Namaste to everyone! In this blog of my Everest Diaries series, I’ll be writing about my arrival in Nepal after months of struggle that finally got me here!
It was already March and I only had a few weeks before I left for my Everest expedition. An expedition of this grandeur requires a lot of planning for it to go right; from logistics to operations to media and so much more. Everything needed to be in place; things as little as a missing matchstick when required could result in the failure of the entire expedition. Everything had to be triple checked. At this point it was just me and my parents working as a team and managing all of this. With so much happening around me, it was also very important for me to not lose focus from the actual target.
There was a whole event organized in Noida, my hometown, just before I left for the expedition where all my well-wishers had gathered to hear what I had to say and send across their good wishes to me in person. I could use all the good wishes as I could receive to get me to the top and back! It was so heartwarming and gratifying to see such strong support.
Finally it was time for me to fly to Kathmandu in Nepal. I was accompanied by my parents. They were more nervous than me. Kathmandu is where we would be meeting representatives of Asian Trekking, the agency I was going through and I would also meet other team members right here in Kathmandu. I was a part of Eco Everest Expedition 2010 which was led by Apa Sherpa, a very well-known name in the field of mountaineering, the man who had climbed Everest a record 19 times back then. It was such an honor to be under the leadership of a legend like him. I couldn’t be in better hands. We had team members from all over- ranging from Finland, Holland, Mexico, Canada, Japan and India. It was surely an exceptional team to have around you and they brought a lot of mountaineering experience along with them.
I did some last minute shopping in the busy streets of Kathmandu. As this is the expedition and trekking season, the streets and the markets are pretty crowded. On the other hand as my departure date was coming closer, my mom and dad were getting increasingly worried on the contrary, my excitement was shooting across the sky.
An evening before leaving, we had a team meeting. We were briefed in detail about our plan and a basic itinerary for the next two months. As I was listening to the team leader explaining us the breakdown of our expedition, I realized the shit is real now. This is actually happening! I felt a rush of nervousness and immense excitement at the same time. They had a picture of Everest in the meeting room and all I could see was the summit now. I had to give everything I had in the next two months.
Our trek begins from a village called Lukla (9000 feet AMSL) and to reach Lukla, we have to fly from Kathmandu. I couldn’t sleep the previous night because of the excitement. My parents came to drop me at the airport early in the morning. My mom got very emotional and started crying despite my constant convincing that I was going to be ok up on the mountains! My dad being an army veteran, he held himself pretty well and gave me a piece of advice that probably took me to the top of Everest. In a very calm tone, he told me ‘There will come a point, when your body will give up and that is when your mind has to take over’. Maybe I did not realize the real weightage of that sentence back then but I sure understood it high up on the mountains a month later! I haven’t forgotten it ever since and it has helped me climb all the mountains.
Stay tuned as we head to Everest Base Camp in the next blog. Cheers!
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Here is the first part of the blog - https://steemit.com/travel/@arjunvajpai/everest-diaries-1-power-of-a-dream
PS - Next blog onwards, there would be many more pictures.