Trekking along with John Rudolf towards colorfully creative Kathmandu

The trip to Kathmandu on your way to Everest is itself a pretty interesting thread to this adventure woven into the fabric of your life. It’s full of brilliant colors, foreign languages, new and exotic smells foreign to your olfactory senses and people like you’ve never experienced.

On his blog John Rudolf reports today he’s flown via Los Angeles to Bangkok and then in reverse back to Kathmandu. I flew via Chicago and London then onto Bangkok and backtracked to Kathmandu. It’s a series of long flights and as a traveler, to some extent you look and feel different than everyone else around you. Many are dressed for business and your business is filling mountaineer boots. For his age his fitness level will make him stick out like a sore thumb on a piano player. But then it changes. It's true right up until the last flight where he might run into other climbers with the same level of adrenaline pumping through their veins. Kathmandu's airport is small, but clean and is a well organized terminal. The people are friendly, customs quickly moves you through and out to the cab stands.

In Kathmandu we stayed at the Hotel Yak & Yeti, which appears to still be intact after the Maoist revolution. (Bagh Bazaar, Kathmandu, Nepal, (0)1 424 89 99) It’s close to Durbar Marg, the Royal Palace, the Hotel Annapurna and still sort of off the well beaten path. Visit the website by following the link to see this is truly a five star accommodation. I sat in the restaurant and the guide explained that Sir Edmund Hillary in the 1953 expedition laid out the expedition's gear on the tennis courts just outside in the courtyard area. I stared in amazement trying to imagine for a moment the historic significance and wishing I had an photograph of the scene back then in 53'.

Guiding Service – Alpine Ascents, International
Owner - Todd Burleson
Guiding Team – Vern Tejas, Lakpa Rita Sherpa, Garret Madison, Michael Horst and Ellie Henke.
Climbing Team Members – Vanessa Folkerts, Donall Healy, Michael Kraft, Alison Levine, D.C. McDonald, John Rudolf, Jan Smith and Victor Vescovo.

I’ve travelled with Alpine Ascents back in 2000 or 2001 to Africa and Kilimanjaro. They have some great images on the AA website that you may enjoy watching.

From reading AA’s tweet (Twitter) it seems John’s post is a bit delayed which isn’t unusual. AA reports the team is “stuck in Kathmandu with gastritis.” But then says April Fools! They go on to report the team has safely landed in Lukla and has begun the trek up the first hill towards base camp.

The airstrip in Lukla can’t be compared to any airport you’ve ever travelled to. Before you even get to it all your gear is weighed and flown via a small plane from Kathmandu. The plane is one that isn’t like a normal airline plane. It seats around 12 to 20 if I my memory is serving me well. A lot of the room is taken up with gear. The climbers are all crammed in together. The cockpit is wide open and the windshield is in plane view from most passenger seats. You could hug the pilot if you chose to do so. During the flight you can see the peaks all around you. The plane flies pretty low to some peaks it overflies and everyone is buzzed with the excitement of seeing nothing like you’ve every before experienced. Climbers react to all of this by either talking or sitting in silence. It’s an emotional overload for these adrenaline junkies. Here you are starting the trip that has taken you so many months of preparation and so many miles of blood, sweat and now you are seemingly near tears as you see it unfolding around you. Our guide turned to us and said, here comes Lukla you won’t want to miss this landing.

As the plane approaches the airstrip you won’t believe this is where you’re about to land. The plane flies straight into a mountain and if by chance it didn’t stop you’d be toast. As it approaches this highly elevated landing strip you seemingly hold your breath, which at this altitude isn’t the wisest thing to do. But it does stop and you do get out, suck in some O’s and walk out of the airport, if I can call it that, and through the town of Lukla which is colorful and amazing all at once. Down this narrow path that winds through the town’s center, by shops, Sherpa’s, Yaks and Knacks. You can buy anything you didn’t find even antacid tablets for the gastritis that is surely to visit your intestinal track from time to time. My eyeballs fell on the bottles of Everest Whiskey which we discussed on our trek to Mt. Everest’s base camp.

Already too long for today, I won’t discuss it now, but later I’ll revisit this airport because if you think the landing was exciting wait till you takeoff to head back to Kathmandu.

That’s enough for one day. You’ve a flavor of the vibrant colors of this ancient civilization that grows in the early stages of this walk to base camp. Enjoy this Easter weekend.

Alpine Ascents Twitter

John Rudolf to Attempt Mount Everest

Mountaineer, John Rudolf is on his way to Mount Everest hoping to summit sometime during the window. He’s a 62-year-old portfolio manager of Summit Capital Management and Summit Special Situations Fund, LP and Co-Portfolio Manager of Summit World Partners Fund, LP. Rudolf received an undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame and then Columbia University Graduate School under the Herbert Lehman Doctoral Fellowship. I picked up the news from a New York Times writer and that led me to John’s 7 Summits blog. He’s climbed Kilimanjaro in Africa (Tanzania), Aconcagua in South America (Argentina), Elbrus in Europe (Russia) and Denali in Alaska (North America). He’s also climbed Vinson Massif in Antarctica. There isn’t much on his site. The New York Times article is more friendly promotion than factual. We’ll have to follow this blog to see how it develops over time. Andean Health (AndeanHealth) is now following your tweets on Twitter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlITgWcJMSM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlITgWcJMSM

I'm still figuring this platform out and don't yet know how to add YouTube videos but we'll figure it out. Until then I'm going to post the YouTube link.

The above photograph isn't Mr. Rudolf, it's actually me with a young Sherpa boy from the Khumbu region of Nepal. I visited in 2002.

Dryhead Ranch in Montana

So here I am at the Dryhead Ranch with some great people and on the back of a horse we ride the range for an entire day. Normally we end up at the mess hall for chow but this particular night the owners' daughter decides we'll do a night ride, cook by the fire and just enjoy each others company as we chow down in the cool night air. To the north we can see the Billings skyline and Bleu chases whatever moves. The fire is crackling as we sip coffee watching shooting stars and trying not to feel small under this big sky country. There's Jackie and Harmony from France, a couple from the Netherlands, a guy whose just had back surgery from Denver, my son, a father and daughter from out east who have trucked her horse for her ride, two young guys from Switzerland and a several others all coming to America to ride the wild west. This group is different than the one last year, but each has it's benefits of colorful personalities.

Still today I remember this night especially well because it was the first time we'd been able to ride at night and sit around a campfire. I'd missed two years of opportunity to drive the cattle and so I slept in a cabin each night. But this was special in a way I'd long forgotten about. Boy Scout camp or sitting around the fire by the skating pond in Westboro, Massachusetts had long ago past into history. The pond was tucked in between the horseshoe of Gary Circle with it's apple trees and the railroad tracks that carried new cars from points unknown. Watching steam come off ice coated pants after playing hockey was a distant memory. Tonight in Montana we got to lie down on cool grass in front of a warm fire with boots, stirrups and a wide brimmed cowboy hat that kept the heavy damp air at bay.

By nights end we'd seen enough shooting stars to sleep. As we drove away from the DryHead our thoughts couldn't help but drift back to all we'd seen on the 45,000 acres that for one week had been home.

Adventure Travel

KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID

I've been purchasing adventure travel services since 1999 when I first ventured to Montana and Wyoming to ride the range at the Shively Ranch, now called the DryHead Ranch. Some 45,000 acres of fresh air, wide open fields and expansive vistas that took my breath away. Riding for a week at a time the owners and staff were for me a breath of fresh air. Straight forward, plain speaking and frank with fewer words than you'll hear throught your day at work or in an elevator ride up to the floor of your office. I learned more in a few words from these plain speaking folks than in a year and a half of litigation over some piddly issue. These folks don't squabble unless it matters.

No phones, faxes, keyboards, laptops, PDA's, Blackberry's, pagers, elevator buttons or cell phones. A rollup, the clothes on your back, spurs, chaps, a vest, some water and a light snack is all your horse and you will need. By weeks end I was tired because unlike some I chose to work while there. The hard work was good for me and as people there are fond of saying, "The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man." That first year I chose to drive out to Wyoming, we stayed in that ranch house that year. I met some really fine people from all over the world. At the conclusion of my first week I was already planning next years visit.

Upon arriving home I found myself standing in my closet and remembering what a great week it had been. But it caused me to consider how it could be that for an entire week I could have so very little, and no electronics, and still could be so happy. As that thought kicked around inside my brain my eyes fixed on the clothes hanging from the top row in the walk-in closet. Many were old, some as far back as my first year in college. Why had I kept these clothes? What would influence me to save old clothes that hadn't been worn in well over 15 years and that didn't even fit me anymore? They had long gone out of style. I'd saved them because I'd been taught to save things like this just in case - for that rainy day which might come. That day when I'd need them again. Hell that day was never coming. And then it struck me that probably over 60% of the clothes in my closet were not longer needed. Are you kidding me I thought? What is this about?

And that started a serious journey into adventure travel. It was about learning to rely on myself, to evaluate and then to give away whatever I don't need. If a rainy day comes less will certainly be more anyway. I gave things away and the more I gave away the more I wanted to give away because the less I owned the lighter I felt. The less you have to insure the better off you feel.

It was a few years later, in 2002 when in Nepal that a Buddhist said to me, "You Americans have everything and yet you have nothing." For ten days I spun what he said in my head and when it struck me what he meant and how it related to my life I was literally blewn away. It was learning that lesson from the Buddhist that took me on a new journey. From that day forth I earnestly began really wanting less so that I could have more out of my life. What good is it if I work hard, to buy a lot of things, then need to work harder to buy a bigger house with more garages to store it in, only to have to work harder to pay the taxes, upkeep and insurance to store all that stuff; and then end up with no time to use any of it? In essence I have everything but I have nothing.

I'm a tool guy, I love tools. Those I can't give away because they allow me to get done more work than one man should sanely be able to do alone. So my infatuation with tools continues. I owned a Porsche, but it too was a burden. The Porsche attracted attention but not positive attention. The sleek lines, shiny paint and speed attracted jealousy and anger and just a whole lot of bullshit into my life. It had to go.

My new attitude didn't please everyone. My kids questioned whether giving everything away was a sign of suicidal depression. It wasn't. My wife at that time thought perhaps I'd suffered a stroke or had a brain tumor. She offered a free MRI, which I turned down. I told them there wasn't anything wrong with me, but with the way they were viewing life. Buying that 25th pair of shoes at the mall wasn't going to make them any happier than there were buying the 2nd pair.

All these trappings of "success" were really things hanging from the oxen's yoke on my shoulders. These things were throttling me and making life less enjoyable. Because in the end the less I have to insure, the less I have to consider living without. Imagine that. And so by riding the range north at the south end of a herd of cattle I learned how to better experience life.

On this blog I intend to cover to general subjects. The first will be the changes in me and how my life has changed. The other, how not to be taken advantage of by adventure travel companies, guides and guiding services. Just because we are naive doesn't mean we need to stupid.

Welcome to my blog named Mountain Madness Sucks. And remember even if the guiding service sucks life doesn't have to.