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For the past dozen or so years, at the suggestion of my doctors, I’ve been walking two to three miles per day and feeling quite impressed with myself for my physical fitness.
But my pride took a hit when I learned a week ago that John Meyer, a classmate from St. Mary’s Class of 1968, recently hiked to the base camp of Mount Everest at the tender young age of 75.
Over the years John had become a serious hiker in New Zealand, Japan, Europe, Peru and the Grand Canyon. “If I see a mountain peak, I picture myself being up there,” John says. “It’s much more exhilarating standing on top of the mountain than looking at the mountain.” Hiking to the base camp of the world’s tallest mountain seemed like a logical challenge for him.
About a year and a half ago, John — who retired in 2006 as a top executive with the telecommunications giant Sprint — decided to lose some weight. He dropped 40 pounds and felt like he was back in hiking shape. In August 2025, he began the search for others to join him on his trek to Everest Base Camp. He got together with five friends, ranging in age from 36 to 75, in Vail, Colo., where he and his wife Joy live part of the year, and they planned a trip to Everest in April 2026.
In the meantime, John began working out five to six days a week for nine months in Vail, at altitudes between 8,000 and 11,000 feet, to prepare him for the cold and altitudes he would face. This hike would be 2,900 feet higher than any he had ever climbed before.
After waiting for a visa that didn’t show up until the day of his departure on April 16, John finally got a flight from Newark, N.J., halfway around the world to New Delhi, then on to Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, to join his group on April 19.
They spent a few days touring Katmandu, a chaotic city of three million people. John described traffic as “virtually no traffic signals, and street lanes — including center lines — are merely a suggestion, not the rule.”
At 4 a.m. on April 22, the group flew by helicopter on a trip that offered breathtaking views of the Himalayas en route to Lukla, nestled on the side of a mountain, to begin their trek.
Over the next eight days, the group slowly made the challenging hike along the trail and over eight suspension bridges to various stopping points where they stayed in teahouses, essentially rustic hotels with unheated sleeping areas. “If you get four or five hours of sleep, you’re doing really quite well up there,” John says. “Sleep is challenging because the oxygen level is low and you tend to wake up a lot.”
As they gained elevation with each passing day, the views became more stunning. Finally, on April 29, after a snowstorm had delayed their departure, John and his group reached Everest Base Camp at over 17,300 feet of elevation. They had trekked 53 miles, spanning 42 hours on the trail over eight days, gaining 20,000 feet of elevation through the ups and downs along the journey. The group got an extra night’s stay at Base Camp when fog grounded all helicopters on the day they were scheduled to fly out.
While hiking to the Everest Base Camp is a major accomplishment, reaching the summit at 29,032 feet is a daunting task best left to experienced mountain climbers.
“It was everything and more than I expected,” John says. “From the beauty of the mountains to the cultural experience to the challenge of getting ready to go. It was more than an eight-day trek. It was a nine-month journey.”
John and Joy have traveled to all seven continents, including Antartica two years ago. They plan to visit the Arctic this summer. John and his group of Everest hikers are toying with the idea of hiking up Japan’s Mount Kilimanjaro next year.
John had these reflections on his Everest Base Camp journey:
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