24
Mar
Everest 2017

Time to go

Posted on by Blake

Well this is it. I leave this evening and I think I am prepared. Physically at least, I still have the problem of saying goodbye to my beautiful girls.

 

All the gear is sorted and bagged. I feel I am forgetting things. No worry, whatever is missing I can buy in Thamel, Kathmandu. What I have immediately ahead of me is the flight to Istanbul and then onto Kathmandu. Upon arrival there will be long queues at the Kathmandu airport whilst sorting out VISAs and collecting and screening bags. Then the mad dash outside politely declining every person who tries to assist me with my bags for a fee. Then I will try to find my guy who will be picking me up and whisking me off to our hotel. Once in the hotel I just chill before the whole team arrives.

We will have about 2 or 3 full days in Kathmandu before we head out to Lukla. Then we start trekking.

I said I wouldn’t do an equipment post but once those items were so neatly laid out I just had to take photos.

I wont be going through the gear item by item, if you have any questions about gear or what you see just leave a message in the comments below.

As stated in a previous post, most of my high mountain gear has been sent already to Base Camp. This includes:

  • Berghaus Uletvanna Down Suit
  • La Sportiva Olympus Mons 8000m boots
  • Thermarest cot
  • Thermarest memory foam air mattress 😉
  • Comfy clothes for Base Camp
  • Sorel boots for Base Camp
  • Crampons (we will use light spikes on the high passes if necessary on the trek in)
  • and a few other uninteresting bits of pieces.

Of the remaining gear, I have it sorted into two piles. 1) Clothes, trekking and camp stuff. 2) Electronics, medication, food and other personal items.

Points of interest:

  • Nokia 3310 – has better signal in the Khumbu Valley than a smart phone
  • Thuraya XT-Lite Satellite Phone – for when we have no mobile signal
  • Spot tracker – will be on all the time and you can see me on the tracking page of this blog
  • 2 x 20,000mah power bricks to keep things charged (with custom thermal housing – Thanks P2)
  • Disposable camera in case my digital camera batteries fail on the summit (very likely)
  • RAVPower 24W Solar Charger – an amazing piece of tech which can charge three devices at once at full voltage (like a wall outlet) in direct sunlight. It only cost €50!
  • Battery Powered Hotronics to keep my toes toasty (and avoid frostbite) on summit day (providing the batteries work)
  • Yes that is a Nintendo DS, I found it in my old electronics and thought a bit of Super Mario would be a great way to kill the time.

Points of interest:

  • Yes that is Charlie’s Fisher Price Toucan

About to leave but still frantically finalising things at work and putting last items into my bags.

Well that is all for now. Next post from Kathmandu (for real this time)

14 thoughts on “Time to go”

  2. Daniel Emond says:

    Enjoy my friend. All great adventure starts with that furst step of saying goodbye to loves ones. I wish you good karma.

    Reply
  3. Valerie Keniry says:

    Wishing you a truely amazing adventure and successful summit of Everest Blake …. You can do this !!! Kev and I will be thinking of you , looking forward to reading your blog

    Reply
  6. Swampy says:

    All the best mate. Never fun leaving family but it is the adventure of lifetime…. oh no… hang on wasnt that last time?! I shall watch with trepedation and intrigue so make sure you take care!

    Reply
  7. Tim Varley says:

    I absolutely love these kit shots! All the very best mate, keep safe and looking forward to running when you are back.

    Reply

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