Climbing Kilimanjaro - Smarter Every Day 302

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. Years ago, my buddy, Brady Haran, made the coolest video I've ever watched on the internet, or one of them, where he boiled water at different altitudes on his way up to base camp for Mount Everest. I love it.

Okay, the water is boiled now, and the boiled water temperature rates are 88. [soft piano music] I love it. You should totally go watch this video. But today we're in Tanzania, and this is the first part of the trail to go all the way up to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. I asked Brady if I could replicate his video because I loved it. And he learned a few things along the way about using certain types of thermometers. And we're going to try to incorporate that stuff today.

And a long time ago, I made a video about hypoxia. NASA did an experiment where they put us in a chamber, and we removed the oxygen from the tank. We simulated an altitude of 25,000 feet elevation, and I lost my mind, literally. And it had to do with something called hypoxia. And it's a fascinating thing that happens when you have a lack of oxygen. So today on Smarter Every Day, we're going to boil water at different altitudes. And along the hike, we're going to see how the temperature of the water changes, and we're going to talk about that.

But I think the water is almost boiling over here. Shedrack. Shedrack, right? [S] Yeah, Shedrack. You're very right. [D] Okay, this is my guide. He's the man. Are we boiling? [S] Yeah, we're still now boiling. [D] Okay, let's go see. So how many different places do you think we're going to boil?

We are going to boil the water like this in every camp. So this is our starting point. This is our beginning point. [D] What's our altitude here? This altitude is 8,170 feet. [D] 8,170 feet? Yeah. Where we are going is 9,127. [D] Tonight? Tonight, where we are going to sleep. [D] How high is the highest we're going to go? The highest we can go, and probably we're going to have time to boil the water like this, even if it will be difficult. But we will try to boil the water at Uhuru Peak. [D] Which is 19,000.

Okay, we're boiling. You ready? [S] Yeah. You're in Celsius. Oh, okay. This is Celsius, yeah. Yeah, I'll turn on the Celsius. All right, here we go. Celsius. 92... 92.7 on one. You're 92.7, I'm 92.6 [S] Okay. [D] Now you're a guide. You used to be a porter, right? [S] Yeah, I miss. I miss to be a porter, but sometimes I can carry even more about what I'm carrying right now. [D] Yeah. Was it fun being a porter? [S] Very fun, and actually, it's a very tough job. And for me, I think it's good. For those who want to become guides, it's good to start as a porter. So it will be like... It's a very good consideration for someone to start as a porter and become a guide. So at least you can know how it feels being a porter. [D] So you can relate to the team? [S] Yeah.

[music continues in background] Boom. This is First Camp, and we are at the elevations of 9,200 feet, and now we have 91.8. [D] Yeah. Mine's 91.6, and you hit lock. [S] Yeah, the same. 91.6. Okay, no joke. Earthquake, right? [T] Yes. [D] We're in the rainforest right now. You can see all the vegetation, and the trees are big. [S] We are crossing the natural border between forest and heather zone. We are now entering the different ecological zone. [D] The heather zone is characterized by what? [S] The heather zone, actually, this name is derived from the trees which dominated this area. I mean, those heather trees like Erika Borea and Philippia excelsia. That's why we call this area. [D] Are those Latin names that you're saying? [S] That is Latin names, yeah. [D] Okay. [S] You're correct.

[light upbeat guitar music begins to play] [D] Asante. Mambu, Mambu. Coming up on 10,000 feet. 89.7 [S] 90.0 Very curious to see what the temperature will get at the summit. As you can see, we started with 92.6. Yesterday was 91.4, and now we have 90.0. As we're going higher, it seems like the temperature is going down very quickly. [D] All right, I think this is Kilimanjaro. Two days in, you finally get to see it. Altimeter says 11,500. [S] Which is very correct. [D] Is that close? [S] Very, very correct. Yeah, it's very correct. [D] 89.4. [S] Yeah, let us go with 89.4. [D] Okay. We were in the Heather yesterday. Today, we're in what's called the Moreland. But this feels like Utah or maybe, I don't know, parts of Arizona. So we're in the third region in terms of climate. [S] The correct number is 87.8. [D] 87.8, I got 87.3.

[the porters begin clapping and singing an upbeat happy song] Mine's 86.9 [S] 87.4. [D] So this was 13.7? (13,700 FT) [the porters singing louder] [a call and response part of the song] Jeffrey. [J] Yeah. Let's go. Let's go. [D] Let's go. I wasn't fast enough with the camera, but Olaes is up there carrying my pack, the big pack. He was past me before I could even pull the camera out. Insane. [S] We are the Pofu camp. Actually, according to the elevation yesterday, now we lose like 500 feet down, and we still carry on with our measurement. If you tap this side of the mountain, first you have to cross the ash pit down to the Crater Camp, and then up again like 500 feet to the summit. [D] So we can't see Uhuru Peak. [S] You can't see Uhuru Peak from here. [D] Okay, but that's where we're going. [S] Yeah.

[D] So where are we at right now? We're on the north side. [S] We are on the north side. [D] Okay. [S] Yeah. [D] Okay, the next zone that you walk through is the Alpine desert. This flower is everywhere. [guitar and percussion music begins to play in the background] [S] The elevation here is 13,000 feet, and we carry on with our temperature measurement. [D] Okay. It's a little bit different, yours was.. [S] 87.9 [D] and mine is at 87.5 Okay. I'm going to go also measure the pressure in the atmosphere. It could be that. That could be the difference. [S] It's different even than the one we had yesterday. [D] We were 100 foot higher. Yeah. Here we're lower... Here were lower and it went lower. It could be salt content in the water, too. If there's mineral content in the water. [S] The different in the water source. [D] I wonder if that- [S] It's a different water source. [D] That could matter. [S] Yeah.

[D] Because if this comes from a different spring and it has different minerals in the water. [S] Exactly. And this actually coming from the ground. [D] Okay. That could be it. Every morning, they have to check our pulse Ox levels to make sure that our brain is getting enough oxygen. Ope, 90. I got to 90. All right. Currently 13,100 and ascending to 16,000 over the next 3 hours. We're seeing how our bodies handle altitude on this day because that's going to be a big indicator for summit day.

We're moving up into thinner air and we'll see how we do. Epeta, what's our elevation? [E] We are 15. [D] 15,000? Okay, we're at 15,700 tomorrow's summit day. What are we doing? [Loma] Right now, we are going to 16, which is our acclimatization. Then come back to the camp. You don't need to go further more than 16 because we have to keep energy for tomorrow. [D] Even if everybody's feeling okay, you recommend staying at 16. Don't go higher. [L] 16 is enough. [D] Okay. [L] 16, then we come back. Keep energy for tomorrow morning because we are going to use the same trail. [D] Yes, sir. [L] Yeah, that's it. Loma knows what's up.

This is the briefing before Ascent. We're learning everything that we need to know. It's the trickiest day. You can see all the guides are lined up and they're taking turns, telling us what to expect. 85.7. You have 85.6? [S] Yeah. [D] You think we'll get to the 70s? [S] Yeah. [D] You think so? [S] Yeah. We have to test our oxygen. Whoa. 79.... Is that normal? [someone yelling from background] Turn the camera off! [D] Turn the camera off! [Laughter] that's it. That's it. Hold on.

[Saji, the Guide] Try again. [D] Yeah. [Woman in background] Is your hand cold? [D] Yes, it is. [Destin takes a deep breathe] [Deep breaths] Eighty-six (02%), 94 (Heart rate), Saji! [S] Yes, 96. 91, 91. Write that one. Write that one! [S] Come on, man. [D] It's like walking in loose gravel at this point. [the mics begin to pick up the loud wind] Go ahead. 18,300. It's kind of like a scramble. Climbing some rocks. You kind of have to take a step and stop and breathe because there's not a lot of oxygen up here. I wonder what the partial pressure is of O2 we're at 18,355, about a thousand away from summit.

There's Master, beautiful man on the mountain. I would like to introduce you to a killer step. This right here takes all of your oxygen. Then you have to stand there and you breathe. Then there's another one. All right, man. Yeah, that's good. That's good. The mustache, mustache. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Beautiful. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. The mustache. You get it? Oh, mustache. It's good. Very good. Beautiful. That looks good. We're ready.

[S] Push to the top, push to the summit it's getting hard now. Just now crossing 19,000 feet. Head's throbbing. Heart rate's pretty high. Just got to keep moving. [background music begins to build] Final push it's last 80 feet. [S] Good job. Good job [D] Thank you, buddy. You made it happen that's the sign. Thank you, Okay, we're at the peak, altitude 19,341. I see the gas cylinder. Canini is building a shield. Think we can do it? [S] Oh, yes sir. [D] I can't believe this is happening. We're about to boil water on the peak of Kilimanjaro. [S] Mine is 81.2. [D] Mine's 81.0. [S] Yeah, we did it. [D] We have the data. [S] We did it. [D] Thank you, sir.

[the sound of wind rushing] Okay, before I show you the descent down the mountain, which is a whole other thing, and there's special rescue hardware they have and stuff like that. I want to talk a little bit about things that I didn't put in the video here because it's fascinating. I've got some bullet points here. The first thing I want to say is climbing Kilimanjaro is dangerous. There's a handful of people that die every year doing this, and there's a large percentage of people that don't make it to the top. So this isn't just something you do. This is a once in a lifetime thing for me and my wife. And this is just a really big deal. And so you don't want to do this unless you're prepared.

We worked out a lot. I tried to limit the amount of oxygen intake during my workouts to try to stress my cardiovascular system. We also went to altitude to try to see how our bodies would react to over 14,000 feet. Altitude sickness affects different people in different ways. And so you need to know what your body is going to do. And so we tried to prepare for that as much as possible.

Another note I have here is there's a moment at 17,500 feet that happened to us that was incredible. We looked up and we could feel our hearts pounding. We saw two guides rushing a man down the mountain. They were clearly saving him. It was a rescue situation. He had an oxygen mask on, and it was an eerie moment because we were like, Oh, my goodness, this is the real deal. We are not playing around. At that moment, the porters, who were just so amazing, they started singing. They were calming us down. Inside, we were all freaking out. Wondering if that was going to happen to us. But they were managing our mental state and helping us chill out and just focus on the next few steps. It was amazing.

I would love to point you to a podcast that I recorded that explains more of that. I'll tell you more about that in a minute. Another thing about how we did this, we hung out at around 13,000 feet for several days. We took what's called the Northern Circuit route. That's one of the most conservative routes. If we had not been with Killy Warriors expeditions, with these specific guides, I'm not so sure I would have made it because they limited you. They always say, Pole, pole, or slowly, slowly. Pole, pole. Pole, Pole. Pole, Pole. Pole, Pole. They would limit you with how fast you could walk so that you don't outrun your cardiovascular capabilities.

In fact, on the acclimatization hike, on that one day to 16,000 feet, I got out in front of the group and I was going too fast. And my heart rate ran away, and it took a really long time for me to get that back down. So the guides really know what they're doing. They go far slower than you think you should, but they know exactly what they're doing. I was leaving for approximately, what, two minutes? Probably. And I was a moron. My pace was too fast and our heart rate shot up. And then Loma said, No, right? Loma said, Pole, pole. It takes discipline that I don't have.

Thermometer calibration. Do you remember when Shedrack said, Oh, I think we're going to get down to the '70s, and at the top we didn't? Well, calibration is an issue. I boiled water here in Alabama, which is around 700 feet altitude, and I got above 100 degrees Celsius. So Shedrack might have been right. The water might actually have been in the '70s. A really cool thing happened when we were on the mountain. NASA astronaut, Matthew Dominic, who's really good at taking photos, was in the cupola of the International Space Station the day before we summited and he took these photos of Kilimanjaro. It is awesome knowing that that little spot of Earth sticking up above the clouds, we're on that mountain.

That was incredible. There's a couple of pieces of internet that I think you should consider checking out. The first one is that podcast episode I mentioned. It's a podcast I do with my buddy Matt Whitman. It's called No Dumb Questions. And there's a particular episode called Songs of Ascent. We talk about the porters and all the things that they did to make this happen. It's really interesting, and I think you'll like it.

The other one is the videos that Brady Haran made. The first video was the whole idea here. Brady, when I asked permission to make this video, he said, Look, I don't own the idea of boiling water at altitude. And I was like, Well, you do to me. Because 10 years ago, I watched a video that Brady made, and it moved me. And I've been thinking about it forever. It was an intelligent, really beautiful piece of art and science mixed together, and it's what I want internet videos to be. It was gorgeous.

And to follow it up, Professor Polyakov at Nottingham University explained everything about the experiment, including some things that Brady could have done differently. Now, videos like this don't just happen, especially in today's environment. The sensationalism reigns, and algorithmic pressure is applied to creators all the time. And I understand that you want to get more views and more listens so that you can get more money for advertising. And that's not good for the Internet, I don't think.

I want intelligent, respectful content to have a place in the market. Brady figured out how to do that. He partnered with academia to make those videos, but that's rare, and it's very difficult to figure out. This video is not sponsored by a traditional sponsor. It's supported by something new. There's something called the Independent Media Initiative, and they've given an award to Smarter Every Day. And the only thing they've asked for in return is for me to ask you to be thoughtful about the next piece of content you consume after this video.

And I think that's really cool because a video is going to pop up after this. Something's going to be there for you to click. And the question is, should you watch it? That's what they're trying to do. When I was younger, I would watch PBS. I would watch Mr. Rogers's Neighborhood, which was funded by both public money and private donations. And it was amazing. But TV is not a monolithic thing like it used to be.

So what IMI is trying to do is they're trying to connect large institutions and foundations and even private donors with creators who are making intelligent, respectful content for the Internet. So what ends up happening is IMI ends up being this hub for people that are making thoughtful content. So if you want to check out what they're doing, go to the website, which I'll leave a link down in the video description, and just look at what they're trying to do, because they're trying to do something very important.

They're kicking against the algorithmic pressure that creates sensational content on the Internet, and they're trying to make a future with more thoughtful content, and I'm excited about that. Thank you, IMI, for supporting this video. Thank you for considering checking out IMI. I'm excited about what they're doing. They're a nonprofit, and they're working hard to make thoughtful content for the future, which I'm very excited about.

So now it's time to go down the mountain. All right, we're leaving. [upbeat plucky guitar music begins] Thank you, Shedrake. [S] You're welcome. [D] You're an impressive man. [S] You're welcome. [D] And your team is the best. [S] It's my pleasure. We are very happy because all of you guys make this trip. [D] It's because of Killy Warrior. [S] It's because of Killy Warrior. [D] You have a good outfit. [S] We have a very good team behind us. [D] People like Boaz. Are you relieved? [S] Yeah. [D] I appreciate your leadership.

Highest altitude you can be rescued with a helicopter. Here's the stretcher. 15,000 feet. It's pretty far up there. She bumped me on purpose? So these are little carts that are used to save people when they're hurt. Of course, you got a stretcher here. But I was expecting to see this all over the mountain, but I didn't. But they're pretty cool. They have shocks on them. That's pretty neat. It's incredible. So I'm not filming as much on the way down, and they're asking paparazzi why he's not being paparazzi. It's because everybody gets hurt on the way downhill, and I don't want to get hurt.

What do you feel? [T] I feel very happy that we summited, and I feel very happy that we are now back at the camp for the day. However... 12 hours hours of exertion, and I have no clue how I'm going to climb out of this bed tomorrow. [D] It's not like a little exertion. It's like all you can do, like limited literally by your cardiovascular system. [T] No, because also it's limited by your knees. Your knees on the way down? Yeah. That was a pretty epic journey. It's a great thing to have done. Yes.