Colorado Teacher Climbing His Way To Everest Summit
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - A Colorado teacher is climbing his way to the top of the highest peak on the planet.
Mike Haugen, a science teacher at Eaglecrest High School, is documenting his journey on Facebook as he goes.
Friday morning he posted that "we are still in basecamp waiting on some mountain logistics and for the mountain to tell us it is time for us to climb."
On May 1, Haugen and his team made it to Camp 3, which is approximately 24,000 feet above sea level, or about 5,000 feet below the summit.
"Camp 3 is towards the top middle of the big ice jumble that is a part of the Lohtse Face," Haugen writes. "If you are thinking to yourself, 'that doesn't look like a good place to camp,' you are most likely looking at the right place on the picture!"
He and the team are working on acclimatizing on the mountain before they make their run to the summit.
So far they've spent more than a month in Nepal, "although it seems like the shortest month of my life," Haugen says.
Despite the difficulty of the climb, the challenges of being so high up must pose, Haugen appears to not have lost his sense of humor.
"For some reason this video [of yaks at basecamp] reminds me of teaching Physics and Chemistry students at Eaglecrest High School," he jokes. "Just kidding! I miss you all!"
