Ian’s Mount Everest Fundraiser for SUDEP Action
“On September 8th, I will begin a 14-day trek to Mount Everest Base Camp, trekking to a height of almost 18000 feet. I am doing this challenge in memory of my cousin’s son, Keenan, who tragically passed away at the age of 21 due to SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy).
Keenan was a vibrant, loving, and energetic young man who lived life to the fullest. He is deeply missed by his family and friends, but his memory continues to inspire us. Through ongoing fundraising efforts, we honour his legacy by supporting SUDEP Action, a charity dedicated to preventing epilepsy-related deaths.
This cause is incredibly close to my heart and every penny raised will go directly to the charity as I am self funding the trek. Please consider supporting my efforts and donate whatever you can to support this worthwhile cause.
Although most people with epilepsy live long and healthy lives, epilepsy is one of the top-ten causes of early death. At SUDEP Action, we focus our efforts on providing tools to help keep people safe and on the priorities that bereaved families tell us are important: To prevent deaths; To be supported; To be involved.
We have won national and international honours for our achievements to date, but we recognise there is much more work to do, and this is why we need your donations. With your help we can strive to make a difference.”
Flying into Lukla
Hi All,
Quick update on journey so for.
We had been delayed by 2 days due to the weather and the political conflict. When flying into Lukla the pilot has to have a completely clear sky so that he can see the smallest runway in the world to land on. Unfortunately, it has been very cloudy so to guarantee getting to Lukla, which is the start of the trek, we had to organise a chartered helicopter. This allowed us to start our trek yesterday.
Due to us being behind we had a long day climbing and even climbed in the dark with our head torches until 9pm in the evening when we arrived at our tea house for the night.
Today we have just arrived in Namche Bazaar, a really tough day climbing 800 metres and crossing the impressive Hilary bridge which is 100 metres high. We will go for another acclimatisation climb this afternoon up to the Sherpa culture museum. Tomorrow we will acclimatise and the following day we will make our way to Tengboche.
12km Climb From Namche Bazaar to Tengboche
We have a 12 km climb today from Namche Bazaar to Tengboche. Normally we would have spent 2 days here to acclimatise, however due to us losing 2 days our guides have decided that we can press on as we are all currently fit and well. Once again another tough day up and down hills with lots of rocks and steps, really tough on the legs. I can feel the lack of oxygen now and you have to stop regularly to catch your breath.
Once we reached Tengboche we went to the Tibetan Buddhist monastery. They put on a chanting performance for us which was very interesting. Once we left there we walked to our tea house for the night. Hopefully a good sleep and then day 4 will take us to Dingboche where we will climb to 4500 feet, where we will spend 2 days acclimatising.
Climbing up to Lobuche
Today we will climb to Lobuche 12 km of mainly gentle climbs and then a very steep climb of 1km to take us up to 4910 metres. As soon as we arrived at our tea house we dumped our bags and set off on another very steep climb to take us up to 5000 metres and then back down to our tea house.
Breathing is getting really tough now. On the way we passed through a sacred site where they have many tombs of those that have died on Everest or other high peaks in Nepal.
Unfortunately the weather has been a mixture of rain and sun and there has been cloud hanging about the mountain so the view hasn’t been great. We are expecting the weather to get better tomorrow as we make our way to Everest Base Camp so hopefully we will get some great pictures
Early Start to Gorak Shep
Today we set off early for Gorak Shep and finally after a week of rain and clouds the sun showed his face and we were able to see the beautiful Himalayan mountains, including Everest and other 8000+ metre mountains. On the way to Gorak Shep we climbed in parallel to the Kumbu glacier and after a few steep climbs we arrived in Gorak Shep to have lunch.
After lunch we started our climb to Everest Base Camp, climbing through the Kumbu glacier over very steep rock faces and after 2 hours of tough climbing we finally arrived at Everest Base Camp trek. It was a big relief for our group as things haven’t gone to plan in more ways than one and we were all quite emotional. The feeling of standing below the Worlds highest mountain is quite difficult to explain.
After celebrating and taking many different pictures and videos we made our way back to Gorak Shep where we would stay for the night. Personally, this was a very special moment for me, when we were taking pictures and videos of us all holding Keenan’s flag, it truly felt like he was with us. I must admit I did shed a few tears.
Clear View of Everest
Yesterday we woke up at 4am to climb Kala Patar so that we could get a clear view of Everest at sunrise. Unfortunately the weather gods weren’t on our side again so we decided to descend. We then started our journey back down and descended from Gorak Shep to Pangboche going from 5240 metres to 4000 metres covering 22km up and down, mainly down :) We can really notice how much easier it is to breath.
The tea house we stayed at was really nice, we now have our own toilet that actually flushes. It is owned by a Sherpa who has summited Everest 7 times, what a legend and such a humble guy.
Woke up this morning to clear blue skies at last and i could see clear views of some of the highest peaks in the World outside of my bedroom window, amazing.
Today we will descend to Namche Bazaar and we hope that the mountain weather will behave itself.
