Everest2: Ridgetown District High School, Canada - Attempt 2.0

Ridgetown District High School

My mother always says, “If you’re going to do something, do it well”. A rather broad statement but one that drove me to book my 2nd flight from London, England to Canada in the span of 13 days. I was about to embark on my 2nd attempt at presenting the Everest2 programme at Ridgetown District High School. The first valiant attempt was thwarted by a snow storm that cancelled school and therefore impacted my presentation..! Instead of presenting, I ended up sitting in Pinnells Pastries in Ridgetown comfort-eating Ben’s world famous honey-dipped donuts while the snow piled up outside. Not content with accepting defeat, I decided to make another attempt (this seems to be a recurring theme of stubbornness?). Before booking my 2nd attempt, I did have a look at the forecast and whilst it wasn’t tropical, there was no snow in the forecast and the temperature was a balmy -5 degrees. Spring has arrived in Canada…

Everest NE Ridge 2011 Itinerary

GPS 'Spot' Tracker

In Challenge 5 of the Everest2 Programme that I am conducting as part of my fieldwork on behalf of the students of Ridgetown District High School (Canada), Sevenoaks School (UK) and Future Hope School (India), the students will use GPS technology mapped onto Google Earth to virtually follow me over the course of the 2011 Everest Expedition on an adventurous climb up the world's highest mountain via the North East Ridge to the 8848m summit. 

Everest2: Ridgetown District High School, Canada

One of the reasons why I love Canada is the weather. Spending my ‘formative years’ knee deep in snow during the winter and knee deep in lake water during summer are two of the key highlights of growing up in South Western Ontario. The weather is generally quite predictable and, being a farmers daughter, has always played a dominant role in dinner table conversations particularly during planting and harvest season. Given that my father has since retired and weather now only seems to determine what clothing I’ll pack for my regular visits back to Canada, it was a slight surprise that ‘weather’ dominated the dinner table conversation on Thursday evening and ultimately impacted the Canadian-portion of the Everest2 programme.