Paul Darlow

Darlow

Mad about trekking and the outdoors. See my website about Trekking in Nepal



Travel Blog Posts


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Darlow
October 10th 2012

A couple of weeks ago I found myself standing in the bathtub continually putting on and then taking off a rather snug-fitting wet, rubber garment. Before you get the wrong idea, said garment was in fact a wetsuit, and I was practising transitions for my first ever triathlon that was to take place 2 days later - the Olympic distance London Triathlon (a 1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10k run.) A rather short distance (around a quarter of the Ironman that I'm ultimately aiming for) I was looking to break 3 hours for my first crack at the distance. It should have been a walk in the park. Unfortunately, as far as race preparation goes, mine hadn't been ideal. My previous blog entry ended with me falling off my bike in the Alps. At the time ... read more



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July 21st 2012

Having decided that my next big goal is to complete an Ironman, it is dawning on me that swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and then running a marathon will require rather a lot of training. The running bit doesn't particularly bother me - whilst I would struggle to run a marathon tomorrow, I did 10 of them last year and so the mental hurdle has been overcome, and I know that my body is capable of them. All the literature states that cycling is the key discipline in any triathlon, which is not great for me given that I haven't really done any cycling before - and that which I have done left me with memories of pain and discomfort. Thanks to Gumtree I managed to buy a couple of bikes (one a lovely sleek ... read more



Operation Ironman

Published: May 28th 2012Europe » France » Languedoc-Roussillon
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Darlow
May 28th 2012

Blimey, it's been the best part of five months since I updated this thing. Although that's not through laziness, but rather because I haven't done any travelling since Christmas and didn't have much of note to say. Rather I spent January - April in France at the house, and since then I have been back in the UK working. In a rather radical departure from my normal schedule though, my "work" does not involve actually leaving the house. Instead I am setting up a number of internet businesses which, if everything goes to plan, should fund a modest lifestyle - the real beauty of internet ventures though is that you can (almost) literally do them from anywhere. (Ali, the guy who set this website up for example, famously lives in Malaysia, and I now have massive ... read more



Unfinished business - failure on Lobuche

Published: December 16th 2011Asia » Nepal » Himalayas
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Darlow
December 16th 2011

Fresh from success on Island Peak I was fit and ready for my next obstacle - Lobuche East. Unfortunately, fate had decided otherwise and I succumbed to a nasty case of man flu. Leaving the tent at 3am on summit morning I knew it was going to be a struggle but I decided to have a crack at it anyway. After struggling up the mountain for a couple of hours, and with the difficult bit about to start, I decided that being lightheaded and dizzy on ice slopes of up to 75 degrees was probably not wise. I therefore headed back towards my tent. It was the first time I have failed to get to the top of a mountain (more testament to the fact that I have never tried anything difficult than anything else) and ... read more



Island Peak

Published: December 12th 2011Asia » Nepal » Himalayas
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Darlow
December 12th 2011

After the previous couple of weeks, Island Peak was pretty straightforward. True, summit day itself was a bit of an epic (we started at around 1:30 in the morning and didn't finish until about 4 in the afternoon) but I have no tales of frost bite, -40 degree windchill or nasty toilet experiences to recount. Indeed, I actually got a few hours sleep the evening before the summit bid - thanks mainly to the fact that our camp site (5,100 metres ish) was about 700 metres lower than the camp on Mera Peak and therefore considerably warmer. The climb itself was unremarkable at first: About 3 hours of trudging up a rocky path followed by some easy angled snow. Then, however, it started to get more interesting with a 600 metre climb up to the summit ... read more



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December 1st 2011

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Mera Peak is a pretty popular mountain. Many hundreds of people have a crack at it every year. Whilst it is a physical challenge and the views are fairly spectacular it is not a wilderness experience. Luckily, most people who climb Mera head back from the summit exactly the same way they come in. The main alternative is to walk East into the Hinku Valley from where you can then go North over the Amphu Labste. Because the Amphu is fairly difficult, and because you need to be well equipped with tents, food, stoves, climbing equipment etc etc etc very few people go this way. I had done the Amphu before (during my first ever trip to Nepal in 1999) and remembered it as the most amazing place had ... read more



The ascent of Mera - success, (sort of)

Published: November 29th 2011Asia » Nepal » Himalayas
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Darlow
November 29th 2011

One thing that the Nepalis are very good at is persuading tourists to spend money. And it's a good thing too since about 90% of their economy depends on tourists (with most of the rest being international aid). One way in which this makes itself evident is the "Trekking peaks." These are a group of around 30 mountains which the Government has renamed - the thinking being that if you can "trek" these peaks they must be easy. Thus satisfied that they are within most peoples' grasp, many hundreds / thousands of people every year purchase a permit to "trek" to one of the summits and hire the necessary porters and guides etc etc etc Only later do people normally realise that they are actually a bit more involved than just trekking. Mera Peak is perhaps ... read more



Mountaineering training at 5,000 metres

Published: November 27th 2011Asia » Nepal
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November 25th 2011

Right, hi everyone. I'm back in Kathmandu with a few fun stories to tell. I also have frost nip (the pre-cursor to frost bite) on 7 of my finger tips. But, we'll get to that in good time! For me, this blog entry is where the fun begins - a bit of mountaineering rather than just trekking. I have previously mentioned that I had four objectives for this trip: 1) Ascend Mera Peak - 6,476 metres (21,247 ft) 2) Cross the Amphu Labste - 5,780 metres (18,963 ft) 3) Climb Island Peak - 6,189 metres (20,305 ft) 4) Climb Lobuche East - 6,119 metres (20,075 ft) Whilst none of the above are particularly difficult (technically speaking) they do require a combination of a) Ice climbing b) Rock climbing, and c) Abseiling Given that a fair portion ... read more



The Throne of the Mountain Gods

Published: October 19th 2011Asia » Nepal
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October 19th 2011

The purpose of my first month in Nepal was to get fit and acclimatised before the proper mountaineering begins. To this end I chose to walk to Makalu - the fifth highest mountain in the world, standing at 8,463 metres. Makalu is a particularly hard mountain to climb. Edmund Hillary (of Everest first ascent fame) failed twice to climb it. Even Messner (one of the best mountaineers ever) only succeeded on his third attempt. The day that I arrived at base camp, a group of Polish climbers were leaving. They successfully put three climbers on the summit. At a cost however. They had to call in a team of Nepali climbing sherpas to rescue them after two people were afflicted with such bad frost bite that they could not walk. In the days before helicopter evacuations ... read more



This is why I travel

Published: October 19th 2011Asia » Nepal
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Darlow
October 18th 2011

For the last 48 hours I have been living in the home of Nawang Temba Sherpa and his family, having finished the first part of my Nepal trek. As I write this it is 11:44am and I have just eaten a fabulous meal of daal bhat. To explain how I came to be living with a Nepalese family let me take you back 18 days - that was the 5th day of my trek and I had just struggled up a seemingly vertical hillside for around 800 metres with a backpack weighing 17kg. It was at least 25 degress, very humid and I was tired and dehydrated. No problem! An acquaintance had recommended a guesthouse run by a very helpful man who cooked excellent food - Nawang Temba Sherpa. I was, however, confused as I could ... read more






Tot: 0.146s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 7; qc: 76; dbt: 0.0421s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 1; ; mem: 6.6mb