climbing Mount Everest in the Himalayan Mountains.
In May, he did it — an adventure to the peak of the highest mountain in the world in what he called a “physical and mental grind.” It was a journey he recounted during an interview much lower to the ground from a table in Hinds Plaza, where the only challenge is dealing with the setting sun hitting him in the face.
”When people ask me what it was like standing at the summit,” Mr. Scott said, “it’s like looking out of an airplane window, except you’re not in an airplane.”
How he got 29,000 feet to the top of Mount Everest — “summitted” in his words — began when Mr. Smith was a teen growing up in Vermont near Killington, where he would read books that had stories about the mountain. Dreams filled his head.
”I love being outdoors, I love being away from people,” said Mr. Smith, 45.
He studied at Tufts University outside Boston, later working in New York City and earning his MBA by attending New York University at night. He spent 20 years in the corporate world, doing well enough financially that he could become his own boss as an independent private investor. He’s lived in Princeton since 2001. A father of two boys, he describes himself as “a little bit of an adrenaline junky” who plays hockey in an adult league.
He’s climbed and hiked before. But about three years ago, he had the time and the money to pursue high altitude climbing more seriously. His journeys have taken him to Ecuador, Argentina and, this spring, to Mount Everest.
Climbing Everest would be a major investment, one that would him to research and train, in his case meant running and using a stair climber. It also would be risky, as the mountain is scattered with the remains of about 150 people who never made it back down.
He left in late March on what would be a two-month adventure straight out of National Geographic. He would go up the mountain from a route in Nepal, first arriving in the city Katmandu where he would get his $13,000 permit the government charges those wanting to climb Everest. Then it would be off to a mountain village, whose airport is considered the most dangerous in the world, to get to the Everest base camp at the bottom of an ice fall.
”The runway is on a side of a mountain. And there’s no aborting a takeoff or landing. It’s all or none,” he said.
The climb moves in stages — and is dangerous. Mr. Smith went on an expedition team of other western climbers accompanied by Sherpas, mountain village people who serve as guides. It is life spent in yellow tents on ice in a mountain, an endurance test, or “grind,” in Mr. Smith’s words, that makes or breaks climbers.
At high altitude, the body does strange things and generally does not want to eat. Sleep is difficult. Climbing is at night, when wind on the mountain is much lower. Climbers need to use oxygen tanks.
”Staying healthy is the number one goal on the mountain. Once you get sick, your climb is over,” he said. “There’s so many other variables to staying healthy over there. Fitness is one of them.”
He explained how climbers would chip ice out of the ground, boil it and then cook whatever they can in the boiling water. Prepared meals, soup, Gatorade, things like that to keep the body going.
”But your body starts doing strange things, it starts prioritizing because it doesn’t want to eat. And you’re forcing yourself to eat,” said Mr. Smith, who battled diarrhea.
”This is the mental part of the climb. There are 10 reasons to stop and turn around and go back. And there’s only one reason to keep going, and that’s to make the summit.”
The night of May 22, he, two climbers and two Sherpas set out to reach the top. At heights of that level, there is no concept of team, but rather each climber is out for himself.
”One of the things about Everest is, it presents these great morality plays as to what you would do if you came across someone that needed help,” he said. “Would you give up your summit attempt, having paid $50,000 or $100,000, dedicated months or years of your life, maybe quit your job, to put yourself at risk because someone did something stupid in front of you, either shouldn’t’ve been climbing the mountain or made a bad decision and got themselves into trouble? And you think about these things.”
The higher up they go, the slower the climb becomes to one step at a time. At the top, he made it, exhausted to the sound of howling wind.
On the way down, he nearly was killed when climbers above him kicked off a bowling ball-sized rock that missed him by 10 feet. At those heights, no one can yell to warn people below of falling debris, he said.
He did not feel truly safe until reaching camp. When he got there, he made a phone call to one of his sons and left him a voice mail message. His children were not originally thrilled with his plan to climb the mountain.
”They went from being upset to I went to being the coolest dad in their school,” he said.