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My enduring passion is for the mountains and wilderness. Having trained as an environmental scientist I have somehow fallen into the world of ultra and endurance running. My dream is to encourage people to realise the sanctuary of the mountains, the richness of our environment and our responsibility to protect it, and the value of challenging yourself both physically and mentally.

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Monday 5 October 2009

Dreams of a journey ....


Dreams of a journey ……

Sometimes things don’t always happen as we plan or as we hope. We had a dream to make an expedition to Cho Oyu - to reach the summit and then return to Kathmandu under our own steam. For each of us in a different way it was to be an incredible endurance challenge. But now we look deep inside ourselves for a different kind of endurance.

I was prepared to perhaps not realise my dream of reaching the summit if we had bad weather, or because of the cold, the altitude, or perhaps being sick. I was prepared that perhaps after attempting to climb an 8000’er I might not have the strength to run back to Kathmandu in a good time.

But I think the one thing that I didn’t expect was not even to see our mountain.

I write from Kathmandu, as we wait for our flight back home. We are fit, well and acclimatized - but - for us - with the Chinese decision to close the borders between Nepal and Tibet until at least 15th October - our dream must wait and we have taken the decision to postpone our expedition until (we hope) autumn 2010.

Our life is movement, it is a journey, not a destination. Sometimes we ‘wonder why’, but perhaps this is part of what Tibet has to teach us - to have the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can and to have the wisdom to know the difference.


Thank you for being with me.

Read about our journey and our decision: http://thenorthfaceeu.typepad.com/trilogyexpedition/

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