Kathmandu - safe and sound...

If I had had the opportunity to write a post on Sunday or Monday it would have been something like this.

On Sunday morning, setting off to climb Kalla Pattar at 5am in the pitch black at -10 degrees, with only a head torch, a water bottle and a Stoats porridge oat bar for support, I would have have said, right now, if I can do this you can just about throw anything at me and I think I'll cope. We reached the top at 7am with fantastic views of Everest but with a frozen water bottle and no feeling in any fingers to take photos. It was like almost being on top of the world. We descended before breakfast, quick bowl of porridge and then a further 7 hours walking down the mountain.

However, Tuesday, that thought of mine was truly put to the test. Waking at 4 am with violent gastro bug, I had to set off walking for 8 hours, vomitting, rushing behind bushes, crying most of the way down. By the afternoon, I didn't have the strength even to hold my walking poles, thought I would faint at any point. By some miracle, I'm not sure how, but I owe Rinzin, Lakpah, Liz and Bernice a whole heap of thanks for staying with me all the way, I managed to make it to our destination, crawled into a sleeping bag fully clothed and slept for the next 14 hours. It was hell. Me and the doctor, Ross, got it the worst, but others too suffered, including Liz and Bernice.

But, hey, it's over now. We returned to Kathmandu this morning on the first flight from Lukla. I almost wonder if tonight I might attempt my first beer in two weeks, the trip needs celebrating afterall. Looking forward to getting out and about in Kathmandu for a couple of days and feeling normal again.

Base camp not bust - 5358 m

This afternoon we made it to base camp. It has been an emotional couple of days for many in the team. Yesterday was tough, trying to climb to 4,900m whilst battling the effects of altitude and gastro problems.
So far, I've been lucky, nagging headache that feels like fighting a constant migraine, but nothing much beyond that. Fingers crossed, it stays that way.

Most people, including me, were overwhelmed at reaching this final goal and lots of tears were shared. we are now in Gorek Shep, the old base camp, where Hillary and Tenzing set out from. Tomorrow morning we climb Kalla Pattar 5,500m for views of Everest before beginning the journey home.

It's been amazing, but I'm happy to be heading home soon. Missing you very much.

Day 7 - Dingboche 4,358m

This morning Rinzin, our trek leader, demonstrated the P.A.C. - the Portable Acclimitisation Chamber. Two members of our group needed to use it today in order to counter the affects of altitude. It's like a sealed pressurised tent that aims to bring down your relative pressure depending on the external air pressure. It seemed to work, both felt much better after half an hour in the tent.

Today was an acclimitisation day so this morning we walked to a height of 4,663m up some of the NangKartshang peak that flanks the village of Dingboche. A village that used to be very agricultural and so is divided up into what looks like smallholdings, tiny fields where yaks plough potato plots, potatos that are then buried in the ground again to keep them from rotting. Agriculture plays less of a part now than servicing the trekking industry.

Tomorrow we head for Laboche before reaching Base camp on Saturday.

To give you an idea of our routine. The day normally begins with a call of 'Wakey wakey' at the door and a lovely hot cup of tea provided by the fantastically good humoured and endlessly patient guide team. This is swiftly followed about 15 minutes later by the call of 'Washey Washey' at the door and the provision of a tiny aluminium bowl of hot water, which goes a suprisingly long way in the washing stakes. Breakfast is at 7 and before then our bags need to be packed and ready for loading on the 6 yaks (or rather 'dzopko' half yak/half cow as you don't see yaks below about 3,500m apparently) who transport our stuff to the next night's tea house.

Breakfast is usually porridge followed by some kind of egg - omlette, fried or boiled on toast. We start walking at about 7.45 with the call of 'Zim Zim' like 'Yalla Yalla' - time to go. The pace is steady, with plenty of rests and time to enjoy the stunning scenery around. Lunch is at 12, it's hot and filling and normally includes potatos, pakchoy and carrot mix and maybe something like noodles too. The food is actually delicious for both lunch and dinner. Garlic is plentiful and apparently very good for altitude. Before the invention of Diamox, roast garlic was the way to deal with it.

The afternoon walk is usually shorter and we arrive for tea and biscuits about 4pm. By about 8pm I'm bushed and happy to curl up and read somewhere quiet. The nights are cold and this is when you feel the altitude most. Sleep is intermittent for me and I usually wake in the morning like all the moisture in my body has been sucked out. Dry lips, mouth, throat, bit of a bloody nose. But after a cup of tea and a wash and half a litre of water I feel much better.

I can't upload any photos at the moment as connections are v, v slow but when I get back I'll hopefully have one or two to share with you.

Day 4 - Namche Bazar

The trek started last Friday morning with the flight to Lukla, a tiny landing strip perched on the edge of a cliffside that serves as the main entry point to this region. The flight was part electrifying part terrifying. The twin otter plane seemed so insubstantial compared to the almighty Himalayas towering above the clouds. The skill of the pilot was incredible to navigate the plane to the landing strip, we seemed to fly so low over hilltops you could lower a ladder to them, then seemed to head straight for the hillside before a sharp turn took us round the valley.

The first three days of the trek followed the Dud Kohsi (Milky River) a busy route full of yaks, donkeys, Sherpas laiden with 90kg loads, a multitude of trekkers of every nationality. I'm almost 90% sure I passed Billy Bob Thornton on the first day so I need to check some celeb magazines on the way back to see if he was indeed in the vicinity.

Yesterday we arrive in Namche Bazar, the Sherpa capital and historically the central trading post for the region. Our current elevation is 3,500m and so far no serious altitude problems - minor headache yesterday and some very strange dreams but that's it so far. It was a hard climb up but half way up we were rewarded with the first view of Everest. I almost got run down by a yak and had to hold onto a tree and swing myself out over the cliff edge to avoid being impaled by its horns.

Today was a rest day so I took myself off for some 'non group' time alone. Wandering around the hills above Namche I felt overwhelmed by the privilege of being here. It's difficult to describe, especially in the 10 minutes alloted time on the internet and so far, I don't think my photos will do it justice but I'll try.

Tomorrow we continue on....

Phase One over - Phase Two - here we come

It's been a very long time since I wrote anything here but this day has always seemed very far away. The line in the sand between the first phase of this challenge: the fundraising, the fitness, the preparation and phase two: the main event 'The Trek'.

Here we go, then. In a couple of hours, I'll be heading off for Heathrow, so there are only really a couple of things that are left for me to do. Firstly, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has sponsored me, supported the ceilidh, attended the pudding party, purchased a jigsaw piece, all the fantastic things people have done over the past few months - it has been a humbling lesson in the kindness of others. Liz reckons that we have raised around £14,000 between us for RP Fighting Blindness, which is truly awesome.

The only other thing that I need to do now is to somehow lose 2 kilos of weight from my suitcase and find space for 28 Porridge Oat bars (thank you Stoats). Challenges come in every shape and size. Better go...

Will really try and post again en route.

Inspiration

The news report yesterday of Sir Ranulph Fiennes reaching the summit of Everest included this footage of the Andrew North making the journey to Base Camp.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8060747.stm

Just the inspiration I need to commence with the next stage of fundraising.

Half way there....

My final blog entry of the day, wow...did I have a lot of catching up to do.

After counting all the cash from the Ceilidh plus some Jigsaw donations that I had, I have updated my Just Giving page to realise, to my total chuffered-ness that I have just passed the half way mark!!!!!

Suddenly, Everest Base Camp looks like it might actually be more than a hypothetical possibility.

This is the first major fundraising I've done since being a part of SCROLL (Scotland Romania Language Link) back in 1993-95 and I really had no idea what to expect, whether raising this sort of money in such a short space of time would even be at all possible. It has been so amazing to realise the extent of people's generosity and willingness to support something like this. It has surpassed all my expectations.

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support so far... this might be the point where it gets a little bit more difficult - a perfect metaphorical parallel to the trek itself. Head down, one step, then other...

First Hill - Ben Ledi

Sunday saw the first hill of the training regime (if you can use the word 'regime' when you really have no plan at all as yet).

We decided to walk up Ben Ledi as it is within convenient driving distance from Edinburgh, doesn't require any real forward planning and has some great views from the top (added bonus being its proximity to ice-cream shops on the way back too!)

It was pretty cold and windy on the way up but was worth all the effort for the panorama across the Trossachs to the Lomond hills from the top.

Legs held up well for a first proper prolonged uphill walk in quite a while. So now very excited about planning a summer trip to the Alps and a few days walking the Tour Mont Blanc. A couple more practice walks in Scotland first... perhaps

Heeliegoleerie Rock!

Despite the gale force winds, the hammering rain, the fact that I almost didn't get the room after a misunderstanding about confirming the booking. Despite almost going into meltdown with the stress of organising a Ceilidh in a week where I was also serving as a juror at the Sheriff Court. Despite all that,  the evening was a brilliant success. The credit for this most surely lies with the fantastic band we had for the evening - Heeliegoleerie. Their already quite sizeable fanbase got just that little bit wider after Friday. They have a great funky but folksy sound and the ability to teach people new and interesting dances with patience and humour - they rock! The raffle was also very successful, largely thanks to the star prize of tickets to the closing film of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and closing night party. Altogether we raised £760!

And yes, even though at 7.30pm on Friday evening I said never again, I would totally organise another evening like this. It was a lot of fun, the atmosphere was great and everyone was having such a great time. Next time, I may try and eat a little bit more than one cocktail-sized spring roll before the evening starts.

Wanna buy a ceilidh ticket

I'm now learning a lot about fundraising, event planning and generally being organised these days. I think somewhere down the line I might have missed out on a(nother) vocation as I'm loving it! Apart from the sleepless nights where no-one turns up to the Ceilidh and I'm left trying to drown my sorrows in £400 of cheap Union ale (the required amount of takings the bar needs in order to get the staffing for free - yeah, well it made some kind of sense in my dreams!). Or indeed the other Ceilidh-related dream where hundreds of surprise guests arrive and the venue turns out to be intended for sedate bible-readings and is therefore the size of shoe box with maximum seating capacity of six. Despite the fact it's keeping me awake at night, I'm really looking forward to it.

Tickets are selling well (I wasn't over-exaggerating when I told all my colleagues they were selling like 'hot cakes' - I don't know about your oven but I can only make about 10 at a time in mine ;-))

Base Camp Jigsaw is also going well. I've now completed the bottom row thanks to some kind neighbours, friends and local Portobello businesses. 

So that only leaves training...does obsessive watching of The Wire count in any way at all?

One hundredth of the way there... and counting...

Yipee... I had my first donation through www.justgiving.com and so I am now on my way. Thanks Al for getting the ball rolling; may it continue to gather momentum, speed and size all the way to October 19th!

Let the training commence!

Fundraising ...

The main achievement this week has been putting together the website and logo design - very much Fran's artistic talents behind this. It just needs some final syntactic tweaks before it's ready for public viewing. You can get a sneak peak at Basecamp or Bust.

Training (of sorts)

...began this week with a 4 mile run home from work on Monday. The first thing that concerned me was the cadaverous colour of my legs; fake tan never looked so enticing. I made it home, looking less like a jogger as the miles went on and more like I was being chased by a rabid dog - all wild-eyed and flailing limbs. 

I woke on Tuesday feeling like I'd put my legs through the paper shredder but still managed to cycle to work - weirdly the cycling was pain free but the getting off my chair to make a coffee was complete agony. Since Wednesday though, training has admittedly slipped, consisting mostly of Mojitos, Chop Chop dumplings, bacon rolls and cream eggs.

There's always next week...

The challenges ahead

I'm not sure which is the greater challenge: climbing to an altitude of 5,500 metres over a 13 day period in October this year or raising the £4,000 required before September in order to go.

The trek is in aid of RP Fighting Blindness, a charity that raises awareness and money for research into Retinitis Pigmentosa. This is a condition that Liz, my fellow trekker and fundraiser, suffers from as do many members of her family.

Watch this space for further information of fund-raising events ahead...

In the meantime, here's the final goal:

Picture by Bobby Model at National Geographic