running on impulse: how I ended up at the Everest Base Camp

(I wouldn't exactly call it running. I took baby steps and walked extremely slowly while running terribly out of breath.)

I am 21 years old. Nine months ago, I decided I wanted to take a break from college. It is not common practice to take a year off while pursuing a five-year bachelor's degree. I felt like an oddball, and I still do, but I have now found comfort and pride in the title. I plan on writing a detailed blog post about why I took a gap year, but the following information will suffice for now. To convince my parents to let me take this unwarranted risk, I wrote them a letter. I explained that this is not a decision I've made on a whim and that I'd plan the year out. I wrote, and I quote, "I will come up with a basic itinerary and a budget but at the same time will also be open to embracing spontaneity." And boy, did I embrace it.

Five days before departure, I decided to go to the Everest base camp. It is a frigid nine-day hike to the foot of the tallest mountain in the world. I was asked to run 5 km in 30 mins to prove my fitness. The following day I went to the gym, hopped up on the treadmill, cranked up the speed to 10 km/hr and started running. Within the first five minutes, I was out of breath and ready to give up. I managed about 4.4 km in a very testing half hour and decided that was good enough. I went to the sporting goods store the next evening, bought everything I needed, including a pair of hiking boots which I didn't have time to break into, packed a 10 kg rucksack and was ready to go. In retrospect, I wish I had trained for this trek, but I also think I would've chickened out of going if I had time to do more research. There are plenty of horror stories that would scare people like me of the perils of a high-altitude trek.

daily attire

The ascent was spent measuring oxygen levels, drinking lemon ginger honey tea, attempting to spot the milky way and, most importantly, averaging 18,000 steps and 8 hrs of trekking every day.

The first night I got home, I watched Everest, the movie starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal, Jason Clarke and Josh Brolin. I cried and stayed up all night thinking about what I had just achieved. I realize how precarious it was to go being so ill-prepared. I wouldn't advise anyone to go on such short notice. Mental preparation is essential, maybe more so than physical.

In one of the journal entries from the first few days I had the energy to write, I wrote, "Coming to this trek was a very impulsive decision, and I am not quite sure why I am here". I am still trying to figure out why I decided to go. I didn't waste a minute when the opportunity presented itself and was extremely exhilarated to do this trek. Was I running away from something at home? Was I trying to prove myself? Am I doing this to push all my limits and see where I break? Did I just want to check this off of my bucket list? Is it even on my bucket list? I am still not sure.

Since coming back, I have given it a lot of thought. Why, as a society, do we do difficult things? Why are we willing to put ourselves into extraordinarily unpleasant and uncomfortable situations? Why do we climb mountains? Is it solely to reach the destination on the other side, or is there a deeper motivation driving us? And perhaps most crucially, I wonder if I truly desire to uncover the answers to these inquiries and if they even matter.

If you're wondering whether I notice the frequency of questions I ask, I do indeed. I ask more questions than I can answer. I have learnt that that's okay. I attempt to answer some in part 2: why we climb mountains.