Climbing mountains to conquer pain

Ask Sachi Arya why he climbs mountains despite suffering serious osteoarthritis in both his knees, and he tells the story of climbing down from the Mount Everest base camp in 2018.

It was cold, he recalls — 7 or 8 degrees. But the scenery was beautiful. Then nature called, and he found himself squatting on the ice to do his business, his knees bent painfully.

“When I finished and tried to stand up,” he said, “my knees gave out and I fell.”

Fell right into his business. Arya, 49, laughs at the memory. “So I cleaned myself up with alcohol wipes and was back on track. But the scenery was still beautiful, and I’d reached my goal, so it was worth it. And that is what mountaineering is all about.”

Arya, a data analyst for Valero Energy Corp., recently returned from Tanzania where he summited Mount Kilimanjaro, the world’s tallest free-standing mountain at 19,341 feet. Arya has been able to control his knee pain enough to make not only this summit but 21 others in Colorado, Washington, California and Nepal since 2015.

While Kilimanjaro requires little technical climbing with ropes, ladders, crampons and other equipment, it’s not an easy mountain to conquer because it’s a long climb, taking five to nine days, depending on the route. It took Arya 6 ½ days to reach the top, plus another day and a half to return to the bottom.

Each day, as climbers go higher, the oxygen levels drop and they’re more likely to suffer altitude sickness, which makes even the simplest tasks harder.

“You can’t sleep. You can’t eat. And when you do eat, the food sits in your stomach like a stone because your digestion slows,” he said.

And every day they’ve got to get up and do it again, which is why, depending on the route, 30 to 70 percent of climbers fail to

Robin Jerstad / Contributor Sachi Aryi suffers from osteoarthritis, yet he recently summited Mount Kilimamjaro and has reached Mount Everest base camp.