It’s cold at the top of the world.

But at more than 29,000 feet above sea level, that’s not much of a surprise. After all, this is Mount Everest, the biggest of the big. This is a peak buffeted by the jet stream, a summit where temperatures never rise above freezing.

Everest, in Nepalese, is called Sagarmatha, or “goddess of the sky.” In Tibet it’s called Chomolungma, the “goddess of the universe.”

And in May, Bendite Eric Plantenberg stood atop it.

Preparation

If you view preparatory work in the broadest sense, Plantenberg, 39, had been readying himself to climb Mount Everest for seven years, when he and a friend, Scott Patch, started climbing seriously together. Prior to that, he’d done less arduous mountaineering since the early 1990s. Those recent climbs spanned six continents, and with the addition of Everest, four of the seven summits — the highest peaks on each major landmass.

“I wouldn’t have been able to climb Everest without all that experience,” Plantenberg said.

It wasn’t all done with Everest in mind. The decision to attempt the world’s highest peak came about 14 months before the climb, at which point Plantenberg and Patch started to plan out their undertaking.

There are three ways, according to Plantenberg, that one goes to Everest. You can hire a guide through a service, and the service will place you on an expedition with other climbers whom you likely won’t know. You can gather a group of friends and set out to scale the mountain on your own.

Or you can go Plantenberg’s route. He and Patch used SummitClimb, a service that offered logistical support — visas, climbing permits, base-camp establishment — but did not guide the climbers up the mountain.

Once on Everest, he and his 12-person expedition, which included both Western climbers and Sherpas, would be free to dictate their own ascent.

It was a good choice for Plantenberg and Patch. Plantenberg, the president of Freedom Personal Development, which offers memory and business training services, had experience climbing difficult mountains with Patch, and they are friends. Though Patch lives in Bozeman, Mont., they speak frequently and get together about once a year to climb.

It was also an opportunity to make an impressive inaugural climb for the duo’s charity, We Climb for Kids. The nonprofit is associated with the Central Asia Institute, which promotes education in Central Asia. All funds raised by We Climb for Kids go directly to the institute and its charitable works. He’ll also talk about the charity at a presentation and slide show Monday (see “If you go”).

So in December, with plans in place, Plantenberg began the grueling task of physically preparing for the climb. He began to train, climbing Mount Bachelor, lifting weights, hardening himself for what was to come. From December until the end of March, he worked out for four hours or more each day.

Going to Everest, he joked, was bound to give him a rest.

Climb high, sleep low

Plantenberg began the climb’s acclimatization period April 1.

His group had decided to approach the mountain from the north, which is a more technically difficult climb, instead of from the south. The north has less risk of avalanche and avoids the perilous Khumbu Icefall, an oft-changing glacial field whose ice shifts as temperatures allow it to melt.

The northern route is also steeper, colder and more exposed. The most difficult parts of the climb are at higher elevations, which puts mountaineers at greater risk for altitude sickness.

A majority of climbers take the southern route because it’s less challenging. And it’s therefore more crowded. Plantenberg and his group wanted to avoid the congestion often found on that ascent, so they opted for the more difficult passage.

But it would be some time before the expedition could even reach the northern route’s dangerous steps — rock climbs that are completed while wearing crampons. First they had to acclimate to the extremes of high elevation.

The basic rule for adjusting to high altitudes is to climb high and sleep low. The higher a climber goes, the less oxygen he or she has to breathe. Venturing to a greater elevation to build up red blood cells and then descending allows the body to recuperate and replenish fuels in a more oxygenated environment. It helps prevent the body from wearing out and suffering as much shock from oxygen loss.

If a person does develop altitude sickness, the hypoxia may lead to impaired judgment and hallucinations. This, along with exposure, snow blindness and frostbite, is one of Everest’s greatest dangers.

There were cases of frostbite in Plantenberg’s expedition, none of which required amputation: His team made it down the mountain safely. But a member of another team, whom they knew, died on Everest this year.

One in 10 climbers do, Plantenberg said.

The summit

From start to finish, Plantenberg’s expedition took just less than 60 days.

The second of the northern route’s three steps was, for him as well as many other climbers, the most difficult part of the climb. It’s also at an elevation around 28,230 feet.

“You’re wearing crampons walking on rock, so sometimes you feel like a cat on a tin roof,” said Plantenberg. This stage, he said, involves something akin to bouldering with crampons, followed by climbing a fixed aluminum ladder, all of it along the edge of a precipitous drop.

“You’re looking into the Tibetan plateau and you’re falling into Nepal,” he said. “Or hopefully not falling, as the case may be.”

So Plantenberg climbed on, through thick and thin, the beautiful and the harrowing. And on May 21, he reached his goal.

“We arrived at the summit 15 minutes prior to sunrise,” Plantenberg said. “We saw a remarkable sight as the sun came off the horizon and lit everything up in red and orange.”

But that beautiful sight was also bitterly cold.

“We froze our butts off,” Plantenberg said. “Both Patch and I felt like we were risking frostbite by staying up there any longer.”

So after months of preparation and two months on the mountain itself, Plantenberg spent just half an hour on the summit of Mount Everest before he headed back down. That short time at the top is not unusual for climbers, given the summit’s extreme conditions. Nor is it necessarily a disappointment, since the beauty of Everest isn’t found just at its highest point.

“What I would consider the most lasting, beautiful memories that I have are from camp two and camp three,” Plantenberg said. “No doubt the top is incredible, but it’s so intense and so cold that you don’t really stop to smell the flowers.”

The best part of the climb?

“It wasn’t summiting. For me, it wasn’t the act of standing on top of the mountain, but the experience of the whole climb. I found it profound to be in a tent and, for lack of a better term, to be silent for a 60-day period.

“What a beautiful place to experience living meditation for that long.”

Chomolungma, indeed.

If you go

What: Eric Plantenberg presents a slide show from his journey up Mount Everest and tells stories from his adventures.

When: 6:30 p.m. Monday

Where: Jackson’s Corner, 845 N.W. Delaware Ave., Bend

Cost: Free

Contact: 541-647-2198

Eric Plantenberg and Scott Patch started a charity organization, We Climb for Kids, which benefits the Central Asia Institute. The institute was founded by Greg Mortenson and it promotes education and empowerment in Central Asia, particularly among girls. Visit the website to find out more: http://weclimbforkids.com.