Everest Blog: One Day Before Trek Begins
One Day before Trek to Everest:
Tim Rippel from Peak Freaks, who has guided 65 people to Everest’s Summit, shows up. We meet the rest of the group: four men from the USA (Paul, Greg, Scott, Herman), one man from Australia (Jason, who is training to Summit Everest in May), two men from Canada (Will and my husband, Rob) and myself, the only woman. But that’s OK; I can take it like a guy. Herman and I are only trekkers; the rest will be summiting the true summit on Lobuche East. Tim goes to each of our rooms to go through our gear to make sure we’re bringing the right stuff and he’s ruthless. He tosses out anything redundant. We’re to take one pair of shorts, one pair of pants, use your coat as your pillow. I have to choose between my fluffy cuddly teddybear-like fleece or my practical climbing fleece. Teddybear’s gone. Then Tim tells us he uses only one pair of underwear for the 21-day trek and climb. I’m rethinking the “I can take it like a guy” thing.
