Island Peak 2012

Ever since I remember I had a photo of Mt. Everest sitting by my bed and every night I would fall asleep imagining that one day I will fly to Asia to see it on my own eyes. I carried that dream in my heart for years, and kept it alive through times when for various reasons such adventure seemed beyond the bounds of all possibility.

Then year 2011 came and as the calendar pages rotated toward the second half of the year, the door opened for me to start considering a trek to the Everest Base Camp more seriously than ever before.

Embracing the newly born opportunity I dove into the bottomless world of internet and with a help of Google navigated through it until I had the most useful pieces of information on hand. I always liked this part of a trip planning, the initial research, during which a tiny piece of information can mean a huge turn in the original plan.

And that’s what happened when I curiously clicked on a link “Climbing Expeditions below 7000 m” on one of the trekking agency web sites. Among many other options featured there, Everest Base Camp trek combined with Island Peak climb immediately caught my eye. Unlike the other also amazingly sounding choices, this one claimed to be accomplishable in only 22 days (conditions permitting) which I could see fitting into my vacation schedule.

I e-mailed Dave to let him know that my ambitions shifted from a relatively simple trek to an actual climb that would bring us above 20,000 ft. He eagerly accepted the challenge and it did not take long to get things rolling.

So now here we are, 297 days away from our departure, ready to train hard to make our Island Peak 2012 Expedition a success and a lot of fun.