As noted for Day 5, the students are suffering from less oxygen they are used to. Using the Hilo sounding, the students started out breathing in air with about 73% of the oxygen available at sea level; at the top of the mountain (4200 m), the oxygen available per unit volume was 65% its sea level value. No wonder some of the students were suffering from altitude sickness!

Notice that Anna really worked hard to get fit for the climb – this seems to make a difference, even with changes in altitude. If fitness didn’t help reduce the effects of altitude on the body, the Universities of Colorado (5400 feet or 1600 meters elevation) and Wyoming (7200 feet or 2200 meters elevation) would win more home games in basketball and American football!

The hikers were obviously surprised by the power of the sunlight at these elevations. There are two reasons. First, there is less atmosphere overhead to filter out ultraviolet radiation. According to the World Health Organization, levels of ultraviolet radiation increase by 10-12% for each 1000 m altitude. And secondly, the rock reflects sunlight, so that normally shaded parts of the body might get more than if there were ample vegetation.

Why is there less vegetation higher up? The grasses the students walk through on Day 5 may not be able to exist in the cold, dry conditions higher up. The dry air that is good for astronomers isn’t necessarily good for plants. I wondered also about whether vegetation might have been destroyed by eruptions, but some quick research on the Web indicates that Mauna Kea is considered a dormant volcano – it last erupted 4,500 years ago.

Day 6 - 16 October 2007

Anna – 16
Operation: Deep Climb participant

I didn’t have a great sleep last night. The left side of my neck hurt and I realized that I must have been sunburned. I had forgotten to use sunscreen yesterday and I think this is the worst sunburn that I have ever suffered. My left arm and hand we so red they stung to the touch and the left side of my neck and even my left ear were throbbing from the pain. It did not help to have the strap of my pack rubbing it. It turned out that everyone had been burnt from the sun, but mine wasn’t the worst of it.

Before we started the hike David and I were chosen as team leaders. We were able to have some say in the rest our teams. David’s team included Collin, Santannah and Savannah. That leaves Evan, Andrew and Mack in my team. This morning when we started off my team was in the lead with Bebe, and David’s team kept falling further and further behind so we kept stopping for them. It turned out that some of David’s team weren’t feeling well and may have been experiencing symptoms of altitude sickness. So David and I talked it over and decided that my team would slow down and David would keep an eye on his teammate’s symptoms and make sure that no one’s symptoms became worse. This definitely worked out successfully, it was hard to keep my team’s pace in check but because the three other people in my team were cooperative and understanding we were able to help the other team.

Today the terrain we saw was either many large boulders or no rocks at all but just gravel. For most of the day we could see the telescopes at the summit, but they never seemed to be getting closer. At one point we came across some shrapnel from a helicopter crash from years before. When we stopped for lunch we all cooled down and started to get really cold and so we added more layers, which once we started hiking we had to take another break just to put our jackets back in our bags.

After a little while we came upon the dirt road that led up to the summit and then I knew that there was no way that someone wouldn’t make it. This road took longer than I thought but it seemed to give most people a burst of energy. We reached the top and had to wait for someone to come back from the summit before we could pass the guard rail to finish the last two minutes. Waiting at this point I became really cold, mostly because the sun was getting close to setting.

Then we were told that the time had come to finish the climb. This last part was very short, but in these few minutes I thought about my triumph and I realized that the main reason that this accomplishment was so significant to me was because of what I had done to get here. After weeks of running cross country, going to gym, stressing over packing, wondering if I would let my team or SCUBAnauts down, and not collapsing under the pressure of probably the greatest achievement of my life; I had made it. I had started off the trip doubting myself and gradually each day I realized that I would make it to the top of the summit.

The people that I was with made an impact on the journey; if anyone hadn’t been there, the trip wouldn’t have been successful. I am so thankful that Mark Fowler, Devin and Sergeant Gregory were with us.

Once we were at the top we unfurled the flags and took a lot of pictures. As I stood on the top of Mauna Kea holding the Explorer’s Club banner I could not help but think that I was now a Mountain Climber. I remembered reading something Sir Edmund Hillary, the most famous climber of all time, had said about reaching the summit of Mount Everest. He said “We knocked the bastard off!” Standing here I know what he meant. It wasn’t just the 13,796 foot (4206 m) climb but every other hardship that we had overcome to reach this point. From hard physical training, car washes to raise money, studying for the trip on top of my school work, blisters, sunburn, altitude sickness, freezing wind chill, no showers for three days, and sleeping on rocky ground. But my friends and I had overcome all of that and we had “knocked the bastard off!”

We left right before the stars came out; I am kind of disappointed that I wasn’t able to stargaze. We were taken down in vans back to Doug Arnott’s lodge where we had pizza that everyone practically inhaled. My sunburn was very painful and Bebe showed me a tea leaf to use to help take the heat out. Now I am lying down to go sleep and I can predict this to be the best sleep of my life.

Mack - 15
Operation: Deep Climb participant

Day six once again started before the sun even rose. We started off by breaking down our tents, filling out water, and cooking our breakfast. After a short talk with our guide we hit the trail for a semi short day. The terrain was once again just a bunch of lava rocks. Around two o’clock in the after noon we stopped for lunch, we where about half way down for the day. After lunch we hit the trail and hiked up the rest of the way to the summit. We finally reached the summit at about five-thirty in the afternoon.

When we reached the summit the sun was setting, making it a beautiful site. After we spent a little time on the summit we hiked back over to the observatories where our vans were waiting to take us down the mountain. The drive back to out hotel lasted about an hour and a half, most of us fell asleep. When we reached the hotel we all took showers and then went straight to bed.

David – 15
Operation: Deep Climb participant

Today is the third and final day of the hike of Mauna Kea. I am very happy because I was chosen as a group leader. At first, my group started off slow; but with little adjustments, we were able to keep the groups together. Today we were able to do a lot better because everyone learned that one of the things that really help was pacing. Because we paced ourselves, we had fewer breaks and were able to get to the summit on time. At the end of the day, we went to the summit where we were able to hold up our flags and show how we were the first kids to hike the whole mountain. In the end, I learned so much about myself and other things too. I learned that even though at times you may feel like giving up that if you just strive to be the best that you can be, you can accomplish anything. You just have to try whether it is big or small (in this case, big)!

Savannah – 14
Operation: Deep Climb participant

The third day. The best day and worst day of the trip. The route will be shorter, and we will reach the summit, but after that we will be over with our expedition. The third day was the hardest as it turned out because we were so tired that walking on the sand like lava rock was taking a toll on our muscles. When I reached the summit I felt as if the last three days were worth everything I went through. The view was so beautiful. We also saw the only space shadow that you can see from earth which was amazing. When we finished the climb, we went straight back to the Arnott lodge. They served us pizza which tasted so good.

Santannah - 14
Operation: Deep Climb participant

It was now the last day of our hike and I felt so far under the weather that it couldn’t even find me. Everyone had nothing but positive reassurance though. Amazingly, just like the days before I started off extremely slow and the suddenly progressed to super speed. If anything I think the thing I learned the most was my limits. I feel as though that was my body’s way of pacing myself, that without it I might have gone into overdrive and burnt out completely or injure myself. Either way it didn’t happen due to my body’s knowledge of how I try and operate. This was an amazing point for me to grasp.

The last bit to the summit was the hardest. I had three days of exhaustion, two days of sleep deprivation, soreness to last me a life time, and a core temperature that could freeze water. I couldn’t do anything but cry. Why was I crying I don’t really know. Maybe because of the joy of reaching the end brought me and maybe just simply because I couldn’t function and this was my response. Like I said, I don’t really know why I was crying.

We went back to Arnott’s lodge and stuffed my face with what had to have been a whole pizza. The funniest part of the night was that we finally got beds and none of us wanted to sleep.

Not only are Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Island of Hawaii, but the “big Island” also has more petroglyphs than the other Hawaiian islands, and some spectacular waterfalls. Petroglyphs are images carved in stone. The age of these petroglyphs is not known, but experts believe the stick-figure petroglyphs are among the oldest.

The sulfur fumes that Gage was describing probably come from one of the volcanoes on the island. Based on measurements, water vapor is the most common gas coming out of volcanoes, with carbon dioxide second, and sulfur dioxide third. Also released are hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide, and other gases. Both sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide have strong smells and irritate the respiratory tract. Sulfur dioxide also irritates the eyes and skin, and sustained exposure to high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and cause illness. One or both of these are probably the “sulfur fumes” in the blog, so it’s not surprising that the students changed their lunch plans.

Day 6 - 16 October 2007

Madison - 13
SNI participant

We hiked out to the petroglyphs, made up to 1,000 years ago. They were carved into the pahoehoe that resulted from the lava flowing uphill. It is believed that the carvings signify family. We later went to Akaka Falls. It is 450 feet (137 m) tall, and very thin. It’s in a rainforest.

Connor
SNI participant

The symbols called petroglyphs have many meanings, there were pictures of stick figure people were most likely just that; people. Little dots were supposedly representing a baby born, and that they put the umbilical cords underneath them. There were tons of other symbols, but they are kind of hard to name.

Gage - 13
SNI participant

We went to a place where there were petroglyphs carved into the lava, it was pretty cool. Then we had to move our lunch place because there was a ton of sulfur fumes in the place we were supposed go, so we had lunch in a parking lot. Tomorrow we fly back to Honolulu on Oahu again.

There is much exciting wildlife below the water, as you will see below, and some beautiful pictures! Again — you might want to look on the Web for more images of some of the sea creatures the bloggers saw.

Notice that we could estimate the air pressure the climbers were experiencing on Mauna Kea. What about the pressure below the water? A rule of thumb is that the pressure increases by about one atmosphere (1013 hectoPascals or hPa) for each 10 m below the surface. While the Operation Deep Climb hikers were experiencing an air pressure of around 696 hPa at 3200 m elevation, the SNI articipants were experiencing a total pressure of:

You can feel air pressure changes if you go up or down quickly in an elevator, in airplane, or on a mountain road: your ears “pop” as pressure from the inside and outside balance. (The air inside a commercial aircraft at cruising altitude is pressurized so that the pressure is about 15% lower than at sea level — much higher of course than it is outside!)

Day 5 - 15 October 2007

Madison
SNI participant

We went to a black sand beach. The most durable minerals survived when the lava flows are eroded, they wash up on the beach, forming black sand. There were many turtles on the rocks.

Then we went to the southern-most point of the U.S. It was a cliff that dropped off into the Pacific.

Later we did our first dive in Hawaii! The first dive was in Garden Eel Cove, it was a 40 minute dive at 50 feet (15 meters). We saw a garden eel and lots of urchins. The coral was really pretty. Our second dive, a night dive, was also at Garden Eel Cove. It was an hour long and at 40 feet. We sat at the bottom in a circle, and huge manta rays came overhead. Sometimes they got really close to the top of your head. They were 15-20 feet (4.6 – 6.1 meters) across, and the baby was about 6 feet (1.8 meters). Their mouths were about a foot across (0.3 meters). The water was turbulent because the rays were disrupting it while swimming around. They came to the lights to feed on the light-attracted plankton.

Connor
SNI participant

The black sand beach was incredible! We saw many crabs, fish, and even a baby eel in one of the tide pools, and a couple of turtles resting on the beach.

We also had our first dives of the trip today, our first dive was o.k. we got to swim around and see garden eels, colorful reefs, and fish.

But, the first dive was nothing compared to the second dive, which was the most amazing dive I’ll ever go on! It was the manta ray dive, which was so awesome. We got about 10 manta rays, which is pretty good the captain said, because sometimes they don’t get any. But, it was the coolest thing ever!

As the Operation Deep Climb hikers make their way up Mauna Kea, not only does the team tire, but some are experiencing altitude sickness. This is because they live at sea level, and air pressure lowers as they get higher. By the time they stopped at 10,500 ft (3200 m), the air pressure was about 696 hectoPascals, and the air density was about 0.87 kilograms per cubic meter, compared to sea-level values of 1016 hectoPascals for air pressure and 1.2 kilograms per cubic meter for air density. This means that the oxygen content of the air was 73 per cent of its value at sea level. The symptoms of altitude sickness — headache, nausea, and dizziness — are rather common at higher altitudes for people who live at sea level. (For this reason, I had to abandon my first attempt at a “fourteener” here in Colorado — “fourteeners” are 14,000 feet [4268 meters] or higher).

To avoid altitude sickness, serious mountaineers wanting to summit 8,000-meter peaks not only spend a lot of time exercising to bring their body to a peak fitness level, but they try to spend some time at higher elevations before the climb to get their bodies acclimated to higher elevations. For comparison, the height of Mt. Everest is roughly 8,850 meters. Using the data from the Hilo sounding for 14 October the air pressure at that height is 332 hectoPascals, the temperature is -32 degrees Celsius, and the air density is 0.48 kilograms per cubic meter, which is 40% the value at sea level.

Day 5 - 15 October 2007

Anna - 16
Operation Deep Climb participant

Once I woke up this morning I began to pack my things. We talked with the cameramen and producers and today our teams would be different. Savannah was a team leader; in her group were David, Andrew and Collin. Mack was the leader of the team I was in; also with us were Santannah and Evan. We were also told that the groups would be kept together and so when would take a break so would the other. Today we started off hiking through very thick, knee high grass. Then we started to see rocky ridges and valleys. Then the terrain changed entirely to rocks, gravel and few trees. At one point Sergeant Gregory explained to us how to identify a poisonous plant, and most of us ate a dandelion. I tried it and it was a little tart.

Soon I noticed that there were no more trees or plant life and the landscape seemed more “like Mars.” At one point I had found a very interesting lava rock that I wanted to keep as a souvenir, but when I asked Bebe if I was allowed to take it, she said no and that Madame Pele would curse me if I did. Later I found an old horseshoe that Madame Pele would let me keep, so I am carrying that with me now. Today one of the members of the team I was in started to feel a little lousy. Mack was a good team leader and adjusted the rest of the team to help out our teammate. I also helped by helping to get my friend’s mind off of their condition by singing, you are lucky you couldn’t hear us.

Our camp tonight is at around 10,500 feet (3,200 meters) of elevation, we were told that we were getting close and then the time went a lot more slowly. We finally saw where we would be spending the night. It was within walls of rocks that seemed to tower over our small tents. The view from this location was one of my favorite sights of this trip so far. We had passed the cloud level today and we were lucky enough to see the sunset at the cloud level.

I don’t know how but the producers brought us hot chocolate for our Nalgene bottles. I was told that the wind chill made it feel like it is in the forties (4.4-10 ° C), which is freezing to this Florida girl. Tonight I shared a tent with Santannah and Savannah. It seemed that everyone went to bed pretty early, I think that this happened mainly because it was so cold once the sun went down; there was nothing to do, but go to sleep. So far I have enjoyed this trip, I like the people that I am with and the production crew is also really fun. Everything we have said on camera is our own words, I have never been asked to say something or read off of a card. Sometimes when I was being filmed while answering a question, just to someone say, “Can you repeat that in a full sentence?” I think the strap of my pack may be bothering my neck, but this won’t stop me.

Mack - 15
Operation: Deep Climb participant

Day five started before the sun even rose, we had to get an early start because we where going to be covering a lot of ground today. The terrain for the beginning part of the day was long grass that was annoying to hike on but the worst was yet to come. At about noon we crossed the cinder line, which is where the trees end and the lava rock begins. The rock was really had to walk on especially up hill. People kept slipping and falling on the loose rock. We stopped for the night by a rock pile where we set up our tents, cooked our food, and went to sleep; for we were all very tired and knew the next day was going to be the day we summited.

Santannah - 14
Operation: Deep Climb participant

The next day of the hike was the longest and most exhausting. Like yesterday, in the beginning of the hike I felt terrible. It was hard to breathe, I had a splitting headache and my body had not had time yet to recover from yesterday’s adventure. Then suddenly I felt amazing, better than amazing, as if I was a new person. The was around the same time that the scenery changed from a rolling hills like terrain to one that look as if it came straight off of Mars. Nothing but red rock and sand surrounded us. Soon my “buzz” wore off and I was back where I started, the back of the pack. I was cold, tired and my body just wanted to shut down. The closer I go to camp the further away it seemed.

When we finally reached camp we set up our tent and I put on as many layers as I could. I drank a lot of water and then slept.

What an exciting adventure for both groups! To see what kind of weather they were encountering, I obtained a radiosonde sounding at nearby Hilo, which is located on the east side of the island of Hawaii and east of Mauna Kea. Winds in the sounding were out of the east at 6-12 knots (3-6 meters per second, slightly higher than 6-12 miles per hour,), so the sounding was roughly upwind of the mountain. The students who rode to the top of Mauna Kea wrote that the temperature was at most 3.9 degrees Celsius; slightly warmer than the 2.6 degrees reported during the previous night, but not much.

The time of the sounding was 2:00 a.m. local standard time (3 a.m. local daylight time), so the temperatures the students on the ground would have been somewhat warmer due to daytime heating. If the air upstream of Mauna Kea were cooler than on the mountain at the same height, what effect would strong winds have on the daytime warming of the mountain? How about if the winds were calm?

Astronomers like to observe from Mauna Kea because of the clear, dry air as well as distance from light pollution. (For more about light pollution, see GLOBE at Night). Clouds of course block their view of the sky. But even humid air affects their ability to observe (astronomers look at the sky not only using visible light but also longer wavelengths, where water vapor interferes). Also, the air is very stable, which reduces turbulence overhead, so that astronomers can observe in more detail. (Have you ever seen how images in the distance “shimmer” when you look at them across a hot parking lot on a summer day? The turbulent eddies bend the light going through them slightly, creating the shimmering effect. It’s fun to watch but not very good if you want a sharp image of a building on the other side of the parking lot.)

In addition to having to work to go uphill, the students were probably having some trouble hiking because of the altitude. Taking the sounding, I calculated the air density. By the time they reached the cabin, the air density, and hence the amount of oxygen available, was 85 per cent of the sea level value.

Here are the blog entries of the two groups of students:

• Operation Deep Climb (ODC) - Day 4
• SCUBAnauts International (SNI) - Day 4