AdventureProof: October-December 2017 Roundup

“I felt strong, excited and nervous. The Annapurna Circuit had one high pass – Thorong La, alt. 5,416m. The trek I was about to attempt had four, and they were pretty much back to back: Gokyo Ri, alt. 5,360m; Cho La Pass, alt. 5,420m; Everest Base Camp, alt. 5,364m; Kala Patthar, alt. 5,545m.”

“We left the heart of the Sherpa homeland and set off under the watchful eyes of Buddha at the site where Hillary, Norgay and the entire team camped before scaling Everest. On November 11th we climbed up 16km, step after step, to the Sherpa capital of Namche Bazaar (alt: 3,400m) and on the way caught our first glimpse of Everest. I blinked back tears.”

“We successfully summited Gokyo Ri before trekking onto Everest Basecamp where I stood on the Khumbu glacier – the highest glacier in the world – and at the foot of mighty Mount Everest on November 14th.”

“It then took every ounce of strength in my body to summit the Kala Patthar (The Black Rock) whose jagged peak stands at 5,643m and offered spectacular close-up views of Everest. This was my fourth 5,300 plus metre peak in under five days and the biggest of them all. Then onto Everest! Ironically the Everest Base Camp trek was the least challenging (although still cripplingly tiring).”

“The entire trip was exhilarating, exhausting, amazing, awful, difficult and delightful. And I did it. They say you first come to Nepal for the mountains and return for the people. It’s so true, I remain humbled by their graciousness, kindness and dignity in the harshest of environments. Everywhere we went, no matter what the circumstances, the people were always smiling.”

“One of the best memories I have taken away from my trip to Brazil was riding through the city of Ilheus at the end of my cycle trip with 100 other women trailing pink balloons.”

“I had the honour of being asked to work as the medic on a cycle trip along the coast of Brazil with a group of women raising money for Women’s cancer charities. On the last day, as we approached the city where our cycle challenge would end, we pulled over to the side of the road and blew up pink ‘Women vs Cancer’ balloons and tied them to their wrists, helmets and bikes.”

“We then rode in with a police escort and our amazing support crew were sitting astride our support jeep singing and cheering. Even better, the local bike club showed up en masse to cycle the last few kilometres alongside us. The reception we got going through town was incredible, when we stopped to take our group picture in the main square we found that the mayor of the town had organised live music with a capoeira show!”

“New Zealand has offered some amazing places. We’ve experienced mountains, glaciers, rivers, plains and forests.”

“A highlight for us came after climbing up Mt. Avalanche in Arthur’s Pass. We were lucky enough to find an amazing rainbow and a cheeky Kea on the summit!”

After New Zealand the pair will be heading to Vietnam, Cambodia and finally the epic van road trip which will take them from Canada to South America.

“I spent 2 amazing weeks in Nepal. There I rode through the mountainous Mustang region reaching peaks of up to 6,000m. We had some epic rides and overcame some great challenges. At one point, one of our team broke his freewheel while out on the trail. We were miles from any help so we had to improvise a fix. We did this by attaching the spokes from the wheel onto the cassette. He could then pedal but the pedals were always turning. He had to adapt some great positions to make it to the end without tearing his legs apart!”

“From Nepal we then went for an adventure tourism summit in Patagonia which was incredible. It had some absolutely stunning natural beauty. From there I went on a trip in Juan Fernandez archipelagos to ride and film.”

“There we took the boat to shoot on a wild area with a beautiful beach. While we were working the people from the boat went fishing and returned with 60kg of Octopus. We bought some and cooked them for dinner there on the beach. It had a strange consistency but an amazing taste!”

“To finish, I then flew to the USA for some testing in Tennessee. I rode my bike in Windrock Bike Park, trialling new and secret stuff. All in all my journey could be described by one word; epic!”