Look up!

In all the research we did for our trek to Everest Base Camp (and my husband did a lot!), one comment on a forum really stood out. The track is very uneven, there is often a sheer drop on one side, we had to scramble up off the track a lot to let yaks or porters pass and, when we were walking on the Kumbu glacier, there were times when we had nowhere else to put our walking poles other than on sheet ice, so we spent a lot of time looking at the ground. The comment on the forum said ‘for goodness sake, spend some time looking up!’

So, each time I lost control of my breathing due to my asthma and had to stop, I looked up and up and up. At the beginning of the trek we could see the mountains above the tree-lined foothills and near the end we were practically looking down on those same peaks. And as we plodded our way up and down from the 2810 metres at which we started to 5364 metres, through what has to be some of the most stunning natural beauty in the world, one thought kept running through my mind - how important it was to enjoy the journey.

And that for me became the most valuable lesson of the whole experience. I’m very goal-driven and I tend to get a bit blinkered when I’m racing for a goal – this year I hardly celebrated my birthday because I was working in every spare second I had to get edits done. The trek taught me that there is beauty and achievement to be marked with each step towards a goal, not just the end result, and I intend to do a lot more of that from now on.

And, what do you know, that’s a great New Year’s resolution, so I’m actually ahead of myself!