I am leaving Sunday for Nepal. It's getting real now. I've known for about a month and it seems like I've told a thousand people. But now the time is near, and it is REAL. I am pretty excited and a tad bit nervous. Here's the story... In June I led a trip to Peru and took three guys from Little Rock climbing in the Cordillera Blanca. On the same trip we combined with other climbers from NYC, Denmark, Columbia, the UK, and Australia. (If you want the whole story you can read the previous blogs) OF course we all became high altitude facebook friends, and parted way to our different homes around the world. Fast forward to this fall, Jamie who is a Brit married to an Aussie living in Adelaide Australia posts about a trip to Nepal this fall. I inquire, but realize that I've already travelled to Peru this year, and Nepal has got to be out of the question. I tell Jamie I would love to, but can't. Later I mention it to my wife and she's like "You've got to go!" Of course I think she's just trying to get rid of me. But she's serious. So we work out plans, get her Mom to come visit for a week, and hire a nanny to help transport the kids; and I buy a plane ticket to Nepal. Boom. Just like that! So now I am going trekking with Oscar from Denmark that I met in Peru, and Jamie's friend Mark that I haven't met. Jamie had a last minute emergency and won't be able to join us on the trek, but will see us in Kathmandu afterwards.
This whole trip is a part of Jamie's newish trekking company, Elite Trekkers, which he started after the 2015 earthquakes the devastated much of Nepal's tourism. He formed the company with friends in Nepal to help them and get more people visiting again. Our trek is going to be checking out a new trip they plan to offer. It's called the 3 passes trek. It crosses three high passes, some over 18,000 feet, visits Everest base camp, and then we climb the 20,000 foot Island Peak to round of the trip. I will be gone just shy of one month. I know, I've got the best wife ever.
So I am down to packing and repacking and trying out gear. Trying to get my daypack and backpacks down to a reasonable weight. 11 lbs for me and 22 lbs for the porter. I've got new gear to try out, and new clothes compliments of Royal Robbins Community Leader program. I am stoked about the gear they've sent and can't wait to try it out on the trail. In particular the Valley Performance Flannel has already got plenty of compliments. And I've only worn in for about an hour! Let's hope I can get everything in the pack now. I will let you know how it goes...
