The Journey, September 2024

Traveling today is something of a competition.  My friend has a goal of visiting 100 countries.  The depth and quality of experience is not important as long as there is a stamp in his passport.  He is “doing” the countries. 

During my recent visit to London, I picked up a book by a Togolese author Tete-Michel Kpomassie “An African in Greenland”.  Being on my way from Greenland the title tweaked my interest.  The story intrigued me, I bought the book, and I could not put it down once I started reading it. 

Aside from the author’s fascinating observations about Greenland, the journey, central to the story, is the real jewel of this book.  The author run away from home at the age of 16 and spent six years traveling to Greenland, the imaginary place that existed in his mind.  His interest in Greenland was based on a book he read in a church in Togo.  His desire to get there overshadowed all other aspects of his young life.  It became his passion, his obsession.  He devoted all his efforts and faculties to achieve this goal.  It propelled him to learn, discover and become a better person.  He perfected his French, learned English, Danish and Greenlandic.  He worked many jobs and met fantastic people who intrigued by his perseverance assisted him greatly in reaching Greenland.  It is a story about humility, passion, quest, curiosity and life well lived.  Life lived through experience and agency.  Despite the juxtaposition of Greenland and the author’s Togolese origins, countless obstacles and lack of money, he succeeds and fulfils his dream.   This journey changed his life and made him a different person.   Without realizing it, he embarked on a quest that shaped his life.  Which takes me back to my friend’s experience, it’s not a journey, it is just another trip.   I don’t want my travels to become just another trip. I hope that each one is a small part of a long journey… When it is no more, I will stop.

The Fear of Losing Interest, August 2024

I recently read a mountaineering book by Rafal Fronia (a contemporary Polish alpinist), in which he stated that “he is afraid of the moment when he will not want to do anything anymore (in reference to climbing and exploration) and lose interest”.   This really got me thinking.  Will this moment come for me too?  Is this possible?

Thinking about it, I am also afraid of it.  Losing one’s passion and interest, something that is so central would be unthinkable.  And yet, it can happen…

As we get older some of us lose interest in things that once were exciting and important to us.   It happens gradually or suddenly.  I have seen people hanging up their crampons and saying that this is something they did when they were younger and bold.  Is it because their passion was not deep enough?  Is it the influence and pressure of the society? 

Having a passion and strong interest is fundamental to maintaining a healthy mind.  A genuine passion makes one curious, open and engaging.    It fends off apathy and decline into mental drudgery.  It gives you something to live for, fills your life, gives you a sense of purpose. All things in short supply in the age of smart phones, internet and the epidemic of loneliness.

Maintaining the passion for exploration and outdoor pursuits has another dimension.  It requires a level of fitness and endurance which needs to be maintained.  This means commitment to training, diet and sleep.  This process is a self-reinforcing mechanism as outdoor pursuits become part of this regiment.  The passion becomes the lifestyle worth developing and defending against societal pressures.  The benefits of this way of life reach far beyond just having fun outside.  They impact all aspects of life.   The benefits last a lifetime and get more meaningful as one gets older.  So, in a way, if one transforms this passion into a real way of living, losing it seems almost impossible.  A process which is definitely worth pursuing and fighting for. 

The four quadrants of adventure travel (time, fitness, interest and means) April 2023

This is a hard one.  When I was younger and broke, I naively believed that once I mature, finding travel companions for my adventures would become easier.  After all, the future imaginary mates would have understanding partners, money, time and be as fit as the naïve 25-year-old that I was.

Fast forward to 2023.  Finding the travel companions has never been harder!  After careful analysis I concluded that there are four requirements to be an adventure traveler.  Let me dissect them from the perspective of a mature person that I am.  The four pillars are:  time, interest, fitness, and of course, means or money.

Time

The 40- and 50-year-olds are in the prime of their careers. Often, they hold responsible positions and consequently do not have time required for a good adventure (a few weeks to a month at minimum).  Taking a month off from work or family is a non-starter.  If they can get away for that length of time, vacationing with family is a priority.  Time, therefore, is a precious commodity.  Unfortunately, time also marches on and the opportunity to experience adventure may not come again.  Regret is the ugly sister of passing time.  Some people have money but no time.

Interest

The sense of wonder is a beautiful quality of the young that seems to disappear with age (I want to write another post on this topic).  As we age, we become rigid and cynical.  We start to see the ugly and the mundane side of life.  We therefore seem to lose the sense of innocent wonder and awe.   Consequently, we lose interest in new places and new experiences.  What excited us in our youth, no longer seems important.   Other things take its place and start to hold our attention.  We get sucked into the vortex of expectations that society places on us.  Climbing and trekking is replaced with golf and dinners at the country club.  We earn money and lose interest.

Fitness

Maintaining fitness after 40 requires time and commitment.  As our attention is divided between family, work and other commitments, fitness takes a back seat.  Once we stop, getting back into it is very hard and requires serious commitment of time and patience.   Since adventuring requires a base level of fitness and a tolerance for roughing it, many people are simply unable to do it.  Since this activity is not important to them (they lost interest – see above) and they do not have time, they give up.   They have money, no time and are not fit enough.

Money

This is self-explanatory.  The unfortunate part of adventure is that is does require money.  As we age, we devote our financial resources to more pragmatic things such as housing and retirement savings.  There is not much left over for adventure.  Not all adventure requires a lot of money.  One can sleep outside or in tent.   This however requires a base level of fitness and interest to be able to put up with discomfort.  In the absence of money, the options are limited. 

People with free time and interest often have no money.  People with money, have no time, are often unfit and have lost interest.

So, there you have it, the four interconnected pillars of doing adventure travel.  Meeting all four requirements is very rare and difficult after a certain age.  I have therefore a hard time with finding mates to go on trips. Consequently, I often do it alone.

The joy of unplanned travel (March 2023)

My most recent visit to Nepal was a last-minute affair.  Due to on-going uncertainty in the world, I did not firm up my plans until 3 weeks before my departure date.  Consequently, I did not have a solid plan beyond going back to the Khumbu region.  Once I arrived in Kathmandu, I did not have time to discuss the details with my guide as we departed for Lukla a few hours later.   Once on the trail, we figured out a rough plan and a timeline for the next two weeks. 

Once we arrived in Lukla, it felt very unstructured and surprisingly it was a good thing although my mind was fighting hard to put some sort of framework around the trek!  I had all the freedom in the world to change the plan as we went on.  We did change the plan quite a few times and, for example, I did not decide to climb Lobuche East until the day before doing it.   I had the freedom to decide whether I would be fit enough and sufficiently acclimatized to do it.  Because I had no expectations, I had the freedom to completely relax and enjoy each moment as it unfolded.  On Lobuche, I did not expect to get to the summit and the climb was very enjoyable and relaxed.  Frankly, the only reason we got to the top was because of the cold.  We had to keep moving to stay warm and by sunrise we were on the summit.  I had no pressure of expectations to get to the summit at any cost.  It was all very impromptu and therefore, very enjoyable. 

The hike up the Gokyo Ri was also a last-minute affair.  I was enjoying a lazy day off in Gokyo, sipping my fifth cup of lemon tea and just decided to hike up the hill with no pressure or any expectations to get to the top or see something specific.  It turned out to be a fabulous afternoon.  I continued my lazy day on the summit with the fantastic panorama of the Himalaya in front of me and a homeless dog for companion!

Not having a solid plan, I could relax and enjoy each stage of the journey as it unfolded.  As we traveled along, we discovered new options and possibilities.  I have never heard about Sumna Pass until we arrived in Thame and talked to the locals.   Thanks to our unplanned approach to the trek, we could discover new ground and possibilities.   The trip also felt longer because we did not know what the plan really was. 

Since Sumna Pass was a new territory to us, we hired a local Sherpa to show us the way.  Thanks to our unplanned approach, I had an opportunity to meet an interesting person who climbed Everest many times and had just returned from the recent attempt to climb Cho Oyu from the Nepal side.   

In retrospect, I really enjoyed this experience of unpredictability and the thrill of the unknown.  I would do it again, just go to the area of interest and explore.  One of the reasons that we do these kinds of trips is to get away from the structured and regimented way of life back home.  We then carry this structured approach to the trail and if things do not go our way, we become disappointed and upset.   Traveling with limited expectations brings joy and creates an opportunity for true discovery.   It also opens the door to adventure which is the reason that we do it in the first place.

Regret (posted October 2020)

This year I am turning 50.  A milestone of sorts.  Whether I like to or not, a milestone like this forces some analysis and introspection of my 50 years on this planet.  

Also, 2020 turned out to be the year of the pandemic and consequently, a multitude of restrictions, cancellations and altered plans.  One of the connecting threads of both events is the question of regret.   At 50, one can ask a question whether there is any regret for things not done?  The pandemic amplified this for me because the shutdowns and restrictions put a stop to my plans for travel in the immediate future.

Although I have no regrets for things done, sometimes I ask whether it would have been possible to have done more?  I think, perhaps, but maintaining the balance of family, work and pleasure is difficult.  I have to maintain the balance otherwise none of the individual elements on their own make sense to me (I have heard this from a number of people I met over the years, although I know that others feel differently).   No experience of travel or exploration is worth neglect of the family or of other important matters in life.  Travel and exploration at any cost is not worth it for me.   This impacts how much risk am I willing to take.  Many times, not “pushing it” limited my humble accomplishments in the outdoors (for example, turning from the summit of Ancohuma 150m before the summit).  I can have regrets but if I evaluate the decision in the context of balance, I remind myself that I should not feel that way.  It is easy to feel regret after the fact forgetting about the factors that led to the decision to stop or turn around at that time.  

The pandemic brought another issue to the forefront for me: is it wise to postpone plans to do things that one really wants to accomplish until some later year in the future?  Looking at the world-wide chaos and fear, I am happy that I have done all the travels and adventures when I could.  It has not been easy to balance my addiction to travel to high places with matters back home but somehow, thanks to the people around me and planning, it happened.  It would have been easy to say: later, when I am freer or have more money.  In retrospect I am very happy I did not wait.  Now, who knows what the post-pandemic world will look like and who knows what’s around the corner for each of us?  In October 2019 when I was in Nepal, who could have predicted that the entire region would close for trekking the following year and none of the experiences I had would have been possible.  I am glad that I did not wait. 

Planning for the future in the uncertain times (Posted April 2020)

Recent events of the global pandemic made me realize something interesting.  I noticed that one of the biggest causes of anxiety for many people (aside from the health issues), is their loss of perceived control over their lives and the uncertainty about the future.  Suddenly, for many, the carefully laid out plans for the future are being put in jeopardy and, life as we know it, has been turned on its head.  

While trekking in Nepal, I noticed that my Nepali friends never discussed their future with me or planned their lives to unfold along some pre-engineered path like we tend to do.  I was curious whether they did not discuss these plans with me because they wanted to keep those matters private, or whether they just did not concern themselves with it as much as we tend do in the West.  

In the West we tend to devote a lot of time and planning to the future.  We think about saving for the future, plan for retirement, invest with the future in mind.  Sometimes it feels like, for some of us, the future takes over the present.  We work hard and forget about enjoying the moment sacrificing it for some nebulous and prosperous future.   I know some people that do not travel or take vacations because they are focused on working all the time and saving for their retirement or investing. They put off gratification and living in the moment for the future.  For those of us that do travel, we sometimes plan future trips while the one we are on is not yet finished.  It seems that we can’t live in the moment. 

After noticing this interesting difference between our cultures, I asked my Nepali friends about the reasons behind their approach to life.  I was told that is has a lot to do with karma.  They believe that their life is an outcome of the accumulated karma from their prior lives and past deeds.  As such, an individual has little influence or impact on the pre-determined flow of events, and no amount of planning will alter the final outcome.  Their lack of control over the future is the main reason for their surrender and acceptance of “what is”.  They are resigned to taking daily events as they come and do not fight the current of life that, in their minds, is impossible to stop or change.  Consequently, they live in the moment since they feel that they cannot control the future in any way.  

Perhaps these challenging times bring us closer to this line of thinking.  All of the sudden, we are unable to plan and see clearly beyond the next week.  The future feels uncertain, and it seems like we can no longer control the outcome, no matter how hard we try.  The events unfolding around us are too big and momentous.  We are forced to surrender and must live in the moment to maintain our sanity.  

The current situation made me remember and appreciate this approach to life and helped me to relax my efforts to “control” the future.   I still try to do what needs to be done and hope for the best. I also accepted that the outcome may be outside my ability to control and, like my Nepali friends, I accept the flow of events as they come.  By surrendering to the moment, the future does not seem so scary and what will be, I have to accept.       

Staying Healthy while on the trail (Posted February 2020)

When you go trekking for extended periods of time, there is a chance that you may get sick.  The most common problems are gastrointestinal issues related to hygiene and food quality.  I also find that trekking at high elevations can result in respiratory infections that are almost impossible to shake.  I had some bad colds and lung infections at high altitudes, and it was not fun.  Any medical issue can ruin your trip and put you in danger.  So, what is one to do?

1.       Prevention – the best strategy is not to get sick in the first place.  Watch the hygiene on the trail as much as you can.  Wash your hands and make sure that your crew does the same.  Watch how they prepare your food and ask them to follow simple strategies of hygiene. Avoid people with obvious signs of colds and infections.  Do not touch animals that you do not know and children that look ill. Take supplements such as Vitamin C and Ginko for the altitude.  Watch toilet hygiene (wash hands etc).   Watch what you drink (boiled water only) and what you eat (cooked food).  Remember that water boiling point is lower than 100C at high altitudes. 

2.     Treatment – carry a basic medical kit so you can address simple issues right away.  Have a supply of good antibiotics for respiratory issues and for gastrointestinal problems.  Carry simple cold/flu drugs such as Tylenol or Aspirin and take them at the first sign of problems.   Have altitude drugs such as Diamox, just in case.  Never rely on your guide or crew for the medications or treatment.   Have some duct tape for blisters and crazy glue for small cuts.  Carry eye drops and spare glasses if you wear them.   Watch out for snow blindness and sun burns. 

3.    Emergency – carry an emergency device such as InReach or a Spot for possible evacuation.  Be self reliant.  Do not depend on your crew.  Often they will rely on you.   Be aware that a rescue maybe weather dependent or impossible in remote locations.  Have a basic understanding of first aid or at least carry a basic first aid manual (they do come in pocket sizes).  Never rely on the locals for contact for evacuation unless there is no other choice.  Be 100% self reliant. 

Choosing your next Adventure (Posted January 2020)

Some of the most critical aspects of picking an adventure for me are:

1.       Am I able to do it? 

2.       Does the destination have physical beauty that is worth the effort?

3.       How much does it cost?

Am I able to do it?  You must be able to do the trip safely and enjoy it.  For that you need to match the trip with your fitness level and skill set.  It is always easy to rely on your guide or the company that helps to organize the trip, but you also should be responsible for yourself.   Some guides and companies do not have the safety standards that you may expect.  Keeping this in mind, it is very important to be aware of possible dangers and do everything to mitigate them.  Trust your instinct and do not bite more than you can chew…

Beauty? We have only so much time to devote to this activity.  Why choose a place that is overcrowded, the weather is poor most of the time, or just dirty and unattractive.  Beauty means different things to different people, so you need to decide what works for you.  I always have top 10 destinations that are ranked according to my beauty/attractiveness scale.  I try not to waste my time going to places that do not meet those criteria for me.  Be careful with false and misleading advertising…

Cost?  As they say: you get what you pay for.  Sometimes though you pay way too much for what you get.  Do your research and keep in mind that travel business is just that: business.  There are many trips you can do for fraction of the cost if you only do a little bit of research and get over the fear of doing it yourself (without compromising safety of course).   It is quite common for western operators to use local companies to run those trips for them.  Why not go local yourself?