Hi It’s Paul writing this on my home computer! We arrived home the other day and have spent the last couple of days busily washing clothes and putting away gear.
Getting away from Kathmandu
We got away OK at the airport, but it wasn’t without a fight. We had excess baggage – 74kg checked onto the plane, with an allowance of only 40kg between the two of us. At $25 per kilo it was looking pretty expensive. But it could have been a lot worse. To try to reduce our weight, we had piled all the heavy stuff (like a few rocks that we really wanted to bring back from the mountain!) into our carry on backpacks and made them as heavy as we could, without looking too suspicious. We were also extremely lucky that some Australians from Melbourne that we met in Tibet, offered to take some of our luggage home with them as they had spare capacity, so when we met them again in Kathmandu they took 12kg from us. Thanks Vincent and Carolyn! But still we had 34kg extra. When we checked in we were pulled aside and marched over to the other side of the airport to the manager’s office, where after a lot of talking on my behalf he seemed to take pity on us and let us through without charging anything.
Arriving in Melbourne and seeing our families at the airport was great, but it was good to get home and see our house, garden (much greener than when we left) and our dogs. Everything seems well here, and certainly better than last time, when we arrived to a house that had been robbed.
I will do a few more updates in the next couple of days with my thoughts on the experience, comments on the gear and logistics plus some suggestions for the next batch of aspiring Everest climbers. I’ll also put up a list of the good restaurants that we ate at, because we did have some really great food in Kathmandu.
Would love to hear your comments about this site and suggestions for improvement
I am particularly keen to hear people’s ideas and suggestions for this site. There was a lot of interest in it from other climbers on the mountain, particularly the ease at which we were able to communicate by receiving your messages and posting replies to the site. I have a few ideas and a bit of time on my hands now to make some improvements. One of my first goals will be to rewrite the application that updates the site from a pda to make this easier to use.
Regards,
Paul.
Hi Paul,
Glad you and Fiona made it home safe and sound. I spoke with Fiona some time ago about Asian Trekking as my wife and I are looking at hiking to EBC next Spring. She said she would give me an update after she got back..can you ask Fiona to let me know via email what her thoughts were on using Asian Trekking as a guide service.
Cheers
Darrell
Newfoundland
Hi guys
Bet it is nice to be home and those luxuries of life that we take for granted day to day.
It is amazing that this journey has come and gone in what seems a very short time.
Soon I expect you will have that feeling of restlessness and feel a need for other journeys.
Just trying to remember whether your site users can have a choice of subscribing to one or any number of simultaneous expeditions. At times there were absolute floods of updates. Maybe a choice of selectively following expeditions?
Look forward to hearing more from you
Cheers
Roger
Great photo…amazing to think that you’ve both stood on top of that peak. Welcome back to Melbourne! 🙂
great to hear you are home safe and sound.looking forward to the next updates! i thought your ”my everest” site was outstanding especially the audio blogs while you were climbing………. paul;pat;t.a.;gavin and aeronik. you have all made the last couple of months an incredible experience for everyone that has logged on to your site. many thanks for” having me along”. cheers!!![ken.nz]
Hi Roger
It’s Fiona’s mum here. I would like to comment on Asiasn Trekking from my point of view.
I was most impressed with their service, care and guidance. The guides we had were really fantastic and I would highly recommend Ang Nima and Pemba as guides. They were patient, helpful and always considerate of each of us. We learnt a lot about the Sherpa culture while we were with them – even went to Ang Nima’s home and drank tea with his mother. A couple of the lodges we stayed in were not great but it can be difficult for the guides to always get the accommodation they are seeking when it is the busy trekking season.
The director of Asian Trekking – Mohan was a great host and very warm and welcoming. They also organised a 1/2 tour in Katmandu for us and this was very enlightening and informative. Base Camp was great and Ptemba ,the manager, was just fantastic. Sorry if I’m a bit carried away but I was very happy with the whole experience. Fiona and Paul can tell you more but as on Older person but not old person I was pleased. I would recommend going to Nepal to everyone. Cheers Marg Harrington
Hey Paul & Fi:
Great update and glad to see that you both have arrived home safe and sound! Just want to thank you for this great site and know that all on my team were greatly appreciative of the ease of communications that allowed me to communicate with so many families and friends! I met alot of strangers on the blog who are now friends and as a result the world is alot smaller!
Sorry that I missed you in Kathmandu as I flew out the day that I arrived there from Lukla, but do look forward to seeing you in Australia when we head that way to climb your highest peak!
Enjoy your time with family and friends and let’s keep in touch!
Pat & Carol :>)
**I forgot my password so am using Danny’s … that’s why it says Danno!
**I have sent an email to Blair to see if he is still interested in the pda but have not heard from him. Let me know if you have anyone interested in the purchase of the pda, spare batteries, cables, etc.
When cruising at 10,000 metres in a plane and you see on the screen that it’s -50 deg outside, you look out the window and think how could anything survive at this altitude. I guess the answer is that it can’t, at least not without oxygen and even then only for a matter of hours.
The photo really puts into perspective just how high Everest really is.
Hi Darrell
I would like to second Marg’s comments. I was the ugly duckling on the ‘Girls’ Trek. Asian trekking provided us with 3 excellent guides and the porters were superb.During the whole trek they showed a great amount of flexibilty and we were able to change our plans as and when we needed. The management in KTM and all their staff werevery professional and all of them were very nice and welcoming people.
I can highly recommend them
Cas
Paul,
Welcome home, and again congratulations. A huge effort in achieving your goal. The photo is absolutely amazing, and I guess in time is something us “backpackers” dream (and scream) about, but you (and Fiona) have experienced 1st hand – up there on the summit. Hope everything falls back into place and some day soon I’m hoping I can hear about your success. Congratulations again. Phil M
Paul,
I have been away and don’t have access to google earth anymore. I was just wondering if you got gps data while on your summit visit. If so, can you share this or update the google maps data of “where am I”.
Ryan O’Hara
Hi Paul and Fiona
Welcome back home. We are glad you have arrived safely and are both well. Thank you for sharing your amazing Everest experience with us all. Enjoy being with your family and friends and the comfort of your home.Once againg Congratulations and All the Best to both of you.
Welcome back home. I’ve enjoyed the site and reading your dispatches again this season. I especially like how we can interact with you on the mountain from literally the other side of the world. That is just too cool! My only suggestion would be to have some video footage. I browse around on lots of climbing expedition websites and I really like when they have video footage. It adds that extra element of being there, but I imagine also adds significant bandwidth.
I’m anxious to hear more details about your Asian Trekking experience contrasting with IMG last year.
Hi Paul and Fiona- I am a friend of Pat’s and am so thankful to have had this method of communication with him and then it was a special treat to also have access to your stories. You orchestrated the communications well and it was fun to meet the Mike’s and Rob and others who were guest bloggers from the mountain. As someone else said – thanks for taking me along for the ride! Best of luck to both of you in your future climbs and traveling adventures. I will have some withdrawals as the blog site comes down! By the way, the Everest in the Clouds picture is spectacular!
Bonnie
Going to so miss reading your daily adventures like last year.
You both must come to MBS and give us a talk & come up to the library – dying to meet you both.
So envious – I am proud of myself for doing the Oxfam 100k three times but you guys are amazing. Wish I was much younger to do the same.
Marina Herriman
McLennan Library
MBS
Hi Paul and Fiona
Welcome home!!! It must be wonderful to see your family, friends and two dogs!
A quick suggestion for the site. Maybe a way to send personal messages to other members without having to send actual e-mails. Just a thought.
Congrats again, Paul. You are an inspiration in so many ways!
MC
Hi MC, A direct messaging system would be a good idea, but I am not sure how you be would be notified that there was a message waiting for you. Paul.
Hi Paul
There could be an indicator showing you have a PM when you log on. E.g.: you have ? messages or a flashing symbol next to member’s account, etc. Individual members could set their e-mail notification as to whether or not they want to be sent an e-mail for PM’s.
Hope that makes sense.
MC
Hi Paul and Fiona,
Great to hear you are home safe and sound.
I really enjoyed following your journey on this site. I also followed the other climbers using the site. It is very easy to navigate around the site for a computer novice like me. I liked the different angles achieved with photos, audio, radio interviews, GPS tracking and of course the daily logs.
Good luck with your new endeavours and adventures, I’m sure I will hear your news from Mary.
I look forward to meeting up with you in Melbourne one day to talk in person about your great Everest Adventures.
Have fun…
Rose
Hi Ryan,
Thanks so much for the Ohararp GPS data logger. It performed extremely well the whole time we used the product. I have two confessions to make. The first is that initially we thought it wasn’t working, because when we turned it on, it acquired the gps signal so fast – from off to on it takes less than 3 seconds. All the GPS units that I have owned before take at least a minute to get a reading. After turning it off and on a few times, we decided to leave it on while we completed the first day of the hike into Everest Base camp. Luckily we did, because it was working fine, we just didn’t realize how quickly it works. The other great feature was the very long battery life. We had it set to record our position every 4 minutes and I used it every day for the two weeks it took to get to base camp, and then twice up Everest for a total of just over 5 weeks without charging the battery. Before my summit bid I decided to recharge it, but it still seemed to be going well.
The second confession is that whilst I did log all the way up to Camp 4 at 8000m, I forgot to turn it on when I went to the summit and didn’t get any readings above Camp 4. I am really annoyed with myself at this, because it would have been great to have got readings from the top of the world. When we left the South Col, it was extremely windy and my thoughts were exclusively about survival. About an hour before leaving our tent on the South Col for the summit push, I put the gps logger in the top pocket of my pack, but didn’t think about it again. So it has been to the top of the world, but it was not switched on!
It certainly worked very well up to 8000m and I was able to upload the data from the South Col with no problems. I found the device extremely easy to use – turn on the switch when you start the day and then turn it off at the end. To get the data, just take the SD card out of the device, put it in the pda and upload the file with the MyEverest file uploading system. It couldn’t be simpler.
I would love to see a Google Earth track to the top of Everest, so I’ll try and give it to someone using this site next year.
Regards, Paul.
hi paul and fiona
i am Claire Hantons great granddaughter Jennett Hanton’s granddaughter (sally’s daughter).
Everyone says hi Congraulations on Mt Everest Glenda Baker(Aunty) has been keeping us informed on ur climb of everst i decide to join up because i like the idea of peolpe achiving or atempting to achive one of their goals.We are all very proud of you both.
will talk 2 u later on
love from all of us xoxox
Hey Paul and Fi,
Paul – congratulations on a brilliant effort. Glad you are both safely back home. The rest of your trip sounded amazing. I must go to Tibet. Stunning! Can’t wait for your next adventures. Hopefully see soon,
Kate A
Glad to hear you are home finally, we are still looking at your site. How long will you keep updating it?
Rob, Jarrod, Sarah, Mark and Vedat
Hi Vcal Guys,
I will be putting up some posts reflecting on the trip, gear, training and then that will be the end for this Everest for me. But Everests come along more than once in our lives and next time I’ll definitely write about it here too. Fiona is about to start a new Everest and she is going to be posting updates here. And I am hopeful that we will have some other people using the site very soon. Right now I am working on a couple of improvements to the site, and these should be finished in a couple of days. I am adding back and next buttons so that it’s easer to navigate through updates, plus the ability to automatically link from another site to updates within MyEverest. This last one will help people that already have a website to easily publish their MyEverest updates on their existing site, without having to reinvent the wheel.
Thanks for all your messages while I was climbing – they really were a big encouragement.
Regards, Paul.