Hardly mentioned: I usually mention it only in passing these days, but it’s worth re-looking at what it’s like not having functional lower legs. In particular, not having functioning calves means things you take for granted like walking with a normal stride doesn’t happen for me- so I need to take 10 strides to your [...]
GRATITUDE WEEKEND: original climbing project not completed, body aches, blisters and face falling apart from sunburn. But on the road back to Kathmandu, I looked back at these two weeks and here’s what I’m grateful for: 1) my furkids waiting for me when I get home 2) a chance, at 50+ years old, to summit [...]
DO YOU MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK? four days ago, and after months of planning an innovative high altitude mountaineering traverse involving climbing two virgin peaks from the summit of Chulu Far East, we turned back as we thought the snow conditions to be unsafe. Later that night, lying exhausted in my tent, I couldn’t ignore [...]
Yesterday we travelled 7 hours across rain soaked unmetalled roads to Besisahar, just 70km away. Some pictures here to give you an idea that travel in Nepal isn’t like a Swiss time piece. Rock falls, cave ins etc are common. I saw a total of six workers improving bits of this road, including a pair [...]
Manang people: one if the greatest things of an expedition into an ancient place is meeting people- like Kancha, who hailed me in Lower Pisang, who held a chat with me in Malay( having been a precious stones trader with Malaysian businesses in the 1980s) ; two precious babbling infants, and one big German shepherd [...]
Here’s the latest update since the one from Ghyaru and Ngawal a week or so ago. We acclimatized at successfully higher camps at Yak Kharka (3975m) and Chulu East BC ( 4880m) before making the final stop at high camp(5361m). On the 22nd, we left for the summit at 4am, with the grand hauling by [...]
Morning sunrise over Annapurna II and III from my lodgings at 530am. Now that’s a view worth getting up early. Today we head up to 4100m for a key part of acclimatization for the summit. We’ll be having some excellent ‘Dutch coffee’ or brewed coffee concentrate from Caffe Bene
Lung workout: short but hard haul up 500 vertical metres to Ghyaru in 2 hours; lunch and then a push to Ngawal, our stop for the day at 3600m.another day in the office
Fabulous views for most of the day hiking up the 500m to Ghyaru and then on to Ngawal at 3600m
Caffe Bene Himalayan Traverse update: Likely to lose mobile connectivity by end of today. Yesterday, we sorted out porter loads to basecamp and our high mountain food. We head up to Ngawal (3650m) today. Breakfasting on eggs and a buckwheat pancake. Tactically, we’ll be acclimatising for two days higher up around 4100m, and two at [...]
