Tag Archives: everest

Marathon training.

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This morning, inpired by a book I just finished, stolen from Billi Bierling‘s tent, called ‘Survival of the fittest’ by (forgotten his name) I tried to run 10km from Gorak Shep to Lobuche and back.

Going was just about ok. There is a drop in height of just over 200m (from 5100m). It was snowing a little. I stopped and had two cups of hot lemon in a lodge in Lobuche and spent a while gazing at the photos on the poster of the Croatian Women’s 2009 Everest Expedition. Then it was time to return. Going out took 35 minutes and the return took a painful 50 minutes.

It seems the legs are fine, it was just a short run after all. What did I learn then about running at altitude?

- Arms are surprisingly heavy things to carry.
- Running anything remotely uphill ‘crashes’ the heart
- Having conversations with people is hard when breathless but necessary
- snow in eyes makes keeping feet on level ground doubly hard while eyes are wobbling in their sockets
- Running at altitude gives you a big headache
- It feels a bit pathetic to feel so pathetic when a guy walks past, albeit slowly, carrying 4 large, empty gas cylinders on his back.

7 days to go until this Everest Marathon but I fear that boredom will kill me first. There is little entertainment here in artificial Gorak Shep and not much to keep busy with apart from reading and making the hour long trip over to base camp. While it remains misty it is cold and the spectacular views can only be seen on the postcards behind the desk in the lodge.

Tomorrow I will go and visit basecamp as Billi returns from summitting yesterday. Looking forward to see her and hear her story. And then I think I will go and visit the Croatian Everest Women’s team camp and say hello.

Everest marathon 2009 dilemas

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In about 21 days (29th may) I am planning to join the runners doing the Everest Marathon. There are a few dilemmas associated with it besides risk of heart attack. Firstly I am not going to pay the entrance fee: $US 999 just for receiving boiled water on the run seems nonsensically high for an unemployed layabout. So I am going to print my own number, perhaps either ’666′ or ‘$US999′ would do, and somehow tag a long avoiding the start line, finish lines and shameful cheapskate embarrassment. As far as I can work out it is just a commercial venture, unlike its competing, non-profit Everest Marathon in the autumn, so I don’t feel too bad, not at all in fact.

The second dilemma is that by doing it I will outstay my visa. I has a chat about this with a man in the immigration office today. He suggested that going over just by one day would be “just a mistake, that’s human nature isn’t it? We all make mistakes all the time.” However if I was 15 days over, then “that would be deliberate and naughty. You would get a 15,000 Rp fine (150 Eur0) and up to 5 years in jail.” I’d better buy some good books to read.

Training has been going okayly and probably I will make it. As usual the objective will be to get it over with as quickly as possible. 5 hours of pain would be better than 6. Still the altitudes on the route horrify me.

As this is not a legitimate entry in a legitimate event, I won’t be raising money for charity. However, if you are feeling flush to the tune of one dollar per month, take a look at this:

http://nepalwireless.net/ and http://www.himanchal.org/one-dollar-a-month/

Quite amazing and hopefully it’ll aid education, and speed up essential communications rather than facilitate moronic chat conversations replete with smilies. Though I guess if your brother is working his ass off in the hot sun of Bahrain and you haven’t heard from him in 6 months, a few smilies are ok.

I wish me luck.

http://www.everestmarathon.com/

Me in plural

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Well this is a bit weird, but we’re just practising for taking pictures at Everest basecamp – subject to anybody wanting to have their picture taken that is. There we need to somehow capture the physical change that spending time on the mountain brings. It is a before and after shot – but we’d like to bring them together in one frame. Will be a challenge!

Everest changes, Everest changes people, Faces of Everest – what to call it?

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Here is a plan for a photography book that friends Alex and Billi are going to do. Billi is climbing Everest this season and Alex, mentioned before on this blog, will be up there taking pictures.

I have never been involved in the making of a book before. It is pretty tricky. Do we want to do it to make the book, or make money. How to find some money to make the project happen, to cover the 2 or so months to get the material and edit it into a draft? Who really buys these kinds of books? How many get printed? Are coffee table books all loss leaders?

We’ve sent the proposal out to quite a lot of people now. We’ve had a lot of feedback: From the point of view of the (pre-)proposal, it is not snappy and salesy enough. Perhaps there is not enough writing proposed (600 words, perhaps 1500 is nearer the mark)? And from someone involved in expedition leading, that the residents at base camp are already rather treated like lab-rats: medical research, physiological research, pictures, books and so on.

Anyhow, see what you think. Click the picture above and download the 3 page proposal. See what you think. Would you buy a copy? What would you call it?

Oh – and faces of Everest is kind of there already, and is interesting: http://facesofeverest.blogspot.com/