It's such an odd experience reliving an exact circumstance of two years ago, being two years older. In 2011, I left for Kathmandu to climb Mt. Everest right about this time. It seems like ages ago - as if I was a completely different person back then. I feel like last time I just threw myself out there, without much of a thought (but with a lot of training, nevertheless), excited like a school girl at prom. But this time I feel a lot more composed, serious, and confident going in. Maybe it's from all the intense training, maybe it's what happens when you fail the first time and are given one last shot, maybe it's because I'm older and pretty much 30. Who knows? All I know, is that I like the feeling this time around; it feels good. I have no idea what's going to happen in the next 2 months - high-altitude mountaineering can do the strangest, unforeseen, things to people - but I know I am going to enjoy the experience more than ever and will try my hardest to climb this damn mountain.
I leave April 1st, traveling Miami-Houston-London-New Delhi-Kathmandu (fun, right?). Once I get to the bustling Kathmandu, I'll get a few days to organize my gear, buy some last minute things, meet my team, stuff my face with some fatty, delicious American-style foods, take a lot of hot showers, etc. We'll then drive out to the Tibetan border on April 6th and should arrive at Base Camp on April 10th.
As for how you'll be able to follow me and my teams progress....there are a few ways.
1. Altitude Junkies - the company I am climbing with - has a blog that will have updates on our team whenever possible. 2. Fusion-io - the company I work with as a brand ambassador and a sponsor of my climb - they are launching a website which will have ALL my personal blog posts and updates. To top it all off, the site will be monitoring my memory training progress up the mountain. All new blog posts on that site will be linked from the blog on this site (site URL will be announced soon). 3. Twitter/facebook. If you aren't following or liking @ClimbForMemory yet, then do it NOW!!
Here I go folks. Stay tuned.
PS. The picture above is what our camp will look like exactly. Go ahead, zoom in. It's pretty awesome!