USC Dornsife faculty member embarks on journey to the major of the Earth > News > USC Dornsife

As a boy scout growing up in Maine, Ray Stevens nurtured two cherished goals: to operate throughout the Sahara Desert and to climb Mount Everest.

Stevens, Provost Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, realized his initially target 10 several years in the past when he completed the legendary Marathon des Sables — a 156-mile, six-working day ultramarathon across the scorching sands of the Sahara that triggered him to get rid of his toenails. Now 57, Stevens, director of the Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Heart for Convergent Bioscience, is preparing to fulfill his 2nd aspiration by conquering Everest — almost specifically one particular yr immediately after his first strategies had been set on keep by the introduction of COVID-19.

Ray Stevens runs the 2011 Marathon des Sables in southern Morocco. (Picture: Courtesy of Ray Stevens.)

Stevens ran the Marathon des Sables to increase consciousness about the scarce metabolic disease phenylketonuria (PKU). He in the end researched and developed a new drug to deal with PKU.

His commitment in climbing Everest is also to elevate recognition for scarce ailments — an difficulty that stays close to his heart. Not only has Stevens’ scientific job been mostly concentrated on comprehending and managing exceptional health conditions, his daughter, Sophia, was identified with Kawasaki disease when she was 4 a long time previous.

“Many of these ailments go undiagnosed, even by numerous trained doctors. Men and women have indications but often do not know the exact issue,” he says. “I was currently functioning on uncommon illnesses, but I’d hardly ever listened to of this a person. With Kawasaki illness, the immune procedure decides that the circulatory process is overseas, so it assaults it. Fortunately, Jane Burns at the College of California, San Diego was executing a clinical demo with an experimental drug. It saved my daughter’s life.”

This knowledge spurred Stevens to commit to elevating recognition for uncommon diseases by teaming up with the Countrywide Organization of Rare Problems.

“Rare diseases are a thing that men and women don’t ordinarily consider of. It is commonly most cancers, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or right now Covid-19. But uncommon conditions effects individuals in the similar way and we ought to be aware of them,” Stevens says.

Stevens is also climbing to raise consciousness of the Pulmonary Hypertension Affiliation.

Climbing Everest, he states, is comparable to obtaining pulmonary hypertension.

“As you climb, your lungs cannot get enough oxygen. The coronary heart is genuinely taxed, and so climbing Everest is the equivalent to owning that disease.”

A spouse and children affair — but not this time

Stevens left Los Angeles for Kathmandu, Nepal, on March 31. He will then fly to the very small airport of Lukla in northeastern Nepal. From there it will take nine days to hike to Everest Foundation Camp at 17,500 toes.

“The complete journey will consider about two months and most of that time is used acclimatizing to the quite significant altitude,” Stevens says.

For the duration of April and Might, he will do “rotations” — climbing progressively further up Everest, sleeping there and then returning to base camp. The moment acclimatized to the altitude, the last push to the summit normally takes about a 7 days.

To prepare, Stevens has been frequently climbing Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, situated just a few hrs northeast of L.A.

“I slumber up there, then occur down the following early morning,” he claims. “What’s wonderful in winter season is that generally there is no person else up there, so I typically get the whole mountain to myself.”

On his most new ascent, he encountered temperatures of 5 levels Fahrenheit and 6 inches of fresh snowfall right away. On the other hand, that pales in comparison to what Stevens will face at the summit of Everest, the place anticipated temperatures are minus 40.

Ray Stevens climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro with his family members (from still left) Nikolai Stevens, Aleksandr Stevens, Sophia Stevens, Ray Stevens and Vivian Urena-Stevens. (Image: Courtesy of Ray Stevens.)

For the earlier five several years, Stevens has been steadily working toward his goal of climbing the 7 maximum peaks on the 7 distinct continents. Accompanied by his two sons, the elder of whom, Nikolai Stevens, is a senior majoring in psychology at USC Dornsife, Ray Stevens has climbed Europe’s greatest peak, Mount Elbrus, concerning Russia and Georgia Argentina’s Mount Aconcagua, the greatest mountain in South America and Vinson Massif, the greatest mountain in Antarctica. To climb Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest free-standing mountain in the globe, the trio ended up joined by Stevens’ wife, Vivian, and daughter.

This time, however, Stevens is on his very own.

“After Antarctica, where we had to snooze exterior for a month, my sons decided that was more than enough,” Stevens suggests. “I’m likely to overlook them pretty much for the reason that every thing that I’ve climbed has been with them, but my spouse is extremely joyful that the boys are not likely.”

“Just combat by means of it”

Stevens states the mental preparation desired to climb Everest commenced with managing ultramarathons.

Questioned about how he promotions with pain and exhaustion, Stevens states, “You just struggle via it.

“When I was jogging throughout the Sahara Desert, people had been dropping the pores and skin on the soles of their feet because we have been jogging in deep sand at temperatures in excess of 120 levels Fahrenheit. I misplaced all of my toenails, and it was not a very quite sight and it was not cozy, but you just maintain going.”

Stevens claims he is drawn to intense sports activities in normal and mountain climbing in unique mainly because of the solitude and inspiration he finds in the natural beauty of the environment about him.

“It’s truly because I take pleasure in the journey so a great deal. The adventure of it. It is some thing where you come across internal peace.”

Stevens states he feels prepared for the ascent. Indeed, soon after decades of teaching, he was completely ready to climb Everest last yr. His baggage have been virtually packed and stacked by the front door, when his desires had been quickly thwarted by COVID-19. Now travel to Nepal has opened up and he has been given the vaccine, Stevens is in a position to vacation. Even so, he is beneath no illusions about what is dealing with him.

“Everybody claims it is exceptionally hard to do, and even although there’s a ton of things in the media stating that it is easier, it’s not much easier. But it is safer simply because there are greater weather conditions prediction resources available and far better gear to try to stay away from frostbite when the temperatures fall below minus 40.”

Asked what are the major worries he expects to face on the climb, Stevens suggests his initially issue will be staying healthful in a distant space at high altitude. Second is the very first stage of the climb from base camp to Camp Just one through the hazardous Khumbu Icefall. 3rd are the problems posed by the sheer quantity of people today on the mountain. In a regular 12 months, the weather conditions window the place one can summit lasts seven to 10 days, but in a negative 12 months it can be only 3 days and all people is attempting to summit at the very same time.

Stevens’ exhilaration about the climb is palpable.

“When I was 1st recruited to USC, I try to remember chatting with then-Provost Elizabeth Garrett. She mentioned, ‘Ray, are you severely considering of climbing Everest?’ And I mentioned, ‘I’m thrilled to arrive to USC, but at some position I will want to choose some time off due to the fact I have definitely been seeking to climb Mount Everest my full lifetime.’’

Now, Stevens is last but not least getting the opportunity to make his dream appear legitimate — and get the word out about unusual conditions.

“For individuals who have any disorder, together with the exceptional ones, everyday living is just one phase at a time, just like climbing a mountain,” Stevens suggests. “And no matter what mountain you climb, the suggestions is constantly the same: A single action at a time.”