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.

Everest2 Programme: Schools & Challenges

To help students to better understand Everest’s rich history, the traditions of its people, and the dynamic forces that have shaped it – I have developed a set of ‘Challenges’ which I will undertake as fieldwork on behalf of the students of Ridgetown District High School (Canada), Sevenoaks School (UK) and Future Hope School (India) over the course of my journey to the summit of Mount Everest.

In the Halls of Legends at the RGS

Last night I had the honor of presenting at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London as part of their “Geographical Journeys: Younger Members’ Micro Lectures” series. I was part of a programme where seven members of the Society gave a ten minute informal ‘micro lecture’ about a recent journey with a geographical theme. As the self proclaimed, “Geekiest Geographer in the Whole Entire World” this was a dream come true..! 

Altitude Training - at Sea Level

I placed a clear plastic surgical mask against my face and tried to relax. The mask was linked via an omnious thin tube to a greyish white box about two-foot square called a "hypoxicator", which micro-filters the air to reduce oxygen and remove impurities. My immediate reaction was a panic wondering if had been a good idea to attempt my first Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT) session of the year without supervision.

Training for Everest

It’s slightly ironic that I’m writing about training for Everest as I’m doing this to procrastinate for today’s training session… It should consist of a 10km run which I’ll *likely* end up doing tonight after cleaning my room, doing my nails, washing my hair, scrubbing the floor, doing my family tree, writing emails to long lost family, twice removed… ‘Training for Everest’ is a pretty ‘hot topic’ and one that certainly deserves a proper entry in this blog as it has literally taken over about 90% of my evenings and weekends over the past 1.5 years..! * Shudder * - no wonder the highlight of my social life involves buying bags of frozen-peas from my local grocer to nurse sore joints … and, these days, having too much to drink involves being wired on orange-flavored Maximuscle viper gels rather than flaming sambukas….

En-suite Camping

 Bear and McGuyver (1 hr in)

The last time I set up a tent was a few years ago. At the time, my father and I nearly had what people in the UK refer to as, ‘a domestic’. We’re both ‘experts’ when it comes to setting up tents. I’d like to think of myself as a modern-day female version of ‘Bear Grylls’ and my father considers himself a more ‘refinded’ and dignified McGuyver. So, let your imaginations run wild in a scenario of Bear Grylls and McGuyver setting up a tent in deepest, darkest Canada in the pouring rain with two ‘experts’ that have a way of making something relatively simple seem infinitely more complicated than it should. After about 1.5 hours the tent was erected and my Dad and I shared a beer to celebrate our success.

Millet Everest Meet Jimmy Choo

I can't say that I've ever been a 'fashionista' but I do recognise the difference between 'fashion' and 'fashion-faux-pas'. I'm sad to say that on Everest I will not be receiving any Vogue-style-points or make it onto any 'Best Dressed' lists in the glossy pages of Hello and Grazia magazine over the course of the 72-odd days of the expedition... I will even go as far as to pre-warn you that I will fall victim to the 'fashion-faux-pas to end all faux-pas'... "Crocs with Socks" (followed a close second by sandles with socks... *shudder*...). Having said that I have come to appreciate the true utilitarian quality of the not-so-fashionable mountain hardwear and have embraced with giant, down clad arms the advances in climbing technology since the original ‘puffa jacket’ was developed by George Ingle-Finch in the 1920s and since Mallory and Irvine set out for eternal Everest glory in their hob-nail boots.