Before I got onto breaking down each day, I wanted to talk about the mental attitude needed for the entire trek. Obviously, for each person doing the trek, the amount of and type of mental attitude is different. But I believe that for a lot of the guys on my trekking group the drive to keep going and the support from each other helped us make it there and back. I certainly think that if I was on my own I probably would have either taken longer or found it difficult to carry on.
With all treks like this one, there is a large element of preparation and training to do. Not only is it good to do physical training, it is good, even encouraged to do some mental training. For me I chose to do some of the mental training with Wim Hof the Ice man. Not because I knew it was going to be cold, but because I knew that the voice of self doubt and feeling of inadequacy for this trek would try and slow me down and even stop me. Wim has developed a breathing technique and a mental mindset that helped you to focus on the can do energy. His method trains you in three pillars; breathing, cold therapy and commitment.
Breathing : We all breath, but this specialised breathing technique of the Wim Hof Method, encourages heightened oxygen levels that unearths a treasure trove of benefits: more energy, reduced stress levels, and an augmented immune response that swiftly deals with pathogens. This breathing technique really helped me find the energy to push myself on some of the more challenging parts of the trek. There were certainly a lot of challenging climbs. The higher the altitude, the thinner the air, and the more difficult it is to breath. This can sometimes cause you to feel anxious as you find the amount of air you are taking in is less than you should be taking in. I know that the higher we got, the harder it was for me to breath, and especially at night as I am a shallow breather, I woke up panicking because I couldn't breath. But when I found my breathing getting out of control, I went to Wim Hof and his method.
One thing I have to say, is that even the flat parts of the trek were not flat. When the guides used words like mild or steep or flat, we joked that we lost trust in them because they were not what we expected. There was a day that we were heading to Lobuche from Dingboche, and we were told it was a nice flat route, and then a bit of a climb. But when they say flat, they mean flat like North York Moors flat, and the bit of a climb was quite a challenge too. Of course they were quite truthful when it came to the trek from Lobuche to Base camp, which I can say without a doubt was the hardest day of the whole trek. However, because I came straight from Gorak Shep to Lukla via chopper, I didn't go through the trek back which combined a couple of the days up into one day down. ( which wasn't actually down).
Every evening, after we had had our tea and had ordered our breakfast for the next morning, Bal our lead guide or Sonam would tell us what the next day would entail, telling us what to expect from the terrain, the weather, and what to pack. Usually, it meant that we could mentally prepare and physically prepare our day packs. For me it usually meant that I lay in bed, while trying to get warm thinking about what they had told us and hoped I would have enough energy to make it to the destination. The good thing was that our guides were always encouraging us to not race, as this could affect our response to the altitude. They would always remind us, " Slowly, Slowly!" of which I was thankful as I slowed down the further we got.
After being so exhausted and feeling the affects of altitude, ( possibly attributed to the fact I got over covid a week before I went, and covid affected my lungs) to the point that it took me far longer to return to Gorak Shep than the rest of the team, after being at base camp. The sun setting as I made it back to the Tea house. I got to the Tea house, via Copter, and sat in a daze, feeling somewhat guilty with the fact I had skipped the return journey. I knew I definitely couldn't have done it, but had that feeling of letting myself down and the team down for not carrying on. That night I was so tired, and went to bed at 5.30pm, I didn't wake up until the next morning. The few days of recovery in Lukla, my brain was in constant battle of guilt versus recovery, I don't think I came out of my haze for a few days. We were encouraged to go for short walks in the village, which we did, but even climbing the steps up to our tea house was a challenge. We were still at an altitude of 2860m (9380ft) a lot lower than base camp, but still high enough that we kind of felt the altitude.
It was quite something watching the planes and helicopters come and go from the world's most dangerous airport. We watched as the planes made it down or up the sloped 527m (1729ft) runway. (commercial runways are four times the length and don't drop off into a valley at one end or have a tea house at the other.
I guess what I have to say is, each of us had a different mindset that helped us get through the trek, some had the energy and excitement that pushed them to try things and go far, some had the desire to find themselves while trekking, others had the will to do what they had to do. It meant that we each could input into the team mindset and give each other the encouragement that we needed. I wouldn't have had the same energy if it weren't for the team encouragement and the dedicated guides. I was given two nicknames that best described my mindset while there. The Fat man with the skinny spirit, and Richard the Lion heart. The guides always told me that they were proud of me for making it each day and pacing myself, and the team always said they were impressed that I pushed myself. (they might have just been nice, but I took it anyway).
Mindset is everything, Wim said that If we can control our thinking in situations we can do far more than we thought we could. This coming from the man who climbed to the death zone of Everest (7800m) in only shorts and shoes, proves his theory right. If you get a chance, watch Freeze the Fear on the BBC, it shows you what I was talking about.
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