this trip has been epic on many levels. but it has also been an important one, to me. in terms of group dynamics, i think it turned out surprisingly (or not) well, given how we're all rather different, and the age gap.. but then again, being climbers, i guess we're all also about the same. part of a small percentage of nutters from singapore who would attempt to do such a thing as climb a mountain 6189m high.

anyway, the entire story of my trip would be too long to post here, and i'm not about to write a book (unlike the many mountaineers who pen their adventure/triumph/sorrow as i saw in bookstores). mostly just a reflection of my trip.

so i was asked, on our "last day" of trek, what my 3 main takeaways were. maybe i am used to facilitation, after all those years of formal schooling with "experiential learning", cos i was already thinking about that. in fact, i was already thinking about what to blog.

1) self-discovery. cliche maybe, but when you really climb a mountain (not metaphorically), it exposes who you really are. and i guess i was stronger than i thought i was. in the first place, i already think my comfort zone is pretty big, compared to most others (boys and girls) my age. yet there were many times during the trek when i felt like giving up. close to breaking down, even. in the end though, i still pushed on, and surprised myself with how far i went. (and no, i didnt summit. came within 2 hours of the summit but was too tired)

2) the environment. there are times when you can overcome the physical exhaustion to think about other loftier contemplations that doesnt revolve around your next step.
how the environment is being degraded by such activities, erosion and weathering.
how development in nepal has reached what to me is a rather curious stage, where there are no roads or motorised vehicles and people go to different towns on foot/horseback/yaks, yet people are not in desperate poverty (unlike what i see in many other places).
and most of all, how Nature still triumphs over man. we may flatten our hills and level our valleys, fill sand in our seas and dig up sediments from our land. yet in certain places, no matter what you do, Nature still holds the trump card. and we are at its mercy. mountaineers fully appreciate this. no one tries to "conquer" a mountain; that is too presumptuous of us.

3) faith in God. through the most grueling times, that's when faith is what gets you up more than physical strength. without Him, i most definitely would not have gone as far as i did. prayer and hymns got me up. all i can do is to praise the Lord for giving me strength and determination.


but perhaps the conversations we had on the mountain are the most weighty and valuable. i realise that i need to exercise more clarity and brevity in my thoughts, conversations and writings. and we talked just about everything. mountaineering to relationships to diet and excretion to consumer psyche to education to interviews. and probably more. with little else that we do each day apart from eat, walk, shit and sleep, conversations filled the gap.


all in all, i guess i got more out of this trip than i bargained for. in a good way. and i'm glad i have the fortune to be able to take such a trip at my age, with such company.




on to the more factual aspects of the trip, here are some "highlights"
1) being ill. having a fever, loss of appetite, terrible diarrhea (having to walk 10m to the squat toilet in the cold to 'lao sai' 3 times in the night is no joke), queasiness and vomiting while on a mountaineering trip is not the best thing to start with. honestly, i dont recall having been so ill before in my life, and it was not pleasant nor comfortable having to deal with it 2000-3000m high up. but thanks to the conscientious care and nursing accorded by better-conditioned friends, i recovered well enough to continue with the trek and climb.

2) the summit push. when i left singapore on 18 oct, i had the idea that this would be the main highlight of the trip. guess God had other plans.
when you're on your way up, especially in the dead of the night with just a headlamp to light the way, you really question what the hell you're doing there. pure mind over body. after we reached cramp-on point, and when we were nearing the ice wall, we saw a dead body being dragged down by the Sherpas/porters. he succumbed to Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) after coming down from the summit from what i heard. his body was left there for a day or two because of poor weather conditions, before they brought it down to base camp for it to be ferried to Kathmandu (presumably) by helicopter.
mountaineering is actually a very selfish sport. there is nothing in it except for the individual. especially when the risks are high -- climbing at the Death Zone (7600m and above).

3) flight delay in lukla and the subsequent evacuation. the hope that the clouds will clear in spite of how everything indicates otherwise. followed by the frantic formulation of contingency plans. and then the wait. when the plane which got stranded in Lukla before the clouds came in finally took off on Saturday evening, everyone in town gathered around the airport and cheered :D and on Sun morning, right after breakfast, we packed our bags, ran 1.5 hours down the mountain to the helipad (an open field), and took a chopper to a military airbase about 20 minutes away. followed by a plane back to Kathmandu :D





other trivialities from the trip
taking a dump at 5250m

taking a dump when it was snowing at about 5400m

appreciating a toilet bowl and toilet paper. and solid walls. among many other creature comforts.

meeting other people along the path, and talking to them. a few people whom we kept meeting and had some kind of rapport include an Aussie trio who did Mera peak and then Island peak, while staying in tents. met them once while still pretty high up on the mountain, another time when we were back in Lukla, again at the airbase and yet again in Kathmandu.

how everyone there seems united by a purpose, with a common thread linking all of us. not that you feel bonded to them, but just that strangers talk to each other in a way that you dont see on a usual holiday. i mean, no one, while on holiday at the beaches in Gold Coast, for example, would go up to another bunch of people there and make small talk. or maybe there are such people.




definitely, there are many other parts of the trip i've left out. there's just too much to cover, and if i write out everything, this would become an extremely boring, day-by-day account of 23 days in Nepal.


i have realised that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way i live though. but that is a topic for a blogpost another day. i'm too tired to say anymore now.



photos will be up another day. cant wait to develop my film and see how my photos turned out. Olympus was not so tough after all, and gave up on me during summit push.

The team (from left): Alvin, (Big) Joce, Kim, Chew, Me, Joe and Siyuan
Photo credit: Kim and her G11

Thanks guys for the trip of my life (so far) :D