T. A. Loeffler Speaks with Grade 2s at St. Mary’s Elementary
Dr. T. A. Loeffler, who is a famous mountain climber, came to speak to St. Mary’s Elementary Grade Twos on Thursday, May 8th. We had a lot of questions to ask her about her recent climbing expedition to Mount Everest.
One of the first questions was, “How tall is Mount Everest?” She said that it gets higher every year because the plates underneath it keep pushing it up.
Another interesting question was, “How do people measure Mount Everest?” She said that we can use GPS and satellites to help us find out how tall it is. She told us that Mount Everest is on the border of Nepal and Tibet, but Nepal measures it at 8, 848 meters and Tibet at 8, 850 meters.
When we asked her how she trains she said that she plays ice hockey, climbs signal hill with a tire, and does yoga.
We wondered if there was food on Mount Everest and she said that there were avocados, mangos, dates and cherries in the warmer areas but that it was hard to find food as you climbed the mountain.
We also asked her why she needed oxygen to climb. She explained that as she gets higher up it gets harder to breathe, so the oxygen tank helps her to breath and climb easier. Sometimes the air pressure is so low that she needs to take four breaths before climbing one step.
During her visit she also told us a story about a dog who loved to steal eggs. Somehow he got up as far as Camp 2 before they had to take him off the mountain!
We finished our visit by giving her the book Peg and the Yeti. Then we took a class picture with Dr. Loeffler and thanked her for answering all of our questions. It was a wonderful morning!