Second week of expedition
The moon light is shining through my room window while I lie writing this in my cosy and warm sleeping bag knowing that tomorrow I’ll be out in the exposed elements.
I love my sleeping bag so much, it’s warm, it’s cosy, and it knows me personally. It’s had no choice but to get familiar with my body extremely intimately; It’s my sanctuary. I’m about to open my laptop and do some more editing of my book but I must say, It feels weird to have a laptop out here in the most extreme regions of the Himalayas. I have an agenda to keep to and certain things must be done by the time I get back to LA so I will have to make time for my laptop, otherwise every other project in my life comes to a grinding halt. I'm working on my book every moment I get and it's coming on nicely although it’s a constant battle to keep my batteries charged. I work every night until it goes flat, at least when I’m at the lodge. I don’t take the laptop with me out into the mountains because I can't charge it. When I do work with the laptop I have to put the screen brightness down to its absolute lowest just before the screen goes dark, switch the keyboard brightness off completely, close every single app other than what I’m using and type fast. I can only work on the script and the book since I can’t power up the hard drives for editing. I’m pretty proud of both the script and the book; most of the book seems a lifetime ago but I’m enjoying the memory.
The book is called 'Between the Summit and the Soul' and is the story of how life's experiences can orchestrate our destiny; that we have to harness and leverage all our life’s experiences for the sake of justifying why they happen. It's a great read actually and allows me to live my life all over again and understand my journey better. Especially from my teen years with the lifesaving, the gliding, the mountains, the bush and the sailing. It allows me to understand why I feel summoned to this particular experience. Without any of the other experiences in my life I would have not been able to do this, or at least, it would have been a great deal more difficult. No wonder I had no time for love. I almost wish I had never discovered it, because now in my lonely hours I think of what I could be missing out on. I would give anything to go back to those teen years; the excitement, the innocence, the adventure, the intrigue and the uncertainty. Saying that, I still feel all that today, I constantly surround myself with young souls as a test to assess the purity of mine. The fact that most of my best friends are teenagers is testimony that the purity in my soul is accepted and embraced. I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then but that's just the consequences of seeing the world and experiencing life as a free spirit. There’s certainly a lot of things I would change, and a lot of lost opportunities I would make full use of. It’s not possible to go backwards so I might as well not dwell on it but I can certainly look forward and embrace the time I have left, which is the very thing that brings me out here. As a boy, I would have killed for this opportunity, as a young soul experiencing life through the eyes of a boy, I am living this opportunity.
Sometimes I wish certain friends were with me but then I wonder if they would enjoy it at all. It’s cold all the time, it’s hard to trek so many hours of the day, and the bitter wind is a morel killer. I’m not sure if any friend I know would be able to deal with the lack of electronics, the isolation and the comforts, maybe for a few days but certainly not for the lengths that I’m out here for, but who knows, maybe it would be a refreshing change. The concept of no showers put a lot of people off. Ironically I don’t smell, at least I don’t think so, It’s too high. Just as well, otherwise the wolves would smell me from a few miles off. Maybe that’s the problem.
It’s not that I never wash, I do what’s called a trekkers wash. It's a process of wetting a rag with some soap on it, smearing myself with the soup then ringing the soup out of the rag and much as possible until most of it is gone. If soup is left on the skin it tends to dry and flake causing excessively dry skin at higher altitudes.
Occasionally I would come across a waterfall and then of course, all bets are off, no matter how cold it is, the temptation to fit in a cold shower is inviting nonetheless. It's definitely refreshing.
If passing a glacier and a natural pool lies on the plateaus of the high Himalayas, then again, the temptation to wash is extremely inviting, especially if the sun is shining and there no risk of suffering from any form of frostnip on any part of the anatomy.
I can’t take moisturizer because it freezes but actually warm pee straight out of my body smeared on my face is quite refreshing. I know it sounds disgusting but when it comes to survival, there is no shame. Humans would be surprised how much nutrients our body gives back to us which we throw away, yet it’s free and it comes warm.
