The First Step To The Base Of The Top Of The World

I can’t tell you how many times I told myself, and others, that I was going to hike Mt Everest in my life time. At one point I swore I would do it before having a family. A couple years later I realized that there was a whole world out there to explore; it wasn’t worth the tens of thousands of dollars to attempt to reach the top. There wasn't even a guarantee of a successful summit. It also wasn’t worth the risk of losing my life and missing out on the rest of the world. That was that, Everest became a dream of the past for me.

My father's relationship with Everest began seven years ago. He had the thought, the dream, the wish to trek to Everest Base Camp for his 50^th birthday. That birthday came and went, as did the next, and again the one after that. Until eventually it seemed as though he had resigned to letting it stay a dream. I had gotten him a book about the trek for the Christmas before his 50^th. It stayed on his desk in the inbox, usually covered by bills, charity requests and other such papers. Quite a few times I would bring up the trip and each time I got the same response, he would get around to it. There was plenty to see in the Sierra's, right in our own backyard, he wasn’t worried about venturing halfway around the world. Which I suppose is true, living so close to the Sierras it was no problem for him to go backpacking in some of the most beautiful mountain scenery our country had to offer. In the summer of 2013 the two of us completed the John Muir Trail. 220 miles in 19 days, ending on the top of Mt Whitney. Our great adventure together before I was to settle into working on my career.

Fast forward to December of the same year; I journeyed across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. There I met a fellow traveler who had been on trips and had plans for trips I only dreamed of, some I never would have thought of. His next trip was Everest Base Camp. I have never entertained the idea of doing the trip myself, but now the seed was planted.

The idea of Everest base camp faded from my mind after returning home. However, once my friend's photos came up from his trip, it jumped to the forefront in my mind. I listened to his stories about the beauty of the Himalayas, the journey to the camp and the somewhat anticlimactic ending. He still recommended the trip; it was a journey he would not soon forget. In addition he also advised me to look into the Annapurna Circuit while I was there. I should do Base Camp for the challenge and Annapurna for the beauty. He also recommended the company he went with, Intrepid Travel. I looked in to the trips it offered. Conveniently they had a trip that includes both EBC and Annapurna. A 37 day long trip at that. I showed my dad the trip; he simply shook his head and said that there was no way he would be able to get that much time off of work. He already intended to attempt the JMT again. Undeterred, I continued on with my research. Looking for the best times to do the trek, the amount of preparation needed, logistics with flights, and other various things. I narrowed the time of our hypothetical trip to after my work contract would end. I presented a rough plan to my father. Again, he said that he wouldn’t be able to get the time off of work because he was already set to hike the JMT again. I was rather disappointed that he would rather repeat the hike we had already done than come on a whole new adventure with me. 

Time passed. I went on a different adventure across a different sea. Three weeks of travel in Ireland and Great Britain sent my wanderlust aflame again. I returned home with excitement for adventure renewed. While I was away my dad had cut his JMT hike short due to bad conditions. I spoke with him again about the trip plan that I had put on the shelf. For the umpteenth time he said that he wouldn’t be able to take the time off. This time the conversation ended with my simple statement, “I am going on this trip with or without you. You can either come with me, or you can see my pictures when I return and regret letting work continue to get in the way of your dream.” I didn’t bring up the trip again. Several weeks passed and I still hadn’t booked anything. I had the full intention of going, but was not ready to commit to which days.

While scrolling through Facebook I happened upon a post of an after movie for Tomorrowland. I had heard about it, mostly because it had come to the USA as TomorrowWorld. When the movie finished 30 minutes later my plans for my next adventure had completely changed. I was now determined to attend this festival. During dinner I was telling my family about these new plans when my dad looked over and asked for clarification, “So, you aren’t going to Nepal now?” Unfazed I replied “No, I want to make it to this festival. Everest isn’t going anywhere.” He became very disappointed and said, “Oh, ok. I guess I’ll let work know that I don’t need the time off.” Ends up he had requested the work off two weeks ago and gotten approved within day of asking. Only, he failed to mention this to me. Stuck at a crossroads I went back to the budgeting board to see what I could pull off. After calculating out my income and expenses thru the end of Tomorrowland I found that I would be able to afford both trips. And so the planning began...