TA Loeffler's Adventures that Move

1) Seeing lots and lots of prayer flags. Prayer flags are flown on high passes, on summits and around stupas and other holy places in Nepal. The different colours represent the different elements. The flags have prayers/intentions printed on them and when the wind blows, the prayers are released. Since we are crossing 15 high mountain passes, we’ll likely see prayer flags there. It’s often tradition to add new prayer flags to passes as you pass through.

2) Sleeping in a tent for over sixty nights. This will likely be the most number of consecutive nights I’ve ever spent sleeping in a tent! I love how sleeping out sets your daily rhythm with waking with the sun and go to sleep with the dark.

3) Seeing incredible mountain vistas every day. Spending 65 days traversing the high Himalaya will yield magnificent view after magnificent view.

4) Crossing 15 High Mountain passes. Some of the passes will be trek-able but many will require technical equipment and glacier travel techniques. I’m looking forward to polishing my technical travel skills.

5) The Rhododendrons. The hillsides of Nepal spark alive with the blazing colours of rhododendrons blooming in spring. They bloom at different times depending on elevation. I look forward to being totally enthralled by their beauty and colour.

As is the case with most expeditions, there comes a time where the countdowns begin. My injured finger has finally allowed me to return to hockey and so I decided to count how many games remain in this season…16! Of course, this led to more counting:
Number of sleeps until departure: 21.
Number of open weekends before departure: 1.
Number of steps taken today: 13,671.
Items still left on the to-do list: 56.
Classes left to teach: 10.
Papers/assignments/exams left to grade: 164.
Student quinzhees left to be built: 5.
Packages left to arrive from MEC: 3.
New prussiks to make: 4.
Number of Signal Hills still left to be climbed: 27.
Number of Schools to visit before departure: 3.
Thesis to read: 3.
Haircuts to get: 2.
Fitbits to find: 1.
Packing weight to hit: 15 kg.
Boots, coats, and pants to waterproof: 8
Curriculum entries to edit and enter: 65.
Number of pre-cooked meal remaining in the freezer: 6.
Great Big Training Walks: As many as we can fit in.
Number of kilometres we’ll walk along the Great Himalaya Trail: 600.
Number of mountain passes we’ll cross: 15.
Number of folks to walk along with us virtually: As many as we can invite/find/cajole/recruit…you are wanted!

As I type this, the kettle just boiled and Marian just flipped another page of our Great Himalaya Trail book. She’s been reading it as I’ve been working on the map above. We’ve been documenting/learning about our route through a combination of books, websites, Google Map making, spreadsheets, and itineraries. Each day, we try to take a thing or two off the to-do list.

Tonight I packed the med kit with resupplies-it’s always a challenge to estimate what and how much we might need. We hope we manage to stay well but we want to be prepared for all of the common minor and major illnesses that can come up on a long, remote trek through the high Himalaya. I was reminded of this earlier this week when, while cutting an onion with our awesome new knife we got for Christmas, I lopped off a chunk off the top of my left ring finger. In a flash, my entire week changed. Lots of blood, pain, and most importantly, I missed two hockey games. I’ve been taking good care of the wound and it seems on the road to healing (and I hope to construct some protective device for it so I can get back to hockey). A similar cut could spell the end of an expedition as healing at high altitude is very difficult. So, I’m thankful it happened now, and it will make me much more mindful around knives for months to come. I also threw a few extra band aids in the med kit.

I’ve been testing a “FitBit” as a way to measure steps for the Great Big Walk. Testing was going terrificly with a record number of steps on Saturday of nearly 27,000 on a training hike. One of the only things I’d read in reviews of FitBits were they were easy to lose. I’d planning to give my a leash/lanyard before heading off to Nepal with it. Unfortunately, shortly after 7:15 pm last night, my lime green FitBit has gone missing in action-fortunately, I think it’s somewhere in the house since it had last synced at 7:14 pm. I was having fun testing it out and watching my reactions to the numbers it was recording as well as noticing that sometimes I was parking the car as far away as I could just to bump up my step numbers. I hope we find it soon.

We’re managing to get some training in around our busy work schedules and find it hard to believe that in four weeks the preparation will be all done and we’ll be sitting on a plane bound for Kathmandu. Fortunately, packing for expeditions in Nepal feels familiar and a bit like going home. I am so looking forward to sending day after day walking through incredible landscapes.

Time to go make that tea and hit the hay, morning comes early around here. Four weeks and counting…