Itchy feet update

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Greetings. I feel I owe you an apology - it's been too long. I got back from the NZ trip on Dec 29th and have been living in what passes for normal life since. However, there's never anything normal about life and there's perhaps even less normal about my life - but you can be your own judge of that statement.

I returned to the UK from a firmly enriching trip in December. I arrived back feeling much more humble than when I left. Unsurprisingly, I also felt much, much more tired than when I left. Both physically and mentally. Strangely, it took only a couple of days back in the artificial world of the office for life at low altitude to send my thoughts out to travel again. My legs ached as I did it but I booked a couple of trips to take me out of my comfort zone. I can't remember if I manufactured the image of my five-year-old self staring at a picture of an enormous snow-capped mountain and thinking I must go there, I need to see that for myself. I do know I don't recall a time when I haven't wanted to go to the Himalaya - to see Everest. Witness the highest point on earth. Interestingly enough, I've never had an urge to go to the top. Some kind of self-preservation instinct perhaps.

Despite all the tentative plans I've made and all the conversations I've had about what I might do, I didn't actually think I would ever actually go. But there's a new drive here. So I'm going - I leave the UK on March 25th.

I booked another thing too. There's a big flat continent know as Africa that I have only ever visited tangentially (Sinai). Along the northern parts of the continent, there are some sandy, dusty mountains but I've never felt a need to see those. Sand and dust do not make me want to visit. But, much further south, south of the jungle and the rainforest, there's one amazing volcano that rises out of the plains of Tanzania - it's called Kilimanjaro. Its snow capped peaks (big summit crater = many peaks) are special - unique. So I'm going there too - I leave on that trip on June 10th.

Seven weeks have passed since I booked those trips and it feels like the fatigue has been growing daily. I didn't really think that was possible but, every time I think I'm exhausted, I find a deeper level of tired. Of course, all this is self-imposed. I'll ignore the dreaded mental (and thus physical) fatigue caused by dealing with the artificial pressure of work. But I decided I was going to enjoy all this as much as possible and the only way to do that was to ensure I was as able as possible when I got there. So I drew up a punishing training schedule and am attempting to follow it in a meek attempt to keep (too late) whatever fitness I gained while tramping around my beloved Fiordland and to increase (sigh) my cardio-vascular fitness.

Why do I need to do this? Nepal. By the time I fly in to Lukla (Tenzing-Hillary airport), where my trek begins, I'll be precisely three metres higher than I have ever been on any mountain. My world, my life, my reality is full of interconnectedness. How can it be only three metres - that's ridiculous. The highest mountain I have ever ascended is Ruapehu at 2797m - Lukla is at 2800m. What a pleasingly strange world this is.

Anyway, Lukla is where I begin eighteen days of back-to-back trekking through the Solukhumbu region - the home of the Sherpas. The first seven days of that will take me to higher altitude each day with the aim of reaching the summit the humble peak (actually a ridge of Lhotse) of Chukkung Ri at 5546m (18,196 ft). After that, ten days of up and down over the high passes of Solukhumbu, including crossing the Khumbu glacier and visiting Everest base camp. That's why I need to be fitter than I've ever been before.

I could keep going on this one (and I will) for quite a while but it's late and I need to sleep. However, I plan to pop back here and try to document the build up (including some of the previous eight weeks). This will be different - I won't be able to document my progress while on the trips (no internet access in the Solukhumbu or on Kili unless one takes a satellite phone and I don't even plan to take a laptop). So you'll have to make do with the build up and a retrospective when I return.

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Comments

[Luis]

exercise? fitness?
What are you saying Matt?! A fitness regime? Are you really going to jeopardise the jobs of all those good folks of the local pubs in Bristol and thereabouts?! Shame on you! I hope you have a nice white board with all the fitness steps to follow and some kind of a sergeant major to kick your butt if you step out of line. Very high altitude is no joke, so good luck on your regime. Look forward to see how one plans a grand trip like this. Ciao, Luis.